Forged By Faith

Deuteronomy 12:8 NIV Assuming safety or necessity in the status quo will only keep us from making the changes He deserves in light of what He’s done to open that door for us to be more than we’ve been. Because it's hard if not altogether impossible to hold this line we’ve been called to hold when everyone around us is living a life spent trying to blur it so badly that nobody knows for what they stand anymore, as that outlook may eventually become our own. That’s the danger in going through life looking for input from those clearly not trying all that hard themselves. Indeed, we live in this place where everything goes, where everyone’s free to go and do whatever they want wherever they wish. No limits, no concerns, no considerations, no consequences. Just this great big free-for-all that’s all anyone could ever ask for in life. And so we look around at the world and all the things people are doing or saying and we find ourselves slowly becoming desensitized to it. Overtime things ...

Ephesians 2:3 NIV On this eve of the day in which many will delve into a deeper than normal measure of devilry and darkness, I've a scary story to set the theme if you will: Dead men with tales to tell. Yes, whoever you are, wherever you are, know that you walk amongst the dead. But the scary part is that many will stay that way. Lost inside souls sealed shut by the selfishness of sin. Hearts so cold love cannot be found as they cannot beat to that tune any longer. Minds warped and wicked from a wanton worshipping of all that's egregiously wrong in this world. Lives lived not caring to live for what's worth living for. No, life is as it has always been, just this means by which we lavish upon ourselves all that we like so to please those we want to like us so that we hear this roar of applause that makes us feel loved, a sound which for a moment drowns out the realization that our souls are teetering on the brink of never coming back to life. See, it's that company we...

Galatians 5:1 NIV Freedom's always had this rather impressive and pressing precedent present among a person's present priorities. Makes you wonder how or why so few still fail to find it. And yes, I sadly must include myself among the most who've not yet found it in the fullness in which it's been given. See, freedom is this idea of an ideal life lived lacking burden. It's an opportunity to exit from the existence we've known under the control of everything and everyone and to instead exist without oversight from those who we ought to know by now aren't looking out for our best interests. Freedom ushers in these thoughts, these feelings, these rather emotional emotions that set ablaze these oceans of blood coursing through our all but lifeless veins. In short, freedom is in every way part of the way in which we were made to walk, to talk, to live, to breathe, to be. But alas we've grown up hearing this opposing idea of a false freedom that has us convinc...

2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV It’s easy to lose hope, to lose happiness, to lose heart in this darkening world demanding we too display the shadows they prefer. But that’s a death we don’t have to agree to unless we want to. Because while the world around us is dying every day in every way imaginable, we don’t have to. No, actually we’ve the chance to be changed back into the breathing again. We have the opportunity to overcome death and live for life again. We’ve been invited to be among the few who flee the foolishness that keeps the foolish fumbling. Yes, we have the chance to choose life despite the world seeing it as only the death of everything they’re living for. In this place that judges by appearances, sure, a Christian's walk may seem to offer little in the way of reward. It's rather limited, extremely so in comparison to the apparently limitlessness of worldly interests. It asks of us things that most don't even know to contemplate let along actually consider choosing. ...

1 Corinthians 6:19 NIV I'm convinced that the greatest misunderstanding standing widely understood is that lie which tells us that our identity is just that: Ours. And consequently, might it be that the many reject this narrow path not because of the varied requests and increasing risks involved, but that the highest demand it requires is the loss of the very thing we've come to see as all we have that is our own? It's not that I can't grab at the gist, I can. It's easy. All of us go through life living with ourselves. We're our most constant companion along this ride, at least the one that we've acknowledged the longest. Whenever we rise, it's our own eyes we see looking back at us in the mirror. As we go to sleep, it's either our dreams or our nightmares we'll experience. The hours in between are literally all spent with ourselves regardless of whomever happens to be around. We're always there, and literally always will be for as long as we...

Philippians 3:8 NIV A life lived outside the confines the common pursuit of cauterized considerations may bring a freedom not found inside commonality. Yet there's this common thread strung throughout society that has all of us in some way entangled inside an outlook that has us lost looking for something special in a place that's passing. We're seeking passion in a land all but void of life! It's this tragic pastime that has us losing time that we can't get back in exchange for things not worth what we're asked to give away. But we just keep giving. Little by little, inch by inch, concession after concession, devotion just gets drown out by the downfall as we fall down before a world promising us everything we're supposed to need in exchange our agreeing to be who they want us to be as deemed worthy of such reward. And like the proverbial sheep being led where none should want to go, fall in line is all we know. Perhaps it's time these dogs we've be...