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Showing posts from February, 2018

Beautifully Broken

I was abused.
I have been hurt.
I was wounded.
I am damaged goods.
But God…
Have you ever felt like your entire world has just crumbled around you? Where no matter where you turn, another event happens that was even more devastating than the last? I have been there. I have been in that place where the emotional pain is so bad you can hardly breathe. I have faced those times when it feels like there is no point in even continuing to live because the pain is just too great. I have been there.
But God…
I was wounded when I was removed from my birth family.
I was traumatized when my little sister’s dad decided he wanted to try for custody. No, he did not win custody, but I was damaged by that.
I was devastated when my brother dove into a river and broke his neck.
I was psychologically abused.
I had people I was close to die far too young.
I have experienced the pain of miscarrying.
I have had my relationships torn apart by grief, anger, bitterness, and selfishness. And it all left me bru…
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The Devil Made Me Do It

*Reposted from 11/11/2017*

Referring to the Temptation of Jesus "But of key importance was the fact that Jesus made an immediate refusal. He did not toy with the temptation. Those who do soon find ways to rationalize and excuse their surrender. The best time to kill snakes is when they are small. Desire entertained and fondled in imagination, can become almost irresistible." (W. T. Purkiser)

 "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common for mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can beat. But when you are tempted, he will also provide you a way out so that you can endure it." -1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)
No one is ever forced to sin! To sin is to choose to go our own selfish way in the face of when we know to be right and wrong. People have literally stared death in the face when given the option to reject what was right and have chosen not to--- Yes, the way out God provided may have been death, but they stood by their fait…
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Wedding Clothes

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying. “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murders and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So, go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So, the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding…
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Good and bad religion

*Reposted From 09/20/2017*

Sometimes when you're constantly around someone who studies the bible like it's oxygen (I say that because it's an amazing thing), the desire to study rubs off on you. I began reading bible expositions as part of my daily devotions and then decided to start writing lessons for Christian Education on the book of James. Well, one section in Chapter 1 jumped out at me and I thought I would share it on my blog.
"Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows' in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." - James 1:26-27
I have heard church people regularly say "I don't have a religion, I have a relationship." or that "spiritual" shirt that says "It's against my relationship to have a reli…
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Birth Pains

*Reposted From 11/10/2017*

I have been thinking today about how long the "beginning stages of labor" actually can take. I remember with Jaedyn, I was in the first stages of labor for two weeks and with Ben, it was three weeks. Technically I wasn't in full on labor but I was still experiencing contractions and other uncomfortable symptoms associated with giving birth... or birth pains. This time around, I am not sure how much longer I am going to go. I was sure I wasn't going to make it to this morning and yet here I am sitting here after dinner and still waiting for true labor to kick in.
Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various pl…
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Yoga Pants

A while back I came across a post on Facebook. A man (who is a member of a nearby church) posted that a woman who wears yoga pants is just asking to get raped. A while later, a woman pastor posted frustration that a Christian radio station in her area was wasting airtime on the debate “should a woman wear yoga pants?” and sparked a debate on her personal Facebook page. The debate was unintentional on her part, she was simply stating that there are more important things to talk about than whether a woman should wear yoga pants.
I wear yoga pants. I love yoga pants. They are beyond comfortable! I love the fact that they are not constricting and the allow for movement while not adding a lot of extra fabric weight. I adore wearing yoga pants. And *gasp* I am a pastor’s wife working towards becoming a pastor herself.
Now, I do know that as a Christian, I need to not become a stumbling block for my brothers—so I don’t wear yoga pants at church. At the time of these debates, I was working…
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The Anti-Social Society

Thirty years ago, there was no social media. No Instagram. No Twitter. No Snapchat. There were no selfies. No Status updates. No ability to hide behind a screen and say unpopular things. There was no texting. No “liking”. And no retweeting. There was letter writing, phone calls, and face-to-face interaction. There was not social media, there was just “being social”. Thirty years ago, there were tragedies. An example? Oakland Elementary School. September 26, 1988. A 19-year-old entered the cafeteria and killed two children and injured eight others. This past week, there was a tragedy. February 14, 2018 - 19-year-old in Parkland Florida entered his former high school and killed 17 people and injuring many more. But what is the difference here? Besides the obvious number of fatalities. Do you really want to know the difference? In the Oakland Elementary School shooting the young man essentially had no friends. He was a societal outcast. He was made fun of. He was reclusive. Because h…
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The Good Fight

My husband was recently contacted by a fellow pastor on a popular networking site. This pastor told my husband that he believed that the KJV Bible was the only Bible that was able to be used by God and that if my husband did not agree, he was wrong, and was a heretic.
A friend of mine who is a co-pastor with her husband, was approached by a woman on Facebook who told her that it is against the word of God for a woman to be a pastor to anyone other than women or children (never mind the various women that God used to minister to men throughout the Bible). This woman cited two verses which she felt made her point but ignored the cultural context of those verses and said that any woman who preaches goes against God.
Another situation occurred when a pastor’s wife with whom I am acquainted reached out because she is dealing with Postpartum Depression. Rather than sharing love, another pastor’s wife told her that depression is “all in your head”. That it’s not real and a "good Christian…
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The One You'll Read

Lately, I have come across a lot of nit-picking of what translation of the Bible is the best one. Some churches insist that the only one to read is the KJV while other’s claim that the ESV is a better translation, still others profess that the NLT is the greatest translation around. I, myself, had read the KJV, NKJV, NIV, NLT, and ESV and I am actually hoping to get the Amplified Bible next (Whenever I finish reading through one translation, I reward myself with a new one)--- but you know what I discovered while reading all of these translations? Every single one of them is flawed in its own way!
The KJV- The King James Version was not translated directly from the original Greek and Hebrew, instead, it is a translation of a translation! The KJV was translated into English from the Latin Vulgate. Due to it being a translation of a translation, there are many flaws in the word choices they used. The term: lost in translation applies very strongly to the KJV. I am not saying that if you r…
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What the days look like.

7:30am—We are awake. The plan was to have Jaedyn go to preschool today but when she started complaining of a sore throat, we decided to keep her home another day. We will need to have her doctor write her a note excusing her absence. Had it been a normal day, It would be wake up between 7:00-7:30, have a bath and be downstairs by 8am (my part of her morning routine), Jason than will get her breakfast at 8am and they will be out the door for preschool by 8:40am
7:35am—Jason checks his email. He wants to make sure he is not missing anything important from students or leaders. There’s an email about a class he needs for ordination, an email from the other district NYI (Nazarene Youth International) leaders, and an email about the winter retreat coming up next week which he is speaking at.
8:00am—I finally decide to get out of bed. Jason has a headache, so he stayed in bed a bit longer.
8:45am—Jason gets up, gets Ben and Jaedyn breakfast, and begins his morning devotions… I am busy feeding E…
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Hi! My name is "Just A Woman"

Today I had enough.

When I was a little girl, God called me into ministry, but as a little girl, I was also told women should not minister except in certain settings (in the children's or women's departments). I grew up living this lie that God was limited by gender and that the call that was pressing on my heart was a lie. I settled for just marrying a pastor. Don't get me wrong, I have always known that God was wanting me to marry a pastor, but I had done my best to convince myself that "pastor's wife" was the ministry God was calling me to. I served along-side my husband in whatever capacity the church he was serving at needed me, but there was always something pulling me to move further. I kept repeating the excuse to my husband that women were not called into ministry and he kept pursing his lips trying not to tell me I was wrong but at the same time refusing to say I was right. He did not believe God was limited by gender but he would not tell me I was …
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Intro

My husband has been pursing his call to preach The Word since he was sixteen years old and preached for the first time in a youth lead service. He received his first local license in 2006. Between then and when we met in 2011 is his story to tell, but when we were considering pursuing a relationship, he told me that he was called to be a pastor and that if I had any problem with that, the relationship would not work out. I had felt called into ministry since I was a little girl and at 8-years-old, I told my mom that I would one day marry a pastor. When I grew up, I decided to do my own thing for a while, but God brought me back to where he wanted me when I met Jason. I already knew I liked him. He was funny and he actually valued what I had to say. But when he told me he felt called to be a pastor, I knew there was more to our future than just a friendly crush. We began talking in July 2011 but our first face-to-face interaction was in October. He lived in Indiana and I was nannyin…
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Not your "typical" pastor's wife

I am not sure what your idea of a “typical pastor’s wife” is. Is a typical PW a woman who plays the piano? Does she serve in a specific department of the church? Does she homeschool her children? Honestly, I can assure you that there is no one mold for what a pastor’s wife looks like, but whatever your pre-determined expectations are of me, I can assure you I will not fulfill them. My name is Nicole Barnett. I am a 27-year-old mom of three kids. I serve along-side my husband (who is the associate pastor of our church) in whatever capacity the church or my husband needs, but I am far from what you would call typical. While I have taken lessons as a child, I do not play the piano and it would probably take me several months to refresh myself on how to play.  While I have been in leadership in the Children’s department of the various churches I have attended, there is another lady in our church who is a lot more gifted in that department than I am. I have served on the worship team, but…
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