Forged By Faith

Proverbs 18:21 NIV And so as it turns out it seems as though our time is torn between tongues of eternal opposition, the oddity of such a position being that the two are tied into one within these mouths often left unbridled. We see this growing discrepancy begin shortly after the design of mankind in those first of us long ago being given two very different messages from two very different directions. The first came from He who breathed this breath of life into them and still into us. His message was simple for it was to enjoy the bounty of His blessed benevolence as proven and provided within the Garden of God called Eden with one simple juxtaposition: Just don’t take from that one tree. Simple message enough, or so now it seems. And yet unfortunately, shortly thereafter came the second tongue which breathed not life into us but rather did as still he does and that is to seek only to steal, to kill, to destroy this opposed proposition to enjoy the gift of life within this garden of G...

Psalm 105:38 NIV Why the weakness? Why so much fear? Why have we allowed this fallen world to tell us who and what we can be? Why do we allow humanity to define the limits of our faith? Why do we still fall for this foolishness that tells us that God has to fit into some box that we can fit in our minds that does nothing but limit the true power that our faith in Him brings? Why do we refuse to let ourselves see beyond the scope of what we think is possible and continue to live our lives with this almost hollow concept of who Christ really is? I was reading through a few chapters in Psalms last night and this one just really seemed to fit with everything we've been discussing lately. Our fear of mankind has caused us to water down our faith to the point that we just meet up once a week for an hour and quietly talk about it in our fancy little buildings where we're surrounded by only those who agree with us. We've forgotten those who came before us along this road following ...

Galatians 2:20 NIV God doesn't lead us through trying times to punish us. He doesn't pull us away from what we find comfortable to make us angry. He doesn't lead us through the hills and valleys of life just to watch us struggle to find our balance and figure out how to handle it all. He does it because He sees something in us that we don't know is there. He sees what He sent His Son to die for. He sees our full potential, something that we can't possibly find on our own. So often we look at the situations and circumstances that we're up against and we let them beat us. The sheer magnitude of life's trials is enough to leave us cowering in the corner begging for mercy. And that's what we usually resort to. Asking God to take it all away. Asking for the mountain in front of us to level out so it will be an easier road. But as we discussed yesterday, praying away life's difficulties is praying away the very things that are only there to help us. We nee...

Hebrews 11:33 NIV Yesterday we talked about how we have to go all in when it comes to our faith. Guys, our faith is powerful because our God is powerful. So when we give Him absolutely everything and make Him the foundation that everything else is built upon, then nothing in this world will ever be able to beat us. We just need to learn to stop limiting Him and what we believe faith can be. Like I said yesterday, the time for this watered-down kind of faith is over. The seas out there are getting more and more tempestuous. But we do not have to be dragged into it. We don't have to be pulled away from our faith and into the messes that our world just loves creating. That only happens because our faith is so small. We've created this vision of what faith is, and in truth it's far bigger than we can imagine. God didn't create us as these weak, scared, and foolhardy beings that we've become. We created us to be soldiers that boldly carry the Good News out into the world...