Forged By Faith

Isaiah 9:6 NIV Whatever we may ever need, He is. Wonderful Counselor. A trustworthy truth that cuts through, guides us through the countless lies that lie in wait for us to wander back into wondering about all that isn't Him as it's only found down here. An unwavering honesty that refuses to pull the punches as He knows bruises heal while hell can't. A steady place to go when we've left no idea what's going on nor what to do. Mighty God. The Almighty authority that renders all worldly counterfeit instantly forfeit. The Divine that needs not this wicked world to help design the line between right and wrong, light and dark, here and home. The Creator that created a creation that considered forgetting Him a reasonable accomplishment, yet still filled with such a love that refuses to lose what we've already agreed is loss. Everlasting Father. Unending wisdom being poured out from He who is Wisdom, a gift given in increasing fullness for all who might dare die unto t...

Isaiah 7:14 NIV God with us. Written at God's design some 500-700 years before its fulfillment, a promise proving that God not only knows what He's doing but that nothing we do can undo what He's begun. Yet it's somewhat a funny thing this trying to contemplate time in regard to Scriptural writings, an undertaking clearly taken only in an effort for us to better understand what maybe isn't ours to understand. Because, as the number of years between this promise being written and the birth of Christ culminating the conception is debated, such just shows that we down here will happily miss the point in preference of the proof. I didn't set out to stumble upon the discrepancy between opinions in regard to how early this verse was written before Jesus came to seal it, but having read a bit about the different ideas, it only speaks unneeded life to the unnecessary trees we plant in this path of faith, failing instead to simply appreciate the woods of refuge it afford...

Exodus 13:21 NIV As if no matter the circumstance nor ability, God's will is to lead His people to His promise. This life is our Exodus. But the tear toward tragedy comes in that we're so lost here we think ourselves home. Accustomed to the comforts, complacent and convenient, to step into a wilderness way is to ask of us a sort of loss that's considered too costly. Walking away, running at times, fervent and furious toward a hope unseen hidden persistently behind this veil of uncertainty as defined by minds divided between devotions. Stay or go? What to pack? What'll it take? Can we make it? How can we when we've no map nor is there any mention of our preferences nor even our safety? No, along this desert road we're promised but few things: 1. Security. 2. Guidance. 3. Provision. 4. Promise. That's it. That is the entirety of this path and all we ought to expect upon it. All we ought to expect. Until our misunderstanding of an understanding has us standing ...

Isaiah 9:2 NIV It's hard to reconcile our efforts unto religious devotion as darkness, but in truth, all that keeps an attention turned away from Christ is indeed just that. Because He is the light, and as the only One shining so high as for all to see His love laid out upon our many crosses, should we continue to approach faith as if it's something we can factor, figure or formulate, we'll only find that we're forever distracted from the design He already set inside that stone rolled away. Indeed, every attempt to lessen the death demanded is nothing short of a sin, as sin is missing Him in the moment. But again, we don't see it as such. I mean, religion is supposed to be this outline that lays out the path upon which we can walk to ensure that we're heading toward where we want to be. It's a roadmap filled with mile markers that make for us an ongoing and measurable certainty as to where we are along the way. And so what could possibly be, go wrong with th...

Colossians 2:20 NIV As those who claim a share in the cross, our lives should evidence a sacrificial awareness of the cost. And yet within religion's assumptions, we see only a semblance, a shadow, a selfish selflessness that has only achieved for us the lukewarm faith that He made clear He hates. Because why shouldn't He despise such a disinterested display as our relegating the fullness of faith to merely a list filling up with rules we hope can get us close enough without the ultimate loss? Truth is that if we won't die too, then how dare we ask Him to do so for us? How dare we claim His Name, proclaim His Name if we live in such a way that said Name is merely one aspect of our understanding, a misunderstanding leaving us standing still when we should be running for our lives from all He died to take away? Unfortunately having so long lived inside this idea that life is meant for gain, we're horrified of loss. We're shaken at the suggestion of sacrifice. The mere...

Colossians 2:23 NIV When the purpose is purely personal, the performance is probably pathetic. But here's the problem, being the performers we've become, we've become unable to see that far from stadiums, the only thing we're selling out is ourselves. And having been on sale for so long, we've left next to nothing with which to buy any semblance of sense that would afford us the humility to grasp our one opportunity to be saved from such an eternal loss as the letting go at rock bottom prices the pricelessness of Christ and all He's freely provided. Much to our impending dismay, all this display is doing is driving us deeper into unending despair once we get where we can't quite bring ourselves to admit we fully deserve to be. No, we're still debating whether or not hell really exists and how a good and loving God could be so brutal as to allow such a reality. We're still bickering back and forth as to what certain verses mean within the context we c...