On this episode, my husband and I discuss the sexual challenges and points of growth in our 22 year marriage.
We discuss things like:
Are our churches promoting "cursed-based" thinking in Christian marriages, despite having the best intentions?
How do artificial hierarchy and rigid gender roles diminish intimacy in marriage?
What is the ONE thing we'd tell our younger selves about our sexuality if we could turn back time?
Join us as we dig for God’s gold in our married sexuality!
Read MoreWhat if God actually exists and he cares deeply about us as sexual beings? Let’s explore this topic in Season Five with curiosity and grace.
Read MoreIn our final episode of Season 4, we talk with my dear friend Jen -- a former Communications Director for a non-profit and active lay-minister who was forced to step off the path of familiarity into a long decade of exile when her family of nine was thrust into crisis due to her son's mental health issues. Jen speaks candidly of nearly losing her faith and all of the anger and unrest that comes from being in exile with God. If you're struggling with your own season of exile, you don't want to miss this episode.
Read MoreToday's episode is extra special because I'm interviewing my handsome husband, Chaplain Clayton Jones, about what he learned in a period of painful exile.
He conceptualized his time in exile as a three-part flow: loss, change and renewal. If you're disoriented from the radical changes in the world and in your own life, you don't want to miss Clayton's wisdom and insight.
Read MoreThe past two episodes have featured stories of radical generosity from our guest Meredith, in which we learned laws of stewardship and gained hope from the understanding that God appreciates the work we undertake with him.
Today's episode is a bonus because Meredith wraps up with some solid gold on what it means to dream with God.
Read MoreIn C.S. Lewis's famous sermon, The Weight of Glory, he proposes that scripture indicates God gives His people appreciation for participating with Him in good, Kingdom work.
Today's episode is the second installment of our interview with Meredith, who gave away a vast inheritance in an epic adventure with God.
We talk about dreaming with God, entering into the narrative He wants for our lives and opening ourselves up to receive His appreciation when we live with generous hearts.
Read MoreIn part-one of the first-ever Gold Digger interview, we feature the story of one woman's epic adventure with God. Meredith Meyer shares about how she partnered with God to give away a vast inheritance, down to the last dime.
We explore concepts of stewardship Meredith learned along the way and connect her story to the broader one going on in the world today. We uncover the gold of the empowerment Jesus offers us to resist our baser human nature and to get generous when it makes more sense to get greedy; to become self-giving when selfishness is the name of the game.
Read MoreWe naturally panic in seasons of lack, when all our usual props fail to get us through. What if God is using this time of emptying as an invitation to learn something new?
Scripture says God can make us -- and re-make us -- into whatever we need to be to thrive in all circumstances. Lack can free up the space and time God requires to re-tool us into who we were always meant to be.
This is how we find our ultimate contentment in our only true HOME and how we live out our mission to call others home too.
Read MoreWe just exited Lent, a season in which we take a deep dive into our spiritual poverty. Yet, for many of us, that feeling of lack is pervasive still. There's not enough of...everything. Where's the gold in times like these?
This time of isolation and forced slowing can be about so much more than making cute memories with our families or learning a new skill or finally tackling home improvements or catching up on our favorite shows.
Friends, we are at a real crossroads. We can take the usual path, the one well-trodden by the world, in which we wait this thing out by continuing to distract and indulge ourselves, hoping that our efforts will be enough to help us survive. Or, we can allow this to become a time of purposeful emptying so that we may be filled by Him. All our lives, perhaps, we’ve settled for less – we’ve bought into the world’s system of materialism and success. Now we have an invitation to finally experience what we were made for – an important, fulfilling, exciting, life-giving relationship with our Creator.
Read MoreJesus spent a lot of time trying to get us to understand how fear makes absolutely no sense when we live in the reality of God. Elsewhere in scripture, the Lord promises to give us some pretty big payoffs if we're willing to exchange our spirit of fear for the new spirit Jesus was telling us about.
Join Amber today in an exploration of how we can finally access the powerful, fear-free life we've been promised, even in the midst of very dark days.
Read MoreFear is a universal human emotion and, frankly, pretty helpful in many circumstances. So, why does scripture warn us to NOT fear over 300 times? How is it possible to live fearless in a world that, honestly, gives us so many reasons to fear? Perhaps Christ provides the antidote to fear when he tells us we must become like children in order to enter into God's reality. Join us today as we begin our exploration into the golden goodness that can be found even in the midst of chaos.
Read MoreRadically accepting our circumstances? Sure. What other choice do we really have anyway? Radically accepting others? Ok. That's probably doable too.
What about radically accepting ourselves though? What about when we're the ones who caused someone else's pain? What about when we set things in motion that can never be reversed or repaired?
Join us today for the final installment of this series, as we engage in a conversation about how we can radically accept ourselves when we feel so unacceptable.
Read MoreThis episode tackles the big question of how to accept God when He doesn’t seem to act acceptably?
Sound disrespectful? Heretical? If we avoid this question then we do ourselves a huge disservice.
With suffering being a part of the human experience, it only makes sense that we ask ourselves how we can learn to accept a God who so often feels unacceptable.
Join me as we dig in the dark to find out how, when we accept God as God, suffering is reduced and we find more room to really love.
Read MoreEpisode 4 digs into the hard stuff: abuse, infidelity, injustice, death. We explore how radical acceptance is an empowerment in the face of the unacceptable, using Brandt Jean as a case study. We ask ourselves the hard question: How do I accept the unacceptable?
Read MoreMaybe you're on the fence about the practicality and, perhaps, even the morality of radical acceptance. I mean, doesn't this smack of New Age mumbo jumbo or some kind of pop-psychology sold to the masses to help them deal with existential angst?
The short answer to those questions is NO! This episode is all about exploring God's radical acceptance and how he provided it as a framework for followers of Christ. We'll take a look at key passages of scripture which demonstrate Christ's radical acceptance of others and of life on life's terms. Together, we'll hone in on one of the keys that makes radical acceptance not just possible, but preferable.
Read MoreRadical acceptance, huh? Sounds nice but how is it:
-Workable?
-Practical?
-Possible?
Episode 2 illustrates how radical acceptance can be implemented on a daily basis in your life to reduce suffering and grow love. We dig in the dark of cancer and emotional abuse and come out with God's gold.
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Season 3 is LIVE and we're going deep, Gold Diggers! We're taking a look at the concept of Radical Acceptance. What is it? How does it help? What about those impossible-to-accept situations?
We begin in Episode 1 with the story of how my sister's cancer diagnosis thrust me into the journey of Radical Acceptance. Though the story is painful, we'll lean into it because it highlights how radical acceptance accomplishes what seems like the impossible -- reducing suffering and growing love.
Join me as we learn to dig in the dark this season, bravely looking for that gold that's shining in the most unacceptable circumstances.
Read MoreWe don't have to live half-lives. Abundance is right here. It's ours for the taking.
Our identities are restored when we discipline ourselves to filter all that we are, and everything that we experience, through Christ alone. Join us for the final installment of our Real-Life series, where we explore a few principles that will help us live in abundance every day. After all, it's our right. Our default. Our inheritance.
Read MoreWhose voice is in your ears?
For many of us, we live as if it's okay with God that we make our own way in the world, defining ourselves however we think best. We pay little attention to the meanings we make of our experiences, relationships and the messages we absorb.
God isn't okay with it. In fact, He went to great lengths to secure our true identities for us. The question is, will we apprehend our true selves? Or will we allow our identities to be destroyed?
Read MoreOnce we've looked into the coffin of our dead God-stories, it's a pretty tall order to resurrect them. Happily, that's not our job! God is at-the-ready to use our powerful stories to connect us to others and to shine His bright light into a dark world. All we must do is cooperate.
What does cooperation look like? Today's episode focuses on four practical steps of cooperation we can take every day to resurrect our stories and live in the abundance of freedom and connection.
Justin Timberlake may have brought sexy back; but we, Gold Digger, are bringing back things much more compelling -- confession, repentance and obedience. Let's get to digging!
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