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# God’s presence

October 26, 2016
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## how god mingles his holiness with our humanity

By Carrie Stephens | a year on the front row, faith, God, God's presence, grace, women | No Comments

First today, I have some quotes that make me want to jump up right there where you are and make a run for Jesus all around the room: “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” —Augustine, Confessions “If God has given graces to some good women, revealing to them something holy and good through His Holy Scriptures, should they, for the sake of the defamers of…

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October 13, 2016
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## Glimpses of Glory From Our Trip to South Africa

By Carrie Stephens | faith, God, God's presence, hope, lessons in life, ministry, problems, Suffering | 4 Comments

Morgan and I went to a ministry conference in South Africa last week. I am still sleeping when I‘m supposed to be awake and awake when I’m supposed to be asleep, so forgive me if this post has a stream of consciousness that only a two year old would find acceptable. I am so tired that I have basically become a two year-old: I can’t nap even though I’m exhausted, all I want to eat…

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June 14, 2016
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## shalom: for these days when nothing is as it ought to be

By Carrie Stephens | article, dreams, God's presence, gospel, grace, problems | No Comments

I’m starting to feel like the world is one giant swirling gust of wind. Swoosh… there are ants in my kitchen and I can’t seem to get rid of them. The bug guy says they live in the walls. SUPER! Swoosh… my left eyelid is starting to wrinkle at an unprecedented rate, like it’s in a race to look eighty-five before I hit fifty. It’s so ahead of its time. I think I may name…

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April 25, 2016
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## holding onto God

By Carrie Stephens | article, God, God's presence | No Comments

This morning we read Psalm 62 as a part of our family devotional. We asked everyone to close their eyes and listen to the beginning and the end, and see if the Holy Spirit spoke anything to them- if any of the words “came alive” in their hearts as they listened. This is the beginning of hearing God’s voice, and it’s amazing to watch my children practice this discipline. My daughter said she heard the…

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April 15, 2015
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## beautiful shame

By Carrie Stephens | article, God's presence, gospel, Poetry | No Comments

I see Your face as it rises over the land,Who can behold such a vision and not surely die? I stand amazed. I crumble slowly in the light of Your mercy,Fear flourishes within as pieces of me I deemed precious fall lifeless from my grip. The trumpet blasts- I fall to my knees;The darkness within me spins as a cyclone, a mighty wind within. My great need sucks the Word into my soul,Like spark and…

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March 18, 2015
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## an ordinary ocean of glory

By Carrie Stephens | article, God, God's presence | No Comments

The closest I have felt to God happened many years ago. I stood on a cliff in Santa Barbara on a windy June morning, majestic waves crashing below me, the sea and sky expanding out into eternity, and it was simply… awesome. Not awesome as in “everything is awesome” from the Lego Movie (thank goodness). Awesome like the way an artist’s soul seems to live inside her work. Like a bitter heart being opened to…

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January 3, 2015
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## the french countryside and God’s love

By Carrie Stephens | article, God's presence, marriage | No Comments

“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” -Psalm 139:7-10 By choice and by grace…

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May 15, 2014
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## when every day is a fresh awakening

By Carrie Stephens | article, God's presence, gospel, lessons in life, love | No Comments

I woke up at 5 am this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. My mind was full of projects, restless ideas, hopes unfulfilled, and dreams longing to materialize. How do we navigate this path from mind to heart to hands, and tailor the translucent fabric of faith into tents of righteousness? In the early morning light, I settled onto the sofa with ancient words that sustain the saints and breathe hope over generations, a…

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August 13, 2013
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## living empty

By Carrie Stephens | article, God, God's presence | One Comment

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” -James 1:17 God has been answering some prayers for me in gracious and beautiful ways recently. Some needs, some hopes, some cries to Him have been fulfilled. It’s funny how all my other prayers are more full of hope in the wake of this sweetness. A few gifts from the God…

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January 23, 2013
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## he stands up

By Carrie Stephens | article, God's presence, Suffering | 3 Comments

There are troubles that come and drain the very will to take one more step. Those are weary days indeed. Days that all around looms a valley of death, and new strength seems so far from grasp. Psalm 84 calls out; thirst for more than better days. Thirst and hunger for Him. That’s when Jesus stands up on the inside of you. He stands when He becomes your greatest hunger, in answer to the call…

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