Author: Michelle Van Loon
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Retreat
My dear friend and long-time prayer partner Meg and I both kept expressing the same thought to one another: “I could really use a silent retreat.” The thought of an uninterrupted block of time to simply listen to the Lord, to rest, to soak in the Word, to rest, to unplug, to rest.. Well, you…
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Review: One Million Arrows
Julie Ferwerda, the author of One Million Arrows: Raising Your Children To Change The World (Winepress Publishing, 2009), wants to inspire you to hit the parenting bulls’ eye as you raise your children to be spiritual champions. Motivated by both the work and message of her mentor, M.A. Thomas, and her deep desire to see…
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Purim
The Jewish holiday of Purim takes place this weekend. The holiday is a miraculous story of survival in the face of super-size, demonic anti-Semitism. The book of Esther never once mentions God’s Name, yet His unseen hand is visible in every moment of this drama: “The story is about the Jewish people in Persia during…
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The Great Tylenol Caper
Yes, it’s a picture of shelves full of Tylenol and some of Tylenol’s pain reliever cousins. Go ahead and ask the burning question: “Why do you have this picture on your blog, Michelle?” To answer your burning question, I have to give a bit of backstory. A year ago, I had a job that required…
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Review: Crave
We are hungry people. Author Chris Tomlinson explores the contours of these hungers in a pithy, engaging 218-page read entitled Crave: Wanting So Much More of God (Harvest House). Each of the book’s 15 short chapters tackles a different desire within us ranging from comfort to purpose to significance. His confessional style gently coaxes readers’…
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We are fam-ah-lee
The pastor’s wife leads the worship ministry at their small congregation. Or…the pastor’s son-in-law becomes the youth minister. It’s only natural that family members serve together at a local congregation, isn’t it? Even some of Jesus’ first disciples were brothers, right? The ideal is that families share an active, engaged faith. Wouldn’t the logical conclusion…