Eventually, we must put the past where it belongs because God has something better for us. The post A Merry Shattered Christmas first appeared on Charlaine Martin ..read more

My shells represent us—broken people. Often discarded as ugly, useless, and therefore unwanted, God showed me their beauty. The post Beauty from Brokeness first appeared on Charlaine Martin ..read more

What if a ninja went tearing up the center aisle of your church and hammered down on your pastor with his sword? Pretty shocking, wouldn’t you agree? The post Standing Firm in Battle first appeared on Charlaine Martin ..read more

I’ve been a pastor’s wife in a small rural church in Texas for twenty-nine years. Oh, the stories I could tell. The post Guest Blog Post: Meeting by Design first appeared on Charlaine Martin ..read more

One stark realization we’ve had in our retirement dream is that what we imagine never happens the way we thought it would. The post From Char’s Desk: Living the Retirement “Dream” first appeared on Charlaine Martin ..read more

A friend and I were talking the other day about how churches have impacted us, and today’s passage in Ephesians 2:19 got my brain gears churning. We both concluded that we go because God’s Word tells us not to forsake the gathering together of believers (Hebrews 10:25), but also because of how we should do as Jesus did: Jesus went into the Synagogue as was […] The post The Impact of a Church first appeared on Charlaine Martin ..read more

When you put Simplicity and Solitude together and anchor them with prayer, this hub hold s all the other spiritual disciplines in our lives. The post Spiritual Disciplines: Simplicity and Solitude first appeared on Charlaine Martin ..read more

Approaching God for Spiritual Breakthrough Fasting is one of the least understood of the spiritual disciplines as far as I’ve experienced. Maybe it comes from visions of Jesus in the desert wilderness wandering around telling Satan to keep his rocks while He was probably very hungry. Could it have come from the 1960’s hippy era, which one only had yogurt in the fridge and let it sit for 40 days while strumming a guitar with chants against the establishment? Who knows. So, what I would like to do is clear the air on what fasting is and some ways you can incorporate it into your Christian walk ..read more

God’s Amazing Work Behind the Scenes of Our Tenth Honeymoon Despite the Circumstances I thought I’d share some of what’s happening in my world with you and what God was already working in the background when things had already gone horribly wrong. Sorry, I haven’t taken the time for quite a while to look up from my computer and share a blog post with you. I’d been caught up working on a book proposal after my editors finished doing their amazing work as my Boaz and I prepared for our tenth honeymoon. I think you will be amazed at our faithful God’s response to the crises of His people. Special ..read more

Originally posted on February 8, 2018, at 8:10 AM on www.totallyfit4life.net. If you asked a group of Christians in a Bible study group what the most important thing we can do is, the answer would be a resounding, “PRAY!” It sounds good since we know that is the correct answer. But do we really understand it? Sometimes. Sometimes not. Hopefully, you can understand this is not a subject that I can tritely pop up as a blog post without prayerful consideration and heavenly guidance. What is Prayer? Prayer is the foundation of all spiritual disciplines. We can’t practice any of them apart fro ..read more