Just Between Us Magazine

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 dies?”

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

Habits of the Grateful

2011-11-21T16:00:00.001-06:00

by Joyce Wallace Nineteenth century poet Celia Thaxter wrote, “There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart.” Those who are grateful brighten a world in need of hope. The grateful create a climate of grace and generosity that warms the chill of bitter souls. But narcissism, arrogance, and envy can lure believers into a culture of entitlement, an atmosphere where unmet expectations

Thanking God for Purple Coats

2011-11-14T18:48:00.000-06:00

by Shelly Esser A number of years ago I needed a winter dress coat, but didn’t feel I could afford it. I whispered a little prayer to the Lord telling Him of my need and didn’t think about it again. A couple of weeks later, I visited a friend. Before I left, she called me into her bedroom and asked me if I would like to have a brand-new, wool purple dress coat. I couldn’t believe it. I

Time for a Gratitude Check

2011-11-07T07:58:00.003-06:00

A number of years ago I was watching a Good Morning America show at Thanksgiving time. The God Squad a Jewish Rabbi and a Catholic Priest – interviewed numerous homeless people about what they had to be thankful for. I was in tears by the end of the segment as person after person, having nothing materially – no place to even lay their head or no knowledge about where their next meal would come

Giving God Thanks

2011-11-02T09:30:00.000-05:00

Dear Friends, One aspect of prayer is saying thank you. Like the ten lepers who were healed by Jesus, only one came back to say thank you. We believers, cleansed from sin are all too often counted among the nine. While in Asia, Stuart and I were staying with two of our veteran missionaries, Ken and Stephanie, who had served 19 years in tribal work in Papua New Guinea. One day we were talking

Unstuck

2011-10-15T08:26:00.001-05:00

A little of my heartBy Jennie AllenWomen are hurting. A lot of us feel stuck. This is not a novel perception – this is human. We are stuck trying to be perfect. Stuck in sadness. Stuck feeling numb. Stuck pursuing more stuff to make us happy. Stuck in something we can’t even name. And most of our stuck places are invisible to the world, which keeps us from dealing with them. When I wrote Stuck, I

Loving the Difficult People in Your Life

2011-10-10T14:50:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends, Can you imagine a world with no difficult people in it? Go on, try! The dictionary defines the word “difficult” as a person who is “hard to be pleased or satisfied, disagreeable, quarreling, contentious, unyielding, not compliant, unaccommodating, rigid, not easily managed or persuaded, troublesome.” Of course, none of us have such people in our lives! If you belong to a

Sad

2011-10-03T08:40:00.000-05:00

The Discipline of Joy By Jennie Allen I was hurt. Not the kind of hurt I can talk about here – it involves people I love and things that are not mine to share – but my heart was flat broken. I woke up with puffy eyes after four hours of sleep to hear the funniest little whisper from God… a verse I hadn’t read or thought of in years. … She can laugh at the days to come – Proverbs 31:25 This

Miracles Take Time

2011-09-26T15:22:00.002-05:00

Recently, Stuart and I listened to the amazing reports of New Tribes missionaries telling how they have taken their families, moved into unreached primitive tribes, and begun the persistent and patient translation work required to take the gospel and plant a self-reproducing church. It takes years to accomplish this. Years ago, we served in a mission with a saying, “Go where you’re sent,

Overwhelmed

2011-09-19T08:44:00.002-05:00

What are you striving for? By Jennie Allen “For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 2:22-23 (NKJV) As depressing as this verse is, I relate. A lot of my striving only seems to make me more tired

Unlikely Leaders

2011-09-12T09:09:00.000-05:00

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Scared

2011-09-06T08:31:00.004-05:00

Connecting Love and Fear By Jennie Allen Last night we were driving home from dinner with some friends. It was late and the houses glowed with lights and stories and lives. I knew each house held people whose existence was somewhat rooted in their little home. As we drove up to our home, I was gripped with fear. The for-sale sign sat slanted on the edge of our yard. All our roots are feeling

Keeping Your Eyes on Jesus

2011-08-31T21:29:00.000-05:00

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