I encourage you to read Part One for the background and set-up for what follows next ~ Nancy There’s a lot more chronicled in this palace story than there is time and room to delve into here. As I stated in Part One, it was the difference a day makes – and what transpired in…
Author: Nancy Bentz
The Difference a Day Makes
Esther’s story has so often been told and re-told to the point that I’m tired of hearing the phrase ‘for such a time as this.’ Where’s the encouragement in that?! you say. Bear with me, for I know that phrase presents a necessary challenge to stand up! speak up! do something! at times we may…
Binding Up the Brokenhearted
WE live in a brokenhearted world. We LIVE in a brokenhearted world. We live IN a brokenhearted world. We live in a BROKENHEARTED world. We live in a brokenhearted WORLD. However you place the emphasis, broken hearts abound. So does the Lord’s love, mercy, and grace for healing. If it were not so we would…
A Dream in the Night
Ishshah’s Story will celebrate its 2nd birthday in just a few weeks. Reaching back to the Archives, the following post is the first one I wrote for our fledgling blog two years ago. Given recent messages the Lord has released about spiritual abuse and the enemy’s operation through hidden darkness, this archives re-post is timely. May…
Nine
It’s long been said that age is just a state of mind. If that’s accurate, then I moved to a new state at the age of nine. Though I lived in the house I grew up in from nine months old to age 19 when I married, I was nine when awareness, awkwardness, and anxiousness…
Are Women Also Sons?
While Cheryl McGrath, our blessed sister in Christ and founder of Ishshah’s Story, is enjoying the last bit of her brief sabbatical, we are pleased to offer Cheryl’s wisdom and voice once again in this second post “from the archives”. Recently someone expressed concern when I posted a scripture reference to Galatians 3:26 on the…
An Audience of One
Playing an instrument is not my forte. The only thing I learned to play growing up was the radio. As a child I wanted to study piano but money for lessons was tight. Instead, I learned to type. They’re kind of the same thing – they both have a keyboard. A number of years ago…
Acknowledging the Eldership of Women
Ishshah’s Story is pleased to feature the following archived Her History post authored by Cheryl McGrath. Away for a short break, Cheryl’s voice and heart stimulates us still through her writings. Enjoy the first of two posts to be featured while she is on a brief sabbatical. When I was both a young woman and…
Encouraging the Encourager
Have you ever been starved for encouragement? I think I see a global version of “the wave” passing across my computer screen. You too, huh? If anything, there is encouragement in the fact that none of us are alone in the need for encouragement. No man or woman is an island. We’ve all climbed that…
In the Middle of the Day
It is our pleasure here at Ishshah’s Story to welcome back author and blogger Linda Jo Reed of the U.S. The following guest post, her second contribution to the blog, offers an engaging retelling of the Samaritan woman – the woman at the well. Linda Jo’s first story, Upheld in Life Change, can be enjoyed…
Hopey-Changey Thing
One morning on my way to our office I found myself stopped in traffic at a red light. Momentarily halted in my tracks, my gaze drifted to the bumper sticker on the vehicle idling in front of me. Did you know bumper stickers can tick you off, make you laugh, pump your fist, or yell…
Settler or Pioneer: Finding Your Role, Playing it Well
Ishshah’s Story is pleased to feature a new guest contributor to the blog! Join us as we welcome Laurie in her own words: Laurie Klein, who resides in the U.S., authored the classic praise chorus “I Love You, Lord,” a newly released poetry collection, Where the Sky Opens (Cascade Books), and she blogs at lauriekleinscribe.com. Her work appears widely…
Prophetic Passports
My husband and I recently received our crisp new passports. Unfortunately, they don’t look much different from the expired ones we sent in with our paperwork. They both contain lots of blank pages. Just what you’d expect with the new ones. With the old ones? Not so much. A passport is a gateway to exotic…
Don’t Mess with My Identity
Short and stocky, he was striding through the airport looking like a thundercloud. With hands plunged deeply in the front pockets of his jeans and jaw set with a scowl, the front of his black sweatshirt broadcast the newsflash! Gender is Over Just like that, white letters on a black hoodie informed me that my being…
The Gentle Gale of God
As we enter 2016 there remains no less need or desire for discovering God in new ways. The following post is from the archives of Desert Days at Wellspring of Life; first posted there in May 2011 at the end of my second breast cancer journey and treatment year. May the Lord reveal Himself to…
Bread in the Land
Cradled babe in cattle’s buffet hay Your bed, but You the Bread for the hungry, the greedy, the underfed ‘Feed on Me,’ You did proclaim but love-starved scorn kept ones away to toil for crumbs another day To others the smell of fresh-baked Bread enticing and warm, too hard to resist gave new meaning to…
A Quiet Revolution
Feathers were getting ruffled on both sides. I realize that infers an invisible line in the sand. The dangerous thing about an invisible line is that it is like electricity. You can’t always see it but you can sure feel it when you reach out and God forbid, touch it. The females in the office…
Mothers and Daughters
In the family tree, there is no relationship quite like that of mother and daughter. As ishshahs, we are not all a mother, but we are all someone’s daughter. No two – or two million – mother-daughter relationships are alike. They cannot be nor should they try to be. But it certainly raises the question…
Surrounded by You
Surrounded by You – who could ask for more? And yet we do – why are You not enough? Hot and stifled in fires of our own making We nearly beg you to be rough. For where we’ve known no different The pain flares up irreverent – The shaking fist of anger makes You hold…
Not Quite Marilyn
“Inner beauty won’t get you free drinks.” Some of the most enlightening conversations are those engaged in by other diners sitting within earshot of your own table. On two occasions in a matter of months, this type of overheard commentary un-graced the breakfast I had just asked the Lord to bless. Sadly, both times it…
Let Me Not Forget
Ishshah’s Story is pleased to feature a guest submission from another voice new to the blog. Cindy Bishop is from Washington State, USA and is, in her words, a ‘poet, nurse, mother, grandmother, and daughter of the Most High King‘. Join us in welcoming Cindy as she shares a bit of her testimony and the…
The Personhood of Ishshah
The struggle is as ancient as the Fall: the need of woman to be viewed first and foremost as a person. The solution from a fallen world has been to classify her in roles that designate her perceived value and in functions that define her limit and scope of interactions. For the female heart that…
The Reluctant Bride
Author’s Note: The following was recently published on Wellspring of Life in a continuing series entitled Vineyard Days, featuring teaching posts from the Song of Songs and John 15 – Jesus and His church, the Bride of Christ. Until when does the day blow, and the shadows flee away? Turn, my Beloved, and be like…
Triple Crown
“I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown.” Revelation 3:11 Some days Jesus just can’t return fast enough. Though His ‘quickly’ means shortly, without delay, or by surprise (as in suddenly), aren’t there times we simply want to shout, “Surprise me already!”? When we’re circling the…
Plumb Line
“You are not going just to do a job, Nancy. The Lord is sending you as a plumb line into that workplace.” Such was the matter of fact response of a dear friend at church when I shared with her the good news of being hired into what I considered my ‘plum’ job. She –…
