Forged By Faith

Matthew 5:16 NIV If you read my post yesterday, then you probably noticed that I was pretty fired up. Guess what, still there! Please go back and check it out if you didn't see it yesterday. It was a pretty long post, but it's a pretty big problem that needs our attention. Yesterday was the what. Today's the why. We have to do better as Christians. It's honestly just as simple and straightforward as that. We have to do better because there is far too much on the line. We are not here to win petty arguments or do nothing but voice our own opinions. We're here to win souls and share the truths given to us by our Lord and Savior. Now if you can't tell or aren't sure, there's a huge difference between those two. Sadly, it seems as though there are a few folks calling themselves Christians who are more worried about winning arguments and stirring the pot than doing their part to point others to Christ. So again, we have to do better. What we need to always ke...

1 Corinthians 10:24 NIV I do not like the idea of these daily posts coming across as nothing but rants. This isn't my platform. This is about our Father, His word, and trying to make a positive impact in our world. So this isn't my place or opportunity to just vent and use the Bible as an excuse to do so. Now that being said, I also feel that if something is really on my mind and has me all fired up, then it might be telling me to talk about it. I was so lit up yesterday that I ended up having to take notes so I wouldn't forget all the things I was thinking. This might be a long one, so I guess consider that your fair warning. I am absolutely ashamed of some religious folks that I've seen talking and posting on social media here lately. Could not be more disappointed and just confused at where we've gone wrong in our modern view of what Christianity is all about. The difference between Christianity and religion is huge in my opinion, but that's an entirely diffe...

Ephesians 1:16 NIV So I had a dream in the middle of the night last night, and although it started out pretty weird, it ended in something amazing. Now I don't dream all that often, but here lately, I've found that I've been having more dreams than normal. And I've seriously gotten some really powerful messages from them that I know I needed to hear. It's amazing how God can speak to us in so many different ways, even when we're not actively trying to listen! Anyway, I found myself up all of the sudden at 4:30 in the morning praying for an old friend of mine. And I've been thinking about it all day. God really does put some amazing people in our lives to spend bits and pieces of this journey with. He puts some around us for very short periods of time. Others hang around for a while. And a few may even be life-long friends that we get to walk with for a long time. Some He sends our way to help us in specific ways that we probably don't notice at the time....

Isaiah 59:15 NIV Another one of those verses that still holds such a powerful truth all these years later. I’ve found myself wondering a lot here lately about what God’s thinking about all that’s going on. I mean, He knows what’s going on, but what He thinks about how we’re responding to it. I can’t help but imagine that He’s beyond disappointed and even hurt with how we’re treating one another these days. Either way, it’s always safe to say that we can and should do better. We talked several weeks ago about how our world doesn’t value the truth anymore. Lies are just easier and tend to hurt less. So we’ve just taken it upon ourselves to decide that the truth doesn’t matter any longer. It’s one of those seriously sad “advancements” that we’ve made and accepted. After all why do we need the truth? Well, the truth is the only thing that helps us. It helps us grow and improve. It helps our relationships become rooted in something unbreakable. It gives us the opportunity to actually know w...

1 John 2:15 NIV I just love how God manages to get His messages through to us no matter what. Some times in life we just let ourselves get too busy. We become so wrapped up in all the things that we need to do and want to do that we forget about what really matters. It’s just so easy to buy into the priorities of this world we’re living in and completely overlook the things that matter the most. But thankfully, God always has a way of reminding us to slow down and get those priorities back in place. We woke up yesterday to find that our internet had gone out. That’s a modern day catastrophe! It’s one of those things that can shake even the toughest resolve! The horrors of having to face a day without that constant connection to the all the endless entertainment that we could possibly want. Just talking about it makes the hairs on my neck stand up! Terrifying!! Our internet’s still out, and guess what, we’re okay. We’ve survived so far and I think we’re gonna make it! But what’s been am...

Joshua 1:9 NIV We’ve been talking about some of the truths about who God says we are and the promises that can be found in Him. Getting my walk in this morning and cranking some Britt Nicole , and one of her songs talks about this idea. As usual, I’ll drop a link at the bottom, can’t go wrong with Britt Nicole! But God is always there. Not just to listen to our prayers or refer to when talking to others. It’s more than just a figure of speech. He is always right beside us! We all face so many different things in life. It’s always changing, always handing us something new that we need to deal with. All the trials, all the uncertainty, all the confusion. Life can be a very hard thing to face, and we have to face it Day after day. At some point, it can all seriously become overwhelming. And most of us have gotten a little too reliant on that quit word. It just seems easier some days. But what we often fail to understand is that God’s working in our lives through every single situation tha...

Isaiah 53:6 NIV Saw this amazing little gem last night and thought it would make for another pretty uplifting post. I've been on this little kick of sharing some amazing truths about who God says we are and what He thinks about us. This one right here is definitely up there with one of the most amazing gifts possible. And it's one that every single one of us are given! We've all messed up. A lot! We've all gotten far more things wrong than we've ever gotten right. It's just a simple fact that nobody can argue or avoid. We can't get out of the truth that we've all sinned and fallen short of Christ's example. But that's only one chapter in the story of our lives. And it's not the final one! Unfortunately, our past mistakes are so often used to keep us down and convince us that we're something that we're not. As I've been sharing the past couple of posts, who cares what this world thinks about us? Who cares if some other person says ...

1 Peter 2:9 NIV How about another little moral booster? Yesterday I talked about how often the world lies to us in order to convince us that we're never going to matter. It wants to keep us beaten down and hiding because the darkness around us doesn't want the truth to come out. When that truth comes out, things change! That truth is that you're not worthless. You're not stupid, or broken, or unworthy. You're not a piece of trash as you may have been treated in the past. In fact, you're royalty! Yep, you read that right! We are God's kids, and seeing as how He is the ultimate King, then we're a part of His royal family. Redeemed through Christ's sacrifice, we're all rejoined to our Sovereign Lord. I get it though, we've made mistakes. We all have issues and struggles that we're still dealing with. That's always going to be the case. But here's the thing, those facts don't tell the whole story. They never have and never will. T...

Psalm 109:3-4 NIV Another shoulder workout, another song that just really hit me hard. Simon by the amazing band Lifehouse is just one of those songs that is absolutely beautiful. It's got this powerful truth that I know nearly everyone can connect with. As usual, I'll drop a link at the bottom for you to head over and check it out. You won't be disappointed! Anyway, yesterday I posed the question, "Why is it so hard to simply be nice?" So many times in so many situations, our world's the exact opposite. There are so many broken people who're lost in their own miserable lives. And rather to addressing the problems and mistakes that have led them there, they turn their attention to others. They fixate on pulling others down to their level by whatever means necessary. Well, I'm feeling this kind of kindness mission kicking off inside. Tired of seeing so much anger and hatred around us. So I think I'll kick off a little campaign of love and compassio...

Romans 12:9 NIV Gotta be honest, it's all getting to me man! Most days I can do a pretty good job of ignoring it. Others I find myself just amazed by it. I've spent more time than I probably should have trying to understand it. But no amount of time or energy or focus can ever help me figure out what's so stinking hard about just being nice to one another. Don't get it! Seriously, why is it so hard? Why is it so rare? Why have we come up with all these other things that we've decided are more important than kindness? I completely understand that our world couldn't care less about what's right. It doesn't care about what's good. Decent, moral, genuine, honest, all things that have fallen from popularity in this place. I also understand that there's likely not a day coming when all those good things become the norm again. But still, if we can put so much time and energy into fighting over petty things, couldn't we spare some to find ways to be ...

Isaiah 42:7 NIV Talked a little bit yesterday about selfishness. It's easy to get consumed with what we want in life and from those around us. But as I kindly tried to remind everyone, life's not about us. Just one of those little stinging truths that is so easy to forget. We're here for more than looking after our own interests and desires. We're here for a LOT more than that. We just can't afford to ignore it anymore. It's about time that we start reaching beyond the limits of our own lives and helping God touch the lives of those who are still lost out there. Reading through Isaiah for several days now, and this is one that stuck with me from a couple nights ago. God's talking about His plans to use His people for good. Quite a bit of the book talks about God fulfilling His plans, and how He is going to use others to get the job done. I think we forget that we each have a chance to be a part of God's amazing plans. Maybe we think we're just too we...

Philippians 2:4 NIV Been talking quite a bit about how our selfishness can quickly lead us in the wrong direction. Truth is that anything that takes our focus and attention off of God and His plans for us is only going to mess us up. I've had this one on my mind for probably near a month. And since I haven't been able to forget it, I reckon that's a pretty good sign that I need to share it. I can say with all honesty that this is an idea that I'd never once considered up until very recently. Within the past couple of months I've found myself having a crush. I know as a 32 year guy, that might sound kind of goofy, but I'm cool with that. It's been a pretty exciting and relatively new thing for me. I haven't really had a crush in a very long time, so it's been different. That's a whole other post though! But that's where this one is coming from. For so long I've thought about and considered what I would like to find in someone else. I think...

Proverbs 19:2 NIV In yesterday's post I talked about how it wasn't God who had moved, but it was us. The fact is that we haven't only moved away from His side and His plans, but we've ran as fast in the other direction as possible. We've all looked around at all this shiny worldly stuff and just become fascinated by it all. We've bought the lie that we need it in order to be happy and find peace in life. So we've ran away from God to chase after far more selfish things. Sadly, we've gotten it in our minds that we know what we want, what we need. And while that's definitely not the truth, who wants to sit around and think that we're wrong? Nobody wants to entertain the idea that we've taken a wrong turn in life, let alone followed that wrong road for far too long. We just keep our eyes fixed on all these things that we just know will make us happy once we finally catch them. Truth is my friends that the road to the happiness and peace that we...

Isaiah 42:20 NIV This is another one that really stuck out to me the other night, and think it goes pretty well with what we've been discussing. There's so much junk that this world is trying to pass off as important or valuable. Seems like there's always something new to see, something new to try. There's always some new and exciting way to sin that the world is just overcome with. But no matter what, we need to realize that it's just a well made distraction. While we're all focused on this world and all the messed up stuff that it offers, we don't even realize that we're being led away from our Father and the things that actually do matter. And when we inevitably end up lost in the mess, then anger and confusion set in. We start wondering where God went. Where is this Father who's supposed to be control and have all these amazing plans for us? He didn't move, we did. We're the ones that took off following the broken roads of this world. We...

Isaiah 42:8 NIV Had three verses stick with me last night during my reading, gotta love when so many things grab you that you have to make notes! We talked yesterday about how all of this worldly stuff that so many are focused on is nothing but a distraction from what really matters. It's all just a bunch of man-made nonsense that keeps our attention on things that have no value whatsoever. The thing that we need to always, and I mean ALWAYS, remember is that the Lord is God. He is the only God. He is the only Father. He is the only Creator. He is the only Savior. He is everything. Nothing else can ever lay claim to any of His titles, and nothing can ever deserve the honor and praise that He is due. So all of this other stuff is only there to trip us up and get our priorities all out of whack. We need to always remember this because it shows just how wrong it is to bow down and worship anything else. As I said, God is the only one that truly deserves our praise and worship. All the...

Isaiah 41:29 NIV Reading through Isaiah last night and this one just jumped off the page. I find it amazing how you can be reading through the Word and come across things that you've never noticed before. I guess it just goes to show that God opens our eyes to different things at different times. He really does know what we need to hear and when we need to hear it. This passage was talking about all the idols that the people were following back then. Well, guess what, we're still following all kinds of things nowadays that simply don't matter. We've all been convinced that so many different things are important. Our world places so much value and importance on things that mean nothing. And so many people are so worried about fitting in that they just go with it and end up getting lost in the flood themselves. I'll try to make this as clear as possible: worldly things don't matter. Four words, makes sense to me, hopefully it gets the point across. All of these th...

1 Corinthians 3:16 NIV The world we live in really likes to try to define us. It wants to group us up into these weird little groups. It's always ready to point out our flaws and our differences. It'll do whatever it can to make us believe that we're defined by something that it can control. Because then, it can better control us. But the truth is that we're defined by God's love and nothing less. We're often told that our mistakes tell the world who we are. They're always held against us so that we're always sure to remember that we're not perfect. Thing is that we already know that. We know we're not perfect. And even more, we know that our mistakes don't tell the full story. They only tell us who we're not, and they help refine who we're made to be. We also hear that we're defined by what we have. If you have a bunch of fancy stuff, then you must be important. If you have a nice sounding title at work, then you're successfu...

1 Peter 2:9 NIV Oh how easily we forget who we really are! yesterday we talked about this amazing fact that none of us have anything to offer God, and how He still chooses to love us anyway. You know, He sees us differently than this world does. He looks at us and sees His kids. He sees the people that He sent Christ to die for. He sees the amazing things that He planned for us to accomplish in His name. Safe to say that He sees more in us than we even see in ourselves. The world around us is really bad about pointing out the worst in people. So many people only look for flaws in others. They're so focused on making sure people know they're not perfect because it makes it easier for them to not feel so bad. A lot of people would just as soon pull others down than to work on improving their own lives. I guess they just think it's easier that way. But you know what all that heartlessness gets us? A whole lot of hurt. People have been told that they're not good enough for ...

Romans 5:8 NIV I was in the middle of getting back on track with my workouts after just feeling off for a couple of weeks, and I had something hit me out of the blue. We have nothing to offer God. We have nothing that He needs because He has no needs. All of us are far too imperfect and weak to be able to think we could earn His love and grace. We simply have nothing to offer Him. There's this amazing humility in that. There's this incredible sense of thankfulness and appreciation. Knowing that I can't offer God anything, yet He still loves me. He still loves all of us. Even though we're as broken and lost as we often are, He still loves us. I guess it's just mind-blowing to think that all of our past mistakes, all of our flaws, all of the things that we lack have never disqualified us from His salvation. In fact, He came for us. He chose us while we were still at our worst! He looked down from Heaven, saw all us messed up people, and chose to come help us find a be...

Isaiah 36:16 NIV Read this one last night and I was just amazed by how this kind of thing is still going on. So many things and people in this world tell us that they have exactly what we're looking for. Sin promises that if we just follow it then it will lead us to everything we could ever want. It promises fun and excitement. It tells us about all the satisfaction that we'll feel. But no matter what lies it tells us, it just can't fulfill the promises that it offers. That's the scary power of lies. Their only purpose is to keep us held back. They keep us relying on them because eventually we'll get to the point where we're scared of the truth. We can become so used to following and believing lies that we may not even realize that we're being led astray anymore. We just keep allowing ourselves to believe that all the great things that sin has promises are right around the corner. But they aren't. They're not right around the corner. We're not ge...