Happy holidays! The three big ones – Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s – are right around the corner, and it’s time to celebrate- even here on the blog! So just to give you a heads up, here’s what that’s going to look like as I trade my regular blog schedule for a holiday schedule…
🦃 Starting next week and continuing through Thanksgiving, I’ll mainly be featuring articles to help you get into an attitude of gratitude. God has been so gracious to us. How can we limit the giving of thanks to Him to one day?
🕯 Looking for Advent devotionals and resources? Keep an eye out over the next couple of weeks for Have Yourself an Awesome Little Advent, my annual curation of awesome Advent activities, adornments, and adoration accessories, many of which are free!
🛍 If you’re a Black Friday shopper, stop by the blog on Thanksgiving evening (26th) before you hit the stores and check out my annual article, Holy Holidays: Christian-Owned Businesses to Support while You Christmas Shop. Last year I listed 149 businesses to shop. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be busily updating and adding even more shopping options for 2026! Why fight the lines and the traffic when you can curl up by the fire, shop online, and support your brothers and sisters in Christ?
If you know of a doctrinally sound Christian-owned business (they don’t have to sell Christian-themed items) you’d like to suggest for the list, please let me know (no MLMs like essential oils, Avon, Pampered Chef, etc., please). The business must have an online presence, and shoppers must be able to purchase gift items from the business’ site. If you were on the list last year, you’ll remain on this year’s list, so there’s no need to resubmit.
🎄November 30 – December 25 – Merry Christmas!* I have so much to share with you that we’ll be going back to a 5 day per week blog schedule during the Christmas season! I’ll be featuring Christmas-themed articles – some old, some new, and, hopefully, some from you!
*I know there are a few of you who don’t like Christmas and don’t celebrate it for a variety of reasons. That is absolutely fine. You have the Christian liberty to do that and I’m not going to allow anyone on any of my platforms to judge you or cast aspersions on you for your choice… Please click here.
Got a Christmas-related question for The Mailbag? Comment below, or drop me a message on social media or via e-mail.
Were you saved at Christmas time or at a Christmas event? Did God answer a prayer, do something amazing in your life, or teach you something unforgettable during the Christmas season? How about writing it up for By the Word of Their Testimony*? Drop me an e-mail and let’s chat about it.
Want to write a Christmas-related guest post*? It would need to center on the Scriptures dealing with Jesus’ birth or discuss a “Christian living” type topic that has something to do with Christmas. (No anti-Christmas articles, please.) Drop me an e-mail and let’s chat about it.
(December is fast approaching, so keep in mind you’ll need to be able to write quickly.)
*Want to share a testimony or guest post that’s not related to Christmas? I accept submissions all year round! Drop me an e-mail whenever you’re ready to chat about it, and before you write it.
🎉 If Bible reading plans are your thing, ring in the New Year with my annual round up list! It’ll publish shortly after Christmas to give you plenty of time to consider your options and choose the plan that’s best for you so you can jump right in on January 1.
🎉 Between Christmas and New Year’s I’ll have some articles for you that look ahead to the new year. Then, depending on any holiday travel plans I might make, we should be back to a regular blog schedule sometime in early January.
Ready to schedule your 2027 women’s event? I’d love to come share with the ladies of your church or organization. * * * * * Clickhere for more information on booking me. Click here for info on booking Amy and me together. Click both to find an upcoming event near you!
Amy Spreeman and I had such a wonderful time teaching and fellowshipping with the ladies of Green Bay, Wisconsin and the surrounding area at the A Wise & Discerning Heart women’s conference hosted by Bethel Baptist Church.
If I have to be up before dawn to catch a flight, I’m grateful for the blessing of seeing the sunrise from the sky.
Random, but I saw this in the Appleton airport, and I thought it was funny.
Since this conference was so close to Amy’s house, I stayed with her, and we made a long weekend of it. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to spend some time with my precious sister and friend (not to mention her awesome husband, Bob, who was so kind to welcome me into their home).
The day after I arrived, Amy showed me around Appleton and Seymour, Wisconsin. First we checked out the History Museum at the Castle, which houses exhibits on prehistoric Wisconsin (aka: evolution and dinosaurs), the history of the Appleton, and Harry Houdini, one of Appleton’s most famous residents.
When Amy told me Harry Houdini was from Appleton, I’ll be honest — I nerded out a little. When I was in about the third or fourth grade, one of my favorite books was a biography of the iconic magician and escape artist. I even wrote a book report on it. I probably drove Amy crazy telling her facts I could still recall about his life, death, and amazing escapes.
(For instance: Many people think Harry Houdini died during a failed underwater escape, but this is actually not true. Houdini had to build up his abdominal muscles to perform his escapes. You could say he had the original “abs of steel”! He frequently challenged fans to punch him in the stomach as hard as they could. One day, a man asked if he could take Houdini up on this challenge. Houdini agreed, but before he had a chance to tighten his abs to take the hit, the man punched him. Houdini’s appendix burst, and he died of sepsis shortly after.
Are y’all amazed that I still know this, or what?😀)
Something I didn’t know that impressed me about Houdini is that he had a passion for exposing spiritists of the early 20th century who preyed on the grief-stricken. Many had lost family and friends in World War I, the Spanish Flu epidemic, and other tragedies, and (sinfully) wanted to contact their loved ones who had “crossed over”. It seems, at that time, there was a medium or psychic around every corner just waiting to separate the vulnerable from their money. Houdini made it his mission to put a stop to this. He even helped the government convict some of them of fraud.
Photo courtesy of History Museum at the Castle
Feeding a Christian to the lions😀
This full body straitjacket -not the white, waist length type used today- is what Houdini used in his escapes.
We walked through the prehistoric Wisconsin exhibit audibly (well, if anyone else had been in there, anyway) correcting the placards touting evolution, and stopping briefly to play with the sand box contour map, where we stuck all the dinosaurs’ heads in the sand – which we felt struck an ironic and symbolic blow for biblical Creation.😂
The history of Appleton captured my interest as well, particularly a small COVID exhibit. It was almost spooky to think back on that recent period of world history and see it put in its proper place — behind glass in a museum — to remind us never to return to those dark days.
The relief map is actually a light image projected onto a sandbox. The contours change as you move the sand around.
Anyone who believes the fairytale of evolution has his head in the sand like these dinosaurs. God created the world just like He tells us in Genesis 1-2.
Harry Houdini (center) isn’t the only famous Appletonian. There’s also (clockwise from bottom right corner): Edna Ferber, Willem Dafoe, Greta Van Susteren, Cory Chisel, Joseph McCarthy, and Rocky Bleier.
To round out our little tour, we drove by (it was raining) the “Hamburger Charlie” monument. Did you know the hamburger was invented by Charles Nagreen in Seymour, Wisconsin?
In 1855, 15 year old Charlie wanted to sell his homemade meatballs at the fair. But, as you might imagine, it’s kind of hard to eat meatballs while you’re walking around at the fair. So Charlie came up with a great idea. He mashed his meatballs flat (so I guess he invented the smashburger, too!), put them between two slices of bread, and the hamburger was born!
The “Charlie Grill” (across the street from the monument) where the world’s largest hamburger was grilled at Seymour’s annual Burger Fest in 2001.
Friday and Saturday, we were warmly welcomed by the gracious and kind ladies and pastors of the lovely Bethel Baptist Church.
The ladies found beautiful and handy gift bags waiting for them upon their arrival.
(Sorry, but we do not have conference video/audioavailable to share for this event.)
Friday night, Amy and I taught our first tandem session, Foundations of Discernment. We have to be grounded in the Word of God and faithful to the Bride of Christ if we’re to have any hope of being discerning.
We started each session with a lovely time of worship in song.
Many thanks to our delightful hostess and emcee, Brenda!
Saturday, we kicked things off with our second tandem session, What the Bible Teaches About Discernment. Discernment is based on and governed by Scripture, so it’s important that we understand exactly what Scripture teaches about discernment.
Amy’s solo session, Discerning 7 Lies Christians Believe, was next because we not only need to be well versed in Scripture, we also need to learn how the world and false teachers are twisting Scripture so we can avoid being deceived and warn others not to be deceived.
Lunch time! The ladies feasted on delicious chicken salad croissants at their charmingly dressed tables.
Lunch was also a great time to visit the book table and mingle. Our hosts and some of the attendees had some very thoughtful gifts for us.
After lunch was my solo session, Discernment 101. We looked at several tell-tale signs that someone is a false teacher and discussed practical ways to vet teachers and their materials.
We finished the day out with a whirlwind Q&A session, helping the ladies apply what they had learned, and supplying information we hadn’t been able to cover in our teaching sessions.
Pictures with the ladies is always a fun time!
We had a phenomenal weekend with a wonderful bunch of ladies! Thanks so much to Pastor Keith and his wife Nancy, who worked so hard for over a year putting this conference together, making it an event that focused on sound doctrine for the good of the ladies of their church as well as the many other attendees. And thank you to the other pastors, ladies and men who helped and made us feel so loved and taken care of.
After the conference was over, Amy and I enjoyed just hanging out at her house and around town for a couple of days. She showed me her chickens and her incredible garden, and even made an apple cobbler from apples she picked while we were walking the grounds. We had the joy of worshiping together Sunday morning, and watched the Packers game Sunday night.
These are some of the chickens you’ve heard Amy talk about on the podcast.
The delicious apples Amy picked and made into a cobbler.
In honor of Amy’s husband, Bob, we had to watch.
Amy is demented and likes pickles with peanut butter. She not only canned these pickles herself (and they were AWESOME), she also made this peanut butter (equally awesome!). She wanted me to try it, and I did, because that’s how much I love and trust her. It was gross.
All too soon, it was Monday, and time for me to go home. It was such an incredible time of worship and fellowship I hated for it to end.
If your church or organization is ever in need of a speaker for a women’s event, I’d love to come share with your ladies as well. Click here for more information, or to find an upcoming event near you!
Photo Credits
All photos by Michelle Lesley, Amy Spreeman, and other conference attendees.
Election day is once again upon us. As Christians we trust in God’s sovereignty to remove and establish kings and other governmental leaders, and we know that everyone in every position of authority is only there because God put him or her in that position.
So why vote, if God is just going to establish whichever leaders He’s going to establish anyway?
First, because God works through means. God works through our votes to put rulers in place just like He works through our faithfulness to share the gospel to save people, just like He works through our prayers to carry out His will in whatever situation we’re praying about. We do the good work of voting in alignment with God’s Word, and we trust God to carry out His perfect will in establishing our leaders.
Second, somewhat similarly to the way God has blessed us with the opportunity to cooperate with Him in His plan for saving people by our action of sharing the gospel, God has blessed us with the opportunity to cooperate with Him in His plan for our government by our action of voting. When God gives us the blessing of participating in His plans, why would we turn down that opportunity?
Third, voting is an opportunity for sanctification. In order to be informed and godly voters, we have to understand what the issues are and what God’s Word has to say about them. Studying and applying God’s Word to real life issues in order to steward our vote in a godly way is a sanctification “homework assignment,” that helps us grow in our knowledge of the Word and our obedience to Christ.
Fourth, the freedom to vote is a privilege many of our forefathers fought and died for. We honor their legacy and sacrifice by voting.
Fifth, when Christians vote in alignment with God’s Word, it is a testimony to the candidates and to our fellow citizens. We proclaim to them what the Bible says, that Christians support what the Bible says, and that they need to submit to what the Bible says.
So, how do we become biblically informed voters who vote in alignment with Scripture? I’ve gathered all of my resources on voting, elections, and political issues below to help you out! (Be sure to check out the show notes of the podcast episodes linked below for even more resources!)
First of all, then, I exhort that petitions and prayers, requests and thanksgivings, be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:1-4
Saturday is Reformation Day! Here are some great movies to show at your Reformation Day party or church fellowship. Or, just snuggle up on the couch and enjoy!
And for the young, and young at heart, check out the stories of these Reformers from The Torchlighters: Heroes of the Faith. (Watch the whole Torchlighters series here!)
Looking for a super, doctrinally sound women’s event to attend? Let me tell you about my final event for 2026.
Can’t make it? I go where I’m invited! There’s still plenty of time (and plenty of space available on my calendar) to plan an event for 2027! Find out how your church or organization can set up an event at my Speaking Engagements page. I’ve even got lots of tips, tricks, and helpful hints for you on everything from budgeting to promoting your event!
Canada
I’m so excited to be speaking at my first event in Canada! Ladies, bundle up and come join me November 6-7 at The Beauty of Holiness women’s conference at Westminster Chapel, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This event is open to women in the surrounding areas, but registration is required. Get all the details and find out how to register at the conference website.
Conference sessions include:
Heroines of Holiness
Practical Holiness
Hooked on a Feeling
Q&A
We are working on adding more events to my calendar, and we’d love to add yours! Click on over to my Speaking Engagements page for all the info. And if you’d like for both Amy Spreeman and me to speak, click here!
To keep an eye out for an event near you, or to schedule me for your own event, check out my calendar of events and booking information on my Speaking Engagements page.
