Bible

As women of faith, we seek God’s word to address life, especially when we’re hurt and confused. Here are inspiring stories from women who’ve seen God’s promises in the Bible revealed in their own lives. #gritandgracelife

If Your Past Isn't Pretty, Then You're Just Who God's Looking For

If Your Past Isn’t Pretty, Then You’re Just Who God’s Looking For

I don’t want to look at what’s inside the Tupperware at the back of the fridge. But once I brave it, I’m relieved to start the task and be done with the judgment lurking behind the hummus and pimento cheese. There’s no guilt in dumping rotten food. After all, black spotted soup is obviously trash, regardless of how wonderful it was when it started out. There’s no need to remember whether or not it was supper last week or two weeks before. If you’re like me, sometimes the ooze in the container-turned-petri dish is so disgusting, even the Tupperware has to go. Can I get a witness? How delightful it is to have this task handed over to my daughter who is […]

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Are There Biblical Guidelines for Sex and Dating? with Kat Harris - 202

Are There Biblical Guidelines for Sex and Dating? with Kat Harris – 202

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | MoreIn this episode, we’re talking about sex! There’s a lot of talk about sex in our culture today—in fact, nearly every part of our day-to-day experience is saturated with it. But are there biblical guidelines for sex? How can Christians, or women of faith, view or take part in sex, especially as it pertains to our relationships and dating? Author and blogger Kat Harris specializes in this conversation. She joins Darlene and Julie this week to address the long-held notion that sexuality is sinful. She shares what the Bible has to say about sex, intimacy, love and pleasure outside of just procreation. Kat will tell

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How to Embrace the Unexpected God Brings In Your Life

How to Embrace the Unexpected God Brings In Your Life

I prefer things to be ordered, make sense and be (this is a non-negotiable) predictable. As a Type A, under-caffeinated, prematurely graying toddler mom, the unexpected is not what I welcome. Even though I live with it and its stinky, whiny reality every day. I spent a good majority of my first couple decades trying to live inside the predictable. Even if that predictable was messy, self-destructive and smelled of rotting garbage. I wanted things to stay in a safe place where I could manage them. Even my belief in an impossible-making-possible God, I wanted wrapped up so I could contain it. Watch it. Keep it where I could believe from the comfort of my small life boat. Jesus sleeping while I

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How Do I Trust My Heavenly Father when I Can't Trust My Earthly One?

How Do I Trust My Heavenly Father When I Can’t Trust My Earthly One?

Sunlight radiated through my office window, but I barely noticed. My eyes stared at the computer monitor but saw nothing, the weight of my soul pulling my attention away from emails and to-do lists. Emotionally and spiritually, I was exhausted. Why Do I Have a Disconnect in My Faith? For months, I’d felt like God was a million miles away. Prayers met with silence. I knew God heard me. His Word said so. I knew He could intervene, so why did it seem like He didn’t want to? I felt like He was a distant dad who’d handed me an instruction manual to life and then disappeared, leaving me to figure out the details. My phone vibrated me back to reality with

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Sometimes I Get Angry With God

Sometimes I Get Angry With God

We had a threat of frost predicted for 2 a.m. Unsure of whether or not the pots I’d planted at church would make it—with our big spring event coming up, it seemed a shame to risk it—I grabbed garbage bags and shish kabob skewers and headed out. I hadn’t bothered to unload the yard tools that were in back of the car—my chainsaw and trimmers, trowels and work gloves. This time of year, I laugh when I’m asked if I need plastic for the new plants I purchase. I could almost plant them in the amount of dirt I carry around inside my car. After covering the pots with the bags and sticking the skewers in the dirt to secure them, I

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Are the Ghosts of Your Past Still Living With You?

(Listen to the audio version of this article here.) The small, blue house trimmed in bright white sits at the end of a dead-end street. Built in the late 1940s, it was taken down to the studs and thoughtfully reimagined. White tree roses line the walkway and embrace the foundation. Raised garden beds are carefully placed throughout the backyard, angled just right to catch the morning and mid-day sun. Large ceramic bowls, filled with water, and wooden feeders provide refuge for the local birds and a source of exasperation for the resident squirrels. Have You Found Freedom from Your Past, or Do You Live With It? A heart-shaped wreath invites you through the front door. Artwork and handmade quilts grace the walls.

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Trusting God Means Not Needing to Know What Happens Next

Trusting God with the Unknowns

(Listen to the audio version of this article here.) Outside of Taipei, Maokong stretches green and wild with tea plantations clinging to the slopes. Taking ropeways up into the hills, I soared unaware of the circumstances unfolding back home. We need more hope and ropeways in the world. And trust. Ruthless trust, some call it. The day I discovered Maokong ropeway, my story spread across two countries. I was in an unaware moment of the events soon to impact me. Stricken by slow-moving gondolas like Téléphérique du Salève in Geneva or the ones near Lake Ashi at the base of Mt. Fuji, I couldn’t resist finding another. Even While Away, I Couldn’t Escape the Worry Taipei sounded like a jungle beneath the

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Colorado Springs Tragedy: Interview with Heather Kopp

From My Addiction Miracle to Tragedy and Loss—Hope Found Me

What if your whole and redeemed and comfortable life shattered after the miracle happened? Heather Kopp has been in publishing for decades, starting out as a columnist and then going on to edit and write more than two dozen non-fiction books. Her recovery memoir, Sober Mercies: How Love Caught Up with a Christian Drunk, tells her story of anguish, then redemption; and a cycle of addiction that God miraculously and mercifully breaks. Not only in her own life but in her son, Noah’s, as well. Heather speaks of the shame surrounding addiction for women, especially Christian women, and how challenging it was for her during her struggle with alcohol. “I was taught that alcohol was a sin issue only. And so, while

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How Do I Raise My Kids when the Culture and Bible Collide?

How Do I Raise My Kids when the Culture and Bible Collide? with Dr. Jim Denison – 177

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More Today’s culture is experiencing a shift that often runs counter to biblical beliefs. As parents and women of faith, this can create challenges we weren’t anticipating. When added to normal parenting duties, this shift can leave us feeling fearful or anxious toward the future our kids will grow up in. Dr. Jim Denison joins Darlene Brock and Julie Bender on This Grit and Grace Life podcast to discuss how parents of faith can raise their kids confidently in an age where the culture deems biblical values oppressive and outdated. He also shares what parents can pray for, and how they can practically prepare their

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The Truth to Finding Real Joy in Suffering

The Truth to Finding Real Joy In Suffering

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5 Justin told us once in a sermon that we must find joy in suffering. I sat in the second row, second seat in (because that’s where I always sat) and thought to myself, “Has this guy lost his mind?” Does he even know what suffering feels like? Maybe he’s never experienced real suffering? Maybe he’s just crazy. I thought about it a lot. And over time and as I sat in

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Remember When God Showed Up for You? Write that Down

Remember When God Showed Up for You? Write that Down

Lori walked into the room wearing a green business suit, legs up to her neck, thick brown hair, and a face that says two things: I’ve been there and I’m worth it. I knew at once: she had what I wanted. After talking to my friends and gaining a little courage, I approached her after a meeting. When I asked if she’d like to talk, the first thing she said was, “Let’s pray about it.” Writing a Care of God List It wasn’t long before Lori’s number in my cell phone was on the most-called (or texted) list. When I needed guidance working through a situation, I reached out. When my mind swirled like a gulf stream with obsessive or destructive thinking,

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Does the Bible Need to Be Part of Our Lives? with Steve Wiggins – 173

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | MoreDid you know that more than 100 million copies of the Bible are sold every year? In fact, it’s the best selling book of all time, and most people are familiar with the popular Bible stories (does David and Goliath ring a bell?) even if they haven’t read it. But how does the Bible actually fit into our everyday lives? Pastor Steve Wiggins joins Darlene Brock and Julie Bender on This Grit and Grace Life podcast to unpack the importance of reading the Bible. They’ll discuss how to find a like-minded community to study with, how to practically read the Bible on a consistent basis

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Who Is God Really? with Christian Bevere – 169

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | MoreFor thousands of years, people have tried to answer the question, “Who is God?” It’s a monumental question, and one that even people of faith still grapple with. We learn a lot about God by reading the Bible and through prayer, but how can we begin to really know Him? Darlene Brock and Julie Bender chat with Christian Bevere to discuss what it means to be a son or daughter of God and how to grasp who God is, according to who He says He is. Christian details the ways that God shows up in our lives and acts as our defender. If you’ve ever

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Why Christians Need Talk About Sex

This Is Why Christians Need to Talk About Sex

As a little girl, I didn’t grow up dreaming about the day I’d write a book about women, sexuality, and sexual sin. (Who does?) As a kid, I didn’t want to talk to my own mom about puberty, much less talk to anyone else about sexuality and God’s design for our bodies! But God set me on a trajectory I never anticipated when, as a seminary student, He led me to disciple a group of college freshman. Christians Need to Talk About Sex For all four years of their undergraduate studies, we met weekly to study the Bible, pray, and share with one another, and as I built relationships with them outside of our weekly study, they began telling me about their

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how to find joy even when your circumstances hurt

How to Find Joy Even When Your Circumstances Hurt

As I sat in the emergency room beside my dad’s bed, again, as he slept quietly, I asked myself and truthfully asked God, “Where is the joy in this?” Years before, God and I began a journey. It was a journey to find joy, and I was excited about the trip. I longed to have the joy I felt I had once experienced in my life. As God and I started journeying and I started learning and trusting Him more, the joy began to grow. But how do you stay on a joy journey when the man you’ve called dad and friend for 40 years begins a battle for his very life? Doesn’t the pursuit of joy get put on a back

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Words are Powerful

Words Are Powerful—Here Are The Best Ones to Believe About Yourself

I wish I could take back the words—the silent unconscious tape that plays endlessly in my mind. Push each syllable, every consonant, backward, and hide them from my conscious thought. Unfortunately, they have been spoken. The recording has been played and repeated. Words are powerful, and their power has taken up residence in the tender parts of my heart. I do not fully understand how it happened, but at some point in my journey, I became convinced that each negative, shame-filled comment was true. I began to wrestle with the woman that gazed at me in the hallway mirror. She had plans, convinced she was made for a purpose, an image of her Father. Yet, I settled for the false truths inspired

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We’re Back! – 163

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | MoreWe’re back! After what co-host Julie Bender calls “the shortest summer ever,” her and Darlene Brock catch up on life and give a preview of the great things in store as they return with new episodes of This Grit and Grace Life podcast. But the summer hiatus wasn’t all road-tripping and mountain-hiking. The team at Grit and Grace Life spruced up the website and revamped the podcast to better meet you where you are. We’ve realized that the world continues to spin out of control, but we know answers can be found. The podcast takes on a new format, where Darlene and Julie pose the

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