Forged By Faith

Romans 1:16 NIV To be ashamed of the gift which absolves our shame is the kind of nonsensical contradiction that only a broken mind can conceive. Yet each time that we agree to cower in fear because of our awareness of how our limitations have brought about our immense guilt, we avoid the very One who came to tell us that we've not the power to write this story. And if we haven't the power to write this story, then our mistakes also lack that authority, which is a truth that's being radically forgotten amongst us today. Because so often we give our mistakes the authority to keep us living apart from the healing we need because our pride is embarrassed to admit that we need His help. That's one of the words used to describe shame. It's an embarrassment. It's a kind of humiliation that seeks to go so far as to instill doubt in anything other than what the guilty know they deserve. Shame tells us that we're so far gone from where we should have stayed that ther...

Job 8:9 NIV Much of life is so often given over to this exhaustive pretense aimed at making ourselves seem something we are not, because we’re afraid to admit all that we are not. It’s fear like that that does funny things to a person. For some, it inspires them to lie, to avoid the truth in this perceived effort of being able to somehow outrun it and therefore overcome its inevitability. For others, they hide and spend their time seeking a dimmer corner in which to do so in order to avoid that which speaks to their inadequacy. But for all of us, fear causes us to pretend that our limitations are not as hindering as they are. Because we can't bear the reality that reminds that we're in no way enough to survive on our own. So we set out in selfish search of all these stories that paint us the heroes and saviors who are endowed with enough might and merit and magnificence to withstand whatever volley may be launched our way. We make sure that we're always portrayed either in ...

2 Corinthians 4:7 NIV While to know the true fragility of our existence sparks fear in the hearts and minds of most, just beyond the cross we come face to face with an impossible opportunity to actually be exactly what the world needs to see in order to see Him. Sadly, we’ve been taught to see our weaknesses as evidence of a gross insufficiency that’s left us unable to ever matter. We’re told that our flaws prove us incapable of making a difference, of being of enough worth to be seen or of even ever being considered worthy of being heard. No, we’re so used to discounting ourselves, discounting one another because of the imperfections we see that we can’t see that it’s those cracks through which God shines brightest. And so we instinctually hide the very things that are the best evidence of all He is and all He’s done. All because we’ve allowed ourselves to become convinced that this world has the authority to determine worth from what it feels to be worthless. But there's somethin...

Romans 11:33 NIV There's such a unique beauty to be endlessly found within this impossible opportunity to sound the depths of what's truly a bottomless ocean of wisdom and mercy and benevolence and wrath and divinity and the purest truth there is. Taking any time whatever to consider the furthest reaches that our minds can contemplate in regard to this faith leaves one simply speechless. What is there to say about that which we can't possibly know on this side of life? What words can we use to try and convey the impossibilities of that which no eye has seen nor ear caught whisper of before? How can we possibly undertake a walk that leads us off of and away from all we've ever known? It's truly, as we discussed yesterday, entirely beyond us. We cannot contain the wisdom of God. We can't paint a portrait which captures His likeness. Humanity simply has not the ability to completely understand the entirety of His divine quality. It's too much, too big, too diff...

Ecclesiastes 7:23 NIV The sheer impossibility of our ability to adhere to this path is both incredibly daunting and unimaginably inspiring. It's safe to say that as I've sat down to write out a disheveled attempt to understand God's holiness every single day for over eight years, I've studied more than some and still less than many. And as a chronic over-thinker, I've thought more than most, and again, still less than some. What I continue to find each and every day as I try to gather my frenzied thoughts into a coherent idea that hopefully manages to make sense is that it's beyond me. All of it. It's all just beyond me. It's beyond all of us. And sadly, I think that's one of the main reasons that such a large swath of humanity avoids the narrowness of this winding road. We're very much creatures of comfort, of habit, and well, what's more habitually comforting than that which we already understand or can readily figure out? What is more appe...

2 Timothy 1:7 NIV For such a gift to go unnoticed and therefore lie dormant is to manifest a disconnect between the image in which we were made and who we become. There exists inside each of us a war. It's a battle between what we know to be right and what we know to be easy. As our time has been spent watching and listening and learning from a fallen world falling further, we've grown to place a higher worth upon that which is simple and comfortable and profitable from a popularity point of perception. And so that that we know to be right is left mostly unconsidered as it's considered inconsequential and inconvenient to the cravings this culture has taught us to desire. And so we war within ourselves, half seeking hope the other only pleasure. A long time ago I heard what was explained to me as the Native American version of this story. Now whether or not that's the case, I'm not sure as we all know that history and its legends have a tendency to be inflated and sk...

Psalm 72:20 NIV An entire lifetime gone with yet an eternity still waiting. For those who claim that the Bible is just another book, could you please explain to me how it is that a person can read through it cover to cover multiple times and still manage to find new lessons, new corrections, new inspirations that hit them in ways not felt before. Could you explain to me how it seems to apply to the unique differences found within our frame of mind brought about by the variance of different days? Could you explain to me how it still seems applicable to a people living in world entirely different from when it was written? No, God's Word is very much alive and active and He is speaking to us through it. So if it seems we're missing the message, maybe it's our eyes, our ears, our hearts, our minds that are dead and dormant and not the Word He breathed. Among all of His book, the book of Psalms is one of those that has always seemed to stand out among the most widely appreciated...