Forged By Faith

James 1:12 NIV The fading glimmer of a flickering hope. You’ve likely heard it said that with each tunnel through which we tread comes a light at the end that serves to keep us going. It’s this ever hopeful expectation that reminds us that what we’re going through isn’t the full story but merely the opening chapters which lead to that hopeful end somewhere up ahead. The idea of a light waiting just beyond the finish line of whatever race we’re in at the moment is supposed to be enough to keep us going when there seems little reason to do so. But what do we do when that light seems to grow smaller, pointing obviously to missteps taken in the wrong direction? What do we do when all the hard work and hard fought victories we’ve battled through to get a single step closer seem to only land us two steps back and further away? What are we to think when the tunnel only seems to be longer today than it was yesterday, thanks only to our stumbling and struggling to find our feet and get back on ...

1 John 4:4 NIV Two letters. There are quite a few pretty insignificant things in life. Of all of them, it seems that two buttons clicked upon a keyboard or two thumb taps on a cell phone screen cannot possibly mean much if anything. It does seem all but impossible that something as small as two letters could ever matter. I mean, a side-by-side combination of two letters is barely enough to form a word! And even those words made up of two letters like of, as, is, on, if, it, well they’re only accessories. They don’t really even define anything. They’re just sort of there to make our language flow smoothly and sound nice. So how is it that something so small and seemingly insignificant can hold any kind of power, let alone a power that is able to alter life? Would you believe me if I told you that two letters defines many of the tunnels through which we crawl and scrape and suffer and stumble and somehow still seek to strive? What if I told you that two letters was enough to distinguish ...

Ephesians 1:18 NIV When our vision is polluted, our souls are likely corrupted. Because, though we’ve perhaps never considered it, there exists a time in life wherein we must stop allowing our vision to limit our perception. You read that right. Sometimes what we can see can keep us from seeing what can’t be seen. But sadly, it seems as if much if not nearly all of life is almost entirely reactionary. We exist within this mindset that has us convinced that our sense of sight is by far the most important as it seems to offer us the most information in a rather immediate and quickly understandable manner. And while that is true, what we see does in fact offer us a host of ready information upon which we usually rely without too much hesitation, the problem is that visual deception is one of the many tools within the arsenal of our enemy. And this is for very good reason, you see: The devil is going to use us against ourselves. That’s simply good tactic. He is going to seek out our weakne...

Revelation 3:17 NIV Perspective does not define reality. It merely threatens to distort it just long enough to cause us to live life within the shadows of our self-perceived perfection. It’s amazing how quickly that fact gets lost behind our normal efforts to maintain the masquerade behind which we hide. We’ve such a tremendous ability to focus in on our self-perceived wealth and worth only possible in light of our lack of ability to acknowledge our weakness. And whilst incredible for our ego, that diluted state of unreality can very quickly cause us to lose sight of things like truth and real life and the responsibility we have to blend the two into a life of purpose and meaning. When we live only according to things like our opinions and personal preferences, well, we’re obviously going to miss out on a whole half of life. We miss out on the true condition of both our souls and of those still lost in places from which we’ve sought to break away. We lose sight of the opportunities we’...

Proverbs 24:16 NIV For what do we have if not for the hope that our sincere efforts are worth the time and energy given to make them manifest? I woke up today just as I do every other day with a verse or an idea in mind and an excitement to see what words flow from my fingertips into the keyboard onto the screen. And I sat down and got to work trying by feeble daily attempt to capture the lessons and meanings of a truth I’ve lived failing to uphold. I typed away at what was yet another great feeling post that had the flow I’ve come to appreciate. It wasn’t this post though. It was a typical continuance of the day prior. But after an hour or so of trying to do what I always try to do, plans changed because that’s what plans do. Wifi wigged, everything froze, account logged out and depression set in. An hour of effort vanished in an instant. My normal collection of 2,000+ words of work erased in a moment. Just a blank screen where an entire morning had just sat waiting to be saved. Then ...

Romans 1:28 NIV Trophies won in arrogance are but losses in disguise. It is truly amazing what our egos have managed to accomplish throughout our history. Granted, contemporary science theorizes that homo sapiens have roamed this earth for roughly 300,000 years. And while yes, that is indeed an incredibly long period of time as it equates to somewhere in the vicinity of 4,000 human lifetimes, in the grand scheme of eternity, well, it's rather short. But in our relatively short existence, we've managed to reach this point where our minds, which were created by our Creator, have decided that we do not need said Creator. It's kind of ironic if you can see it as such, and if you've an affinity for such incredible delusion then you might even be able to find a chuckle. But for that which was created to say to the one who did the creating that his work is no longer applicable is to say that his work was never all that important. And only within a truly debased mind is such fo...