It’s that time of year again… 5 Minute for Mom’s Ultimate Blog Party! A time for bloggers to mix and mingle and get to know one another a bit in the great big blogosphere!

So, to those visiting from UBP – welcome to my virtual living room! First, some quick introductions are in order. My name, as you might guess, is Kristi Stephens. I have been blogging here for almost three years- what started as a way to fill my Bible study ladies in on what they might have missed in our studies at church has turned into far more than I ever dreamed it would be.

I feel incredibly blessed to be a full time homemaker with three small children (5, 3, and almost 4 months) and also be able to teach the Word of God from my “virtual living room!” When I graduated with a Bible degree from Cedarville University I knew I wanted to be in ministry – I knew I wanted an extraordinary life. I just never dreamed what form that would take!

I write here frequently and also am a contributing writer at ScriptureDig.com… although some weeks are less “wordy” than others when I have speaking engagements or llama drama with my littles (I don’t really raise llamas, just in case that was misleading! ha!). But, I deeply appreciate my readers and count it a privilege to get to know them.

So, welcome! Kick off your shoes, pour yourself some coffee or other hot beverage of your choice, pull up a chair, and get comfy.

This virtual living room of mine has a fairly specific purpose – we get serious in this room. We roll up our sleeves, pull out our study Bibles, and dig into God’s Word. We are not wimpy women!

We ask tough questions like “How could a good God allow…“

We dig into the Bible and learn how to study it for ourselves; we discuss how to recognize God’s Big Story woven throughout.

We tackle daunting books like Revelation and Ecclesiastes and Leviticus… and we discuss how those words on the pages of our Bibles should radically change our lives.

I certainly don’t know all the answers. I’m on a journey with Christ like everyone else – and if there’s anything I’ve learned it’s that I can do nothing apart from Him.

So, if you’re on the journey and would like some encouragement and challenge along the way, join us! I can’t promise it will be light or funny reading, but nothing pays off like the hard work of mining for treasure in the depths of God’s rich Word.

Want to join us? Subscribe here!

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On twitter? I’d love to chat!

Sometimes following God doesn’t make sense.

Often, following God doesn’t make sense!

“Having faith often means doing what others see as crazy. Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.” – Francis Chan, Crazy Love

This morning I was reading in my one year chronological Bible from 1 Chronicles and 1 Samuel – the story of Saul’s early days as king- and his extremely rapid fall from God’s favor. Familiar ground, these accounts. But today as I read them, and then read them again with the footnotes in my MacArthur ESV Study Bible, I was struck again by how Saul’s entire life exhibited a lack of faith… but a lot of “common sense!”

In 1 Samuel 13, Saul faced quite a dire situation. He had gathered the Israelites to battle the Philistines. They were far outnumbered, as God’s people almost always are; the Philistines had “troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude.” The Israelites saw this with their human eyes and did a very human thing – they ran for their lives. “When the men of Isarel saw that they were in trouble… the people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns, and some Hebrews crossed the fords of the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.” (1 Samuel 13:5-7)

The next chapter tells us that a mere six hundred men remained with Saul. Oh, and by the way… Saul and Jonathan were the only two men among the entire Israelite army who had swords, and they faced a well equipped Philistine army with iron chariots and weapons. Little detail.

Samuel had commanded Saul to wait seven days for him to come and offer sacrifices and seek the Lord’s protection over His people. Seven days. Seven days of watching the Philistine forces gather, strengthen, sharpen more weapons than the Israelites even had people. Seven days of watching the Israelite forces turn tail and run, hiding in terror, even deserting to other regions.

So, Saul did what his common sense called for. He offered the burnt offerings himself. His lack of faith and disobedience turned those sacrifices from a humble act of worship into an empty religious ceremony devoid of faith, a stench instead of a pleasing aroma to our holy God.

In the next chapter, we find Jonathan exhibiting far more faith than his father (“nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few” 1 Samuel 14:6), when he and his armor bearer cross over to the Philistine outpost and attack them. God is clearly with them – sending panic and terror through the Philistine forces.

Meanwhile, Saul’s forces see the chaos erupting among their enemies and don’t know what caused it. Saul talks with Ahijah, the priest who was with them and wearing an ephod (this garment of the priests’ contained the Urim and Thummim which they used to discern God’s will). As I read through MacArthur’s notes, suddenly this verse stood out in vivid color:

Now while Saul was talking to the priest, the tumult in the camp of the Philistines increased more and more. So Saul said the priest, ‘withdraw your hand.’ (1 Sam. 14:19)

Apparently it was taking too long to inquire of the Lord – so Saul commanded the priest to stop. With his human eyes Saul sees this situation around him, and instead of seeing God’s obvious hand in giving their enemies over to His people, instead of trusting that God can save “by many or by few,” instead of fearing God enough to ask Him for direction… he uses his common sense and decides that they must act now.

In verse 36, the situation is described clearly:

Then Saul said, ‘Let us go down after the Philistines by night and plunder them until the morning light; let us not leave a man of them.’ And they said, ‘Do whatever seems good to you.’ But the priest said, ‘Let us draw near to God here.’

Saul is problem solving, depending on his own wisdom. The people are depending on Saul’s wisdom. This one lone priest seems to be the only one who is urging the people to ask God for HIS wisdom.

This account is convicting to me on so many levels.

• How often does God give us direction for what He wants us to do, and then I want to take off blindly, rushing after what I think God has called us to, relying on my own intellect and human wisdom because inquiring of God and waiting for His clear direction seems too time consuming?
• How often do I look around me with human eyes, see dire circumstances, and panic, crumble, want to run away and hide rather than listen for God’s direction and stand courageously against all odds – knowing that my God can save “by many or by few”?
• How often do I “fake” faith? How often do I offer God a token prayer, a nod of acknowledgment, and then plunge ahead with my own plans? How often do I turn opportunities for real worship and trust into shallow and empty religious ceremony because I refuse to be still and wait for God’s timing?
• How often do I rely on my own common sense rather than acting in faith?

I don’t want to be known for my common sense. I want to be known as the crazy one who throws myself into God with reckless abandon – one who lives by faith and not by sight.

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” -Hebrews 11:6

Today I’m writing over at Scripture Dig about one of my favorite “nuggets” from the book of Ruth – looking at Biblical masculinity through a contrast of Samson and Boaz. [Psssst - that's one of my speaking topics, if your church is interested!]

In other news… it’s been a fun, busy, and productive week here at the Stephens house. Which, unfortunately, sometimes means that the blog gets neglected! I have lots of thoughts floating in my head, but none of them are making it onto a blog post!

For the next few weeks my plate is going to be rather full as I am preparing to speak with our Scripture Dig team in Pigeon Forge, TN in April, and then will be speaking for our own church women’s retreat the following weekend. Two speaking engagements on top of three children, a household to manage, and my sanity to keep means that I need to cut back on writing for a bit!

I have been pondering re-running the Redeemed series we did on the issue of human trafficking last year, focusing on the ministries of Women at Risk, International. This issue and this ministry are close to my heart! Would you take a minute and give me your feedback?

[For those who are reading via email or a reader, if the poll below doesn't show up on your feed would you click through and let me know what you think? I promise it will be quick!] :)

A frequent source of frustration for me is how the Bible is often “dumbed down” for kids. We avoid tough questions. We simplify God and speak only of His love, downplaying His justice, holiness, and other aspects of His nature. As Biblical doctrine is being questioned more and more both outside and sadly also from within the church, we must do a better job of equipping our kids to think. We need to equip them to engage Scripture on a deeper level than picture book stories, to know that God is real and has spoken clearly in His trustworthy and true Word.

Kids are raising real questions, and adults often dismiss them. From my review of Ken Ham’s compelling book, Already Gone: “the Church has failed to teach the Bible as relevant fact. We have, intentionally or unintentionally, taught the Scriptures as “stories” that relate to spiritual matters and have avoided engaging the deluge of challenging questions from the secular world that bombard churched children and adults the other 166 hours of their week.” One of the results of not being allowed to honestly engage in discussion and receive real and satisfying Biblical answers to their questions is an epidemic of young people exiting the church in a steady and predictable flow. We must equip our kids. We must equip parents to equip their kids!

This is one of the many reasons why I love resources from MasterBooks!

I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to read and review Ken Ham’s The Answers Book for Kids: Volume 3 – 22 Questions from Kids on God and the Bible. This book is in a question-and-answer format, with each colorful and attractive page spread containing a question from a child from ages 6-12. These aren’t just “kid” questions – I’ve had discussions with adults about these things, too! Questions range from what God looks like to how the Trinity works to how we can know the Bible is true. Some of the questions include:

• How does God know something before it happens?
• How could God be Jesus, and Jesus be God? How can they be the same, but different?
• In the Bible, God is a God of second chances. God gives us a second chance when we sin. So, why didn’t God give Adam and Eve a second chance in the Garden of Eden even though they sinned?
• Why did God allow the Israelites to kill people?

Good questions, right? Ham does not talk down to his young audience with his answers. His replies contain vocabulary such as omnipresent, infinite, omnipotent, abstractly, eternal, triune, coincidences, etc!  Each answer also includes a short list of Biblical references.

Especially if you have a child on the younger end of the targeted age spectrum [the intended audience is 6-12 year olds], don’t expect this book to be a ‘quick read.’ It’s not a bedtime story type of book, but a resource that would be great to intentionally talk through.

My five year old daughter AG stood beside me as I looked at this book for the first time, and she read one of the questions aloud. “Why did God create sin?” Instead of reading her the answer, I asked her, “well, did God create sin?” She shook her head solemnly, “No. Sin comes from us.” It opened for us a little window of conversation about what sin is and where it started, which ties to our ongoing discussion in our house about sin – what it is, how it affects our relationship with God, and what Jesus did about it!

This is how I anticipate using this book – taking time to discuss one or two questions at a time, asking my kids to think through the answer on their own first, reading and discussing Ham’s reply, and then looking up the Biblical references together and discussing what they say and mean. This book is a fabulous tool to help parents teach their kids to think critically and biblically, encouraging them to think about how they would answer these questions if one of their friends asked these questions of them.

Thank you, MasterBooks, for giving us great resources! Parents – it’s up to us to use good tools as tools and engage our kids, teach them to think, equip them to respond to the barrage of questions our culture sends their way.

Want a chance to win some great stuff from Masterbooks? Join us this Tuesday, March 22nd, at 8pm CST for a #masterbooks twitter party! Check out @MeghanTucker‘s post here for more details!

**I was provided with a copy of this book in exchange for my review from MasterBook  Publishers.