Journal of Faith: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling Philippians 2:12

If you look in my bible verse app on the blog page you may notice Phillipians 1:6. I have had the both exciting and scary experience of seeing things come about in my life that I had no part in.  Unexpected opportunities and blessings show the loving guidance of God in my life.  They also tempt the controller in me to take hold of the situation to better manage and "maximize" the opportunity.  I felt the Lord telling me today that if he is doing something in my life to simply step aside and watch the show.  This is so hard for me to do, but if God starts it surely he has a plan to finish it too. Lord help us all to rest in the assurance that you won't leave us hanging or sell us short.  It's amazing how we humanize God sometimes, but I am grateful that God is God and not man. He is perfect and he does all things well.  All I have to do is obey his instruction and keep my hands out of his work. 

I've heard so many pastors say "It's already done." People wave, shout, and high five like it's Christmas.  You'd be hard pressed to find someone who showed any form of confusion or curiosity about such a provocative statement.  Have you ever had one of those elementary moments where you know you should just nod along with everyone else that may or may not understand what was just said, but decide not to? The little girl in me started to ask recently about this statement in curiosity.  Young Faith running around inside of me stopped the other day to ask "what's done?  I'm still going through so much, and I know so little. I still have so many decisions to make.  How can I be done?"  She is so analytical and deductive.  The grown up conversation might be the discussion of choice vs. fate.   Do we decide how our lives will go or does God?  This is deep stuff.  We discussed this subject in a Theology class of mine in college.  My pro...

I am starting to understand what my great-grandmother meant when she said I want to go home.  She was tired of being in this world, and quite honestly so am I.  To be here has many blessing, but the greatest blessing is to be with the Lord.  The only reason that I am still in this world is because of my purpose.  If we only existed to know God then when we got saved we would immediately be taken to heaven.  Since I am still here there has to be more to my life then simply getting saved.  My only way out of here now is to fulfill my purpose, and so I am tunneling my vision this year to really dig into my purpose.  The most basic of purposes for any Christian is to tell others about God and show them God's love.  We all might do it in a different way, but if you are wondering what you're purpose is it's basically to introduce Jesus into people's contemplation.  God reveals to us the details of our mission as our relationship with him grows and ...

 Laws are simply rules that make the culture of a society; they are a system that people must operate in if they are to live effectively within the community.  Every society has its rules of engagement, and the Kingdom of God is no different.  In the old testament Joshua was encouraged to not let the law leave from his sight so that they would have good success (Joshua 1:8). We also see that there were terrible consequences to not following the law.  Two of Aaron's sons died because they sent up strange incense that was out of order in the Lord's tabernacle. Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land because he let his anger get the best of him. David's child with Bathsheba died because he took her from her husband and had him killed. The old Testament laws were inescapable and deadly if you deviated. The Lord himself had to follow his laws too. In order to save us God had to go through the universal sin equation ,sin=death, lawfully.  We haven't evaded...

I decided a while ago to not complain about being single.  I have a wonderful family that supports me and helps me with my son.  I have a wonderful church family that values me and loves my son and I like they've known us forever.  I even have school friends that are praying for me and I feel it.  There are times like today, however, that really push me.  Everyone in my family got upset and everyone had someone to speak with that was in their struggle with them but me.  Who do I speak to when I am hurting or don't understand something or angry?  I don't have anyone to talk to that won't walk away from me.  This is why singleness brings people to their knees.  I can only talk to God.  There is no one else for me.  As much as I love my parents and my siblings there are certain things that I can't talk to them about.  There are certain things that they won't get no matter how I try to help them understand.  None of them are l...

It amazes me how God goes out of the way to bless us.  He went out of his way to bless me today already.  There was something that I had need for my devotion times and reflection, and I almost forgot that thing all together because of other things that seemed to matter more.  I had been substituting all kinds of things for this item and didn't even make a plan to correct the situation.  Fortunately for me God saw my need even when I chose to skip it.  He set what I needed literally right in front of me, and used someone who loved me to facilitate my blessing.  They didn't know what I needed, and I didn't know that it was there for me.  I just looked up, and there it was.  I didn't even recognize it at first, but as I put my hand to it I realized that I had just picked up exactly what I needed.  I am so excited about my new journal.  I know you all are probably laughing at me right now, but sometimes things just seem too small to bother G...

  This is the message I've heard twice now in my worship time.  I am not completely sure what area of my life the holy spirit is referring to, but the message has been clear.  Love more not less.  I suppose when a context is not give it means in all things.  It is kind of like when Jesus told the parable of the good neighbor also known as the good Samaritan.  When a man asked Jesus concerning loving our neighbor as ourselves "who is my neighbor?"  Jesus responded with this story and then simply told the man to be like the good Samaritan.  I suppose Jesus was answering the more appropriate question.  "How do I become a good neighbor?"  So I guess my question to God is "how do I love when I am hurt?" The Lord has called us all to love more and not less, but situations challenge our resolve in this matter.This is especially true in situations where we are hurt.  Broken relationships tempt me to withdraw from people who could be a ...