Archive for faith
Finding Faith to Go On
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When you find yourself with your hopes and dreams lying in a million pieces around your feet, can you find the faith to go on? I found myself in that place about three and a half years ago. Every time I reference the story, I count the years, months, and days since the dam broke and my life was flooded with the violent waters of trouble. There seems to be some kind of solace in making that time further and further away from today. But in another way, my life will always be referenced from that point.
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Is God Involved in Your Daily Life?
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Do you feel that God hears your prayers? Can you see evidence that He is working in your life? Is He really involved?
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How Can You Keep On Keeping On When Life is Difficult?
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John Eldredge captured the feeling we all have at times when he said that sometimes life feels like a long, brutal assault against one’s heart. Try as we might to explain it away, perhaps the best summary is that life is not what God originally intended. The Fall of Man continues to have rippling effects on all of humanity, and we find ourselves in a less than perfect world with less than perfect people, including ourselves!
The present result of living in a fallen world is often pain, discouragement, and difficulty. We know that God has come to us, offering redemption in our daily lives through Christ and setting in place the ultimate redemption of all when Christ returns. Yet in the meantime, we often find ourselves hurt and misunderstood and having hurt others.
How can we care for others and our own hearts in the midst of pain and suffering?
Jesus gave keys to his disciples in John 14 as he prepared their hearts for the difficult days ahead.
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” You have a part in guarding your own heart from discouragement. Note that I didn’t say you could necessarily guard your heart from difficulty. Jesus was not offering an exemption from the difficult days which lay ahead of the disciples; he was offering an anchor for the storm.
Proverbs 4:23 tells us to guard our heart above all else because from it, all of our life flows.
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Are You Ready to Take a Risk?
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To live is to risk, and it’s been that way since day one. God put Adam and Eve in the Garden and gave them a choice. Religion often finds this uncomfortable at best and unacceptable at worst. Oh, no religious system would declare openly that God was wrong, but their practices and rules say that they disagree with God on this matter.
Herein lies one of the differences of religion and spirituality. As I explore God and others and my own life through spirituality, I can risk. I can expand my boundaries. I can look at you and draw the good out of you and your life, apply it to my own, and still not totally agree with everything you are and everything you believe.
Religion, on the other hand, says, “You must be just like me.” Religion narrows our focus and our ability to take a risk.
I know a few of you are already ready to throw rocks at me, but stay with me for a minute or two. Take a risk.
We as Christian say that we place the ultimate value on freedom, yet freedom often makes us very uncomfortable. If we allow people in our churches to be free, they might do something or say something or believe something that is WRONG, something that makes us look bad, something that stains our reputations. Duh, that happens anyway!
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The Life of Faith
Posted by: | CommentsMore than once Jesus told his disciples to follow him. For the disciples to follow Jesus, they had to embrace a lot of change. Change in their everyday lifestyle. Vocational change. Change in family relationships. Change in religious beliefs. But those changes were a really just a reflection of deep inner change.
Signing up to follow Jesus means signing up for a lifetime of change. Change of heart. Jesus spoke so often about the heart because it is central to everything. What we do and say and believe and teach and model all flow from our hearts.
On one occasion, Jesus got into a boat and his disciples followed him. Sounds fun, huh? A day at sea or a journey to the other side. A huge storm suddenly appeared and the disciples found themselves in a boat which was literally becoming covered with waves. I would be afraid, wouldn’t you? They naturally looked to their leader. He was asleep. I don’t think they hesitated to wake him up. They said, “Lord, don’t you care that we are dying?” Makes sense to me. They have committed their lives to following Jesus. They followed him into this boat. A storm has arisen. Jesus must be unaware. After all, he is asleep.
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