by Jeanni Shepherd | Apr 29, 2022 | Rise & Rise Again
“I’m not who you think I am.” It was a surprise to hear this in prayer as I’ve spent much of my adult life seeking to know God. Graduate school, life’s school, personal study, and experience all have led me to conclusions hard-won and proved in the quest to know God...
by Jeanni Shepherd | Apr 26, 2022 | Rise & Rise Again
From the beginning, Peter was all in. Jesus said to leave everything, and he did. From early on, Peter said what he thought, when he thought it, and how he thought it. And the “it” was usually his opinion about how things should go. Jesus did not hesitate to set him...
by Jeanni Shepherd | Apr 22, 2022 | Rise & Rise Again
“Are we next?” Sitting behind a locked door (which in actuality would not keep anyone out), conversation paused each time someone passed by the door. Emotions, too weighty for words, sat heavily in the room. What was going on? The women say Jesus has risen from the...
by Jeanni Shepherd | Apr 19, 2022 | Rise & Rise Again
When Jesus came to Mary in the garden after his resurrection, it’s hard for me to understand why she didn’t recognize him. She had been around him, knew his form, his smell, his humor, his passion…and despite all that, she didn’t recognize him until he spoke her name....
by Jillian Shepherd | Apr 15, 2022 | Rise & Rise Again
No matter how often it happened, Simon could never get used to the heavy cloud of blood, sweat, and body odor that wafted up from the men carrying their crosses. He wasn’t even supposed to be there that day, walking home from the market when the morbid procession had...
by Jeanni Shepherd | Apr 12, 2022 | Rise & Rise Again
He just took it. The misuse of power…the calculated baiting…the mockery. When they tried to trick him into a self-damning confession, he said nothing. When the system of justice proved once and for all to be broken irrevocably, he let them take him. When Peter saved...
