by | Faith Lived Out, Spiritual Warfare
I have a co-worker who loves to read policies and procedures for fun. For fun! Who does that? She will print them off and take them home for some “relaxing” reading. The very thought of doing something like that makes me nauseous. That’s just not my idea of fun.
But I’m grateful she enjoys it or else I’d have to read those policies. And if you don’t put it in picture form or make a music video out of it, I won’t make it past the first page. Instead, I am able to rely on my handy-dandy policy-reading peer to tell me what rules not to break. Now I know. Case closed.
My friend Marge is a paramedic. She can talk about blood and cuts and broken bones while she passes the mashed potatoes at the dinner table. I hear about someone breaking a tooth and I pass out. I’m not a big fan of seeing blood either. She gets a strange thrill when she’s riding in the back of an ambulance at the speed of light. Me? Not so much.
But I’m grateful she has a passion to save lives and talk about things that make my stomach turn, because when I call her thinking I’m dying of a tumor, she’s quick to tell me to stay off Google and to drink water. I don’t have a tumor. I’m just dehydrated.
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by | Faith Lived Out, Life Application
My friend got a new tree the other day – a Japanese Maple Tree to be exact. She showed me what a fully bloomed one looked like as we were driving one day and I now consider myself a trained biologist. Oh wait… that’s botanist? Anyway, the tree was beautiful and she now has a baby tree growing in her back yard.
I stopped by the other day and she was showing me that she had tied it to a post so it would grow straight up instead of bending over. She pointed out certain things she wanted to prune and I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about so she tried to explain again. As she talked, her eyes lit up with excitement and fervor. My heart was excited to see her so passionate about something. Just days before we were crying together over tragedy.
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by | Faith Lived Out, Vlog/Facebook Live
There are two words I want you to hear today. I want you to repeat them out loud over and over again. Everything hinges on these two words. And when I say everything I mean EVERYTHING about our freedom.
But Jesus….
As we unpack those two powerful words, let’s read Ephesians 1:7 to gain a better understanding. (If you’d rather skip the text and watch the video, you can click here.)
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.
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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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