Forged By Faith

Psalm 119:18 NIV Open hearts and open minds open doors. They make possible things like growth, improvement, healing, understanding, wisdom, and mercy. You know, all the amazing things that basically became afterthoughts as we followed lies and deception toward a life filled with misery and shame and guilt. We've missed out on so many things thinking that we were on the road to some amazing life filled with every dream and goal and plan and pursuit that would bring us nothing but joy and excitement. We were just certain that there was some prize that existed within a life of sinful freedom and self-indulgence. Yet, what have we really found? I can't speak for anyone else, but I'll freely admit that all the sinful choices I've made only won me a mountain of shame to try and find some way to climb over but that only ever seemed to feel crushing. All I ever found wandering the well-trod paths of this world is closed eyes, a closed mind, and a very hardened heart. You see, t...

Psalm 139:24 NIV I think we can all be honest with ourselves, not that we necessarily want to be honest with ourselves, but it is a choice that's well within our realm of possibility. In all honesty, sanctification is not a process that many if any of us would choose to undergo. If we had it our way, we'd all stay happy and cozy and content in our lives of filth because we're not all that big on things like change or effort or self-control. We would all choose the lazy and complacent path if left to our own devices. And actually, many do choose that path through life and they lavish in all of its deluded and foolish lies that tell them they're enjoying this most perfect version of freedom, that they've found the secret to a successful life in being able to do as they please, and that not really facing any consequences is proof that their choice is right. In fact, so many choose that road of selfish delusion that it makes anyone who goes the opposite way seem absolut...

Proverbs 3:5 NIV Lean not on your own understanding. That right there is easily one of it not the biggest challenges in our faith. Completely letting go of this extremely powerful lie that we've bought for so long that has us convinced that we know everything, and that we can handle everything, and that all we'll ever need is ourselves and our strength and our ability and our intellect because those will always be enough to get us where we want to be because they've always been enough to get where we've been. But don't we see the foolishness in that? Is where we've been all that great? Is what we've accomplished on our own really anything to brag about? Have we ever actually accomplished anything all on our own without a hint of outside assistance or a shred of what most might call ‘luck’? Have we ever really managed to find our own way to this ideal life that we've always wanted, the life that we thought would bring us all the happiness and joy and sati...

Lamentations 3:26 NIV Patience is arguably one of the hardest virtues for us humans. We live in this drive-thru, microwave, smartphone world where we can get whatever we're looking for and do whatever we're trying to do almost immediately. We can hop on Google and find the answer to any question we may be pondering. We can turn on the TV and be suddenly overwhelmed with all the mind-numbing entertainment our consuming selves could possibly desire. We can find countless ways to make life quicker, and we love it! We're so used to having everything in an instant that if something takes a little time, we simply start assuming that it's not worth it. Why wait for something when we can probably find something relatively similar that we can have a lot faster? We've simply gotten it in our minds that "time is money", and we all know how badly enslaved this world is to money, so our time is seen in basically the same light. We can't waste it. We can't sit a...

Psalm 119:82 NIV Our hearts long for an oasis in this desert where we can find a moment's relief from the sun beating down on our dry and weary bones and maybe even find a drop to quench our parched mouths. Sounds like a rather poetic depiction of life down here in this land of the lost. That's really been something that's been on my mind for a while now. The correlation between faith and the desert. I just think that we've managed to get the wrong idea of how this is all meant to go. One of our biggest problems when it comes to faith is that our minds get in our way. We allow ourselves to sit around and daydream of these perfect outcomes and lavish ideals where we never suffer from want or need. We plan these perfect lives that always go our way and are completely free from struggle and strife. And yet, we're still stuck in this reality where we're handed new trials and temptations and turmoil every single day. Eventually we get to this point where our ideals c...

Luke 14:33 NIV The problem with this version of religion that so many are selling is that it carries with it the assumption that God will immediately drop us right at the destination. We're led to believe that if we say a single prayer a single time that as soon as we open our eyes our lives are changed in every way we wanted them to change. It's this kind of fast-food drive-thru faith that is the reason that we're starting to see so many fall away from a true Christian faith and instead give into doubt and apostasy. When we've built up this idea that faith makes us immune to struggle or strife or fear or challenge or worry or confusion then when any of those things inevitably come into our lives, we're left to assume that our faith has failed. We’re looking for any reason, any excuse to run back to our cozy little hideouts in the pit of sinful shame that we’re used to calling home. So if we’ve built our faith on this idea that it makes everything easy and perfect, ...

Hebrews 13:14 NIV Enduring. I think that's one word that much of humanity has all but forgotten about. These days people are chasing the temporary thinking that the journey to obtain it will last forever. We've all decided to settle for things that are nothing but a vapor. And yet, we've fallen for this shortsighted lie that tells us that everything we see, everything we have, everything we want in this world will last forever. And when our minds accept that fallacy, we allow our eyes to stop looking further ahead. Yesterday we discussed the Israelites being sternly invited to leave Egypt because they'd worn out their welcome through the unleashing of God's wrath. God severed all ties to Egypt and set His people free from their lives of enslavement in a foreign land far from home. It took a while to get there, took some rather eye-opening plagues and terrifying displays of power for the Egyptians to finally let go, but that's how our God works. He will do whatev...

Psalm 105:38 NIV Why the weakness? Why so much fear? Why have we allowed this fallen world to tell us who and what we can be? Why do we allow humanity to define the limits of our faith? Why do we still fall for this foolishness that tells us that God has to fit into some box that we can fit in our minds that does nothing but limit the true power that our faith in Him brings? Why do we refuse to let ourselves see beyond the scope of what we think is possible and continue to live our lives with this almost hollow concept of who Christ really is? I was reading through a few chapters in Psalms last night and this one just really seemed to fit with everything we've been discussing lately. Our fear of mankind has caused us to water down our faith to the point that we just meet up once a week for an hour and quietly talk about it in our fancy little buildings where we're surrounded by only those who agree with us. We've forgotten those who came before us along this road following ...

Psalm 82:2 NIV Why is it that our society stands in such awe of the violent, the arrogant, the selfish, the deceptive, the famous, the powerful, the wicked? Why are we seemingly drawn to those who are literally only out for themselves? Why are we okay with allowing our hearts to idolize people who are no different than us, sinful and lost and weak? Why does wickedness continue to garner such praise and prestige in this place? Why is there this fascination with all things wrong? Because our hearts were born rebellious. Each of us have truly been born into sin and we’ve grown in a world where sin continues to flourish. And in turn, much our lives have been lived learning this understanding of how things work down here. This is all we’ve ever known. This is the only home we’ve ever had. This is the place in which we’re seemingly stuck forever, and so we’ve set our minds to finding ways to simply get by along the safest, easiest, most comfortable path possible. And when safe, easy, and com...