Forged By Faith

Amos 8:11 NIV The emptiness There’s a coming day upon which we’ll all of us finally understand fully the version of God’s justice that is to be defined as just in the upmost. For to be just is to be well founded, something thus justifiable as it's built upon a foundation that is well poured and seated solidly upon whatever it is that has elsewise been chosen as the footing upon which the building might begin. But to be just is too defined as that which is considered to be understandably deserved and thus too appropriate given the particular circumstances or situations within which whatever decisions are finally determined. In other words, there’s a violently simple version of justice that is retained by God that is defined by God who is a God who is just. Because as He is the very Author and Maker of all life on earth, even making the earth upon which all of life is, for now at least, this thus means that whatever else He determines to do is too something which is done that He just...

2 Timothy 4:3 NIV Death by algorithm Can you imagine having that written on what is that coming certificate which is given unto all of us and records the time we’ve left this earth and even how we managed to leave at what is then the very end of our every life as has been lived by and for and through and to so many different ideas and directions and decisions and divisions and destructions? Each of them combining unto the telling of what is the final page of the story we’d given an entire lifetime to living. All of them to be contained within something that seems only to say that the way we left is the way we’d lived. Or that barely at all. For though it quite crushing to consider, the reality is that this time has come. And it’s come in such a measured approach that we didn’t see it coming. We didn’t feel life shifting. We didn’t notice any of the minuteness to any of this. It came, oddly enough, as if a thief in the night. A vagabond sneaking unto the stealing of life as we once knew...

1 John 4:6 NIV But to listen Contrary to current convention, the reality is that to listen demands an intention of attention be given unto whatever the hearer determines is worth more than just hearing. For there’s in truth a great and growing difference between the ability to hear and the act of listening. One is something all of us can do, to a given degree of course considering the existence of such varied abilities regarding hearing impairment and deafness being real realities for some. But even they desire not only to hear some things but to in fact listen sometimes. And that’s because the other is a done by a brother, a sister, a mother who determines it’s worth their effort given unto the going deeper into appreciation for whatever another is saying. A difference of direction, decision, determination, devotion even that defines the line that separates those who we can help because they will both hear but, once that willing, will in fact go that extra mile and actually pay attent...

1 John 4:5 NIV To be heard It’s one of the most obvious goals should someone ever find they’ve something to say. For after all, what else are we to do with our thoughts, our beliefs, our ideals and the hopes they seek? Are we just supposed to keep them all unto ourselves and bask there in the joy of them all all alone? If we do truly believe in the redemptive, constructive, productive and elsewise beneficial backdrop that is our every highly held hope, would it not be something of a letdown to know that nobody else might ever know the hope we do? For aren’t such things as hope, joy, peace, purpose, reason even those things that all of us are here searching to find or feel? And should we truly contend that we’ve finally stumbled upon them, in the presence of any sense or semblance of humility and compassion, should we not then seek to help others come to know what we think we’ve found? This seems the entire premise of all public pursuit anymore in what is this age of our spending our da...