Forged By Faith

Jeremiah 17:5 NIV Have you ever stopped to wonder why so much gravity is being given to human opinion and preference? I know it's something that we all do as children as we enter our school age years and suddenly find ourselves thrust into a massive new world filled with a whole bunch of new people. Our natural inclination to want to make friends and find those who enjoy being around us and who we enjoy being around begins to take on a greater importance simply because we're not solitary creatures. We do well in community as in a group or class or clique we find a greater mix of abilities and strengths and knowledge upon which we can rely and lean and even utilize in order to build one another up. We look for those whom we can trust to help us as we hope they know that they can trust us to help them. We find and then foster and then further these friendships as we believe they offer us a good reward and a solid assurance of mutual edification. But as we continue growing, we fin...

John 12:43 NIV "A mob is the place where people go to take a break from their conscience." Because, when surrounded by those willing to lie and tell you only what you want to hear, it’s easier to drown out that small voice inside that keeps reminding us of the truth. In the direction that our society is clearly heading, there seems to be this apparent intrinsic and interesting appeal of a communal mindset. It offers an escape, or at least the semblance of such, from things like personal responsibility and individual courage. Gathering around oneself a horde of companions from which to glean appeasement and acceptance affords us the ability to forgo the effort required in standing for our own beliefs all on our own two feet. Instead, so long as we adopt the generalized consensus established and expected by the group in which we seek our inclusion, we're all set. Just blend in, make sure to repeat the lines just right, wear the right colors or logos or whatever other iconog...

Psalm 14:1 NIV “Thoughts and prayers mean nothing to dead kids.” Ok. Sit down. Buckle up. Brace yourselves. I got some stuff to say. Can you imagine the kind of inherent hatred that must exist within someone to share that message in the moments and hours and days immediately following a truly horrific event in which truly innocent people lost their lives? Can you imagine the kind of contempt that someone must have in their hearts to utter those words, harbor those thoughts, consider that perspective when people have just had their lives ripped apart? Can you believe that we live in a world where that kind of response is not only possible but popular? Yesterday we discussed many of the heart-wrenching questions that are asked in the wake of a tragic unfolding such as we saw the day before, and in many days prior. In the days following a moment of immense misery there's always this instinctual searching for a reasoning, an understanding, some kind of answer to try and give the pain a...

Isaiah 60:2 NIV Today the world woke up to yet another day after. Another sad moment in our nation. Another collection of lives impacted by actions done out of hatred. Another day filled with sadness and confusion. Another sorrowful realization of our current condition. Another reminder that we’re still far from where we could be, from where we should be. Another list of names who should have never had be immortalized due to truly unnecessary events. How do you even begin to understand the scenes and sadness we're seeing unfold in an ever-increasing frequency? How do we compartmentalize the sorrow and the anger and the endless questions as to why things such as what happened yesterday continue to happen? How do we make things better in a world that seems to only be growing worse? Why is the world only growing worse? The answers to all of these incredibly heavy questions are not easily found sometimes. They're difficult to contemplate, these questions of immense weight, as they ...

Matthew 5:14 NIV Cannot be hidden. That's one of the undeniable truths about a light. It cannot be hidden. Cannot be ignored. Cannot be disproven or denied. This fact is most easily and yet perfectly evidenced in this simple experiment of reality: Go into a darkened room, completely pitch black, and light a match. The light from that tiny match overcomes all that darkness that had consumed that room prior to its being lit. A light cannot be hidden, no matter the darkness around it. How is it then that the darkness of this world is seeming to overpower, overrun and overwhelm the light we're called to share? How is it that we can so easily find or name or determine those who refuse to shine for Him even though they bear the Name and hold the positions and speak from the pulpits? How is it that the line between darkness and light is being so blurred so drastically and so frequently? It's because a weak and distracted faith is a faith powerless to invoke the courage needed to i...

1 Peter 5:8 NIV Your enemy. Our enemy. Our opponent. Nemesis. Challenger. Adversary. In a war, you simply must be able to recognize the enemy that you’re fighting. But in this world, in this age, in this time where opinions and feelings are held in higher esteem than the truth that saves, determining the enemy has become entirely problematic, and in some cases, even entirely avoided. Even by those who bear the Name and therefore the responsibility of sharing said truth. Sadly, an utterly tragic reality is found in this fact that some within the church can seemingly manage to pretend as if there is no enemy. There are many who continue to downplay the significance of sin to the point that the world is convinced it’s harmless if not nonexistent. These messages being shared in this modern man-centered meology have allowed for the furthered corruption of the hearts and souls of those already lost. And it’s even corrupting those souls who claim to be in Christ. How is this the case? Well, i...

Ezekiel 3:18 NIV It's a weird thing to find yourself living within a world of woes. What do I mean by a world of woes? "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." What is woe? Woe is defined as a great sorrow or distress. Woe is misery, anguish, despair, depression, dejection, heartache, heartbreak, hopelessness. Woe is the status quo in this world in which we now walk. Woe is what we see unfolding within the unraveling. Woe is what's being praised by many people in most places. Woe is the realization that we are in a place that both couldn't be further from God but that also cannot seem to get far enough from God. We're in this world so filled with foolishness and folly that our fellow humans can no longer distinguish between right and wrong. It's like for a while there, it seemed as if we had a chance, a choice, an opportunity to pick our path. But of l...