Copyright https://www.ibelieve.com 2023, iBelieve.com Thu, 28 Dec 2023 23:49:31 -0500 https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/one-thing-god-never-said-about-pain-so-christians-shouldnt-either.html https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/one-thing-god-never-said-about-pain-so-christians-shouldnt-either.html Janelle Alberts https://www.ibelieve.com/author/janelle-alberts/ In 1939, before Corrie ten Boom hid Jewish neighbors from the Nazis, Prime Minister Chamberlain told Holland that there would be no war. He was asking Corrie to close her eyes to the reality around her. Corrie’s political leader asked her to pretend this was not going to hurt. Corrie’s God, did not. One thing God never says about pain? Pretend it doesn’t hurt. Mon, 12 Feb 2018 10:53:58 -0500 2023-12-28T23:49:31-05:00 https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/should-christians-trust-science-or-scripture.html https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/should-christians-trust-science-or-scripture.html Janelle Alberts https://www.ibelieve.com/author/janelle-alberts/ A raqiya is a dome. And, it’s solid. Also, it was thought to hold water at bay behind it. The good news is the Bible wasn’t unique. This was a way people of ancient times were describing the sky. The bad news is, God didn’t say He wrote that other stuff. He does say He wrote the Bible. (2 Tim 3:16) How can we Christians glean understanding through science without abandoning our allegiance to the Scriptures? Here are four ideas. Thu, 01 Feb 2018 14:03:16 -0500 2023-12-28T23:49:31-05:00 https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/gods-liberated-woman-salty-or-sweet.html https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/gods-liberated-woman-salty-or-sweet.html Janelle Alberts https://www.ibelieve.com/author/janelle-alberts/ Over the years, I’ve heard dozens of how-to-be-godly messages for women and they regularly circle around the same theme: don’t mouth off to men. Especially husbands. Tue, 10 Oct 2017 09:47:04 -0400 2023-12-28T23:49:31-05:00 https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/how-to-avoid-a-fake-life.html https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/how-to-avoid-a-fake-life.html Janelle Alberts https://www.ibelieve.com/author/janelle-alberts/ Faking is not beginning. Faking is rather more like wandering and wandering and wandering through the wilderness, much like the Israelites, for 40 unnecessary years. Tue, 11 Jul 2017 15:54:42 -0400 2023-12-28T23:49:31-05:00 https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/does-god-even-care.html https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/does-god-even-care.html Janelle Alberts https://www.ibelieve.com/author/janelle-alberts/ There are bread-multiplying, cancer-curing, miraculous moments in life, but they come and go. The emotion we feel in their absence reveals what we believe about this God. It reveals whether we really believe Him at all. Mon, 15 May 2017 12:08:15 -0400 2023-12-28T23:49:31-05:00 https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/two-reasons-jesus-made-water-into-wine-for-moms.html https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/two-reasons-jesus-made-water-into-wine-for-moms.html Janelle Alberts https://www.ibelieve.com/author/janelle-alberts/ We often function less like free-in-Jesus believers and more like moral lawyers who wrestle a good gift from God down to formulaic submission. Then along comes Jesus who shoves a miracle like this right in our faces. He leaves us no choice but to break up a bit with the legalism in all of us. Tue, 02 May 2017 22:43:15 -0400 2023-12-28T23:49:31-05:00 https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/two-ways-hamilton-rattled-my-faith.html https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/two-ways-hamilton-rattled-my-faith.html Janelle Alberts https://www.ibelieve.com/author/janelle-alberts/ Even Lin-Manuel Miranda has cut his ponytail and moved on. I’m only now obsessively memorizing the musical’s every word - several of which have surprised me by, oddly, confronting my perception of the Old Testament God. Tue, 18 Apr 2017 11:18:10 -0400 2023-12-28T23:49:31-05:00 https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/easter-good-for-the-neighborhood.html https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/easter-good-for-the-neighborhood.html Janelle Alberts https://www.ibelieve.com/author/janelle-alberts/ Christians tell the world that God can marry neighborly decency and drive both, because it was God who planted the drive in your created self and also God who calls for decency to the neighbors whom He loves as much as He loves yourself. Find that hard to reconcile? So did David. Mon, 10 Apr 2017 09:53:02 -0400 2023-12-28T23:49:31-05:00 https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/a-selfie-worth-dying-for.html https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/a-selfie-worth-dying-for.html Janelle Alberts https://www.ibelieve.com/author/janelle-alberts/ It has always been a complicated balance to reinforce kiddos’ self worth without growing up self-absorbed kids. We can start with: you are loved and you are worth dying for. Tue, 04 Apr 2017 11:30:49 -0400 2023-12-28T23:49:31-05:00 https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/regaining-trust-intrust.html https://www.ibelieve.com/blogs/janelle-alberts/regaining-trust-intrust.html Janelle Alberts https://www.ibelieve.com/author/janelle-alberts/ Latching on to a leader whose affection unpredictably comes and goes is confusing. Thu, 23 Mar 2017 11:53:00 -0400 2023-12-28T23:49:31-05:00