Search Results living on mission

When Your Spouse is Not a Believer: A Vertical Perspective

By Christina Fox|2023-03-24T17:45:56+00:00December 12, 2022|Blog, Marriage|

SUSAN MCCELDRY|GUEST As we sat down for dinner, my husband laid his hand on the countertop, palm up. Knowing our prayer routine, I placed my hand in his and waited for him to pray. Before he uttered a word, tears threatened to come forth, as a thought flashed through my mind: This would not have been possible eight years ago. A Dramatic Salvation Rarely will an unbelieving couple come to faith at the same time, and this was true in my marriage. I came to faith first in 2014 because of God’s dramatic saving of my eternal life. Because of my sin, lack of biblical knowledge, and virtually no relationship with Jesus, I spent at least ten years dabbling in the occult. Not only did I read books written by psychic mediums, I also saw them at in-person events. I then spent an additional two years harnessing and actively developing my psychic ability. I did all these things while professing to be a Christian. My time in the occult ended with a vision of a dark hooded cloak image superimposed over my reflection in the mirror. In that moment I lost all sense of rationality and was tormented by a voice in my head that repeatedly told me that I was going to Hell. I was involuntarily committed to the mental unit of our hospital and spent five days there. I came home a new person, one that never wanted anything to do with the occult spiritual world ever again. Where did that leave my marriage? I became a Christian that was married to an unbelieving husband. God became my authority while my husband’s authority was himself. The struggle of two people living under two different authorities surfaced rather quickly. How can a marriage like that thrive and grow? You may be in a similar situation in your own marriage. Perhaps you trust in Christ for your salvation, but your husband does not, and this creates not only heartache for you, but even discord in your marriage. What does it look like to live out your faith when unequally yoked?...

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How the Church Can Pray for Military Chaplains and Their Families

By Christina Fox|2023-03-24T17:46:05+00:00December 5, 2022|Blog, Pastor and Elder's Wives, Prayer|

REBEKAH COCHELL|GUEST The young soldier sitting across the desk from my husband was around 20 years old. He was tall and thin with a foreboding look on his face. He was a little uncomfortable as he had never talked to a counselor before and had never been to church. He was an atheist. Yet, there he was, sitting across from a Christian chaplain, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church of America. He had recently run into some trouble and his commander sent him to speak to the chaplain. By the time the counseling session ended, the young man had a relaxed smile on his face. He came back regularly for counseling. Curious about Christianity, he asked many questions, and they had some deep theological conversations. He became the type of soldier who noticed when other soldiers were struggling or in any type of trouble and encouraged them to go to “Chap” for counseling. This is a typical experience in my husband’s ministry as a military chaplain...

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Discipleship in the Church

By Christina Fox|2023-03-24T17:48:06+00:00October 20, 2022|Blog, Discipleship|

JAMIE VOSS|GUEST Why do I disciple women? I love seeing God transform lives. It keeps me accountable in my walk with the Lord. I grow by learning from my sisters in the faith, no matter where they are on their journey. (In fact, my FAVORITE people to disciple are new believers—they bring such wonder and excitement to our group.) As the discipleship community kindles genuine and lasting relationships, these women often became my closest friends—in fact all the bridesmaids in my wedding were women I discipled. I have countless more reasons why I value discipleship, but the simple answer is that I disciple because Jesus discipled, and He commands us to do the same (Matt. 28:18-20). Jesus did not model the ten best ways to reach the world, for He spent the majority of his time with twelve ordinary men whom He prayerfully selected and lived life with. Our church has a discipleship ministry, and this is how we describe it: “Discipleship is laboring in the lives of a few with the intention of imparting one’s life, God’s word and the gospel, in such a way to see them become mature and equipped followers of Christ committed to do the same in the lives of others.” Jesus prayerfully selected a few men and poured his life into them, while lovingly equipping them to do the same...

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Standing on Their Shoulders: Our Sisters in the Faith

By Christina Fox|2023-07-16T21:45:08+00:00October 3, 2022|Blog, Book Club Recommendations, Reading|

Last fall, my sister and I had the great opportunity to travel up the beautiful Rhine River valley. Armed with a shared love of history, we ventured down side streets, through museums, and into countless churches in search of as many Reformation era sites as we could find. In Strasburg, we made a point to visit the church where John Calvin served as pastor from 1538-1541. While standing in the lovely church courtyard, my mind started wandering. We had visited a number of sites which gave account for men who had served and suffered for the Lord's church, but what about our church mothers? What history has been recorded of the women who have helped shape our church history—the women upon whose shoulders we now stand...

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The Most Important Discipleship Group

By Christina Fox|2023-03-24T17:49:07+00:00September 26, 2022|Blog, Parenting|

SHEA PATRICK|CONTRIBUTOR In high school and college, I participated in discipleship groups. These groups met each week to talk about our struggles and what the Lord was teaching us. I grew in my relationship with the Lord because of these wonderful opportunities to learn and grow in my faith. But as I became a mom and began to consider what it looks like to disciple my children, the discipleship model I was used to did not seem to fit. My children would not even sit still! With the Lord’s help, I have reconsidered what discipling my kids means and how it changes as they grow and mature. Now that my kids are nine through fourteen years old, discipleship looks very different from my early expectations. But the three main components of instructing, coming alongside, and getting at the heart have remained consistent...

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Labor Day for Caregivers

By Christina Fox|2023-03-24T17:50:08+00:00September 5, 2022|Blog, Caregiving|

STEPHANIE HUBACH|CONTRIBUTOR Most of us think about Labor Day as a day for eating hot dogs and hamburgers, getting that last taste of fresh farmstand produce, and signifying the beginning-of-the end of summer. Where I grew up in Maryland, it also represented the last day of childhood freedom before the new school year began. The actual history of Labor Day, however, harkens back to the late nineteenth century, when organized labor groups sought recognition for the work of laborers in society during the Industrial Revolution. Today, I’d like to honor a group of laborers who are as diverse and disconnected as can be imagined, and yet contribute significantly to the health and well-being of society: caregivers. When we think of labor, our minds tend to gravitate to manual labor and workers who receive wages in the marketplace in exchange for their efforts. But there is an entire army of laborers who care for people who lack the ability to care for themselves. Caregiving is a voluntary role, borne out of the need for assistance. This care can include physical care, emotional care, spiritual care, financial care, and logistical supports. Caregivers may care for young children, people with disabilities, people with chronic illnesses, or the elderly. In other words, caregivers are the unsung heroes and the unpaid labor force of the family economic system...

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enCourage Blog List

By Kathy Wargo|2023-07-30T00:34:22+00:00August 6, 2022|

enCourage Blog Archive List Date Title Author Category [...]

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What’s SHE Doing Here? The Messy Women in Jesus’s Genealogy

By Kathy Wargo|2024-04-22T19:30:40+00:00April 29, 2022|

For weekly videos, handouts, and podcast links, scroll down [...]

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John 15: Abide, Wholly Dependent Yet Secure

By Kathy Wargo|2023-03-24T18:00:51+00:00March 31, 2022|Blog, Last Words to Live By Series|

MELISSA OSTERLOO | GUEST Relationships are powerfully influential; we begin our lives completely reliant on the love and care given to us by our parents. Secure attachment— trust built over time through consistent encounters of dependent needs being fulfilled— informed us that we were seen, safe, and valuable. Children naturally feel at home in their parents’ arms, no matter what circumstances surround them. They grow and thrive, confident that their longings will not go unnoticed. We can learn a lot from children. In John 15:1-2, Jesus describes himself as the true vine, and his Father as the vinedresser. "Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." Over the past four years, I have been living through a tough season of pruning. My husband, Adam, and I moved to northern Alabama in March 2018 for what seemed to be a great opportunity. He had built a solid reputation in the commercial truck industry and was recruited to open a new sales territory that had great potential. However, within just 8 months, instead of reaping the rewards of hard-earned commissions, we found ourselves endorsing the back of a severance check. Just enough to get by for a couple of months, and mere weeks before Christmas. Our harvest had not been fruitful.

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John 15: Trust and Obey

By Kathy Wargo|2023-03-24T18:07:14+00:00March 24, 2022|Blog, Last Words to Live By Series|

CB CAMPANO | GUEST “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.” As I reflected recently on John 15, this simple yet profound chorus that I leaned on years ago flooded my mind. The recurring theme in John 15 is Jesus’ plea to his beloved disciples to abide in Him— that is, to stay vitally connected to Him so they may be assured of his love, experience his joy, and produce good fruit. I imagine like you, in days of clarity, there is nothing I desire more than to fully abide in Christ, to completely trust in my Savior’s unwavering love for me in all circumstances. But there are days, when I forget the mercy of God in my life and the how of abiding in Him eludes me. In John 15: 9- 11, Jesus reveals to his disciples a not-so-secret secret to abiding in Him, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” There, we have it. Keep the Lord’s commandments and we will be assured of his tenacious love for us. We will be happy in Jesus. Obedience is a Fruit, Not the Root How inconsiderate it would be for me to stop there! Inconsiderate for many reasons but especially because I would be trivializing the fierce battle we face this side of heaven. Though the call to obedience is not complicated, obeying God’s Word, as we know all too well, is terribly difficult. Our soul’s trifold enemies— the flesh, the world and Satan—war fiercely against this call to obedience. Putting sin to death is painstaking work for fallen creatures like us. This said, sisters, we must endeavor to pursue holiness of life for the glory of God and the good of our own souls. The Lord promises that obedience enables us to abide more deeply in his love and experience his joy more fully. I have, by God’s grace, experienced this to be true in my own life and have seen it to be true in the lives of many I have counseled.

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