by | Faith Lived Out
It’s a simple yet profound question that changes the trajectory of our lives. When you think about, everything hinges on this one question.
Whom will you serve? Who do you choose?
But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.” – Joshua 24:15
I’ve served many gods in my lifetime, even after becoming a believer. Just last week I found myself serving another god. How is that possible, you ask? How can I be a Christian and serve another god? How can I choose that if I really proclaim the name of Christ? I would go out on a limb and say for my fellow believing friends reading this post, I bet you’ve served other gods as well.
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by | Faith Lived Out
I was having coffee with my friend Marcie the other day and this popped up in her Facebook memories. I thought it was a powerful message to share. Maybe you need to hear it today. God is waiting for you to bring the real you to Him; not the you who you think you have to be. Written by Marcie Iten on May 1, 2016.
Sitting here feeling convicted this morning.
I sit here and post words of God’s inspiration, share His love, grace, mercy and forgiveness with you, but if I can’t always accept it or even walk in it, who am I?
What am I doing?
It’s so much easier to pour into others, comfort them, inspire them with God’s Word and His love for them and pray for them, than it is to focus on my own struggles – to reach out for help, to show weakness, to say “Hey, I don’t have it all together”.
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by | Faith Lived Out
The “big” day is over now. There are probably some unfound Easter eggs spoiling in the heat. Thousands of stories of the unrolled stone have been amplified to regular churchgoers, as well as those who hadn’t been to church since Christmas. Pastors are resting up from one of the most attended days of the year. Half-eaten chocolate bunnies are wrapped up on the kitchen table. Parents are cleaning up the plastic grass they filled the baskets with, finding those annoying strings all over the house.
It’s just another day of the week. Time to get up and go to work. Time for ball practice for the kiddos. Schedules return to frantic mode. Bosses still demand expectations you can’t live up to. Bills still show up in the mail. Moms still need some private time. Dads still dream about early morning fishing. Inmates still serve their time. Doctors still perform surgery. The janitor still cleans the toilets at school. People still die. Life goes on. Hmm…. do those last two sentences go together? Sometimes I wonder about my writing.
We spent last week hearing the story of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. But now the “hype” is over. Now it’s just Tuesday. We have 51 more weeks left before the next go around. Now it’s just Tuesday.
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by | Faith Lived Out
Sometimes we don’t realize how far we’ve come in our faith journeys until we remember some of the really stupid things we’ve done. I was driving the other day when I had a memory of the time I smoked pot on Easter Sunday. My heart still hurts thinking about it; thinking about the heartbreak I caused my Heavenly Father.
Have you ever heard the quote from Joyce Meyer:
I’m not where I need to be but thank God I’m not where I used to be?
That statement couldn’t be more true in my life as I think back on that day. I wasn’t a believer then, but I thought I was. I prayed every night before I went to bed and sometimes I would even wear a cross necklace around my neck. I thought that’s what Christians did. Beyond that, I knew nothing about what it was like to have a personal relationship with Jesus.
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by | Faith Lived Out
It really all goes back to child-like faith, doesn’t it? Kids are fearless most of the time. My best friend’s son Jackson is two and he’s all boy. His favorite game when I visit is for me to hit him with a pillow and knock him back on the bed a gajillion times. “Again,” he says after each round. The bigger he gets, the braver he becomes. He falls down and gets back up, not afraid to try again. When he jumps off his bed into my arms, he has no fear because I told him I would catch him and he trusts me. I pray he never loses that excitement of the next adventure that waits.
I pray I keep that same excitement. Somewhere on our faith journey, many of us lose that child-like faith. We get so caught up in busyness, routine, the disappointment of others, and the valleys of life, that we take our eyes off who God really is and put Him in this tiny box and stick Him on the shelf to collect dust. We only open the box to let Him out for emergencies.
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by | Faith Lived Out
Someone asked me the other day, “Is it really necessary for me to confess my sins to someone else when I’ve already confessed them to God?” That’s a really great question, so I thought we could talk about it here on the blog.
Let me first say this. Is confessing your sins to someone else a requirement for salvation? No. It’s not going to keep you from heaven. But I can tell you this.. It’s going to keep you from being healed and set free.
Let’s dig into the Scripture, because that’s where we’ll always find the right answer.
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