Sister Walk In Truth

By Chrystan Ferrell, Bethany Barendregt, Carrie Robaina and 12 more

Today's Christian culture is confusing to say the least. With so much noise, it's hard to know what is true and what is not. How can a woman who loves Jesus discern the truth when surrounded by so many differing voices?

Sister, Walk in Truth helps you identify the lies that permeate today's pop-culture Christianity and apply God's Word to your life in a relevant and easy-to-implement way. Sister, you will walk away more equipped than ever to take God's Word and apply it to the mistruths presented from pulpits and platforms across our nation. As you read this book, you'll be able to apply God's truth-- not the world's truth, not someone else's truth but-- God's truth about who you are as His daughter and what you  are called to in loving God, loving others and loving ourselves. So, sister, have a seat at our table and let's walk in truth together.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chrystan Ferrell
• Release date: Jun 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393417316

Book preview

This book is dedicated to our Sisters in Christ.

These words were written with you in mind.

Every word was penned with purpose.

Sister, you are being prayed for.

God is with you as you walk in the truth of His audacious love for you.

To the people behind this book, thank you.

Thank you to the authors who fought for and poured over these words. Thank you to their families who gave them the time and space to write such incredible chapters.

Thank you to Jill who poured over these words for hours and days and listened to hundreds of Voxes and still encouraged me. You are a treasure.

Thank you to Hope*Writers, without you this book would never have happened.

Thank you to Brian Dixon, God planted this seed through you and look what happened!

Thank you to my brothers at Fuller Creative. You have done so much work for me over the years, I owe you endless chocolate chip cookies and then some.

Thank you to my friends who allowed me to fall off the face of the Earth to complete this project and yet still remained in my life so steadfast in their love for me.

Thank you to my Imperfectly Brave team who are endless supporters of all that I do.

Thank you to my family, you never stop cheering for me and being proud of me. For that, I am forever grateful.

Thank you to Whitney, Andrea, and Emily- my ride or dies. Literally, I would die without you and I’m never dramatic.

Thank you to the Bible Study Brigade that faithfully meets me every week around the 8-foot table in my henden. Our sisterhood means the world to me.

Thank you to my boys Tanner, Cohen, Dylan and Cole you make me proud and I hope this book honors the time it took away from our adventures. I can’t wait for our summer together!

Thank you to my family at PC, you let be away and cheered for me every day while this project was being completed.

Thank you, Courtney, for letting me mom you, I don’t know what I would do without you.

Thank you to my husband Adam for being my biggest cheerleader in this. It’s been a hard year but you have remained so steadfast in your faith and your love for me. I love you, now let’s go on vacation!

God, this book is yours. Do with it what you will. May it glorify and honor you alone. Thank you for letting me play a role in the work you are doing in your daughters. It’s been a wild ride, but over all of it, I’d rather have you.     - Chrystan

Sister, Have A Seat

By: Chrystan Ferrell

"Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand

against the schemes of the devil."

Ephesians 6:11

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Pull up a chair at our table and let us tell you some stories. Real stories of heartache, joy, striving, doing hard things, and not being enough. We want to share these true stories because our culture tells you untrue things. It tosses out slogans and phrases and mindsets that God doesn’t want you to hear because these words are lies. In our time together, we will be reminding you that God is the hero of every story. Let’s spend time together weeding out popular falsehoods so we can replace them with God’s truth.

It’s time to walk in truth. Not your truth. Not some famous person’s truth. God’s truth. Each chapter of this book is written by a sister in Christ who has gone before you. She is going to walk you through a truth about who you are as a daughter of the most high King, God Himself. Because the watered-down theology of today has taken away the joy that comes from walking in God’s truth each and everyday, we want to show you how to thrive in knowing the truth.

So, take a seat dear friend and have a listen as your sisters in Christ lead us into battle. The battle we fight involves beating back the tide of untruth bombarding us so we can hear and apply God's truth for ourselves.

In the beginning, my battle started with having an open Bible on the table, not knowing where to start, not knowing why to start. I don’t know anything about anything, I thought. My mind constantly questioned and wondered about the Bible, I think I need to read this book, the Bible. I know it’s important, but why? How? When? In terms of biblical knowledge, I was in the middle: not a brand-new believer, but not a biblical scholar either. I knew enough, but only knowing enough seemed to make it even more confusing. People were saying things about God and His desires for me that sounded like they were from the Bible, but they also sounded like things I wanted to hear. Kind of like a commercial for Jesus.

Words like God wants you to be happy, You deserve it, You are worth it, and You are enough, sounded nice, but were they biblical truth? So many nice statements like these were hung on walls in homes, but maybe they weren’t written to be put on walls like that. Maybe they were written as a warning for God’s people to make His truth more important than what anyone else said.

Maybe the God I knew was not the God of the Bible at all.

All of these thoughts paralyzed me from actually getting into God’s Word and knowing God’s truth. But I also wasn’t sure I wanted to bet my life on all these maybes.

So I began to seriously study God’s Word, to know what God really said, meant, and felt. I was done with popular slogans and Jesus Lite. I wanted the truth. God’s truth.

As I study God’s Word and live in our culture, I’ve discovered today’s pop-culture Christianity not only confuses the world, it also confuses us as believers. We were never meant to blend in. We were never meant to be a people who looked like and sounded like everyone else. Yet here we are, in this time, looking and acting just like the world.

We are a generation of lukewarm Christians and God’s Word has a lot to say about that.  A lot. Sister, it’s time you and I stepped up out of the shadows and let God call us up into something greater.

It is time to walk in truth.

The truth comes solely from the Word of God. The tricky part is, somewhere along the way we decided the Word of God was boring and for another time. We began to paraphrase God’s Word to make it go down sweeter and easier. Like when you chase bad-tasting medicine with something sweet.

The God of the Bible is not the God we prefer. We prefer only the parts of God that make us feel better about who we are and where we want to go. We tell God where we want to go in our lives, marriages, businesses, ministry, and relationships. We want God to take what we have and bless it, not mess with it.

Sister, I say we because we are a we, a sisterhood. The authors of this book are in this with you. We are cheering for you, praying for you, and going before you. We see a generation of Christ-followers slipping into the shadows of conformity and like-mindedness with the world, and we will no longer step aside. The gospel and the good news that Jesus saves is too important to cast aside for the sake of acceptance. We have decided to rise up and say, Not on our watch. Not these women. We are going to battle with you in the name of the gospel.

The authors of this book believe that the Bible is for us today. We believe that the only way to Heaven is through the lifesaving blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died on a cross for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). Through His life, death, and resurrection, we have eternal life (John 14:6). We believe that gospel living is the only way to live. And the only way to know how to live the gospel life is to get in God’s Word. We believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, meaning that the Bible has no errors and is the complete truth (2 Timothy 3:16-17). We believe that God penned the Bible through authors He inspired. We believe God’s Word, the Bible, is for yesterday, today and tomorrow. We believe it is our call as Christian women to know the Word of God and apply it to our lives. What, sister, do you believe?

The chapters are like letters sent to you from the battlefield. We are, in fact, in a battle together. We write these letters to you to encourage you to fight the good fight, to train yourself in truth, and to put on the full armor of God. The armor of God is not actual, physical armor, though that would be a fun fashion trend to start. The armor of God is a representation of the tools we need to live life on this planet today and every day after. God’s Word says,

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Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the cosmic powers of this darkness against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything to take your stand. Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit- which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:10-17

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The belt of truth.

The breastplate of righteousness.

The shoes of the gospel of peace.

The shield of faith.

The helmet of salvation.

The sword of the Spirit.

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This is the armor you gain from God’s Word, from His truth alone. It’s not physical armor, but it protects you better than tangible armor. It actually protects the most important parts of you, your heart, mind, and actions. Knowing God’s truth for you and your life will not only help you navigate your everyday life, but it also guards you from temptation. So how does reading words on a page written so long ago protect you today? I’m so glad you asked.

Scripture Protects Your Mind

My mind often plays tricks on me. It tries to tell me things that aren’t actually happening. For example, have you ever called someone you love multiple times and not been able to get ahold of them? When I can’t get ahold of my people I start to hit the panic button immediately.  I text, message, FaceTime and use all the emergency emojis, but still there’s no response. My mind starts to wander off into the what if’s. Then, just like my mom does, I begin bracing myself for the worst. At this point I’ve already started planning the funeral because my person, is for sure dead only to find out the phone died on the way home and all is well.

Here’s the deal about your mind: without the right information, it begins to think for itself. Your mind naturally takes your past experiences and starts to project inaccurate outcomes for the future based on partial truths. If you put false beliefs in your mind, your brain can only pull from lies and untruth.

For example, the pop-culture idea of You are enough is actually false. You are not enough. It is impossible for you to be enough on your own. Yet, you hear all these voices saying that you are enough. You know deep down this isn’t true, but you scramble and strive to do everything you can to be enough. But when you put God’s Word in your mind, God’s truth guides you into right action. It becomes the boss so when your mind reads, You are enough, your brain replaces the lie with the truth that Jesus says, With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). So, where your default mind would think, I need to be enough, a mind on Scripture says, My God is enough!

Scripture Protects Your Heart

I have a thorn in my side. This is the Christian-ese (what I’ve coined as the language of Christians today) way to say I have a sin I chronically struggle with. I won’t fully dive into my sin struggle, but I will tell you that it originates from my heart. Jeremiah 17:9 says: The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it? Contrary to popular belief, the heart actually does lie, and it lies often.

On any given day, my heart tells me I’m lonely or sad. These emotions travel up to my brain and my brain wants to fix that emotion. My heart and mind work overtime to fix the emotional issue of loneliness. My mind asks, Who can I call? What can I eat? Where can I go to make this better? Immediately, all neurons begin firing, Red alert. Red alert! Chrystan is lonely! This message leads me to reach out to someone to fill my loneliness or to an unhealthy coping mechanism that I picked up in my 30s.

My heart lies to me. It tells me I need things I don’t need because my heart thinks it’s job is to address and act on my emotions. When I know God’s Word, I can combat these feelings in a healthier way. When the heart panics because I’m lonely, my mind has God’s Word in it so my mind tells my heart to simmer down. I get with God because God’s Word says: I cry to you Lord; I say, ‘You are my shelter, my portion in the land of the living.’ (Psalm 142:5). So instead of trying to fill my heart void with something or someone that shouldn’t be there, I call on God, Who protects my heart from sin.

Your heart needs guidance too. The heart has been lying to all of us since the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:6). Getting in God’s Word and knowing it for yourself helps you to retrain your heart to beat to God’s rhythm. Never perfectly, but at least in the same song book.

Scripture Protects Your Actions

Being a mom of four boys has truly tested all the parts of myself. Those boys can fill me to overflowing with love, but in one snap of the finger, they can raise my blood pressure to dangerous levels. Mornings before school are particularly testing. Surely I’m not the only one?

It seems like mornings are mostly always lovely until the last five minutes before we have to be at the bus stop. Because