SPIRITUAL WAR BEHIND THE CURTAIN OF REALITY After spending years in the world, it becomes natural to view life as it appears to the naked, unawakened spiritual eye: We only see the characteristics of a corporeal, empirical reality with nothing in-between that and the mystery of the unseen. So we’re not alert. We’re unprepared. We’ve… Read More Picking Up Our Cross… Denying Ourselves Is Just the Beginning: Part 2
THE PARTS OF OURSELVES WE’RE DENYING Christianity runs deep. It’s not for those who prefer to smile and go about their day suffering in silence. Jesus didn’t tell us to pick up our cross and hide behind it, but to pick it up and follow Him (Matthew 16:24). After all, Christianity isn’t a religion of… Read More Picking Up Our Cross… Denying Ourselves Is Just the Beginning: Part 1
GOD’S TRUTH IS NOT OURS One of the truths about Christianity that calls to my soul is that it’s not about “feeling good,” it’s about knowing the Truth, and choosing to let the Truth set us free by embracing the way God’s love for us doesn’t leave us the same when we choose the Truth… Read More Not a Feel-Good Religion, But a Call To Arms
OUR DESIRES WILL CHANGE The journey of seeking the Kingdom of God isn’t a label, it’s an ongoing process towards a destination. Jesus tells us to seek God’s Kingdom first (above all else) and our desires will be added to us (Matthew 6:33). In other words, once we’ve established God’s Kingdom as our destination (our… Read More Seeking the Kingdom of God FIRST: What It Means to Let the Dead Bury the Dead
FAITH THAT SURVIVES THE STORMS OF LIFE What do we think of when we hear the words, “Knowing God’s heart”? In fact, what is God’s heart if God is only spirit (John 4:24)? Our understanding of what it means to know God’s heart is critical not only to comprehending the core of the Christian faith,… Read More Knowing God’s Heart: The Core of Our Most Foundational Relationship
WILLFUL NEGLIGENCE It’s far too easy to live a non-challenging life. Let me be clear about what I mean by this. As humans created in the image of God, we have a responsibility to make use of every gift and skill set we’ve been blessed with to nourish, enhance, and uplift the lives of others… Read More The Challenged Life: Where Joy Coexists With Consequences
REBORN BY A PRIVATE CHOICE By itself, being raised going to church doesn’t make any person a Christian. A Christian isn’t defined by church attendance. A Christ-follower is any person whose heart has been reborn by choosing Jesus as Lord, through faith; a private choice they make in their heart, which becomes the choice they… Read More Candid & Necessary: What Does It Really Mean to Be Raised in the Church?
A NEW REALITY Have you ever been so sure of something about your life or yourself that you didn’t even have to think about it, where the “knowing” was just a part of your reality? Or, have you ever connected with something so deeply, such as with knowledge or relationship itself, that it felt like… Read More This Is How We Die to Ourselves
ONE DIRECTION OR THE OTHER At its roots, Christianity isn’t about feelings or thoughts, it’s all about the heart. In the same way Christianity is all about the heart at its roots, disbelief is all about the self. When we say no to God, we’re saying yes to ourselves, and vice versa; when we deny… Read More Beneath All the Minutia: The Only Right Way to Choose God
CHRISTIAN AT MIND BUT NOT AT HEART There are those of us who consider ourselves Christians simply because we agree there is a God, and we believe in our mind that Jesus rose from the dead. And while the mind may like the idea of Christianity and find it interesting, the heart doesn’t always follow… Read More Repentance, Hope & Fire: The Marks of a Changed Heart
