Forged By Faith

Psalm 95:8 NIV We have a really long history of putting God to the test. And well, that has an equally long history of really not going well. There just seems to be something about our incessant arrogance and its corresponding sense of entitlement that has always seemed to seriously rub Him the wrong way. It might have something to do with the fact that He’s always provided everything we’ve ever truly needed and our demanding more just has us coming off as entirely ungrateful instead of humbly appreciative. Don’t know, I’m just spit-balling. Why is it that we’ve yet to learn that all we’re really doing by putting God to the test is setting ourselves up for failure? Have we actually ‘advanced’ so far that we truly can’t see just how far behind we are? The fact is that He owes us nothing, never did. All that He’s done has been done simply to show us who He is, not as a response to who we think we are. That's the ultimate danger to be found down a road followed under the impression th

Isaiah 45:7 NIV For a people whose lives are lived entirely at God's mercy leading us through every breath we breathe, we don't show much respect or reverence in return for His clear benevolence. Sadly, I don’t even think we care to acknowledge His benevolence anymore. Now that I said it, I don’t even think we can bring ourselves to truly even admit that He is kind to us. We’re too busy being angry and upset at how life is going against our perfectly laid plans to appreciate that this story is unfolding according to His far more perfect plans. We seem to always be caught up carrying some sort of disapproval or discontentment for the truly minor and entirely insignificant bumps along a road we didn’t have to pave by ourselves. You’d think we’d be thankful that all we’re called to do is follow. Alas, instead, it seems as though lost in the graveyard of a life we’ve misled and left behind is the gratitude that we’ve pretty much always never really had. Why is it that we spend our

Romans 8:18 NIV That every choice is a building block constructing our understanding of the very meaning of life itself seems to be an understanding entirely misunderstood by this world in which we live. Nobody seems to realize that our choices do in fact carry the ability to alter or even eliminate things like hope, trust, or yes, even faith. We can’t fathom that the things we’ve deemed unimportant and insignificant might truly be so vastly crucial that they do in fact deserve our utmost attention, appreciation and undivided effort given unto making the most out of whatever little we can control. Indeed, an impatient heart builds a mind disinterested in the future, eyes unable to see beyond the breaking, lungs that breathe the fire of frustration and a soul disconnected from the only reason we have hope to begin with. As with basically all of Scripture, this is yet another lesson we've allowed to go unlearned across our attempts to convince that we've advanced beyond what'

Hebrews 5:9 NIV When a people agree to see only humiliation in humility they become unable to understand that salvation is hidden on the other side of suffering. There's a side of the Gospel that's usually lost in our attempts to make it palatable to the world in which we live, even to the ways in which we ourselves think. It's become a somewhat half-story wherein we do as we always try and focus almost exclusively on the good, the happy, the benevolent and the beneficial. And in undertaking such an effort to stride only in the most appeasing and pleasing direction, we cast behind us the brutality which we care not to consider. Yet it's only within the sheer violence of what Christ endured that we can even begin to contemplate both the fullness of what He accomplished and the fullness of the love that would choose such a way to achieve it. What I find ironic is that our culture is one not at all disinterested in violence. Just look at the stuff we're consuming on a

Hebrews 5:8 NIV If only our eyes could see that to be saved from suffering accomplishes nothing, but to be saved through suffering allows a soul to take hold the true gravity of life. Alas, we carry minds bent to a place unable to understand the gift of longsuffering. We exist amongst a people and a mindset which tells us that pain is the ultimate enemy to be avoided as if it has no purpose or meaning or benefit. And as we grow being watered down by the misspent misunderstandings of a place that's chosen to know nothing of eternal worth, we slowly become falsely matured into a way of life unable to appreciate much if anything. And within our inability to understand the purpose of pain and how it deepens the meaning of life we find yet another barricade blocking our path to the fullness of this faith we proclaim. For several days now we've been discussing discipline and both how God uses it to refine us as well as how we've been taught to instinctually despise those attempts

Proverbs 13:24 NIV Leave it to a capsized culture to think themselves able to understand what's only understood when a heart's living right side up. Seems everything in this world is so inverted that even the very concept of intelligence has been mangled beyond belief. Everywhere you look every single day you see a new reminder of what happens in a place where we only know how to get most everything wrong. And while the reasons and excuses are many, the main issue is quite clear and entirely simple. We've exchanged the fear of God and a corresponding appreciation for His guidance (albeit wholly confrontational to our lesser settlements) for a version of nearly everything that's far more appeasing to our heartbreaking need for affirmation. That's a word you see plastered all over the place anymore, affirmation. To affirm is to assert an opinion both strongly and publicly so as to join your voice as another noise confirming or defending your support or approval of som