Just Between Us Magazine

Living My Life 'Out Loud'

2012-05-21T18:21:00.002-05:00

Dear Friends, Sitting in my study in Wisconsin, I am thinking about all the Lord’s people we have met whose lives are lived ‘out loud’ in really troublesome situations. They insist on such a vibrant life in Christ that their lives shout the message of transformation to their world just by being who they are, and they don’t care who hears them, even though many could get into big trouble by

How Do You Get By?

2012-05-14T13:46:00.000-05:00

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Will You Take the Bait?

2012-05-07T10:39:00.002-05:00

Dear Friends, When you think of temptation and how it is presented to someone what comes to mind? If you’re like me, you have thought of temptation in relation to something big and “in your face,” but the Bible reveals that temptation can come in the form of something much more subtle. In John 8, the Pharisees brought a woman who was caught in adultery to Jesus and asked Him a

Cleaning Up The Messy Things

2012-04-30T22:35:00.002-05:00

Dear Friends, In Joshua Chapter 6, when Joshua and his armed men marched around the walls of Jericho for seven days and the walls fell, God told them that when they plundered the city not to take any of the “devoted things.” The silver, gold, articles of bronze, and iron were to be kept for the Lord’s treasury. But Achan stole some of the devoted things and buried them under his tent. Not a

Stopping the Voice of Shame

2012-04-23T12:31:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends, Every person on planet earth has felt shame. The successful business owner. The man with the boat, the woman who lives in the cardboard box. The author. The school teacher. The preacher. Everyone has come face-to-face with shame. Here’s why. Revelation 12:10 says that Satan is the Accuser and that He accuses us before God day and night. Not only does he accuse us

Is It Okay to Make Plans for Your Dreams?

2012-04-16T07:25:00.000-05:00

Dear Friends, For the last couple of years I have been wondering, When a person has a purpose or something they want to accomplish, is it okay with God to make plans? There are two familiar positions related to this question. Some people say that it’s not okay to make plans for anything; that you should be like a leaf floating in the wind. You let God take you wherever He wants to take you.

Is This My Stuff?

2012-04-09T08:11:00.000-05:00

Dear Friends, I was at a retreat center and it was raining, as we say in the UK, ‘cats and dogs.’ The women, knowing my heritage, teased me. “I expect you’re used to being wet!” said one. “You’re British!” Another added, “You must love it when it rains!” I’m sort of used to being blamed for bringing the rain! Actually I do love the rain. I love the gentle dew that falls from heaven and

You are His “Poema”

2012-04-03T09:03:00.000-05:00

Dear Friends, Looking through my old diaries, I found something I wrote shortly after coming to Christ. It was about my experience in high school and my first year at college. I was often left out of sports teams and the choir and was never asked to represent the school. Other girls always seemed to be chosen first. If no one in my world considered me worth choosing for anything, then I

Fruitful in Affliction

2012-03-26T08:44:00.000-05:00

Dear Friends, This past weekend my 17-year-old daughter, Anna, sat down at the piano before a room full of onlookers. Sitting there so gracefully, so beautiful no one would have ever guessed the huge medical challenges she was facing in her life - the chronic pain that had kept her from the piano over the last month. No one would imagine by looking at her what it took to even be there, the

What Kind of Father Do You Have?

2012-03-19T19:58:00.004-05:00

Guest blog about the new book “Lazarus Awakening” Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” John 11:1–3 What Kind of Father Do You

Waiting It Out

2012-03-12T08:22:00.000-05:00

Dear Friends, How do you deal with the waiting periods of your life – the periods of great loss or sickness or waiting for a job, a spouse, a baby, or some great deliverance in your life? How do you wait before God brings about any resolution? The best thing we can do is to go on with our lives. There are some things we can do during these dark periods that seem never-ending. Keep up your

Zondervan using Facebook to find Everyday Moms to Become Devotional Authors

2012-03-05T11:48:00.003-06:00

Guest Blog Grand Rapids, Mich., March 1, 2012 – Zondervan is updating the successful NIV Mom’s Devotional Bible, originally written in 1996, and is looking for everyday moms to add their voices to this work. The NIV Mom’s Devotional Bible is due to release in spring 2013. Interested contestants need to submit their 250- to 300-word original devotion at Facebook.com/MomsDevotionalBible. The

Accepting What We Can’t Change

2012-02-28T08:52:00.000-06:00

Dear Friends, Some years ago, I heard a well-known Christian leader talking about his eldest son, who had a heart condition. The young man was suddenly taken seriously ill at college and was rushed to the hospital. As the parents sped toward the emergency room, the father said to his wife, “Pray hard; maybe God will be good and our boy will live.” His wife replied, “Isn’t God good if he

Here I Am: Send Aaron!

2012-02-23T08:04:00.000-06:00

Dear Friends, When God called Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, he answered, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” To which the Lord replied, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the

Loving Those Who Drive Us Crazy!

2012-02-14T12:35:00.000-06:00

Dear Friends, Most of us find that we can love those who are easy to love, but what about those who are hard to love or those who drive us up the wall? Paul writes, “Love is patient and kind” (1 Cor. 13:4). But how is that possible? You don’t know the person I have to love, you’re thinking. We have been told to love, for love is not an option. We have been given by the Spirit the ability

Compassionate Prayer

2012-02-13T07:40:00.001-06:00

Dear Friends, When you read of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, you hear His heart. You hear His tears talking: “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matt. 23:37). Prayer is the place where God softens our hearts toward difficult people. And our prayers soften their hearts, too. Have you ever prayed “I’

Getting God and Life Mixed Up

2012-02-06T07:48:00.000-06:00

Dear Friends, Do you ever get God and life mixed up? If you do, you may be suffering from faith distress. Our concept of God can take such a hammering in adversity that our faith faints and our prayer becomes impossible. Ever been there? Maybe you’re there now!? Faith distress is horrible! We don’t feel like trusting God anymore because God doesn’t appear to be the loving, kind, and merciful

Faith to Finish

2012-01-30T08:13:00.006-06:00

Dear Friends, Are you a morning person? I’m not. I can stay the course at night, but I am a bear in the morning. But I am a Christian, so in another way I am a morning person! In fact, I am a “morning by morning” person! If we don’t find the morning-by-morning way to live the Christian life, our faith will not survive. We will never find faith enough to finish. Faith that works is a faith

Living Above Your Circumstances

2012-01-23T08:25:00.000-06:00

Dear Friends, Back when Stuart and I were missionaries, his travel schedule was painfully arduous. For several months out of the year, he was gone, traveling all over the world teaching the Bible to others. It would be an understatement to say it was very difficult – especially because it left me at home caring for our children on my own. I distinctly remember kneeling down one night

I Will Not Be Shaken

2012-01-16T08:20:00.000-06:00

by Shelly Esser Every couple of years I put together a family Christmas letter to send out. While it’s meant to keep connected to our long-distance families and friends, it’s also a documentary on our family’s life over the last several years – a family history, if you will. I always look forward to sitting down and reflecting very intentionally over the many ways God has showed up in our lives

Make a Commitment to Seek Personal Renewal All Year Long!

2012-01-09T07:41:00.000-06:00

Dear Friends, My hands gripped the steering wheel as my mini-van cut through the ranch-strewn countryside of eastern Oregon. I was escaping to a retreat center in desperate need of rest and restoration. It had been nine months since we packed up our lives in East Asia and returned to the U.S. After 18 years of Asian life, our move back to the States was not a return “home,” but a painful

The reason for the season

2011-12-20T08:44:00.000-06:00

Dear Friends, Somehow, the pull is strong each year to rummage through boxes, silver paper, and tinsel trivialities, looking for Bethlehem. For the first 18 years of my life, all I knew of Christmas was the party in the middle of winter. It seemed a good idea; a family reunion in our beautiful English home. Even now, I can smell the chestnuts roasting on a blazing fire in the fireplace

A Christmas Blessing

2011-12-12T08:06:00.000-06:00

Dear Friends, Like many these days, I’m finding it hard to make ends meet. Presently mine is the only income as my husband has been out of work for a while and so I’ve been doing all I can to keep up on our bills. However, this month of all months, I fell short. I had most of the rent due, but was short a couple hundred dollars. I was afraid, but I sought out the property manager to let her

Where did you lose it...your effectiveness?

2011-12-05T08:20:00.003-06:00

Dear Friends, The story in 2 Kings 6 tells about a young and enthusiastic prophet-in-training under the tutelage of Elisha. It was a good day in Israel. After a repressive time under King Ahab and the notorious Queen Jezebel, the schools of the prophets were enjoying a time of expansion. Revival was happening in Israel mainly because of Elisha’s ministry. In the middle of a planned expansion

Holiday Stress Busters!

2011-11-28T08:12:00.001-06:00

Dear Friends, We’re all under it – as soon as the Thanksgiving weekend is over it feels like everything moves into fast forward until Christmas! We women especially feel it, don’t we? With our long to-do lists, the pressure to make everyone’s dreams come true, and the endless preparations to make Christmas perfect, how do we minimize the stress so we don’t become Mrs. Scrooge? Prioritize and