-
Can a Grieving Heart Worship?
Grief is defined as a feeling of deep sorrow. It is typically associated with death, but we also know grief can come from other circumstances as well – a broken relationship, the loss of a job, a health diagnosis, or an injury…the list goes on and on. I’ve been surrounded by grief for the past year and a half. My church family is shepherded by six elders, one of which is my husband. In the past sixteen months, all six of them and their wives have suffered extreme loss and experienced deep sorrow. Three of our elders have lost a parent or in-law. These deaths included a prolonged illness, a…
-
Will I Recognize My Spouse in Heaven?
The Bible only tells us so much about Heaven. It’s a mystery that has yet to be revealed. And while so much about Heaven is left up to the imagination, I’m confident that even the most imaginative minds can’t touch the splendor that awaits us. We wonder about everything from how old we’ll appear to be to what language we’ll speak. Will the streets really be paved with gold? Can we really be rejoicing for eternity when people we love aren’t there? The questions and wonders about Heaven are endless. I explore the question, “Will I recognize my spouse in Heaven?” in this article at Crosswalk.com.
-
New Book! “His Power, Our Weakness” is here!
Announcing the release of His Power, Our Weakness – Encouragement for the Biblical Counselor! His Power, Our Weakness is available through Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle e-book. With refreshing and often raw honesty, Beth Ann Baus pulls back the curtain on her personal life and long experience as a Biblical Counselor to guide other counselors toward more effective servanthood. She weaves the biblical narrative of Moses and the Israelites’ wandering in the desert into each chapter, deftly comparing their challenges and struggles to those of the modern day counselor. Each chapter includes practical sections on scriptural tools, encouragement, and questions for personal reflection. One need not be a Biblical…
-
8 Prayers to Pray Over Your New Home
Perhaps you’re buying your first home, or maybe you’re moving after a divorce or the death of a spouse. Maybe you’re downsizing as you get older or need more space because your family is growing. Whatever your reason, we know that all good gifts come from the Lord (James 1:17), and a roof over your head is indeed a gift. Because change can be both exhilarating and challenging, what better way to start this new chapter of your life than to walk through your new home and pray over it as you move from room to room? May the following prayers help guide you as you talk with the Lord.…
-
“Why, God?” 5 Things to Remember When Natural Disasters Hit
It happened in 2005 with Hurricane Katrina. It happened in 2011 with the tornado “Super Outbreak”. And now we’re watching it happen in Texas with Hurricane Harvey. With each natural disaster that has ravaged America’s communities, believers and nonbelievers alike have been left asking, “Why, God?”. In the aftermath of disaster and doubt, here are 5 powerful things Beth Ann Baus invites us to remember: 1. We live in a broken world. The Bible tells us that when sin entered the world, all of nature was cursed. Because of this, death is a promised component of this life and, to put it simply, bad things happen. Before the fall of man, the…
-
Prayers for Those Who Have Lost a Loved One to Suicide
Grief is one of the most difficult aspects of life on this earth. The longer we live, the more sorrow we will likely experience. And while there is a likeness to all grief, there is a uniqueness to grieving the loss of someone who dies by suicide. Many refer to grieving suicide as “ambiguous loss.” This is because suicide often leaves the surviving loved ones full of questions that will never be answered. The abundance of questions and the lack of answers leaves the survivors in unresolved grief. If you, like me, have lost a loved one to suicide, please know there is healing to be found in the tender…
-
10 Things Christians Shouldn’t Say When Someone Dies
Most of us would admit that when our emotions get the best of us, we say things we don’t mean. Other times, we say exactly what we mean but we don’t choose our words carefully and end up implying something that just isn’t true. This offense seems particularly common when a person dies, something I know to be true from personal experience. Grief is mentally and physically exhausting. We should all be quick to extend grace to someone in mourning, especially when they say something unkind or untrue. Grief can create a gaping hole in our verbal filters. It can also skew our sense of reality, causing us to say…
-
5 Habits for Nurturing Your Marriage
Marriage is a gift from the Lord, and like any other gift, we can easily neglect it. Nurturing our marriages takes time, effort, and intentionality. And it’s never too late to start! While there are endless ways to nurture your marriage, I pray the following five ideas will help increase your desire to protect, strengthen and enjoy this gift the Lord has given you. 1. Be Committed to Godly Growth and Change We are being molded and shaped every day of our lives. We are influenced by the news, social media, our own experiences, and for better or worse, our spouses. Our views, perspectives, and ideologies tend to shift with…
-
How to View Sex as Holy without Shame
Something I’ve learned over the years is that, despite good intentions, most of our Christian parents didn’t do the best job of talking to us about sex. Most of our parents talked to us about being sexually pure from a standpoint of avoiding consequences, rather than the goal being to bring glory to our holy God. Even if you’re someone who got the basic “birds and bees” talk from your parents, you also likely had gaps filled in by your friends, Hollywood, the media, advertising, etc. And without our parents helping us filter that information, we were left to make assumptions, draw conclusions and form views about sexuality that were…
-
7 Beautiful Prayers for Your Wedding Day
In Genesis 2:24, we’re told, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Paul quotes this in Ephesians 5:31 and adds in verse 32, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” The marital union of a man and woman is a mystery because it is a shadow of the coming marriage of Christ and his church. God’s will for Christ and the church is to become one body (Gal 3:29; 1 Cor 12:13). Because God’s will is for marriage to reflect Christ and the church, the husband and wife become one flesh.…