A friend once came to me and told me about her burdens she was bearing through at the time. She was expressing so many different types of emotions; anger, sadness, despair, and helplessness. My heart went out to her, I truly wanted to bring comfort to her.

Have you ever felt forgotten and abandoned?

There is a whole society of people that stands with you, bearing the weight of loneliness and shame, fear and isolation.

It’s AD 60 and Paul is sitting in the corner of a Roman prison, writing the book of Ephesians to the new community of Christians in Ephesus. The book of Ephesians is about our identity in Christ – our adoption, redemption and hope.

needed to read Theresa's sweet encouragement today.  Maybe you do, too.  It's this week's featured post for the Grace and Truth Link-Up and it's called, What Voices Are You Listening To?As I was reading her words, I was thinking about how I had been listening to the wrong voice throughout the day.  It reminded me that I missed my Bible reading time this morning.  I think that was a big part of why today has been so...off.  What voices are you listening to?  I'll encourage you to go and read Theresa's post and be blessed by her words as I was. 

Thank you for sharing your post with us last week at Grace and Truth, Theresa.

And now it's time to link-up!

Hey, Sweet Friend...

I’m writing to let you know that we’ve missed YOU in our fellowship!

We really have! No, we haven’t called or checked on you like we should have. I’m really sorry for this.

We’ve not been as sensitive as we should have been. We’ve dropped the ball in our follow through. We’ve failed you in our outreach.

But, I’m reaching out to you now – today. I really hope it’s not too late.

I want to invite you to come back to church.

The featured post this week at the Grace and Truth link-up is called, Learning to See Horrible Circumstances in a New Perspective, by Sheila Qualls at Candidly Christian.  Sheila's words are such an encouragement.  I think all us have questioned God's goodness at some point or another.  I'm so thankful for his patience and gentle loving care in times like these.  God is so good and sometimes all it takes is a little shift in perspective to see that more clearly.

The measure of humility in your life and mine will always be in direct proportion to what we believe to be the truths about God.

Simply put - greater God equals lesser me.

So today, I thought it might be a blessing to look at the awesomeness of God. The One we live for and adore.

Traveling Life: Finding Our Way, by Rachel Britton, is this week's featured post for Grace and Truth link-up.  Have you ever stood in the midst of a teeming crowd of people and felt small and insignificant?  That's not the way God sees you.   Rachel's post is a sweet reminder of God’s love for us. It’s truly amazing how God sees each and every one of us, no matter how many of us there are! I hope you'll pop over, say hello, and be encouraged as I was!

The #summersizzlebloghop continues this week and it's my great pleasure to welcome my friend Shannon Geurin to the blog today!  Shannon has so much wisdom to share- and she has a wonderful way of infusing humor everything she writes.  I think you're going to love this post!