Latest Posts

I Will Restore to You

I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. Joel 2:25 They sounded like tiny tap dancers in chaos. Wings flapping, jaws chomping, they stumble-flew all over each other, ravenous. Like a cloud they swarmed; like a machine, they destroyed. Up till now, I had only read about locusts. Today, outside my window in… Read More

The Mother Heart of God

Can a woman forget her baby who nurses at her breast? Can she withhold compassion from the child she has borne? Even if mothers were to forget, I could never forget you! Isaiah 49:15 Mother’s Day reminds us we need mothering. That may make us angry, or it may make our hearts swell with gratitude for our mothers. In any case, no matter our age or status, we don’t outgrow our need for an encourager… Read More

How to Make a Solid Decision

For my oldest son. You are doing a great job and I love you. Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:5-6 Decisions, decisions. How can we make a solid decision when the present and the future are uncertain? The global pandemic seems to have stripped us of the privilege of… Read More

Asking for Help

With heartfelt thanks to Kaylene, at The Soul Care Institute.  I am thirsty. John 19:28 Jesus was very good at asking for help. He was the prime example of vulnerable asking.   These words from my friend stopped the breath in my throat. I had never, ever, considered this before. Jesus, asking for help? He asked the disciples to go find a donkey for him at the Triumphal Entry to Jerusalem. He asked to borrow… Read More

The Sin and Shame of Suffering

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. John 9:1-3 His espresso eyes welled with sincerity as he sat gingerly on my bed. What sin have you committed, sister? I have come… Read More

Torn, but Healed

He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us… He will raise us up… That we may live before Him. So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth (from Hosea 6:1-3). When we finally were able to receive visitors,… Read More

The Practice of It is Written Prayer

The crescendo of the Cross was composed in the wilderness. Jesus settled it long before the sound of the nails fixing His hands to a wooden cross, the cleansing last breath as He committed His spirit to the Father, or the quiet authority of the angelic herald’s words to Mary, He is not here, He has risen! Before Jesus’ earthly ministry began, Satan tempted Him in the wilderness. Each confrontation was both a challenge to… Read More

In Between

I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again, and going to the Father (John 16:28). As joyful shouts filled the air and palm branches blanketed the road into Jerusalem, no one seemed to realize that Jesus was in transition. Like the seismic shift of tectonic plates in the earth during an earthquake, the landscape of human history was tilting and changing. And Jerusalem was the… Read More

Lent for the Stressed

This is the revised edition of a popular post originally published on audreyfrank.org March 31, 2019. Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28). “I want to be an astronaut,… Read More

In the Company of Outcasts

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. (John 9:35-38) Jesus was comfortable in the company of outcasts. For so long I… Read More