Forged By Faith

Matthew 5:17 NIV Another one of those verses that just stops you in your tracks. Or at least that's what it did to me. Don't know how many times I went back and re-read this one last night. I think there's this misconception about the Law, God's commandments, and the freedom that we have in Christ. As we talked about yesterday, we manage to twist things around to mean what we want them to mean. But that doesn't mean that we've actually changed the truth. We want freedom from responsibility. Freedom to do anything we want. Freedom to see salvation as a get-out-of-jail free card. But that's not what it is. It isn't some safety net that we should rely on to catch all of our mistakes and make them all disappear. So it's no wonder that you hear some talking about how Christ is the end of the Law. Or perhaps you'll hear them quote Romans 6:14 saying that we're no longer under the Law but under grace. Whatever the spin, it doesn't work. This ver

Zechariah 7:13 NIV Yesterday we discussed how we cannot serve two masters. Yet so many seem to be trying. They want the world to like them, yet they want to follow Christ at the same time. They want to experience peace and fulfillment both in this life and in the next. They want to appeal to the world, yet we're carrying a message that the world doesn't want to hear. So I left yesterday's post asking who or what you intended to serve with the knowledge that we can only have one master. I've wondered for quite some time why so few seem willing to serve or even believe in Christ. Why does the God of love, mercy, and salvation that I've chosen to follow and have faith in seem to be so unappealing to our world? But when I read this verse a few days ago, something clicked. Our world doesn't know how to think clearly. People, as we talked about yesterday, want it all their way. We want our will to be done. We want what we want, how we want it, and when we want it. And

Matthew 6:24a NIV There seems to be this idea in some religious groups that has them believing that they can be like this world and yet still follow Christ. Don't have any idea how that is possibly supposed to work. I understand the appeal. I can grasp the theory. I realize that there's this idea that making the church more appealing to the masses will increase attendance and therefore, hopefully, introduce more people to Jesus. Problem is that trying to make the Gospel more world-friendly undermines the entire point. We can't try to serve two masters. But yet, that's exactly what seems to be going on all around us both within the church and in society as a whole. We've been talking for a couple of days about how Christ is our only hope as He is the only name by which any of us can be saved. He is the way, the truth, and the life for all who claim to be Christians. But is that the message that we're conveying when we allow this world to articulate how we share t

Acts 4:12 NIV No other name. Not your pastor. Not your best friend. Not some saint that other people invoke in prayer. Not another deity that some group believes in. Not our ancestors. Not our future generations. Not ourselves. No other name but Jesus. He is our only hope at eternal peace because He's the only one that took our place and bore our sins and granted us an open door to a salvation that nobody else can offer. We talked yesterday about the vast difference between what faith is meant to be and what religion has become. Sadly, much of what's offered today is focused far too much on us. It's trying to make us comfortable so that we don't feel pressured to change too much. It's tweaked to make us not feel so bad about being the sinful folks that we are. Modern religion has taken all the focus off of the cross and put it on us and our almighty feelings. The problem is that this isn't about us or what we want or what makes us feel good. We shouldn't fee

Colossians 2:8 NIV I had a gentleman send me a message yesterday and it goes pretty well with what we talked about in yesterday’s post. There's a vast difference between truth and deception. But unfortunately, our world has done everything it can to blur that line and make it difficult to know when we've crossed it. Sadly, our world has taken the idea of faith and turned it into something that it was never meant to be. And in doing so, many have been led in the wrong direction thinking they we're doing something right. That's the danger in religion. It's built to make us think we're doing right. It's designed to make us feel like we're heading in the right direction and making positive changes in our lives. But sadly, the religions that our world has created are based on so many things that it can be nearly impossible to find Christ in any of it. And that's where it's all gone off the rails. I understand that rules and procedures help keep everyt

John 8:32 NIV Yesterday I shared how this journey of faith completely changes everything. It opens our eyes to things that we'd never noticed before. It confronts lies that we've long believed were true. It forces us to humbly admit that we don't know everything, and that in fact, much of what we do know is wrong. God's truth and our growth in the understanding of it will lead to a way of life that we never imagined before. It opens the door to this freedom that our world can only pretend to offer. That's what trips so many people up. This place sells this version of freedom that seems perfect. Freedom to do whatever you want. Freedom from consequences. Freedom from responsibility. Freedom to focus on yourself. Freedom to use and abuse others if it makes you feel better. Freedom to live and behave like life is all about you and what you want. That kind of thing is custom made to appeal to each of us. The world we're in tells us that it has everything we could ev

Ecclesiastes 1:18 NIV Today marks 7 years of sharing these posts. I never imagined that I would manage to keep it going this long. But I can't begin to describe how thankful I am to be on this daily journey through God's word. I've learned more than I ever thought I needed to learn. I've grown in ways that I didn't realize I needed to grow. And I've found this relentless desire to learn more, to grow more, and to do whatever I can to help encourage, inspire, and improve the world around us. As I've learned and found myself thinking more and more about God's word and the scope of our faith, this verse has become one that resonates more loudly with each passing day and each new post. You've probably noticed that these posts usually tend to point out something wrong in our world. I don't consider myself a negative person by any means. In fact, I like to think I'm quite the opposite. I try to see the best in life, hope for the best to come, and n

Proverbs 18:2 NIV There are just those verses that need no explanation. This is one of them. It's something that we see constantly anymore. Yesterday we talked about how everyone is just angry and hateful. Seems like almost everyone only exists to argue. Now to me, that seems like a really sad and really hollow existence. But it's something that each person must decide for themselves. How do we choose to spend our time on this earth? Do we want to live to prove ourselves? Do we feel this unshakable desire to be validated in life? Do we chase the approval and acceptance of the world around us, regardless of what it may cost us? Do we find some great appeal in the praise of this world? Are we willing to spend our time fighting some seriously petty fights that will mean nothing in the end so long as it makes us feel important, powerful, or special for a while? Sadly, that seems to be enough for quite a few out there. Always talking but never listening. Always jumping to conclusion

2 Timothy 2:23 NIV Looking back, I'm not sure how it happened. Not sure when it happened or even why it has happened at all. But at some point, for some reason, our society adopted this fascination with fighting and arguing amongst ourselves. Constantly. It's to the point that you basically can't get on social media without coming across some kind of argument. And just avoid comment sections as they're nothing but a platform for the most vile, most hurtful, most pointless and pathetic discourse there is. Everything has become an argument. You can't even share your feelings on something without someone else chiming in and telling you how they disagree and why you're wrong. You can't make a friendly comment on someone's post without someone else going back at you or pointing out something that they don't like or don't agree with. We've allowed ourselves to descend into this world of foolishness that just can't possibly lead to anything good

John 15:24 NIV Everyone seems to be on this mission to prove that they're right. In recent years, it's just like everything has become an argument. You can't have an opinion that differs from popular thought. You can't share how you feel about some polarizing topic without being lambasted with vile rhetoric. And you better not even consider speaking the truth unless you just enjoy being beaten and bashed by a mob of comfort-seeking foes. This society that has been built around us thrives on an illusion of power and control. People love thinking they get to dictate and decide what's right, what's wrong, what's important, what's worthless, and most of all, what's true. But in order to do all of that, they have to ignore the truth that's already been founded. They have to overturn the law that stands against their illusion of grandeur. People want to think they're better and more powerful than they are, so they try to steal power from whatever m

Proverbs 16:5 NIV Been on this little string of posts talking about things we're trying to do in this world that simply don't work like we think they do. Trying to change God's word to fit what we want it to mean. Trying to update Christianity so it better adheres to our modern ideals. Trying to limit God and faith into something that we can understand, and dare I say, even control. But no matter what we try, it's just not going to work if it goes against God's will. But this world seems to love trying anyway. We seem to enjoy this arrogant mindset that has us believing that we're the ones who call the shots. Our society thrives on control, even though it's only an illusion. Power, pride, vanity, greed, ego, and selfishness drive so much of what so many do and are the foundations of how our world works anymore. But what we apparently fail to see or choose to overlook is yet another bone-headed attempt that will ultimately end in failure: We're trying to

Matthew 24:35 NIV Yesterday we talked about how we often try to limit God into something that we can understand. But that's not the only issue that we're causing when it comes to our faith these days. One of the most dangerous things, in my opinion at least, that is starting to happen is that it really seems like the church is trying way too hard to modernize and keep up with what the rest of the world is doing. We're changing the unchangeable. I talked about this not too long ago, but even in the days and weeks since then, I've seen even more of this stuff going on. The world has seemingly infiltrated the church, when it's the church that should be going out into the world. This new progressive form of Christianity is nothing but an effort to make the Gospel fit our current world, and that's simply not a game we should be playing. The Gospel doesn't need to be updated. Doesn't need to be changed. Doesn't need to be modernized in order to better fit

Amos 4:13 NIV It's a strange thing to try and comprehend. We live in a world bound by limits. Now, we don't always like to admit that, but that doesn't change anything. We only know how to think within certain confines. Our minds are bound by what we believe is possible. And often time what we believe is possible is also limited by what we've seen ourselves or others accomplish. So, everything we think, everything we do is limited in one way or another. But then there's our faith. That's where things start getting a little different. Suddenly we're presented with this concept that is truly limitless. But still, our human minds and these limited lives we've always known can keep us from fully understanding, or even trying to understand what our faith can be. Our human limits hold us back from fully understanding who God is and what He is capable of doing. You hear a lot of talking about how God heals, saves, forgives. There are so many buzz words in our f

Luke 5:31 NIV All of this talk about sins and mistakes and taking responsibility for our choices has left me thinking. I'll be the first to admit that I've gotten a lot wrong in life. Made a bunch of really bad choices. But as I've been thinking back on some of them, I had a really weird thought cross my mind. While I have my regrets, I wouldn't change very much of it. I wish I had started trying to do better a long time ago. But looking back now, I can see the lessons that I've learned. And I know that they've made me stronger. We often look back at our lives and see all those mistakes we've made and feel this sense of guilt and shame. Nobody likes messing up. Nobody finds pride in making mistakes. As we discussed yesterday, our mistakes have made us feel the need to hide out in the shadows so that our weaknesses and errors aren't known to those around us. We don't want anyone to know that we're not perfect. We don't even want to admit to ou

Proverbs 10:9 NIV The problem with lies and believing in them is that we become convinced that it's okay. We slowly lose sight of the truth and just keep sinking deeper and deeper into this dark existence that makes us think all of our sins and mistakes are hidden. We buy this idea that we can do whatever we want without it being known. And that quickly leads us to start believing that there's no consequences. After all, nobody knows what we're doing, right? We've all fallen for that way of thinking to differing degrees. Maybe we came to realize the foolishness in it pretty quickly. Maybe we're still not able to accept that we've been wrong for longer than we care to admit. Whatever the case, the underlying fact remains the same. There's no hiding from God. There's no concealing our actions. There's nothing that we've done that He hasn't seen. Scary, isn't it? There's this innate fear in that truth that can easily keep us focused on t

1 John 1:10 NIV For a couple of days now we've been discussing the importance of telling others the truth. It's what we're called to do. It's what we should want to do. It's what we should want others to do for us. But it seems like lying has always and will always be the most common path. It seems like so many people just prefer the comfort of lies, and if you fall into that line of thinking then maybe you just assume that everyone else prefers that false sense of comfort as well. But then something hit me this morning. What if telling other people the truth is so rare because we're not even telling ourselves the truth? What if we've settled for the false comfort of a life full of lies? What if we've drifted so far away from the truth that we don't even realize the truth isn't in us? Maybe, just maybe, the underlying issue, as often the case, starts with us. I know that we like to hear that we're doing good enough. We like to think that we&#

Proverbs 26:28 NIV We've been taught to think that hurting someone's feelings is the worst thing that we could do. So many things are considered hurtful and offensive anymore that it's almost impossible to navigate through the chaos of it all. The world has us scared to speak the truth because the truth is considered hurtful. And if it hurts someone's feelings then it simply can't be loving, can it? Well, at least that's how our society has grown to see things. It's gotten to the point that most people would rather be lied to because it just doesn't hurt. Lies don't carry the same weight as the truth does. Lies can be manipulated in order to mean whatever we want them to mean. Lies can be constructed to seem kind-hearted and loving on the surface. Lies allow us to continue living in this delusion where everything is perfectly fine, nobody makes any mistakes, and there are no problems that need to be addressed. No room for improvement. Complacency has