Coalitions
Coalition – I serve on two, which has given me numerous opportunities to consider, “Just what IS a coalition?” Continue Reading →
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Author: Betty-Anne Van Rees
The Meekest Man on the Face of the Earth
It’s not unusual for a verse to completely arrest me—to bring a pause to my reading and my thoughts. Sometimes a thought from Scripture will hold me for months; one long, uninterrupted conversation with God, in which He illuminates truth to me from many angles. In the same way a gemologist inspects a diamond, by the power of the Holy Spirit in me, God and I mull over a truth until it washes over my heart and life and becomes a part of me as truly as my hands are a part of me. I love these “conversations,” and I love the impact they have on my heart and life. Continue Reading →
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Setting Yourself Up for Sleep
Our May 2025 mini-series on the BCC Grace and Truth blog addresses the topic of sleep and insomnia. In this first article, Betty-Anne Van Rees shares biblical wisdom for setting ourselves up for good sleep. In other contributions to the series, Caroline Newheiser offers thoughts from the Psalter regarding sleep, and Joy Forrest discusses God’s purpose in our sleeplessness. Continue Reading →
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El Roi: “The God Who Sees” Changes Everything That Matters
When life is hard, a deep sense of aloneness can add to the weight of the suffering we already bear. The relational nature of God’s design for humans, as communicated in Jesus’ summary of the commandments (Matt. 22:38-40), means that it’s hardwired into us that we would long for the kind of relationships in which we are known—seen. We were created for relationship. This is one of the ways we image our Creator. He exists in relationship within the Trinity and created man and woman to be relational beings as the pinnacle of His creative work.
Over and over again, in the grand narrative of the Bible, God reveals Himself as the God who sees us personally and intimately, but the first time He reassures a struggler with this truth, she uses a new name for Him that seals this attribute as an unchangeable part of our understanding of God: El Roi. Through Hagar’s story of pain and desperation, found in Genesis 16, God reveals Himself to be One who knows us intimately, seeing our sorrows and struggles and caring about the specific details of our lives in ways that move Him. Continue Reading →
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Created to Long
Longing is part of our hard wiring. Even before the Fall, there was room for longing. If this wasn’t true, Adam and Eve would not have been drawn away from God by the desire to be like Him or taste what was forbidden. So, we can assume that longing is not inherently sinful. It was a part of “us” when God looked over His creation and saw that it was very good (Gen. 1:31). Our difficulties arise when, like Adam and Eve, our hearts turn to small, impotent life-snuffing longings rather than to our one, sure, all-satisfying Hope. Continue Reading →
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