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"Sometimes God answers yes, and sometimes He answers no." I have heard this explanation of how God answers prayer ever since I was a little girl in Sunday school. But then I read what Jesus says, I start to wonder... "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples." (John 15:7-8) "Whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you." (John 15:16) "Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full." (John 16:24) John reiterates Jesus' teaching in 1 John 5:14-15: "And this is the confidence we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests we have asked of Him." It sounds like there is a way to pray in the Spirit, according to the will of God, so that all our...

The sun is out, the air is cool, and it's way too early to be up on a Saturday. But that's okay, because there is an excitement in the air. We are going garage-sale shopping. I had actually never even been "garage-saleing" until last Saturday when a couple of my friends and I got in the car and drove around, looking for signs and following them to places we didn't even know existed in Little Rock. The thing about garage sales is that you find some pretty ridiculous stuff, and then you feel like you need to buy it. "Look at this ferocious lion statue! I think we need this!" "How about this coffee table? The legs are made of dancing elves." We found old records, fur coats, a typewriter, and all things vintage. My friend bought some cuff links with sail boats on them. "Do you even have a shirt with cuff links?"  I asked. "Of course not," he answered, "but these are awesome!" My grand purchase: a casserole dish. ...

"Wherever the gospel is preached," Jesus said, "what this woman has done will also be told, in memory of her." That's what Jesus said about the woman in Matthew 26 who broke her alabaster jar of perfume and poured it on His head. The onlooking disciples were furious that this woman would waste such expensive perfume. They insisted that the perfume could have at least been sold and the money could be given to the poor. But Jesus did not see it as a waste. In fact, he called what she did "beautiful"- all because she loved Him and considered Him worth more to her than her expensive perfume. There is nothing - no good or moral deed - that is as valuable as simply loving Jesus. And so Jesus returned honor to the woman by telling her that her story would be shared alongside the gospel story when it is preached around the entire world. I used to wonder what this woman's act had to do with the gospel. Why should her story be told with the gospel st...

After being out of it for four years, it felt good to get back in. This past Wednesday, I went back to Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) - an international and interdenominational Bible Study for men, women, and children of all ages. Both of my parents are highly involved in BSF, and they took my sister and I with them ever since we were very young. I grew up going to BSF, and I sincerely testify that God used it to change my life. Because of BSF, I came to know God through the hard-core study of His Word. There are BSF classes all over the world...except Searcy, Arkansas...which is why I have missed it the past four years. But now I am back, and the study this year is the book of Matthew. In my Bible class at church, we are reading through the entire New Testament. This past week, we just so happened to be reading all of Matthew. Coincidence? I think not. Matthew is where it's at. Maybe it is because I am a nurse, but the healings of Jesus as recorded in Mat...

"First things first," my dad announced when he walked in my new room with a tool box in one hand and two metal hooks in the other. "Where's your hammock?" After carrying all the boxes from my car into my new apartment, the very first thing we did was screw two hooks into wall studs so that my hammock would hang nicely in my room. Needless to say, my dad did not help too much with unpacking after that. He got in that hammock and fell fast asleep! This may sound strange, but I actually love move-in days. Over the past four years, I have survived nine different moved-in days - from my house to the dorm, from my dorm back to the house, and now into my very own first apartment. I love to start out the day with a simple pile of boxes, and then watch them explode into an absolute disaster all over the floor. "Where is all this stuff going to go?" "Will this fit here?" "Move that back over there." "This looks good here." I...

At this time of year five years ago - when I was beginning my senior year of high school - I was in the immediate wake of my battle with an eating disorder. After nine months of treatment, I had just been released from the clinic because I had regained my health and claimed victory through Christ over an eating disorder. Were you to talk to me at that time and explain to me the path on which God was going to take me over the next few years, my mouth would have dropped open in disbelief. At the time, I was still shaken by the waves of my eating disorder. I was still searching for meaning and purpose through it all. Now, five years later, God has taken my little story and my shy personality, and He has transformed it into a testimony that I can boldly share with others. I have seen God strengthen and encourage others through my own personal struggle. I have watched Him write even more chapters of my story as I wrote and published my book, Boundless: Discovering God In Your Eating Dis...