Hello, dear ones, I hope this post finds you all doing well, and that you all had an enjoyable Thanksgiving! On today’s episode of Tulips and Honey Lauren and Dave discuss handling criticism in your writing and podcast journey, building credibility as a writer and author, the local church and accountability for writers and authors, and the process of writing a helpful review. Big news, y’all, Tulips & Honey Hub now officially has it’s own app! You can, of course, listen across all major podcasting platforms such as Podbean, Amazon Music, iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, and in video form on YouTube. As always, beloved brethren, be good Berean’s and study to show yourselves approved.
Topics You’ll Hear About on This Episode:
· Handling criticism as a writer or podcaster.
· The importance of building an audience before you publish.
· Dealing with rejection as a writer.
· Writing in a truthful and graceful way.
· The importance of humility in working with an editor.
· Building credibility as a writer and author.
· The local church and having accountability as a writer and podcaster.
· How to receive encouragement as a writer and podcaster and give thanks to the Lord.
Hello dear ones, I hope this post finds you all doing well! Yesterday I wrote about the upcoming Book Club produced by Open Hearts and made available over on AGTV. While looking for a link to it, I realized that I hadn’t written a book review for this book yet! Since I have such an extensive list of recent reads that need to be reviewed, I decided to start with this one. If you haven’t followed the women’s conference we’ve been putting on for the past two years, you might not realize that I’m the Technical Director for Open Hearts. This is important to note, as Brooke Bartz is a cherished sister-in-Christ, the author of today’s book, and the founder of Open Hearts in a Closed World. I mention this simply to indicate that it’s possible to make a case that I’ve several biases regarding Chronic Love, or at least it would be, if not for one crucial point. I adored this book long before Brooke, and I became so close or began working together! If you missed it, you can go back and watch the first interview we did with Brooke here.
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With that small caveat in place, I’ll get to the actual purpose of today’s article, the book review! Chronic Love is not a book about suffering chronically; it’s a book about God’s sovereign purpose in suffering chronically. It was published back in September 2019 by Ambassador International, written, as aforementioned, by author, speaker, and podcaster Brooke Bartz. While it holds only ten chapters, its 320 pages are so packed full of Scripture that the publishers used two different Bible translations to avoid copyright impingement. Alongside these verses, which do a theologically sound job of explaining God’s sovereignty, there are historical quotes (my favorite thing to find in Christian books) and personal aspects of others’ experience, as well as Brookes, with chronic illness. At the end of each chapter, save the first; there are helpful study questions to further develop each Biblical point in your mind.
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Many of us either suffer from something chronic or care for someone who does. I would recommend this book to both those categories, but to expand on that, I likewise suggest this book for anyone in leadership roles, especially those in ministry. The physical and mental toll suffering, or being a caregiver, takes on a person isn’t always prominent. We have to be prepared to have a doctrinally accurate response to folks we come across in these types of situations. This book not only explains the do’s, but it also explains the don’ts while constantly pointing back to the glory of God. I’ve never read anything like this; most books on suffering are either the typical health and wealth or the fluffy encouragement you’d expect to find in a Ted Talk. There is nothing within the pages of this book that would limit readers’ age, so I can recommend it for all ages, as it would undoubtedly be a valuable read for families dealing with chronic illness. You can find this book in Kindle, Audible, Paperback, and Hardcover here. If you’re subscribed to AGTV, you’ll be able to join Brooke as she begins our newest Open Hearts show, Book Club, by reading portions of Chronic Love while discussing the questions and topics therein. You’ll also be able to dig even deeper into the doctrine of God’s sovereignty on The Aftershow, hosted by yours truly, coming soon to AGTV. As always, beloved brethren, be good Bereans and study to show yourselves approved.
Hello dear ones, I hope this post finds you all doing well! I had a slight delay in yesterday’s episode, but Lord willing, the interview will be available the following Monday. If you are itching for a podcast to watch in the meantime, the first-ever episode of the Open Hearts Podcast with Erin Coates and Brooke Bartz is available. This beginning episode is setting the stage for a theologically sound Bible study through 2nd Timothy. You can find it over on YouTube and AGTV in video or podcast form on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcast. I’ve mentioned it on the live events a handful of times, but I don’t think I’ve had the opportunity to write about it yet. Brooke, myself and the entire team of Open Hearts gals have teamed up with Brandon Kimber’s AGTV to produce three different shows. The first one is the one mentioned above, the second will be a book club beginning with Brooke’s book Chronic Love, and the third will be hosted by yours truly, the Aftershow.
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Both the Book Club and the Aftershow will be AGTV exclusive content, unavailable anywhere else. While Brooke works through her book, chapter by chapter, helpfully discussing God’s sovereignty in chronic illness, over in the Book Club, I’ll be highlighting this topic through interviews over on The Aftershow. Many aspects of God’s sovereignty are fairly often confused in the Church today, especially in the fluffy women’s Bible studies, where emotions are more often studied than the actual Word of God. Through these three different shows, we’re hoping to edify the body of Christ, women, in particular, to fill in the massive gaps we see in Women’s Ministries across the world. While it’s often been a drumbeat of Tulips & Honey, I’m thrilled to pieces to have the opportunity to work with so many others just as passionate, if not more so, to further the Kingdom, share the Gospel, and educate the Church.
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The schedule of these three shows will be unique, as each episode will be posted on a Monday, with a week off in-between. Hopefully, this will give us the chance to answer any questions sent our way while giving readers time to keep up in the Bible study and Book Club. I’ve got a lineup of interviewees for The Aftershow, the first being Brooke Bartz herself, followed by Doreen Virtue and Phil Johnson. If you’ve got any questions for the last two on the topic of God’s sovereignty, please feel free to drop them here. As we continue to expand the Open Hearts ministry, we would all appreciate your prayers. It’s Brooke and my fervent prayer that we never use our platforms for any other purpose but the glory of God. We’d be grateful if you would join us in that prayer. As always, beloved brethren, be good Bereans and study to show yourselves approved.
Hello dear ones, I hope this post finds you all doing well! I’ve been remiss in my blogging duties ever since COVID hit our house last year. There’s been several reasons, mostly the symptoms that lasted for months, followed by a veracious bout of insomnia. I’ve always struggled with sleep, it’s not something that’s ever come easy to me. Five hours of consecutive sleep is a successful night! Most often it’s a few hours, followed by some mulling about, ending with an extra hour or two. Before last year I had at least one day a month where I simply couldn’t sleep at all, a couple days a week where more than a couple hours wasn’t possible, ending with a full body crash where I would get those five hours I mentioned. During, and for months after, getting sick, I was able to sleep unlike ever before. I could sleep anywhere, sitting up or laying down, comfortable or not, night or day, for hours on end. Without an alarm, I could sleep for 12 or more hours! This went on for about six months, and resulted in far fewer articles being written here. As you can imagine, with only a few hours of sleep, and a brain wide awake, prior to getting sick I had a lot of time on my hands for writing.
Then, as quickly as it started, the sleep stopped. Like, stopped. For the first time in my life I broke my insomnia record of three nights without sleep. I blew through it, actually, managing a regrettable seven day forced fast from sleep. Even on the nights where I’m able to fall asleep, I wake within an hour feeling like I had a good nap. Perhaps it’s the after effects of the virus, or maybe it’s age, but either way my body isn’t handling the lack of sleep the way it use to. Once upon a time I could get a few hours of sleep and then get a good amount of work done. I could write, create graphics for social media, edit podcasting episodes, clean, craft something for someone’s birthday…but now I am awake for all hours of the night without the energy to do much of anything. My brain won’t shut down to sleep, but it also won’t think clearly enough to allow work to get done. Frustratingly enough, unlike my prior experiences, my mind doesn’t get any clearer when the sun comes up. Especially after day three of little to no sleep, by day four I’m a walking talking zombie. By day five I’m a stumbling, slurring, zombie. I have very little recollection of day’s six or seven. Recently, this issue has begun abating, rather than the seven days of sleeplessness followed by a night and day crash, I’m experiencing four or five days, sometimes less, sometimes more, with a good deal more clarity in-between. I am very thankful for this! While during the last few months I’ve had more opportunity to pray, I’ve missed the ability to write, read, and interact with all of you.
Now that I’m having more days in a row where my brain works, I’m looking forward to writing the MASSIVE amount of book reviews I’ve been planning for! I’m also really excited to be starting a new project for Open Hearts, called the After Show, a bonus episode that will be airing on AGTV and the Open Hearts channel after the Open Hearts Podcast and the Book Club. You can see a sneak peak of the first episode here:
I was incredibly humbled, as well as excited, to be invited to write for my brother-in-Christ and dear friend, Dave Jenkins at Servants of Grace. I’ve been so blessed by his writing, and podcasting work, and it’s an absolute honor to be able to join with him and the other wonderful women who blog for him.
If you missed it, Monday’s episode was an exciting episode! I threw my back out and wasn’t able to get a lot of…well, anything done, early this week. It’s feeling a lot better today, so while I’ve got you here let me tell you about the aforementioned show. Most of you know that Kristin Everett and Patrick Studabaker have joined me on Tulips and Honey frequently. In fact, there was a, jokingly encouraged, contest to see who could guest host more often than the other. That led me to searching for a way to bring them both in at once, Patrick brilliantly filled in the gaps of my weird thought process, by suggesting a series on The Importance of Church. Monday’s episode was born of that idea, and part two will be coming, Lord willing, next week. You can check out that episode on nearly every podcasting platform or on Youtube here:
The last update I wanted to mention is about Pastor Edward. Firstly, thank you to everyone who joined me in praying for his surgery! He’s doing well, very nearly ready to come home, and working hard at physical therapy. It’s still a difficult process, and currently they’re biggest need is keeping his insurance while he’s out of work. If you’ve got the financial ability to help, I’ll include his gofundme account here, and I know I speak for both him and Sandi, when I thank you for all your encouragement and prayer!
Hello dear ones, I hope this finds you all doing well. This morning, at 11am CST our podcasting and pastoral brother-in-Christ Edward will be going in for another surgery. This time the doctors will be amputating a larger portion of his leg below his knee to prevent the spreed of the infection he’s been fighting since February. Please join me in praying for him, and his beautiful wife Sandi. He’s going to be out of work even longer now, if you have the ability to help financially we’ve set up a GoFundMe account, if you’re unable to help please consider sharing so that others can join us in praying and helping this couple weather such a difficult storm.
Hello, dear ones, I hope this post finds you all doing well! I’m so thankful to have been joined by Dave Jenkins from Servants of Grace to discuss how to rightly read the Bible, understanding what we read rather than reading ourselves into the text or taking the whole thing out of context. In this second part we focus mostly on using Biblical discernment. Down below is a list of links for anything mentioned on the show and for more info about Dave. Please be sure to subscribe to his podcast, you’ll be edified weekly!
Also, if you didn’t get a chance to see last weeks MEGA list, I’m going to link to it here. Big news, y’all, Tulips & Honey Hub now officially has it’s own app! You can, of course, listen across all major podcasting platforms such as Podbean, Amazon Music, iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, and in video form on YouTube. As always, beloved brethren, be good Berean’s and study to show yourselves approved.
Hello, dear ones, I hope this post finds you all doing well! I had the privilege of having Dave Jenkins from Servants of Grace on the program again for this two part discussion on interpretation. A while back I had the thought that it would be nice to do an entire series on verses that are difficult to understand, but with a mixed audience I didn’t want to teach Scripture. The solution was to have brothers in Christ that were solid theologically come on the show. When I brought this idea up with Dave he had the brilliant idea to teach how to deal with those difficult verses! As it was his idea, I clearly had to forcebribe ask Dave nicely to do the honors. It’s a two part episode, I hope you all are as edified as I was!
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Below is a timestamped outline as well as links to find more information about Dave. Also, if you didn’t get a chance to see last weeks MEGA list, I’m going to link to it here. Big news, y’all, Tulips & Honey Hub now officially has it’s own app! You can, of course, listen across all major podcasting platforms such as Podbean, Amazon Music, iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, and in video form on YouTube. As always, beloved brethren, be good Berean’s and study to show yourselves approved.
TS 00:02:20 – Why is it important for women to know how to rightly interpret Scripture?
TS 00:05:20 – What is the difference in inerrancy of Scripture and the accuracy of translations?
TS 00:11:10 – Do you recommend when studying Scripture using multiple translations and Strongs Concordance?
TS 00:13:15 – Can you give us some examples of difficult passages?
TS 00:23:35 – How do we get to the point where lay people are being taught these things in their churches?
TS 00:24:40 – Ways we can handle the hard verses in the Bible
Hello, dear ones, I hope this post finds you all doing well! Throughout church history there has been a consistent, if not defective, tendency to attempt to fix the problems within by forcing goats to behave like sheep. By demanding a work of righteousness before salvation, before even an explanation is given, effectively putting the cart before the horse. One prime example of this was the Purity Culture, which hit its fever pitch in the 90’s and has had some devastating affects. Unfortunately, the ideas promoted in that movement linger on, and need to be addressed. So, what to do? The obvious answer is to bring Kristin Everett onto the program so that she can single handedly solve all the woes brought on by Purity Culture. Listen in as she gives first hand examples, as well as many sent in to her via the mysterious “stitching” of TikTok videos, showing the sad state of works based religion masquerading as morality lessons for teens. We get into the nitty gritty as well as detailing solutions, and a far bit of theology to help negate this unhelpful teaching. Below is a timestamped outline incase you want to skip through, as well as links to Kristin’s social media, previous episodes, and famous TikTokery. Yes, I made that word up. Patten it, guys!
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Also, if you didn’t get a chance to see last weeks MEGA list, I’m going to link to it here. Big news, y’all, Tulips & Honey Hub now officially has it’s own app! You can, of course, listen across all major podcasting platforms such as Podbean, Amazon Music, iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, and in video form on YouTube. As always, beloved brethren, be good Berean’s and study to show yourselves approved.
TS 00:01:35 – Why discuss this topic?
TS 00:03:00 – What is Purity?
TS 00:19:00 – Kristins experience with Purity Culture
TS 00:39:15 – My experience with Purity Culture
TS 00:41:20 – My husbands experience with Purity Culture
TS 00:51:15 – Where is the balance?
TS 00:57:35 – How do we share the grace of God in this?
TS 01:08:00 – How to rightly correct Purity Culture
TS 01:22:25 – How do we correct teachers who are teaching this?
Hello, dear ones, I hope this post finds you all doing well! This morning we heard the sad news that Susan Heck’s husband, who had been fighting COVID Pneumonia, passed away. Doug Heck was a graduate of Moody and The Master’s Seminary, he served faithfully as the senior pastor for Grace Community Church of Tulsa, and just as faithfully was a husband to his wife for 46 years. Please join us in praying for Susan, their family, and their congregation. Just as we rejoice that Doug has gone to glory, we mourn with Susan and their loved ones.
The second prayer request I have comes from the recent upheaval of the Afghan government by the Taliban due to the removal of our troops from the country. While it’s true that there will be long term concerns, I ask that you would take time to pray for the believers, missionaries, and volunteers that are now at great risk. Many of them are trying to leave, others don’t have that option. We’ve already seen a return to the horrid treatment of women and children, as well as the cruelty and malice this group of terrorists are best known for. God is sovereign, and in the face of persecution and hardship the Church grows while faith deepens. Thank you for joining me in praying, my friends. As always, beloved brethren, be good Berean’s and study to show yourselves approved.
Tulips & Honey 