Forged By Faith

2 Corinthians 7:10 NIV I'm thankful for convictions. That's become a pretty well-used word around our family over the past few months. I really do believe that the Lord leads us in the right direction if we're only willing to humbly listen and follow where He says go. But unfortunately, that kind of humility takes work and a lifetime of practice. It's one of those things that we can never nail down and be good enough at doing. There's always room to be more humble. And I know that kind of thing sends many running. Our society runs on this idea that we know what's best. We enjoy the prideful arrogance that comes with thinking that we are the ones in control and can do anything we want to do simply because we want to do it. But in reality, as fun and carefree as that way of living and thinking may be, it requires us to turn off our conscience so that our realization of right and wrong doesn't get in the way of our having fun and living our best life. Here'...

James 1:3 NIV I'm thankful that life isn't easy. Sounds weird right? Well, considering our human penchant for all things simple, it is weird. But you know, I'm truly happy to consider myself a weirdo in this place. I don't want to be like the world. Been there. Done that. Ain't interested anymore. But I really am thankful that God doesn't just give us this ticket down easy street once we turn to Christ. That just wouldn't be as special. Where's the chance to grow in an easy life? Where's the opportunity to discover our limits and push beyond what we thought we were capable of doing? An easy life sounds great. In some ways it is. I mean, who doesn't like comfort? Who doesn't like the simplicity of knowing what's coming so that we can make sure we're ready? Who doesn't find peace in being able to understand everything that's going on? Who doesn’t wish the hard days away whenever they come blowing in? Those things may bring with ...

Galatians 1:10 NIV I'm thankful that we don't have to spend our lives trying to earn the praise or approval of people. This is one of my favorite verses because it reminds us what really matters, where our focus should be, and just how dangerous it is to be distracted by things that have no meaning or purpose. Worldly opinions and the chasing of human approval could not be a bigger waste of time or energy. But that doesn't mean that it's not dangerously common. It's something that all of us have done at some point. We buy into this worldly idea that we need to make people like us. We start thinking that human praise is important. We fall for things like popularity and performance as these ways to gauge our success or worth. And once we start down that slippery slope it's hard to find the traction that helps us back to our feet so that we can crawl out of it. But that's exactly what we need to do. Last night my family and I were driving down the road and this...

Philippians 3:20 NIV I'm thankful that this world is not our home. I'm thankful that this part of our journey doesn't last forever. I'm thankful that there is something better still to come. This is something that I've felt for a while now and it's only growing deeper as we move forward toward the impending unknowns that lie ahead. This is one of those posts that may sound a bit harsh at times, but being honest and truthful is the only way I know to do it. At times I wonder if I've become too cynical. I catch myself reeling toward this place of despair and despondency. Constantly surrounded by negativity, rudeness, anger, division, and our society’s growing desire to make sin seem enjoyable and acceptable just wears on you. I know that I'm not the only one that feels like that or notices the things that I'm talking about. It's not hard to see, and when you see it and when you realize how sketchy things are getting, it just makes you all the more ...

John 13:7 NIV I'm thankful for the mystery. That's exactly what much of a life of faith entails. It's the unknowns. It's the wonder about what's coming. It's the hope of a distant peace. It's the promise of an endless eternity in a place we can't fully comprehend. It's the courage to face storms we don't see on the radar as of yet. It's the thrill of knowing that this ride has only just begun. Now, for a lot of people, venturing into the unknown is anything but fun or exciting. It brings about these feelings of fear, worry, and doubt. As humans, we like things that we can understand. We like being able to see, touch, hear, and understand what's going on around us. I guess it helps us feel grounded or makes trusting and believing a little bit easier. But as comfy and cozy as the whole ‘seeing is believing’ thing may be, you ain't finding it in faith. We're never going to see what's coming. We'll never have the advantage of ...

Psalm 71:20 NIV I'm thankful for God's faithfulness. I, like everyone else, have gone through more things than I can remember. All of us have lived a life filled with trials, challenges, mountains, and valleys. We've endured days so long we thought they'd never end. We've come up against battles that we knew would be the end of our story. We've all got enough stories to fill countless books about God's deliverance and provision. But how often are we thankful for the rough spots in life? How many times have we stopped in the middle of a storm to thank God for the rain? How many prayers have we prayed telling God thank you for the tough love that inspires change and refuses to leave us comfortable? How many times have we smiled in the midst of adversity because we knew God was up to something amazing? Sadly, we usually get stuck seeing the pain, the inconvenience, the discomfort, the effort required to keep going. We get tripped up whining about how much we wi...

1 John 2:15 NIV I'm thankful for this growing divide that I've felt in my heart for quite a while now. It's this realization that this world and the things that it's doing aren't for me. Not only do I not agree with a lot of it, but I completely despise many of the things that are all of the sudden just okay in the eyes of the masses. I know I've discussed this a lot in these posts, but this world is headed in a very dangerous direction and if we don't speak up and share the truth then that means we're only a quiet part of the problem. It really has been growing and deepening in me for a long time. But the past few months I've found myself driving down the road, sitting in parking lots, walking around my apartment complex and just noticing that I don't really have a place where I fit anymore. The world has chosen the direction it wants to go. And personally, I just can't find it in me to concede and follow it. I just can't see the worth i...

James 1:5 NIV As always, I reckon it's about time for a few thankful verses to celebrate this week's upcoming holiday. I'm thankful that God doesn't look down and see us as the lost causes that we often times see ourselves as. I'm thankful that He still sees what we can become if we're only willing to lay ourselves down and let Him take over and lead the way from here. Let's just all be brutally honest with ourselves for a second: We all lack wisdom! We all make poor choices. We all say and do things without thinking them through beforehand. We all allow our emotions to dictate our actions more than we should. We all jump to conclusions and make rash decisions before we have all the facts. We all have plenty of room to learn! Sure, that's one of those things that hurts a bit to admit. But what hurts worse: Admitting that we have room to improve or spending our entire lives running away from that fact and never come close to experiencing our full potentia...

Joshua 1:9 NIV Fear, anxiety, and worry are all things that all of us have felt and experienced in life. But here's the thing about all of the above: they're only symptoms of doubt. They're only lies. They trip us up by making us focus on all the wrong things. But as commonplace as they may be, we have a choice. We have the right to stand up and refuse to allow ourselves to be distracted by the lies that are trying to confuse us. You see, fear makes us think about everything that can go wrong. We start imagining the worst possible outcomes. We lose sight of all the good that could just as easily happen. We forget about the positive things that we might stumble upon. All we can think about is failure, messing up, making the wrong choice, saying the wrong thing, and not measuring up to what we need to be in the moment. Personally, I've always dealt with nerves in so many different circumstances. Going to the dentist. Public speaking. Asking a girl out on a date. But those...

Revelation 3:19 NIV If you asked me for something that our society has gotten drastically wrong lately I would definitely say that our new definition of love would be right at the top of the list. People think that loving others means agreeing with whatever they do. They believe that in order to love someone you have to accept anything they do whether or not it's right, healthy, or helpful. And folks, that simply isn't love. That's betrayal! I think we've made complacency in our own opinions the goal. Everyone just wants to be left alone to do whatever makes them happy or brings them excitement in life. People don't want to hear the truth because the truth doesn't pull punches. They don't want to hear that they may be making mistakes because that would cause them to reconsider their choices. People aren't interested in being told they're wrong because hearing that only shakes this cozy delusion that allows them to think that there is no such thing as...

2 Corinthians 4:4 NIV It's easier for people to believe lies than to accept the truth. That's just the way that it is, and that way it will be until Christ returns and shatters the comfort that lies offer. There's this light in the truth that is uncomfortable for anyone who has skeletons that they're still trying to hide. So it's no wonder that so many choose to remain lost in the dark instead of stepping into the light and laying everything out for all to see. This is one of those verses that again has this eternal truth that applies just as much today as it did when it was written. Lies, deception, delusion, arrogance, pride, popularity, greed, you name it and our society is still serving it. All of those evil, selfish, and wicked things have been popular since a couple of folks picked an apple that they should have left alone. And that wickedness is a virus that infects the very heart of every single person. And that's hard to admit. It's hard to accept. ...

Psalm 36:2 NIV I've said a few times in recent posts that as Christians the odds are against us in this world. Read the verse above again and you will probably be able to tell why I've said that so much and why it's so true. So many people have built themselves up into these perfect specimens that have no flaws, no weaknesses, no issues, no problems. And telling them otherwise is like trying to convince a fish that it can fly. There was actually a survey done recently that asked people who was the best person they knew. 46% said themselves! Nearly half of the people in this study said that they were better than everyone around them. Friends, ego isn’t a problem. It’s a pandemic! Needless to say, our mission to share the truth of the Gospel is going to be met with a whole lot of resentment and hatred from those who have fallen for lies. As we've talked about several times before, people do not want to hear that they're wrong. That kind of thing is just about the quic...

Psalm 33:16 NIV Whether or not we want to admit it, we've all learned to place far too much faith in ourselves. That's quite possibly one of the biggest hurdles that people have to get over when it comes to this faith of ours. Learning that we're not the most important person there is. Learning that our strength, our intelligence, and our abilities have limits. And realizing that eternal peace is found only in someone else. As with many aspects of our faith, it's a very humbling truth that we all have to understand. But many in this place can't. They've gotten used to thinking that they're invincible. We're all told from a very early age that we can do anything we set our minds to doing. We're led to believe that we're the masters of our own destiny, the captains of our own ships. We get it in our minds that we can take on the world and do anything we want to do all by ourselves. And then as we grow up and get older and start taking on more respo...

2 Corinthians 5:20 NIV As Christians we have a message to share that every single person needs to hear. It's a message that will inevitably bring resentment and strife. It will cause friction as it goes against the things that our world is built upon. It will mean that we'll be hated by many because this messages is one that makes people aware of their sins and mistakes. But even if it means our death, we cannot fail to make sure people know the truth. The problem that we run into in sharing the Gospel is that people don't want to hear it. Nobody enjoys hearing that they're wrong. In fact, just look at the state of our society today. There are such expansive divides between different groups that there is very little hope of any future reconciliation. Folks are adamant that their ways and opinions and version of the truth are right and that everyone that disagrees with them is just plain wrong. And they will absolutely fight to maintain that level of complacency. So when...

1 Corinthians 9:16 NIV There's just no room for ego in our faith or the sharing of this message that has been entrusted to us. And that's yet another reason that it's so hard for many to fully accept and understand. The Gospel leads us away from everything we've ever known and everything we've lived so long thinking was important. It requires us to let go, to surrender, to trust in someone other than ourselves. And that's a hard lesson to learn for pretty much everyone. We're used to living our lives in such a way that gives us the opportunity to brag about our accomplishments. We want to be able to share these stories where we're the heroes and everything we do is a roaring success. We want to look good, to look important, to look powerful to those around us because that's what we've been told is important. That's what we've learned to think and we don't know any other way to see it. But that kind of thing just does not work with the...

Acts 20:24 NIV We talk a lot about how our faith requires selflessness and humility. That's because those two things go against everything that our world is built upon. They go against everything that so many have learned to prioritize. And that fact shows the tremendous odds that we're up against when sharing the message of the Gospel. We're here telling the world that it's wrong and that it needs to change. Not many people want to hear that kind of thing! Most just want to be left alone to do as they see fit without ever having to stop to consider the possibility that they're making mistakes. People are used to making themselves look good. They're used to living as many lies as it takes to convince others that they're happy, confident, sure, and at peace in their lives. And they will push back against the truth that they're messing up because it unravels their lies and points out the flaws in their armor. So we're caught between a rock and hard pla...

Matthew 6:1 NIV Yesterday we talked about how we're called to be the light in the darkness that surrounds us. We have to be the ones who stand up and point the way to something better than what this world has settled for. We have to be willing to be different and live differently in order to help the world see that it's Christ who gives us the strength to go against what's considered normal and provides the hope of an eternity that is better than what awaits this wicked society. But we need to always remember that we're not doing it for us. That's one thing that trips a lot of people up. It's easy to start focusing on doing right for all the wrong reasons. It's easy to start displaying our righteousness in order to be praised or held in high regard by those who see us. It's easy to make this all about us, but that will never be the point because we're not the ones who can save people. That's Christ's part. I think we can all agree that there...

Matthew 5:14 NIV There are two paths through life. One that leads us along the well-worn trail that everyone else around us is on. That one is the easiest. It's the most common, the most safe, the most comfortable. It's the one that 99% or so of people are taking. The other is far more different, more unique, more difficult, more complex, and often more solitary. Easy to see why that one isn't as worn as the first. I do a lot of watching. A lot of looking. A lot of paying attention to the world around me. Don't really know why. I guess I'm just always taking notes and trying to learn things. In all of my world-watching here lately I've noticed a very disturbing trend. I think it's actually been going on longer than I realize, and some may be too busy or too distracted to notice it at all. But it's definitely getting worse. Kindness is dying. It hasn't been a quick death, but it sure seems to be speeding up. I don't know if it's a matter of ho...

Job 33:27 NIV People used to say that honesty was the best policy. These days it seems more like they see honesty as some kind of burden that needs to be dealt with rather than the factory setting that it should be. Our world is so used to running under false pretenses and comfortable lies that some people may not even remember what it's like to just be open and honest with others. But in reality, being honest is the only thing that really helps anyone. This verse from Job from my reading last night really goes along with what we talked about yesterday. We need to strip away this facade that we've put up regarding our faith. It doesn't make us better than anyone else. It doesn't put us up on some pedestal where we can look down on those around us. If anything, our faith reminds us that we're the problem. It confirms that we're the ones who are the broken, the lost, the hurting. But anymore it's almost like people use faith and our pursuit of righteousness as...

1 John 3:18 NIV I understand that many look at our Christian faith and only see rules. They see the people who act like they're better than those around them. They see petty judgement and unnecessary arrogance. They see vanity and pride. They see haughtiness and exclusion. But if they could only see the true nature of what a Christian is supposed to be. If they could only see past this worldly version that many have chosen and curated. They could see a heart for those who are lost and hurting. They could see a people living in humble servanthood to a God of love. They could see the openness and warmth of forgiveness and grace. They could see an opportunity to be a part of something that is vastly different from the world around us. But maybe most importantly they could see an opportunity. They could see the opportunity to leave the past behind and break free from the darkness of shame and regret. That honestly should be one of biggest missions of those who claim the title Christian...