Forged By Faith

John 15:22 NIV In excusable. Population: 8,211,939,609 Or at least that’s as of 3/21/2025 the likely still highly estimated if not entirely presumptuous world population. And too thus such a place as our all are living within what is a life in which it so vastly seems we all still assume we’ve seen more than reason enough to seek only the excuses that we all think excuse the inexcusable that we’ve not only continued to do but in fact all but come to be. For the reality of an existence in which those existing make any if not all of their choices, said existee is thus only to eventually be all but defined by what they do with or within their existence. And thus we are not merely sinners who’ve accidentally slipped up a few times into, by sheer happenstance, what’s since been proven a mistake or two. No, rather we are all now all but sin having chosen that way of life so very often that our very own Creator had to humble Himself at first unto breathing a Word that sought to call us back t...

Titus 2:11 NIV Teaching us to us “to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions.” And that despite, or perhaps even in spite of, the overwhelming and yet somehow daily growing lack of “self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.” Indeed, so much of who we are as defined most basically by what we do is done and thus won within the ways in which the world around us walks. And yet it’s becoming increasingly clear to see that the ways in which this world walks are what define all as being in an already dire, and that only deepening, need of the grace of God that offers salvation to all people. Really then a most benefiting gift in that all of us are in fact a part of this “all people” spoken of here as being those to whom salvation is offered from only the overarching grace of God. Indeed, while we might be entirely overwhelmed with wickedness and thus vastly found within what is a world now all but overwhelming itself with the pressures to keep choosing and chasing tho...

2 Corinthians 7:1 NIV To downright disinvite that which never belonged. Such is what to shun is. It’s to stand upon a solemn agreement that someone or something has arrived or remained that oughtn’t be wherever he/she/it has been so long allowed to stay. It’s something of a door closing whence upon the leaving of this entity or enemy that’s existed within an enmity against our energy, our effort, our excitement, our existence. In fact, it’s quite more than that. Indeed, to shun isn’t some mere asking that someone/thing leave with a door closed softly behind as they go. No, rather to shun is to insist they go and, once gone, to slam said door so very hard that it welds itself to the jam. Yes, to shun is to settle upon the oath that whatever must go is to go through a door that, from there forward, doesn’t even exist anymore, that this then lost and left party may never even consider being reentered. And such is what we’re called to do with all that perverts, diverts, divides, blinds, be...

Proverbs 14:16 NIV For while even the prudent may still walk a path with problem proven, to face the same without some help is what causes all to fall both apart and potentially such forever. Alas, to be a hotheaded fool is sadly a way we all know for we've all known a certain sense of security sought within ourselves even though still vastly lost within our sinful ways found and followed within a great many days in which we worried ourselves for only what we saw to be a matter that mattered most in the moment. But the issue at hand is that to assume security without the Savior's salvation is to put all of our eggs inside the basket that is us. And while this may make us feel all warm and fuzzy, continuing to rely upon the blind to lead us anywhere will only leave us found somewhere that nobody wants to be. Because while eternal promise promised upon the end of the wide and sinful is indeed said to be itself plenty warm, I’m just not so sure about the fuzziness of eternal flame...

Job 28:28 NIV Who is wise among you? Are there wise among us? Are we among the wise? Is there wisdom within us? If so, as we so clearly seem to try and show, what then have we to see of all that we’ve all come to be? Do we show our wisdom within the way in which the Word wants us to? Or are rather our deeds done sans the very humility that is He whom came to save us from what we’ve become quite willfully? Is there room for our will to be so won within the humility that only wisdom wins? Is it wise to do all we’ve done as done as if nothing new can be won under the sun? Is it wise to live through eyes that teach our minds to tell our hearts that none need be under the Son as He’s, for now at least, still unseen? See, so much of what we seem to assume we know and understand about life and all that’s experienced within it is accomplished alongside this idea that we need to see it first. We talk all the time about this raucous ridiculousness that considers that the safest way through life ...