Forged By Faith

Isaiah 59:11 NIV The rattle It would seem that despite the lack of life being lived by those who’ve denied the same there remains this constant chaos as likewise chosen by the frozen in fear of faith and their finding there something to save from what they’ve become having always been but numb to the new that He came to do in every life in which such was a need if the soul inside was to be freed from both where the vessel in which it was had insisted it go and too from hopefully at least some of what it had then come to know of what life was never supposed to see. Indeed, there’s a nonstop noise in our world, cities all abuzz with the sound of the drown seeking to drink deep another day’s worth of delight. Alas, as time continues to pass and so too we away it seems that anymore our everyday is finding us only filling up with the fear of faith as mixed with a failure to find whatever it was that we perhaps once were looking for and the frustration we feel thanks to our failure to have b...

James 1:19 NIV I think we could all agree that this past week has been interesting to say the least. I mean, these days it seems like there's some new outrage or misunderstanding or problem to be discussed almost daily. That whole "world peace" idea has basically gone by the wayside and folks are seeking other priorities instead. Now that's not something that should be surprising to us because Scripture tells us that the world will plummet into even deeper darkness than anything we've seen before. But still, it is shocking to see and hear many of the things that we're witnessing unfold around us. One of the growing problems that I’ve noticed, and that I assume many others will agree with, is that we’re impressively unwilling to listen. We’ve learned to tune our ears to only what we agree with. If something is confrontational, offensive, hurtful, or coming from a different perspective then we’re probably just going to tune it out. I mean after all, we have our ...

Proverbs 15:1 NIV I've been thinking a lot this past week about being more joyful. And we've talked about it a bit in a post or two recently. But it seems like being happy is getting harder and harder to do. It's like we're surrounded by this cloud of negativity and it can feel almost impossible to find our way out of it. It makes matters even worse when we become distracted by all the nonsense around us and allow it to slink in and start bringing us down. There is this great divide in our world. And it's growing wider and deeper all the time. I know you've seen it. We all see it. It's this idea that we have to let the world know our opinions about everything so that we can show we're on what has been deemed the right side of whatever foolish argument we're caught up in. We can't just stay quiet. We can't keep it to ourselves. We see something that we don't agree with and head straight to the nearest internet equipped device to start our ...

Hebrews 12:14 NIV Yesterday's verse talked about how human anger tends to lead us straight into foolishness. It clouds our judgement and prevents us from thinking clearly. The more distracted we become by anger the more mistakes we're likely to make. Learning to calm down and not be so quickly provoked is a very important lesson that we can all seriously benefit from learning. I was thinking this morning about how we keep ourselves from being happy. We claim to want peace in our lives yet we make all these choices that make that peace nearly impossible to find. When we only focus on the things that irritate us then we're never going to find that peaceful life that we say we want to live. We're going to be stuck in this miserable existence where we can only see the bad in everything. As the Bible tells us in James 1:20, our anger doesn't produce the righteousness that God desires. It only creates more separation. It causes us to make more mistakes. It opens the door ...

Ecclesiastes 7:9 NIV Just gonna say it, we live in arguably the most foolish time in history! So much anger over such insignificant matters. Woke up this morning to see yet another person apologizing for something that they didn't need to apologize for all because some folks got their feathers ruffled. Not really sure when we decided that it was okay to judge everyone and be angry all the time but it's clearly not helping anyone make anything any better! Now as far as I can tell, this whole "cancel-culture" thing we've got running wild these days is the very definition of what this verse is talking about. Everyone is searching high and low for things that offend them. People are combing social media looking for anything that they can become angry about. Why so many want to stand in judgement and be so angry all the time is seriously beyond me! There used to be this hope that cooler heads would prevail. People were more inclined to aim for peace rather than strife....

Luke 13:14 NIV People will judge others for literally anything they don't agree with, even healing others. I read through Luke 13 last night and this one stuck out. I've been thinking a lot about how we're here to help those around us. I know that each of us have chances to do good in this world. And that's exactly what we need to do, no matter who likes it or who doesn't! It's really weird to think that someone might be angry with us for doing good. I reckon it's a matter of everyone having their own idea of what's right and true these days. Everyone's taken it upon themselves to decide their own ideals and is ready to fight and argue with anyone and everyone who thinks differently. Kind of easy to see why we're all on edge and dealing with so many issues. Our duty is to help those around us and be the good that Christ calls us to be in this world. No questions asked. No worrying about who agrees. If our goal is to please others then we're d...

James 1:20 NIV Well, I guess it was inevitable. I’m sort of ashamed that I’m going here. I mean, it’s what everyone else everywhere is talking about. I really didn’t want to add one more post like this to the endless supply already out there. But here we go. Here’s my one political post. Politics suck! They’re a waste of time. They’re a waste of energy. They’re nothing but the adult version of picking teams at recess. A bunch of people choosing sides and instantly resorting to hating anyone and everyone on the other team. It’s absolutely pathetic! I completely, totally, thoroughly, utterly despise politics because it seems to do nothing but bring out anger and frustration in everyone involved. There. There’s my post about politics! I’ve seen friend attacking friend. Family jabbing at family. Relationships undoubtedly strained. Words said that had no business being said. Messages being shared only to hurt those who don’t agree. So much anger. So much resentment. So much division. Please...