Forged By Faith

Psalm 16:8 NIV Distractions. Confusion. Gullibility. Peer pressure. Acceptance. So many things in life pull us away from God. And the more we're focused on all these other things the more off balance we're going to feel. It really only makes sense. When you're bouncing from one thing to another all the time, it's going to be nearly impossible to find any kind of peace or solidity in life. Thankfully, we actually have a voice in what occupies our focus and attention. I've found it really strange the past week or so, but I've really felt this pull in my life. I've felt God pulling me to go deeper into faith. I've felt this need to turn my focus away from most of the things going on around me and give Him everything I can. I'm becoming less and less interested in the way the world is going, and more interested in setting my mind on things above. This year has brought about so much uncertainty and so much change. And all of that upheaval has left all of

Isaiah 5:20 NIV Okay, wasn't going to go here but it's been on my mind for a couple of days. The Bible is extremely serious about certain things, and it's not all sunshine and happiness all the time. Sin is sin and there is no arguing or debating it. So I guess buckle up and enjoy this ride to truth town! The other day I was working on my Bible post and I was trying to find a background picture as I always do. So I just typed in "pride" because that's what the verse and post were about. I guess I've disconnected just enough from the world around me that I forgot that the word "pride" has been I dare say highjacked. Long story short, my quick search for a picture took a very wrong turn that I didn't see coming. The more I press into this faith, the more I find myself in shock at how our world has chosen to embrace sin. It's even celebrated. Now I'm not calling anyone out. That is not my place. I don't have any right to judge anyone

1 John 1:9 NIV Been talking about pride a bit, and well, it's just one of those things that we need to let go. TobyMac posted one of his little posts this morning and it's honestly one of my favorites yet. "The trees are about to show us how lovely it is to let things go." And that's had me thinking about all the things that I've managed to let go and walk away from over the years. Letting go can be one of the very best choices we ever make! This verse is along that same kind of idea. When we let go of our sins, our mistakes, our weaknesses and failures, then and only then can we experience the beauty of freedom. Only when we open up and lay everything out before God can He move in and get to work on making us better. Why hold on to something bad when you can let it go and move on? We all have things that we've held on to long enough. We all have things that we can let go. And I know that our pride or shame can get in the way. Pride tells us that we'r

Hosea 13:6 NIV Finished up Hosea last night and this one really stuck with me. Yesterday we talked a bit about pride and how nobody has any room to be arrogant in life. We're all too far from perfect to start acting like we've got our acts together. I honestly think that this one is one of those messages and lessons that really hits home for all of us. It's amazing how fast we can take God's provision and spin in it such a way that we think we've managed to play a part. He provides everything that we need every single day. Now that's a truly amazing thing because we simply don't deserve any of it! However, it can be a bad thing when we've gotten everything we need and start thinking that we're the ones that have made it happen. When life's going good and our paths are all smooth and calm it's easy to start thinking that we must be doing something right. It's easy to think that we have it all under control. And that right there is where pr

Ephesians 2:9 NIV Yesterday's post was about how we cannot possibly earn God's love or forgiveness. Let's be honest here, we're all WAY too screwed up to ever come close! Thankfully, it's not about what we deserve. It's not about what we can offer. And it's not even about what we can do. It's all about the mercy and grace that God has for us broken and twisted little heathens. This verse right here helps us see that no amount of trying to be perfect will ever matter. Don't get me wrong, trying to do better does matter. Trying to be better people does matter. Working every single day to make better choices and grow closer to Him does and always will matter. Please don't think I'm saying that we shouldn't bother trying to work on ourselves and improve our walk. I'm just saying that when we inevitably aren't close to perfect, it's still okay. Even when we fall seriously short of doing what's right, His mercy is unchanged. Eve

Hosea 6:6 NIV We're all so used to thinking that we have to do everything by the book in order to earn something in life. We've been told so many times that if we check all the boxes and dot all the i's then we'll be able to earn what we're hoping to find. And I think that same idea has managed to creep into our faith as well. As a result it's so easy to get lost in the requirements that we think we need to meet. But the fact is that God isn't looking for us to check all the right boxes. He doesn't expect us to do everything absolutely perfect all the time. He knows that we're prone to making mistakes and messing things up to the point that we need a miracle to find our way out. So to think that we can manage to earn His love or acceptance is only creating this impossible hurdle for us to climb over. Faith is about more than our church attendance record. It's about more than our ability to memorize Scripture. It's bigger than making sure we s

Isaiah 26:3 NIV Life can leave us feeling like we're at the mercy of our circumstances. We all face so many things, make so many mistakes, and get distracted in so many ways. Following the ways of those around us only leads us to confusion and disappointment. Thankfully, there is another choice. There is another path. And friends, it leads to this peace that transcends everything we will ever face in life. Here's the secret. I'm gonna let you in on it. I'll break it down super easy and make it completely clear. God first! That's it. Put God first and keep Him there no matter what! We have to stop focusing on all these other things before God. We have to put Him first if we ever hope to find peace. That is honestly just the way that it is. If we're busy with all this other stuff then how could we possibly think we're going to find peace? So many are trying to figure out how to fit in, how to be happy, how to stay comfortable, how to get rich, how to make othe

Lamentations 3:26 NIV Seeing as how I'm a very laidback and simple person, I often find myself looking at the world around me and just not understanding how or why people make things so hard on themselves. Personally, I try to make my life as simple and uncomplicated as I can. And, for me at least, getting all worried and stressed out all the time only prevents me from doing that. I guess I don't really understand the way that our world has made stress and worry a couple of our biggest hobbies. I know that I've been talking about this for a day or two now, but there's just no point in getting ourselves all worked up over things that we don't know. We don't know what's going to happen from one day to the next so I really don't see the point in fretting about what the future may hold. Guys, God's got this. That seems to be a point that I like to share rather frequently, but it's the absolute truth. He will always take care of us. Look, He calls us

Matthew 6:34 NIV Been thinking a lot about how much we tend to worry about things in life. We sit around and dread what tomorrow may bring. Eventually we can turn this beautiful journey into a trip through a haunted house with various terrors around every corner. So today I wanted to encourage everyone to slow down and start living a little more in the here and now. We miss so many incredible things because our focus is on what comes next. Whether it's our goals that we're working toward or the inevitable changes that we dread coming, there is always something on our minds that keep us from enjoying the simple moments in between. And that really is a shame. Life isn't the big moments. Life's what happens in between them! So while we're living in the future and trying to stay one step ahead, we're missing out on the life that we've been given now. We're so worried about the next day, the next week, or five years down the line that we skip this day that we

Proverbs 21:30 NIV It's all going to be okay. Actually, it's going to be even better than that! So often we judge outcomes by what we can see. We try to figure out what's going to happen based on our own imaginations. And boy do we cook up some wild ideas! But the fact is that God is and will always be in control. So it doesn't really matter what we face or what we think of it. Look, nothing can change what God has planned. It's going to be what it's going to be. No amount of griping, figuring, planning, debating, or fighting will make any difference. His plans are His plans, and the best part is that His plans are always for the best. So considering that nothing can change His perfect plans, I think it's safe to say we have nothing to worry about! That definitely doesn't stop us though. We have a bad habit of imagining the worst and getting ourselves all worked up over nothing. Doesn't make much sense considering nothing we've ever worried about

Philippians 3:20 NIV Freedom. We talked in our last post about the true and lasting kind of freedom that is found in our Lord. Every single one of us have lived life apart from Him so that we could fit this place better. And we all know what living like that has gotten us. Nothing but shame and regret, and well, those things suck! They definitely don't leave us feeling very free. Thankfully there is freedom like we talked about yesterday. To me there's not many more powerful thoughts than the message of this verse. The fact that this isn't our home is another one of those seriously freeing thoughts that can't help but change things. It allows us to move past the barriers that society has set up to force everyone to blend in and do as we're told. It gives us the courage to leave the concerns about fitting in behind. And it lets us completely forget all the worries that come from worldly things. I love knowing that this globe isn't the final destination. How could

2 Corinthians 3:17 NIV What consumes your mind controls your life. I've been talking quite a lot about making God and our relationships with Him our main priority in life. The things that we run after consume us. The things that we prioritize consume us. So it's up to us to be absolutely positive that what we're chasing is making us better. And if it ain't, maybe we need to turn around back toward something that will. If we're chasing after the things this world offers then all of our time and attention will be poured into obtaining that stuff. The problem is that even once we get it, whatever 'it' may be, we won't find the fulfillment that we thought 'it' would bring. We'll only be pacified for a moment before we're off on the next thing that might do the trick. But never once will we actually find anything worth having. All that happens is that we become slaves to the world. It's sold as this freedom to do, say, think, and have anyt

Matthew 6:33 NIV This is why we need to focus on running toward Christ and not away from something else. He will always take care of us. He will always walk with us no matter where we go or what we face. He will always fulfill His incredible promises for us. He will always put us first, so we just don't have to anymore. To me, that sounds like a kind of freedom that isn't like anything else. You know, I'm tired of trying to build my little cardboard kingdom. I'm tired of trying to figure everything out and retain some semblance of control in life. I'm tired of working so hard yet failing so often to understand life and all that happens in it. I'm tired of focusing so much on what I want and getting my way. I'm tired of that feeling of crushing back to earth when things inevitably don't go the way I want them to go. Mostly I'm tired of living only for me. For such a long time I've truly felt that there's something far bigger than my measly lit

Isaiah 55:6 NIV I heard this idea earlier this morning, and it's one of those that instantly just changed things. Running away from something only works for a little while. Running toward something will keep us going forever. To me that just speaks volumes to so many different things in life, but it fits our faith as well. So I figured if it hit me that hard then maybe it could be something someone else could use too. Personally, I've actually noticed this in my own walk lately without really even thinking about it. When I first started down the road of faith I was trying to run away from the miserable feeling that sin gives you. I was trying to find a way to get away from the shame and regret of my past choices. And it worked, but with as much as we all mess up, it can be easy to just see faith as a way to run away from our mistakes. Running away from our messes doesn't really help us fix them. It leaves the underlying issues unresolved, and therefore always there to pop b

Psalm 119:37 NIV There comes a time in everyone's life where we have to stop and ask ourselves what we want. We have to look at the direction that we're going. We need to evaluate the choices that we're making. And we need to ask ourselves if that's good enough. Are the things we're doing and the choices we're making going to lead us to the peace that we're looking for? If not, time to make some changes! I know it's another one of those hard conversations to have and a very eye-opening thing to think about, but it has to be done. The fact is that we're surrounded by worthless things that we're sadly prone to become interested in. Our world is fascinated with things that add no value or meaning to life. But people tell us that they're important or valuable and so we just buy that lie and dive in ourselves. Having so many distractions just doesn't mix well with our extremely short attention spans. You see, the Bible tells us over and over a

Proverbs 4:18 NIV Yesterday I shared one of life's painful little lessons that I've learned recently. And as we talked about, our own stubbornness is one of our biggest hurdles to overcome in our walk with Christ. It's this stumbling block that only keeps tripping us up because it leads us to keeping our focus and trust in ourselves. That's exactly why I said we need to learn to listen more and think less. Christ is continually calling us to something better. He is always pulling us out of the darkness of our own mistakes and weaknesses into His light. And as we keep humbling ourselves more and more, we're going to find that life gets more and more beautiful. That's what happens when we leave the darkness behind and finally submit to His path for us. It leads us to something amazing that only gets better every single day. As we've discussed in several posts before, faith is a journey. It's not this overnight quick-fix kind of thing. It's a lifelong t

Proverbs 29:1 NIV Surely you've heard the phrase 'check yourself before you wreck yourself'. Well today I wrecked myself. My upper back has been giving me fits all week, and I thought that I had managed to get it back in, but I found out this afternoon that I was wrong. About 30 minutes into my shoulder workout I discovered I had made things much, much worse. But alas, there's always a lesson to share! Stubbornness is one of those things that I think we all deal with in different ways. One of mine is when it comes to working out apparently. I love it, feel miserable when I miss a workout, and obviously rush things when I should maybe take a day off. So today I learned that my own stubbornness to try to workout anyway led me straight to a bigger predicament than before. How often does that happen to us? We get something in our heads, and no matter what, we're going to do it. We can get so hard-headed that we will run ourselves headlong into a brick wall if we've

James 4:1 NIV All the madness we see going on in the world around us starts with the madness inside each person. Each of us is fighting this constant battle between good and evil, right and wrong. Every single day we're given countless opportunities to make that choice. And the side we pick determines whether light or darkness wins that day in our life. That struggle will always be there, but that doesn't mean that it always needs be hard. In fact, the more we choose to do what is right, the easier that choice becomes. It reminds me of this Native American story. I'm sure you've heard it, but if not, I got you! There is a battle of two wolves inside each of us. One wolf is evil–it represents anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, lies, inferiority and ego. The other wolf is good–it represents joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy and truth. The wolf that wins is the one you feed. The more we feed into the good inside of us, the bigger and stronger it becomes.

1 Peter 4:1 NIV There is a purpose for everything! Most of the time it's incredible hard to see because it's hidden behind things like pain, sadness, and regret. It can be seriously hard to understand why we go through the things that we face in life. But when we truly believe that there's a purpose for it, then it makes us want to keep pushing through it to see what it's leading toward. This right here is one of those verses that just fires you up and gets the adrenaline pumping. Christ endured something that we'll never experience. He took all of the pain and punishment that our sins had earned. He faced that horror because He knew there was a reason. He did it all because He knew that it would lead to change, repentance, and the gift of a life free from sin. He took all of that for you and me because He loves us too much to leave us lost and broken in a life of darkness. If He was willing to do all of that to show us how special and valuable we are, then we can s

Philippians 4:19 NIV Another day of not feeling too great, and another amazing band that managed to push me to get after it anyway. Today newsboys just kept it coming! Their song Way Beyond Myself (link below) has this line that's been stuck since I heard it: "We've forgotten how to inspire those who fall to rise again." That's one of the most sadly accurate things I've ever heard. Time to change it! We've become so busy building our own little kingdoms, carving out our perfect little lives that we've forgotten that there are so many people still lost and hurting around us. I think we've gone so far into this social media existence that we just assume everyone is just fine because that's all we see. We see these picture perfect lives and think that's the whole story. But no matter how great someone can be at painting a smile on their face, it doesn't change the fact that they're crying out for help under it all. That's where yo

Job 8:12-13 NIV Yesterday we talked about the gap that sin creates between us and God. Sin leads us away from Him by offering all kinds of great sounding promises. But it always leads to the same barren wasteland of misery, regret, and disappointment. The longer we live there, in that place separated from our Father, the more hope we're going to start losing. As long as we buy those lies that sin tells us, we think we've got it all. We tell ourselves that it's as good as it gets. After all, sin convinces us that we're free to do anything our minds can think of. But no matter what, there's no outrunning the truth. There's no hiding from the fact that sin is slowly destroying us and killing any hope of a better life. And once that hope starts fading, we can easily stop trying and start dying. As this verse points out, those who forget God and give up on trying to grow closer to Him fade away. They lose that uplifting feeling of hope. They lose the willingness to t

1 John 3:6 NIV One of the first things I remember learning back in 2018 when I started working out was this quote: "You can't outwork a junk diet." When I first started, I was still eating like a grown up toddler. Nothing but junk, and as much of it as I could grab. But then one day I realized I had just worked out for over an hour only to follow it up with sitting on the couch eating a bag of chips. And it dawned on my that if I kept that up, I would never get anywhere. So I left it behind. All that junk that I once loved. Don't eat any or drink any of it anymore. Gone. And what's amazing is that I don't miss it. I've tried some of that stuff I used to live off of a time or two over the past couple years and I can't stand it. Tastes horrible, and I now realize that it is truly horrible for me. I know it will keep me from improving, and that's no longer acceptable to me. Guys, the same thing goes for sin. If we keep allowing sin to enter our lives

Job 5:1 NIV I really want to encourage everyone to keep Christ on the throne in your life. It's that time in our society where we're all gearing up to see who's going to be running our country for the next several years. To be honest, not feeling it. Never been interested in politics, think it's mostly just this distraction that's pretty much fueled by lies and greed. Not the kind of thing that interests me. But I've found myself heading even further in that direction of disconnect here lately. I just can't bring myself to spend any time putting any faith in some rich person who says all this stuff and never backs any of it up. From what I have seen, things aren't looking all that great when it comes to the options we have to choose from to run our country. Thankfully, it doesn't really matter. No matter who gets voted into office, Christ is still on the throne. No matter who holds any worldly title, Jesus is and always will be King of Kings. That

James 1:12 NIV "The same boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg. It's about what you're made of, not the circumstances." My mom shared that one with me last night and you know how I love my little inspirational quotes! As I've talked about in plenty of posts before, the things we face in life don't have the right to dictate our peace or joy. Stop letting them! The trials that we face in life are what they are, and there's no changing it. The only thing we get to control is how we respond to them. And how we respond says the most about what we have inside. Our reactions to the hand that we get dealt tells the world everything it needs to know about who we are. If we respond to uncomfortable or unfortunate situations with anger or frustration, then we're showing that we have a lot of negativity deep down. We're showing that the pain, darkness, or doubt is only boiling over and exploding outward. Sadly, that's what we see for the mo

Isaiah 43:18 NIV Been talking about forgetting the past and moving on to bigger and better things. Folks, we know what's behind us. We've lived every second of it. We have the memories, wear the scars, and could share the stories. Been there, done that. All that. So why live it again? Why sit around and go over things that have already happened when there's literally nothing to do about it now? The future ahead of us is completely wide open. No limits. We don't know what God has in store for us, but we have every reason to trust Him. There's just something about the hope that His promises give us that makes me not want to miss any of what He has up ahead. To me, there's just no point in reliving something that's already been lived when there are so many new things happening around us. This really hit me today. This morning was basically a nonstop nightmare. So much thinking, figuring, searching, and trying to get things lined out only to get nowhere. And I r

Philippians 3:13 NIV Yesterday was one of those humbling posts that I've just felt the need to share with you all. I really don't know anything, and as strange as it sounds, I'm cool with that. That why I wanted to share yesterday's post. We can't allow ourselves to get to the point where we think we know it all. We have far too much to learn, far too much to fix. Sliding into this mindset where we're good enough only keeps us from being even better! I'm personally excited to learn from the best Teacher we could ever hope to have. Learning, change, and growth are all things that I've always enjoyed. So to think that this faith gives us the chance to forget all the messed up mistakes we've made and learn a better way of life is incredible! I mean who doesn't want to leave their broken pasts behind and head into the hopeful glory of God's will? Here's one of the biggest problems though, the forgetting part. I don't know about you, but I

1 Corinthians 3:18 NIV Ok, so this one has been on my mind all night, and it's managed to stay there until now. I want to clear something up about these daily Bible verse posts. I don't know anything. I've thought about that fact off and on since I started this thing well over five years ago. I've often worried that some of these posts may come across like I know everything there is to know about different things, and that will never be the case. I wanted to just throw this out there for everyone who reads them, or those who may have gotten the wrong impression along the way. I definitely don't know everything. I'm just a jacked up sinner like you. We're all in this life-long journey of unlearning all the lessons this world has taught us and learning God's way of doing things. We're in the process of becoming fools in the world's opinion so that we can chase after God. I think that's really the whole point of this walk of faith that we're

2 Corinthians 7:10 NIV There's a massive difference between being sorry and truly repenting. We've all felt sorry for doing or saying things. But just feeling bad isn't enough when it comes to sin. Making mistakes is part of our story, but it shouldn't ever be that final chapter. We can't accept sin in our lives. We need to want better and find the determination inside of us to do something about it. Yesterday we talked about change and how we can do absolutely anything when we're following Christ to being the better people He created us to be. That's the whole point, He made us for better than a life enslaved to sin. He created us for more than being controlled by the wicked ways of our broken humanity. So that feeling you get whenever you do something wrong, that's His Spirit reminding us that we're better than that. That feeling, that deep, gut-wrenching feeling of knowing that you screwed up is one of the most humbling and usually miserable feeli

Philippians 4:13 NIV Change is hard. Sometimes it seems impossible. We get used to living our lives the way we live them, doing the things we've always done. And we think about how massive of a challenge it would be to literally learn to think, act, speak, and live differently. But if we keep thinking about how hard it might be or how long it could take, we will never actually get to getting as my parents used to say. The fact is that yes, change is truly hard. It takes more than we have to give sometimes. It requires this kind of strength that we can't imagine that we have. It takes commitment to seeing it through, and considering how we change our minds more often than we change our socks, commitment isn't a strength we have. And that's all before we even start making the changes and putting in the work. Then we start questioning if it's worth it. Before you know it, we've taken something truly difficult and turned it into something that we see no way of doing