Tagged: Audrey Frank

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 Jesus’ identity and a distortion of the truth.  Every one of Jesus’ responses began with the words, it is written… The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on… Read More

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 fault line.  Jesus was entering the space in between, a place between The Way Things Used to Be and the Way Things Will Be. Between an earthly home and a heavenly one. He had made this shift before through the power of labor and delivery, His newborn cry piercing the… Read More

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, but I still want to be a doctor, too,” she said, her beautiful brow crinkled in consternation. “Well, astronauts need doctors to care for them,” I suggested. “I know. But I’m not worrying about it. I’ve put that stress on Jesus. Is that okay? To give Jesus my stress?” “Yes,… Read More

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 skipped right over the heart-stopping, radical action of this passage. I barely paused to notice. Okay, so Jesus went after an outcast. He was Jesus, after all, and that’s what He did. It was part of his Messiah job description. Then I began to live and work among the outcast… Read More

Walking in the dark night of Africa is risky. The black mamba, one of the world’s deadliest snakes, can completely camouflage himself within the inky darkness. He is one of the few snakes which are active at night and particularly loves wood or metal that has absorbed the heat of the day.  We encountered the black mamba only once, coiled around the grating on our screen door. After a long night of good conversation and milky, hot chai by lantern light, we walked our guests to the door. As my husband reached out his hand, the darkness moved, alerting us to the killer’s poisonous presence. The sleeping village erupted in excited shouts as men, women, and children came running from every direction to kill the… Read More

  After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him (John 13:5). niptō: (Greek) to wash; to cleanse; to perform ablution.   Dear Fatima, I can’t stop thinking about our conversation yesterday. The question you asked me.  Why don’t you Christians have to make yourselves clean before you pray?  We are women. We are told we cannot approach God unless we are clean. That He will not accept our prayers if we are dirty. This has always bothered me about my own religion, Audrey.  I see you working so hard to make yourself clean. Clean enough to approach God. Pure enough to bring your prayers before Him, hoping He will… Read More

And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he approached the road leading down from the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Luke 19:36-38, NET I’ve always been a flinger. For the first three decades of my life, I rarely spread anything before the Lord. Spread sounds so calm. So careful. I tend instead to fling my cares before Him, cast my cries up to heaven, throw myself at His feet. Sometimes I come dancing and shouting. That’s how… Read More

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 It came in strange gift wrap, not at all what I expected. But the gift was right there inside. I turned it over in my hands, joyously held it to my heart, and wondered at the mad methods of my Lover. The gift was exactly what I asked for, really. The wishing began slow like a tingling thrill that rises up quiet from the deep spaces of our souls, growing in intensity as it climbs, until it bursts out all over us, covering us in hope. I wanted a life change. I asked Him to rearrange me on the inside, to remove me from me and fill me… Read More

He gives strength to the weary, and to the one who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary (Isaiah 40:29-31). Listen to Me in silence, you coastlands, And let the peoples gain new strength…(Isaiah 41:1). The Lord is aware we are downtrodden, battle-weary. He sees us marching through the fog of weariness, calloused fists gripping His promises, battered brows fierce with determination. Thus, He begins Isaiah 40 with comfort and kindness. Comfort, comfort My people, says your God. Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call… Read More

Thou preparest a shulchan before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with shemen (olive oil); my kos (cup) runneth over. Surely tov (goodness) and chesed (lovingkindness) shall follow me kol y’mei chaiyyai (all the days of my life)... --Psalm 23:4-6, Orthodox Jewish Bible Shulchan: (Hebrew) a king’s table, private use, sacred use (Brown, Driver, Briggs, Gesenius Lexicon; keyed to the "Theological Word Book of the Old Testament"). My table-setter was very busy. The most colorful rug, the one woven by her great-grandmother and carefully cherished and preserved, was the one chosen as a “tablecloth” for eating. I watched as Nadia tenderly unrolled it and placed it on her immaculately clean floor in the center of the room. Next, silk embroidered cushions… Read More