For more, listen to my podcast “Joy in the Desert,” which includes a moving interview with Jane Burt. Jane knows exactly what it is to walk through the desert, she has been all her life. And she loves and trusts the One who leads her. I need to explain my title, “Joy in the Desert.” My friend Kathy Smith told me that she didn’t like the title because she thinks the desert is beautiful. A lot of people do, and I don’t mean to knock it. But there’s a reason I’m using it in the podcast title. I live in a beautiful mountain town in Southern California named Wrightwood. We…

Battling in prayer is not always on the top of the hit list for modern Christians, especially women. We don’t really like to hear about it. It doesn’t sound nice, it doesn’t sound happy and it sure doesn’t sound safe. But Satan doesn’t have any of these hindrances. He want to hurt us and to frustrate our prayers. He does not want us to be Christlike or powerful in prayer. Is prayer always a battle? No. Often faithful and consistent prayer is quite enough. And sometimes it’s not. These are the times when choices or circumstances threaten us or people we love, and we must go to war in prayer.…

John 8:2-11 Jesus spent the night at the Mount of Olives. By dawn he returned to the temple courts, where all the people have been expecting him and he sat down to teach them. His voice cut through the noise of the sellers, of the crowd, of the animals to be sacrificed, and off the rough commands shouted by the Temple guards in an effort to bring some order to the chaos. But the religious leaders of Israel, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, wanted to make an example of him. They wanted to be sure the people knew that Jesus would not obey the law, that he…