Even A Seemingly Tiny Story Can Travel Great Distances By: Susan Deborah Schiller Taking a quantum leap and rewriting your future begins with crafting a story. To help people make the leap from fear-based thinking to the ways of the Kingdom of God, Jesus used the power of "tiny stories" – parables. It's simple and […]
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The Avengers are Arising By: Susan Deborah Schiller With millions of Christians around the world, who have been given all authority on earth and a commission to "go" and set things right on earth, where are the real avengers? Why is the earth still burdened with inequality, injustice, and pain? Worse, why are we so prone […]
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When We Were On Fire By: Susan Deborah Schiller Were you part of the great 90's Christian sub-culture characterized by "being on fire"? Lots of writers I admire are synchronizing their blogs on October 15th and sharing their 90's stories. Click here to Addie Zierman's site to read posts from some provocative storytellers! We were […]
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A Safe Place By: Susan Deborah Schiller Who do you trust? Do you have a safe place? We all need to feel secure – it's a basic human need. The family is the backbone of society, but for many of us, it's a broken one, at best. Home – the place we can count on […]
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When You Face the Loss of Your Children By: Susan Deborah Schiller In the mini-memoir series "I love you so much! I love you so much that I would carry you on my back straight up the tallest mountain!" is what I used to tell my children as I would carry them piggy-back, spinning around […]
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Pat Robertson: "Your husband cheated, but well, he's a man!" By: Kimberly Dimick A guest post by a woman after God's own heart… can you feel HIS heartbeat in Kimberly's cry for justice? Can you hear the voice of the Bride? Pat Robertson's answer should have been that this woman is in NO WAY acting […]
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Seasons of Fire By: Susan Deborah Schiller aka Tender Lily A monster-fire broke out in eastern Montana last summer, destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of forest land, grazing land, and burning down homesteads, too. Devastating! This Spring, the ground is already blanketed with brand new, fresh growth. In the shade of the burnt Ponderosas […]
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Grandmother Power: Creating Happiness in Guatemala By: Susan Deborah Schiller The Power of One Grandmother on Fire can change a nation. One little life touching other little lives, one-by-one. This is a story of how one grandmother is creating her world in Guatemala, bringing happiness to widows and orphans. Felipa and Estrellita (photo above) are […]
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Letter to Fellow Pastors By: Pastor Jeff Crippen Editor's Note: The following open letter is written "pastor-to-pastor" but it will benefit all Christians to understand the dynamics of domestic violence in our churches and our proper responses when it happens in our church family. It's no longer a matter of "if" but "when" so let's […]
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Despairing and Hoping for the Church By: Aubry Smith Sometimes I struggle with a Church culture that stands like a stone pillar with chicken companies and free speech, yet wilts when asked to stand with the marginalized. I have such anger when I hear furious passion about political candidates (who work for a fading kingdom), […]
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Is it right for a victim to share the blame? From the series, "The Way Home: Diary of a Battered Preacher's Wife" By: Susan McKenzie "Pinned to the ground, anger boiled up from some deep pit inside of me, erupting in a terrible rage that jerked my child-size knee into a vulnerable place that knocked […]
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The Storyteller Sings From the series, "On the Way Home: Diary of a Battered Preacher's Wife" By: Susan Deborah Schiller – aka Tender Lily Strumming his12-string guitar, his sparkling grey eyes crinkled in soft, velvety wrinkles, like expression marks embellishing the story he was weaving. As a traveling minstrel raised on folk songs, Dick Williams, […]
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Ground Zero: Church Quake 1 Previous Chapter: Predators in the Pulpit By: Susan Schiller "This is your crucifixion. Just die," said my pastor, to me… My body was seated at my cubbyhole in the outer church office but inwardly my spirit was lying on a bloody battlefield. My spiritual eyes were peering up through the […]
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Abuse and Christianity: Why the "Christian" Abuser is the Worst Kind A Guest Article, reblogged with permission from Pastor Jeff Crippen Acts 20:28-31 ESV (28) Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with […]
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Hidden Casualties of War From the "The Voice of the Widow" series By: Kimberly Dimick An open letter to an abused and abandoned wife, a Vet, whose grief is a hundredfold because most of her friends sided with her abusive husband, a charming sociopath everyone loves to love. She drank the bitter poison offered her […]
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The Heart of Rescue This is the Reason I Write By: Susan McKenzie aka Tender Lily The room was quiet and peaceful. It was all I knew, it seemed. Clean, tidy, and not even the hint of a breeze to turn the pages of time. No flies, not even a speck of dust floating through […]
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Have I Finally Graduated? From the series, "Choosing Love Today" By: Susan McKenzie aka Tender Lily Man measures achievement in terms of degrees, certificates, doctorates, and promotions. God measures achievement in the hidden areas, behind the scenes where no one is watching. We each have a race to win. We must ask ourselves, “How am […]
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The Art of Goofy-Stupid By Susan Deborah Schiller "Do you want to go flying?" asked the Preacher. The Preacher had been sitting in the bandstand, next to the pool I wrote about in, "The Fountain of Youth" at midnight, and he had been listening to me sing. It was the next morning and I […]
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Lessons in the Desert: The Fountain of Youth From the Series, "Escape to Freedom: Diary of a Battered Preacher's Wife" ~ Part 2 Previous Chapter: Voice of the Moon Flower By: Susan McKenzie A.K.A. Tender Lily Stripping off jeans and jacket to my bathing suit underneath, I quickly let my body slip into the tranquil […]
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When the Sorrow is Too Much to Bear Previous chapter: "She Touched Tomorrow with Her Prayers" Deena's Story – written by Susan Schiller following a life story interview Trigger Warning: This is a "pushing back the darkness story" – one of the "True Love Prevails: 100 Stories". There is a mature theme, but if you […]
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