Forged By Faith

John 8:34 NIV It's amazing what happens when you make reading the Bible a daily priority. As you read it again and again you start noticing more and more as you go deeper into God's word and start to actually consume the messages and stories and wisdom found in those pages. You start to realize just how timeless and personal it all is. It isn't just some book written by some random people a long time ago. It's something that has a personal connection to everyone, and as you allow yourself to be changed by it, then you'll see just how incredible Scripture really is. I've been reading through the beginning of Exodus for a few nights now, and this time through the whole story of the Israelites in Egypt has just really hit home. Sounds weird right? I'm not from Israel. I'm not living in Egypt. I'm not a slave of some Pharaoh. None of us are. But just because none of us are any of those things, that doesn't mean that the story doesn't have a perso...

Romans 3:23 NIV Okay, so yesterday we nailed down the how in regard to laying down the ways of living and thinking that we've been used to up until now. Walking away from the desires that have consumed our thoughts for so long isn't easy, but just because it's hard doesn't mean that we can avoid it. It's something we absolutely have to address because having anything in our lives that takes focus away from God simply isn't alright. But now that we've discussed the assistance that we have in the Holy Spirit who helps guide us away from everything that doesn't matter so that we can better focus on the things that do matter, we're left with yet another question. Why? Why do we have to learn to stop chasing and prioritizing worldly things? Why is it so dangerous if it doesn't really seem to harm anyone? Why is our desire to want earthly possessions and comfort such a problem when for the most part it's all about things that bring us joy? Well, be...

Romans 6:21 NIV This is one of my favorite verses because it asks such a simple question that sin manages to keep us from asking. It's just one of those eye-opening thoughts that breaks through all the different levels of justification that we come up with to make our sins seem okay. It gets down the basics, and that's always something that we can all benefit from. Keep it simple. Ask the simple questions. Find the underlying problems. Consider the elementary, and you just might find that what you've been doing isn't really worth doing. The problem with sin is that it makes us think we're gaining something. It offers us the opportunity to satisfy our wicked desires. It convinces us that it holds a freedom that leads to everything we’ve ever wanted. It makes us believe that if we'll just give in and go along then we have an open door to do as we please. It's no wonder that sin is so widespread and popular. It's no wonder that people glorify wickedness and...

Jude 1:4 NIV I read something last night that someone posted in another Bible group on facebook. I honestly still can't believe it. It literally stopped me in my tracks and hit me so hard that I'm still in amazement today. This person posted a message talking about how Christians today talk too much about sin and the devil. He said that we need to lighten up and stop taking things so seriously. NEWS FLASH FOLKS: SIN IS DEATH!!! This is a war and in a war you have no choice but to take things seriously. We're all up against an enemy that is trying to steal our eternal peace and hope. We're facing an enemy that is trying to lure us away from the very God who created us and loves us so much that He sent His Son to die in our place for our mistakes. We cannot take this thing lightly for even a second! In my opinion we don't take sin seriously enough. We don't talk enough about it. We see these megachurches talking about prosperity and worldly comforts. We hear rocks...

Proverbs 28:13 NIV "Men need a long life to know that they ain't right." If there's a line or lyric or quote that better fits what I've been feeling lately than that one I can't think of it! I think just about all of us manage to find our way to this place where we think we're perfect. We develop this amazing ability to convince ourselves that everything we do is okay and that we couldn't possibly get anything wrong. It takes a lot of time to grow past that arrogant stage where we think we're flawless and never mess anything up. And in reality, the kind of humility that it takes to realize just how wrong we've been is something that I don't think some can ever find. I've been thinking back over the paths that I've taken and the choices that I've made in my life up to this point. And as much as it stings to admit it, I don't think I've gotten much right. To be honest, I don't know that I've really gotten anything ...

Proverbs 28:26 NIV There have been so many times that I've felt like I put too much of me into these posts. And that's definitely not what I intend to do. But I guess it's just me sharing all the lessons that I've learned so that they can maybe help someone else avoid the mistakes that I've made. And I have a ton of experience messing things up. I've gotten more wrong than I've ever gotten right. I've been the worst of the worst. I am just one sinner telling other sinners about the only hope we have at being set free from our foolishness. And if you don't know by now, it just isn't found in us! Living life our way only leaves us empty. It leaves us wanting more and more while never finding anything lasting that helps to fill those voids that sin and selfishness have created. It has left us with this enormous weight of guilt and shame from all the mistakes that we've made. It has led us down paths where there has never been anything good to be...

Acts 17:30 NIV One of the biggest problems with sin is that it seems like we get away with it. We don't face any immediate consequences. So we think that we can do anything we want without having to worry about getting in trouble. What makes it especially dangerous is that many sins are personal. They're things that we do without anyone else seeing them or knowing what we've done. So we get it in our minds that since nobody sees what we've done then there's no way that we're going to be confronted about it. There's no way that we'll have to answer for it. Well... That doesn't really work. You see, we can think that nobody sees what we do. We can believe that nobody could possibly know what we've thought or what we've done in private without anyone seeing us. We can think that it's all just our little secrets that we can keep hidden away. But God does see. He does know our thoughts. He does see all of those wicked things we do when there...

Isaiah 13:11 NIV We think we've got it all figured out don't we? We make our own rules so that we never break them. We do as we please because it fulfills every selfish desire we have. We put others down to make ourselves feel more important. We lean on things like hatred and strife because humility and understanding just can't coincide with arrogance and pride. We've made a hobby of disagreeing and fighting with everyone because we're convinced that our opinions are truth and anyone who says otherwise just has to be wrong. We've made this world our playhouse and filled it to the brim with every sort of evil and sin that we can come up with. I've lived in sin. I've made every mistake known to man. I've been the worst of the worst, the lowest of the low. I have done things that have separated me from God. I have chosen to be like the world instead of trying to be like Christ. I've traded morality for immorality. I've hung out in the darkness, ...

Genesis 6:5 NIV Yesterday we talked about how God is good, and about how that's a problem because this world and all of us in it are not. You see, mankind chose to pick our own path over God's and we've never stopped walking away from Him. We've never turned around. Our society is just as twisted, messed up, and broken as it has ever been, maybe even more. And while it seems like we're free to go on doing as we please without consequence or repercussion, that's not going to happen. I started in Genesis the night before last and it really is incredible how quickly things go downhill for humanity because of humanity. It starts out talking about how God created the heavens and the earth. It talks about all of the things that He created to fill them and how every time that He created something new He saw that it was good. He created all of this to be good. But then we listened to a lie. We chose to hear what we wanted to hear. We chose to ignore God's one rule s...

1 Corinthians 10:22 NIV What are we thinking? Do we really think that we can get by with doing whatever we want? Do we really believe that the filthy opinions of this world have the power to overturn God's truth? Do we honestly think that somehow, some way God will compromise His calling to be holy because of our arrogance and the desire to remain in sin? No. God will never be swayed by the sinfulness of this world. He is a jealous God and nothing will change His promise to deal with the evil in this world. So we better wise up and realize that there's only one right side to be on! We hear so often that God is good. He is good. He is the very definition of good. But as amazing as that fact is, it also poses a very real problem for us. That problem is that while He is good, we are not. We are far from good. We have all sinned. We have all really messed some stuff up. We have all chosen the lies of this world over His truth. We have all given in to those selfish desires to do as ...

1 Corinthians 6:12 NIV I reckon we all ought to think more than we do. We need to seriously consider our words, choices, and actions to ensure that they're true and proper. We need to evaluate everything so that nothing evil or sullied creeps in unnoticed. Sin is a sneaky business. We're taught to worry about the big ones like murder and greed, but friends, those little sins are still sins and they are still a far cry from who we're called to be and how we're called to live these lives during our stay here on this ball of dirt and water. We hear so much about these rights that we have. Everyone these days is all about protecting their rights. As we've discussed at length in these posts lately, people love that earthly right to do whatever they want to do. That kind of egocentric freedom has this appeal that caters to everyone. People really are convinced that they have the right to do anything so long as it makes them happy or allows them to feel good. But I think w...

2 Peter 2:8 NIV We've been talking about how we are at war against sin in this world. It's not easy. Seeing so much depravity and wickedness is hard to take. That's why these last several posts have been a little longer, a little different. This has suddenly become something that I am seriously passionate about. When we choose to follow Christ and leave the sinful ways behind, God opens our eyes to see just how bad things really are. It's easy for some to ignore. It's easy for those lost in it to pretend everything is just fine. But for anyone trying to fight the good fight of faith, that's just not possible. Now I'm not a righteous man. I get things wrong every single day. Thankfully God has helped me learn to see those mistakes so that I can fix things and live a better life. But it's in having lived a sinful life that I know what it does to a person. I know the misery it causes. I understand the weight of guilt and shame that so many carry around beca...

James 1:21 NIV Over the last week or so we've talked a lot about cutting through the nonsense, holding tight to the truth, and not living in fear of those who stand in opposition to that truth. There are so many lies, so much filth, so much darkness in our world today. As Christians we simply can't settle for that. Our faith calls us to stand up and proclaim the Gospel for those who are lost and looking for hope. As I said yesterday, if we let the fear of the sinful keep us from sharing the message of Christ then we're failing those who would have been saved and set free by hearing it. That's why we have to shed all the sins, all the evils, all the filth, all the darkness that we amassed before meeting Christ. We have to get rid of it all so that it no longer holds us down or keeps us living in shame. That's exactly what sin does. It blinds us to the truth that we're hurtling toward impending disaster. It blinds us to the reality of responsibility and consequenc...

John 3:19 NIV Well, well, well, if we don't have another spot-on assessment of our current society written down thousands of years ago! It's amazing with how advanced and progressive we consider ourselves to be in our modern world, not much has changed from the broken and twisted reality that existed back then. Darkness is still the preferred domain of those who apparently aren't "scared of damnation." At some point the time for laughing off our sins will come to an end because there is no way to avoid the truth forever! I actually saw a commercial with an atheist saying that he was "not afraid of burning in hell." That's what we're dealing with here folks! But that's something for another post. Back to the topic at hand. People living in sin love the dark because darkness makes it easier to hide. It's easier to do something without it being seen. It provides the opportunity to hang out in the shadows doing things, saying things, thinking...

2 Thessalonians 2:12 NIV Again, if this one isn't spot on for how so many choose to live and behave these days! Our world not only delights in wickedness, they're getting all up in it, rolling around, and throwing that junk everywhere! They're happier than a pig wallowing in a mud hole. Sin has always been rampant in our world, and sadly it always will be. Well, until that impending day of reckoning that is! People just want to do whatever brings them excitement and satisfaction. Who cares if it's right? Who cares if it's true? Who cares if it may possibly lead to suffering in the infernal torment of an eternity in hell some day? It's fun now right? What I can't understand is why so many are good with temporary pleasure. There is so little consideration given to the consequences of our actions anymore. Seems like the world is content with running full steam into the brick wall of truth and letting the pieces fall where they may. As we've been discussing,...

Isaiah 59:2 NIV We're all sold this lie that sin leads to freedom. You can do whatever your heart desires. And we've seen that for ourselves. We've all lived in sin and we know that feeling of having no limits. We know that sense of freedom that comes with being able to do whatever we want. But what nobody really mentions is that it's more fleeting than we could ever imagine! They say that sin leads to satisfaction, but what does it lead away from? You see, that's the side of the story that nobody ever thinks about. We're really bad about that as humans. We only see one side of things. We only look at the benefits of something. We only allow ourselves to see what we want to see so that we can try to avoid the down side. But we should really spend more time weighing the consequences because we can't ignore or avoid them forever. The truth is that sin leads us away from God. God is peace. God is love. God is hope. God is light. God is righteousness, and truth,...

1 John 3:6 NIV Yesterday we talked about putting our old lives to death and living for something better. That's the opportunity that Christ gave us through the cross. And it's the opportunity that all of us seriously need to take full advantage of! There's no shame in admitting that our lives before Christ were less than stellar. But there is shame in choosing to continue to live under the control of sin and the darkness that it brings. The Gospel is meant to spark change! As Christians, sin doesn't have a place in our lives. Now none of us will ever be perfect. But it's our duty to take notice of our sins and mistakes and actively work to do better. We can't do as the world does and pretend that sin isn't all that bad. We can't allow ourselves to see it as anything other than the deadly disease that it truly is. If we let up in this fight it will consume us. But as we've discussed here lately, God didn't create us to be controlled by the wicked ...

Ephesians 4:22 NIV I had this thought the other day and it has seriously stuck with me. Sin is a crutch. It's this thing that we convince ourselves that we need. We think that it's holding us up, making us happy, bringing us excitement and joy. And the longer we allow ourselves to rely on it the more power it has over us. At some point we end up giving it so much power that we can't imagine how we can go on without it. We become enslaved to sin. We become chained to darkness. The evils that bring us their momentary pleasure become crutches that we lean on. We turn to them whenever we're angry, upset, having a bad day, not feeling well, or whatever excuse we need to justify it at the time. Eventually we convince ourselves that sin is harmless because it makes us feel good for a second or gives us some thrill of giving in to our selfish desires. But in reality, sin is doing nothing but holding us back. Like a crutch, it helps us for a little while. It gives us something t...

Romans 7:17 NIV Yesterday we discussed how sin doesn't benefit us in any way whatsoever. Any temporary excitement or momentary thrill is only fleeting and leaves us feeling ashamed and broken every single time. So why do we keep making those bad decisions? Why does sin continue to plague our lives? Why can't we seem to figure it out and get ourselves under control? Those are questions that I know all of us have asked at one time or another. Are we just bad people? Are we broken beyond repair? Are we just hopeless and destined to suffer the consequences of our weaknesses? Not at all! The mistakes that we make aren't evidence that we're hopeless. Our sins don't tell the whole story. Our weaknesses do not disqualify us from God's love. All our sins and bad choices show is that we still have work to do. We still have room to improve. Our sins are proof that there is still darkness inside of us that we need to deal with. It's so easy to just sweep things under th...

Romans 6:21 NIV There's something about this verse that just packs a punch! I've literally had to go back and read it over and over again for a couple of nights now. We've been talking about Easter and what Christ's gift means for us. But I also realized something last night while I was praying. Unless that gift takes root in our hearts it can't do the job it was meant to do. Until His death and the story of His resurrection become personal it won't be able to change us. Sin seems great on the surface. It's fun. It's easy. It's exciting. It's popular. It presents this care-free kind of life that appeals to everyone. Being able to do or say anything you want with no limitations, no regrets sounds like the ultimate kind of freedom. But we know better. In our hearts we know there is a big difference between right and wrong. And that knowledge brings with it a weight that we cannot escape. There's a reason that sin feels bad. There's a reason...