The Power of the Table

Julie Sanders has such a heart to serve others. She especially loves to "feed" women who minister globally. In this Hospitality UPGRADE, she writes about the power of the table to connect with people who are hungry on many levels.

"Shared meals serve to nurture our bodies and our souls," Julie says, "But since the arrival of COVID-19, more sits between us than salt and pepper or a bread basket.

"Is it possible to preserve the power of the table in times of social distancing and sanitizer?"

I (Dawn) have always admired those who are so effortless with hospitality, but for many years I had the mistaken idea that hospitality meant a perfect meal or perfectly-set table. It's not that it all, as Julie so clearly explains.

Julie continues . . .

Treasured settings like holidays with family or coffees with friends run up against interference under the impacts of the pandemic. Not only do we experience physical distance, but the absence of familiar ways to feed our relationships leaves us hungry.

Our memories of cooking together, exchanging baked goods, and delivering homemade meals leave an after taste in our hearts, but leave us wanting more.

God uses food to feed us, body and soul.

We have different opinions on many things, but we can agree on the power of the table.

The Oregon Statesman Journal describes the Salem for Refugees process for receiving strangers, where the family is, “Offered a culturally-appropriate first meal.”

Others from their homeland prepare the meal upon the newcomers’ arrival. The universal language of shared food speaks life, nurturing people with a sense of welcome, safety, and peace.

Even people who don’t know Jesus as their personal Savior know a meal feeds the body and the soul.

God values what happens across and around our tables.

When describing what it looks like to be hospitable in an unhospitable land, God gave specific, authoritative directions to Israel.

Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God (Leviticus 19:10).

Sometimes “foreigners” settle in our communities after being served at our tables. In that case, God goes a step further to say,

The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God (Leviticus 19:34).

God uses the power of the table to serve a taste of His goodness to people different from us in and around our lives.

The potential of this benevolent outpouring, delivered by hospitable hands and hearts, is desperately needed now. Under the weight of the world, personal and local and global, people are hungry and thirsty. Those we know and those we don’t know have physical needs and “Woman at the Well” needs for having their needs quenched.

The One who satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things (Psalm 107:9) invites us to lay our tables with hospitality that displays and delivers the love of Christ.

So with COVID restrictions, how do we creatively continue to set a place at the table of our lives for people we know and people we don’t know? How can we extend gifts of food and friendship to those around us if they’re separated from us by restrictions, space, opinions, fear, or a mask?

10 Ways to Set the Table in COVID

1. Have a picnic outdoors.

2. Meet for a meal and chat with a live video stream.

3. Send a meal to someone stuck at home.

4. Take a coffee and blanket and meet at a bench.

5. Pay for the meal of someone in line behind you.

6. “Tailgate” back-to-back cars.

7. Drop off a favorite recipe and supplies to make it.

8. Take pictures of what you’re eating and share.

9. Talk about the special meals or events you’ve shared.

10. Make two “meal bags” with fun paper supplies, snacks, and drinks to set up at your own homes or desks and then “come to the table” together over video to catch up.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be popcorn and sodas. It can be a coffee break with a muffin. Or it could be Happy Meals! The important thing is that we create a connection, a shared meal, and a virtual time and “table” that brings us together.

And as an “after dinner mint,” pray.

In all of these Plan B meals or meet ups with people we know or don’t know yet, use the connection of coming together over food to bless others.

Without the Bread of Life as the loving service behind it, it’s just food. It still helps, but it’s just food.

In these troubled times, some people feel pangs of physical hunger. All of us feel the gnawing of heart hunger. Loss or loneliness makes it harder than ever to eat food for the body or for the spirit.

The power of the table may be the influence God uses to feed people what they need now and for all eternity.

Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty' (John 6:35).

Meals and meet ups look a little different now for many of us, but let’s not withhold our desperately needed hospitality.

People are hungry. We can feed them.

What limitations do I have right now around sharing meals with others? Who around me is hungry physically? Who is hungry spiritually? What resources of mine could feed them?

Julie Sanders loves feeding women who lead globally. She’s the author of The ABCs of Praying for Students, and Expectant, a devotional for new moms. Julie finds joy in helping women discover and develop their gifts to influence others for the Gospel. She sets the table and writes from her online home at juliesanders.org.

Graphic adapted, courtesty of MyriamsFotos at Pixabay.

How to Know if My Truth Is True

As I've developed a friendship with Julie Sanders, I've come to know her as a woman who handles the Word of God in beautiful, practical ways. In this Biblical Thinking UPGRADE, she reminds us of the importance of discerning truth in our culture, and then explains how Christ-followers are to express the truth.

"We purpose to say what’s true and teach it to our families," Julie says, "but this decade seems determined to disrupt confidence about truth. Instead, conversations center around 'speaking my truth.' How do you know if your truth is true?"

I (Dawn) am so glad Julie wrote this post. Whether we're considering false prophets or "fake news," it's sometimes difficult to know what is true. As Julie explains, our Father God has given us guidelines for knowing what is true in the culture today—or even if we are believing lies in our own hearts.

Julie continues . . .

As if underlining uncertainty about so much in 2020, this year has us continuing to wonder about so much. With technology sending out information faster than we can process it, there’s no time to confirm details.

It seems like we’ve entered a time when it’s impossible to know what’s true.  

Christians follow Jesus, “who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Following Him as Lord means being, “prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks … with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).

Followers of Christ value truth and a respectful delivery of it.

Here are five questions to ask to know if what we accept and what we share is actually true.

1. What Does Man Say Is Truth?

Before the new decade arrived, Oprah Winfrey popularized the phrase “speaking my truth” in her 2018 Golden Globe Awards speech.

• It’s become a mantra to validate sharing truth and untruth.
• It’s been pointed for permission to speak opinions, judgments, and emotions under an umbrella of “truth,” accurate or not.
• It’s also liberally used as license to spew truth in whatever way speakers choose, regardless of offense.

We live in a day when people speak whatever they want in whatever way they want.

Does the popular idea of “my truth” mean I get to choose what’s true? Is it possible to know what’s true?

And does making it “my truth” lift limitations on a caustic delivery?

2. What Is God's Measure of Truth?

All of God’s word is true (Psalm 119:160; John 17:17)—a reference point for comparing what is presented to us as real.

A follower of the true God can pray, “Guide me in your truth and teach me” (Psalm 25:5a). His Word illuminates sometimes murky paths of life on earth.

If we keep God’s Word in front of us and lay it over our questions to see it clearly, God's truth will emerge.

Since garden days, when Satan spoke the first lie, untruths have needed exposure.

Now as then, ignoring God’s words opens the door to deception and the destruction that comes with it.  His holy Word provides the measure, distinguishing a truth from a lie.

The only one who can rightly claim “My truth” is the Maker of truth.

3. How Does Truth Turn into Untruth?

Truth becomes untruth when we push aside God’s truth for a twisted version of our own making.

Creating and communicating untruth is like rejecting God’s righteous truthfulness out of a preference for what better serves our agenda. By plagiarizing the righteous reality, a peddler of a self-made stories takes a path leading to a disappointing destination.

Untruth never serves God’s holy purposes. Instead, untruth serves our unholy agendas. If it’s still true, it still belongs to God, and it’s still truth.

4. How Can I Be Sure I’m Telling the Truth?

With fake stories and false accounts filling our news feeds, it’s easy to focus on dissecting the stream before us. After all, the Serpent told Eve, “You will certainly not die” (Genesis 3:4)—though he knew her acceptance of this version of “my truth” would lead to her death.

Satan never held to truth telling, “for there is no truth in him … he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

While we need to discern truth from lies, our focus is on ensuring we speak the truth. We’re warned not to “let any unwholesome talk come out of” our mouths (Ephesians 4:29), and not to “lie to each other,” because that’s a practice of our old self (Colossians 3:9).

Since God sees everything (Proverbs 15:3)—none of our actions or words are hidden from Him (Jeremiah 16:17).

To be sure you’re telling the truth, ask yourself two questions.

• Did God see what I say I saw?
• Did God hear what I say I heard?

5. What Does God Want Me to Do with My Truth?

If our message aligns with God’s Word, it needs to be communicated God’s way.

Ephesians 4:15 directs us to speak “the truth in love.”

Delivering a wholly truthful message in a wholly loving way means we need to be empowered by a wholly loving Savior.

His forgiveness cleanses us and His Spirit grows us, so loving delivery reflects maturity as we become more like Jesus. Loving Him and His truth means, “we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:10-12), because “God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

Once MY truth transforms into HIS truth, God wants me to speak it in HIS loving way.

The world loves to stamp “legit” on a version of truth. That way, every man can do what’s right in his own eyes, spinning it into tales of triumph (Proverbs 12:15; Judges 17:6). Changing the narrative avoids changing hearts.

When we embrace God’s truth as the only truth, it will set us free (John 8:32).

How am I letting God’s word shed light on messages I receive and shape messages I create? What am I accepting as truth that may not align with God’s truth?

Julie Sanders loves lifting women who lead globally. She’s the author of The ABCs of Praying for Students and Expectant, a devotional for new moms. Julie finds joy in helping women discover and develop their gifts to influence others. She writes from her online home at juliesanders.org.

Graphic adapted, vector courtesy of Pixabay.

Women Helping Women during the Panedmic

Julie Sanders has the most amazing, compassionate heart. In this Ministry UPGRADE, she encourages women to reach out to those suffering from the consequences of COVID-19. She shares examples of women who are already sharing hope in Christ. "After ten days of isolation, my world felt small," Julie says. "A positive diagnosis sequestered me until my fever passed and I emerged to catch up on national and global news."

I (Dawn) sometimes wonder if we should watch the news with more of an eye to how God might want us to be His heart and hands reaching out to help. I think Julie has captured this idea perfectly.

Julie continues . . .

The steady stream of conflict tempts us to turn away. Do you want to hunker down until the storm passes?

Travel limitations keep us inside our borders, but this year we opened our eyes and hearts to something we can’t un-know:  the needs of the world.

This awareness turns our hearts to women a lot like us, with trials a lot like ours. God has a purpose in connecting women around the globe.

What might we learn about these women and God's purposes for them?

1. Women are weeping

In my work with women globally, I hear reports from women grieving impacts of the coronavirus.

Women like Esther in Southeast Asia who are wired to be nurturers and caregivers. It prompted Esther to get creative teaching under a tree.

For those with sick family, this season of supporting medical needs has taken a toll. In poor and wealthy countries alike, efforts to keep children learning while isolating at home led to higher rates of stress and domestic violence. Families supported by day workers in under-developed nations have suffered financially, resulting in rising poverty levels.

This increases risks leading to child trafficking and exploitation.

The worldwide pandemic has crushed the spirits of many women fighting for the health, well-being, and lives of loved ones.

The same God who commissioned Eve as “the mother of all the living,” (Genesis 3:20) understands the pain of the women of the world.

As our example of caring for the hurting,

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted  and saves the crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18).

Whether a woman calls a hut, a yurt, a condo, or cabin her home, the global sisterhood of women weeps under similar burdens, and God hears them.

2. God is using women

As He has throughout history when hardship shakes the world, God is using women to care for others in His name.

Women like Luba and Holly keep pregnancy centers open to serve mothers facing unexpected pregnancies in the confusion of COVID-19. While they could be tempted to give in to fear and care only for their own families, they’re rising up to care for others.

Grandmothers, mothers, and young women are serving the sick, making tea for immigrants, preparing relief packages, and taking blankets to the elderly.

God is using girlfriends globally to bring help where the hardships of this year have snuffed out hope.

In organizations like The Apple of God’s Eye, women once rescued from exploitation have faithfully worked to restore wounded children every day of the pandemic.

Around the world in a kaleidoscope of languages and cultures, Proverbs 31-style women are staying up late, getting up early, making resources stretch, making sure household needs are met. They open their hands to the poor and reach out [their] hands to the needy (Prov. 31:20).

In countless nations and tribes in this time of disease, it can be said of God’s daughters,

Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come (Prov. 31:25).

The world may be bending beneath the burden of the Pandemic, but women are rising up in God’s name.

3, Women are finding hope

Not every woman has the hope of Christ for her future in this world. For the first time, some women are crying out and learning God loves them as they receive gospel truth with gifts of food, medical care, and kindness.

Disheartened students, worried mothers, and lonely grandmas are open to spiritual truths because of the coronavirus we share. Through common troubles around the globe, God is moving in the hearts of women.

In one region where females are viewed with little worth, eight courageous women took a risk during this time to be trained to serve others with hope in desperate times.

In hospitals and homes where women weep for the isolation and illness of the Pandemic, The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth (Psalm 145:18).

God is moving through women who have hope to reach those who have none.

Every woman experiences her own reasons to weep during COVID-19.

It’s tempting to hunker down at home. But rise up. God is using women who love Him and love other women to reach women waiting for hope.  

4 Steps to Take from Home

• Learn about the needs of women locally.
• Explore the needs of women globally.
• Pray for the needs of women cross-culturally.
• Help in the gospel work women are doing.

What are you experiencing that connects you to women in other cultures? How has God blessed you with hope to help women who have yet to have that hope?

Julie Sanders loves uplifting leaders globally. She finds joy in helping women listen and learn cross-culturally from one another and, most of all, from God’s truth for life in every land. She’s the author of The ABCs of Praying for Students. Julie calls the Northwest home and writes from her online base at juliesanders.org.

Graphic adapted, courtesy of Engin Akyurt at Pixabay.

Life in the Age of Listening and Learning

Julie Sanders is globally-minded, but she shares her wisdom with individuals, always pointing them to the Word of God. In this Communication UPGRADE, Julie encourages us to listen well, and be careful where we're listening.

"The need for understanding runs like a common thread through the noise of 2020," Julie says.

"Have you heard commitments to listening and learning? Have you expressed this intent?"

When I (Dawn) hear people shouting at one another during these chaotic times, I wonder, "Is anyone even listening? Or is everyone simply pushing their own agenda?

What would happen if we would learn to listen and learn?

Julie continues . . .

LEANING IN with openness to listen and learn can be wise. In loud days, it can also be complicated.

With intense events demanding global attention, no one escapes hearing something or someone.

Made in God’s image, the first Listener, we learn in His Word how to discern who and what we give a hearing.

1. Our Maker Listens

All people reflect God’s image, so His example as a listener matters. He doesn’t have to listen to the lowly, but He does.

He promised, “I will listen to you” (Jeremiah 29:12).

God assures us He listens.

“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry,” (Psalm 34:15). He gives attention to our words, even our cries. It’s a behavior we give thanks for.

2. We’re Made for Listening

Out of gratitude for God’s heart to hear us, we can learn to grow our listening skills. 

Instead, we’re often inclined to answer before leaning in.

God calls us out for what we are in those moments: disgraced.

“To answer before listening—that is folly and shame” (Proverbs 18:13).

Join a group in spewing words without humble listening, and we become part of a disgraceful group.

No one is exempt from the need to hear attentively with a heart to understand. 

“Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1:19b).

When we listen, we learn. If we only hear without godly attentiveness, we miss out on learning.

If we shut out godly instruction, Proverbs warns that we stray (Proverbs 19:20, 27).

3. We Benefit from Hearing

When we hear and act on messages aligning with God’s truth, we’re blessed.

“Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it” (Luke 11:28).

We are blessed when we remember what God says and do it (James 1:25). We’re like a wise man who builds his life on a rock (Matthew 7:24)—so if life feels shaky, it may be due to the voices we’re listening to.

4. Deception Speaks

Fallen voices speak fallen messages.

This is the challenge in a fallen world, discerning WHERE to lean in and listen. We can’t afford to be lazy listeners learning from peddlers of their own passions apart from God’s truth.

Jeremiah 23:16-17 warns listeners about hearing messages that don’t align with God’s truth. If listeners heed those voices, the imaginations of people “delude” them with “false hopes.”

Believing deceivers leads to losing God’s promised blessings.  

We can’t listen to every voice in the noisy now.

We can’t afford to let deceitful voices be those we listen to.

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22). To know how to navigate these days, we must protect time and space to lean in to voices of truth.

The noisy now grows louder each day. Let’s lean in as listeners learning to see these days in God’s ways.

Where are you listening in these loud times? Who are you listening to and learning from? Is there a voice you need to silence or one to amplify? Plan for some quiet time so you can hear.

Julie Sanders loves uplifting leaders globally. She finds joy in helping women listen and learn cross-culturally from one another and, most of all, from God’s truth for life in every land. She’s the author of The ABCs of Praying for Students. Julie calls the Northwest home and writes from her online base at juliesanders.org.

Graphic adapted, courtesy of Jon Wisbey at FreeImages.com.

We Will Rise!

Julie Sanders cares about helping women think biblically. In this Easter UPGRADE—in the midst of a pandemic—she helps Christians focus on our future in Christ.

“Can you remember a time when everyone was thinking about the same thing?” Julie Sanders says. “Right now, we’re all tracking the same information and asking many of the same questions.”

Yes! With the Coronavirus coverage, I (Dawn) am on the same page as many Americans—but not always from the same perspective. As I move toward Resurrection Sunday, I want to be sure I am thinking biblically. And that’s exactly what Julie encourages us to do with this post.

Julie continues . . .

Daily, we watch to see where lives are impacted by COVID-19.

We wonder if we’ll get it and, ultimately, if we’ll die.

So much about life is uncertain.

• We never envisioned watching Easter Sunday services online from home.
• We never envisioned obeying government “Stay Home” directives.
• We never envisioned daily briefings on the lives lost.
• We never envisioned people passing away alone, without the presence of loved ones.
• We never envisioned THIS LIFE.

As we celebrate the Resurrection, we have questions. There’s so much we don’t know about life and death, yet there’s so much we’re sure of.

1. No one lives forever; we will all die one day. (Hebrews 9:27)
2. No one knows what tomorrow brings; we don’t know when we’ll die. (James 4:14)
3. No one is alone when they die; God is with us in death. (Psalm 23:1-6)
4. No one can defeat death but Jesus; one day this will be over. (Revelation 21:4)
5. No one can be separated from God’s love; Jesus guarantees it. (Romans 8:38-39)

This weekend we celebrate the sacrificial death of God’s Son Jesus, leading up to His history-making, life-changing resurrection. Christ secured a chance at life for all of us.

Not even disease or death can rob us of the gift of life.

While sin secured our suffering, Jesus secured our salvation.

Every person wondering how this Coronavirus will change their life has the chance to receive eternal life.

Because He rose, we will rise.

WE WILL RISE!

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

Therefore encourage one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

COVID-19 reminds us of the limits of our knowing and our controlling.

This Easter, we approach the celebration of Christ’s resurrection victory over death with fresh comfort, gratitude and relief. We may not know what tomorrow holds—life or death.

The same One who sees every tear is also greater than every disease, even today’s disease. His battle on our behalf lets us face tomorrow with a certain hope. We will rise.

How does the global crisis of COVID-19 change how you look at the death and resurrection of Jesus this Easter?

What does His life mean for your life? How will that look and sound in your attitude, in your words, and in the expression on your face?

Julie Sanders loves lifting women who lead globally. She’s the author of The ABCs of Praying for Students and Expectant, a devotional for new moms. Julie finds joy in helping women discover and develop their gifts to influence others. She writes from her online base at juliesanders.org.

Graphic adapted, courtesy of Luis Galvez at Unsplash.