Forged By Faith

Romans 7:15 NIV Understanding And yet as sought through only what always feels a sort of sifting through the wreckage of a way so wasted that all I’ve to base the very wins of wisdom’s winds upon are but past wants, present wishes, coming problems and current issues. And it’s this background for a life’s belief that has all but left me leant only upon me without even the foggiest idea as to why I would ever agree to do such a thing so vital in what feels often the way most feeble. For understanding I’ve long sought, but it seems now that I’ve never had the affluence by it’s afforded. Because understanding is something seen through both the triumphs we seek but also, if not more so, within the trials we don’t. It’s something learned through lessons both loved and loathed, the loathing more those with the growing as spent in our going through what we want not to endure, enduring it anyway out of what must be always a blind trust in either the process or its purpose. But so often we seem ...

Proverbs 4:18 NIV It seems as though that throughout my life I’ve found or felt a great many bests that only came to leave me still wondering what more might be just beyond where better has always been. Unfortunately we’ve this strange affinity for what is the string-theory of best. For all best is begun by a billion beliefs in what we perceive as this pinnacle of what’s possible. Our understanding of best is bought by and built upon this belief in a singular point in which all possible perfection is finally proven. It’s an assumption of something of such magnificence that nothing else can, when added, magnify it any further. It is the very epitome of all that’s better. But I believe that we’ve maybe gotten the importance, the significance of the two entirely backwards. See, we seem to think that our perception of what’s best is, well, just that. It’s the best. It’s the cat’s. It’s an experiencing of something so good, so wonderful, so pure and perfect that it lacks nothing and thus ha...

Isaiah 48:10 NIV Affliction To afflict is defined as an act meant to cause pain or suffering, to “distress so severely as to cause persistent suffering or anguish”, to agonize, trouble, injure, irritate, agitate, aggravate, humiliate, humble. Indeed, the now considered antiquated or obsolete meaning of what it is to afflict was to humble or overthrow. And thus affliction is the noun pronunciation of this effort given unto what is an overthrowing of what’s all but proven undermining within these lives we’ve lived as if mines of minds that we assume still might find for us something of some substance that affords us this arrogance that we’ve all but come to be exemplify. And thus to cause us to coast counter to what we’ve become into what is a still raging furnace of affliction is to speak to our general dereliction of what’s always been our duty alone to discharge this life as if it weren’t our own. You know, considering how it isn’t. Alas, this fact has proven perfectly elusive amongst...

Romans 6:2 NIV Having travelled sin’s road for as many years as all of us have, thanks be to God above that some of us find within its unchanging nature a realization that if anything is to ever improve, it’s that road we must lose. And yet this is an altogether alien consideration as to lose in this life is to fail life itself, or so it seems as such indeed is as we’ve been taught to believe. Yes, our biggest beliefs always seem to align with this rather arrogant complacency in which we convince ourselves every day that this road we’re on will eventually lead us where our hopes have always waited for us to find them. We’re so vastly lost inside the stagnancy of the status quo that we think hope is something that always waiting, always in the distance, this sort of blurred betterment that begins always a ways away. As if God blessings can only be held in the up ahead and not then known in the here and now. Alas, this is by and large the way of the lost within this land which teaches us...

Romans 3:12 NIV There's just something about the books of Romans that hits closer to home for me. I don't know if it's the way that it's written. Maybe it's all of the wisdom and truth and powerful lessons that it holds. Or perhaps that it's written by someone that I feel this connection with for some reason. But whatever it is, whenever I come around to reading the book it just hits differently. I'll be the first to admit that I think a little differently than most. The majority of people want to hear that they're doing good. They want people to pat them on the back for whatever they manage to accomplish. They want to be praised for their work and have their failures and flaws ignored. Me personally, I'm just about the opposite. I want to know what I'm doing wrong. I want to hear what I can improve. And I don't want any praise or applause or approval because I just don't deserve any. Maybe that's why I love Romans so much. It just do...

2 Timothy 3:16 NIV The Bible is a gift meant to help us. But we can quickly fall into this place where we end up using it to justify what we're doing. People can always find a way to twist and turn something to fit any kind of narrative that they want to fit. Taking the Bible out of context is sadly more common than simply being corrected by it. Now I know that people just want to be left alone to sin as they see fit. But using the Bible to justify our favorite flavor of sin isn't anywhere close to okay. It's straight up dangerous. Last night my mom shared this conversation that she saw somewhere online where the Bible was brought up. But sadly, this person was using the Bible to justify what they wanted it to mean. They even went so far as to say that the modern translations were "misinterpreted" and therefore didn't actually mean that the topic of this conversation was actually bad. I've seen some pretty questionable takes on things, but saying that the ...

John 15:2 NIV Let's be real with ourselves for a moment. We all have plenty of branches in our lives that aren't bearing fruit. No matter how good we think we are we still have things in our lives that just aren't doing anything to help us. In fact, we have things in our lives that are sucking the life out of the good that we're trying to do. Any time, energy, or attention that we give to the unfruitful things in our lives is wasted! If we pour anything into our bad habits or poor choices then we're throwing it away. That time and effort could be put into growing our best parts and focusing on improving ourselves. That's one of the big points of the Gospel. It's about realizing our flaws, acknowledging our mistakes, and working on doing better. It's cutting away the negative things we've done and not allowing them to hold us back anymore. Thankfully God is willing to prune us. He's willing to help us cut away the things that aren't helping us...