Forged By Faith

Matthew 7:7 NIV Action, initiative, investment, movement, a faith so alive and breathing that we'd just as soon not breathe another breath without it as it’s become the very breath we breathe. But is that in any way what our understanding of faith remotely resembles or rather are we still allowing our understanding as marked and mangled by misunderstandings to prevent or postpone or otherwise hinder our growth inside this impossible opportunity instead exchanged for a life merely entangled still in this place among a humanity settled outside of God's amazing grace and content on staying torn apart? Indeed I fear that far too much is still made of our understandings. In fact, we seem to have this insatiable need to understand before we dare undertake. It's like we live life wrapped within this fear of falling short as we know so well the many times we've done just that thus far. And so instead of faith we solemnly accept only what we can prove or have proven without any ...

Micah 6:8 NIV Christ went through a whole lot of bad just to show us what is good, and despite our defiance demanding otherwise, that gift is owed an immeasurable reverence in return. It’s been my hope that I’ve somehow managed over the last couple of days to convey the dire difference between salvation by works and works inspired by salvation. This to me has become, for some reason, a truly vital message to share. Because it seems as though this discrepancy has been ironically ironed into a homogenous heresy that's custom-painted to make us believe that nothing at all is required of us in response to His impossible gift of supreme righteousness. But because this whole idea has weighed upon my mind for weeks, months at this point, I can't help but imagine that no amount of words or the passion with which they're presented will inevitably fall well short of intention. This laziness and laxity being laid within the foundations of faith being poured anymore is absolutely terri...

James 2:17 NIV We who have known death don't mind staying. Because anything to which we’ve grown accustomed is just that, it’s comfortable. It’s a normal already known. And that we already know it means we’ve nothing left we need to learn and this leaves the way of life lived in the death that is sin simple as it can be so easily done without demand or expectation which means it carries no risk or requirement. To stay dead takes no effort or change as that’s right where sin has brought us meaning that we’re already there. The glaring problem with that you see, is that Christ came that we might have life, life to the full wrapped and completed within a sort of fulfillment found only inside the fullness of a living faith. A breathing faith. A faith so dire and dear that we'd rather die than let it grow cold and stale, fragile or frail. No, He died for us to have the chance to live by faith. But here’s the thing, if our faith isn't doing anything in us that's causing us to...

James 2:18 NIV While salvation is indeed not based upon works, it's our works that evidence our salvation. Because even though I can’t show you what I believe in, I can do something, say something, give something that shows you that I really do believe in it. And honestly, there should be noticeable changes in our lives, in our words, in our undertakings having now been taken under His wing and loving led into this process of sanctification. Yes, process, ongoing, unending, a purpose for which He came to begin a good work in us, a work which He will carry onward until the day He returns, meaning it’s still unfinished as shown in that we’re still not perfect. And so why do we think we can be finished, that we are finished? How can we be finished if there’s nothing in us that shows we’ve even gotten started? The purpose of salvation is just that, to save us. But the mission of faith is to walk, to talk, to live, to breathe, to be in our very existence something that shows that we hav...

Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV By grace through faith from God. Someone please tell me where our arrogance fits within that frame! But I reckon the obvious problem that it's not within that frame that we've found ourselves fighting to fit. Rather, we've all unanimously approached life as if it's a masterpiece of our own making, as if we can make of it what we want from it, assuming that we know as much as we so often assume inside this rampant arrogance that has had us all convinced that we know everything there is to know about everything as if we're the ones who set it all in motion. No, the only motion we've become is a furthering of that began by those who've gone down hard before us. We are every bit the progeny of our predecessors. Images recapturing the raucous revelry of all those who've long lived in enmity against God. Despite our defiance as defined by our diligence given unto depicting ourselves as those dedicated to humble service of the divine, truth ...

Romans 3:27 NIV All which is now excluded is all for which we’ve long existed. This fact defines the very reason so many deny Christ. It isn't because His promise doesn't hold amazing reward but just that it deserves rather humbling requirement. And well, there's a couple of words in that that are altogether belittling to our sense of betterment. Humble and requirement are things that all of humanity struggle to entertain as we're lost feverishly inside this assumption of entitlement as bred by deception that's left us convinced we're not doing without in having our way. No, all of life as we've come to know it, or rather to assume it, is encompassed in and defined by this idea that everyone is fully free to do as they please without pause. And by fully free I mean not merely to make our own choices but to avoid their consequences. That's the fabrication of freedom we've found in focusing on finding ourselves serving ourselves. It’s this completely c...