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

                                       There are  many interpretations of what it means to worship God. Some people bow down, others lay on their face, some people lift their hands or close their eyes.  Some people worship by singing or dancing.  To me worship can be all of these things.  The point of my worship is to reflect on the character and identity of God and show him my love for him.  I can do that with a drawing or in a moment of meditation.  Sometimes I worship in my dreams.  Worship is especially important to me when I am struggling to understand what is happening in my life or the world around me.  As I remind myself of who God is, it helps me to put pain, loss, disappointment in it's proper place.  My God is not ill equipped or caught off gu...

GET A PRAYER SHEET AND START PRAYING, THERE IS STILL TIME

I am so grateful for my mother who allowed me to be myself even when it meant climbing trees, or playing football(America) and futbol.  I was not a girly little girl, or teenager.  I was sporty, outspoken, and rebellious against the idea that all girls should be subdued and domestic.  There is nothing wrong with being subdued and domestic, it's just that I didn't feel that is was right or necessary for those attributes to be thrust onto me by people who didn't care who I really was.  I used to hate being a girl because in my mind it meant skirts and stocking, sewing and makeup.  Fortunately my mother decided that she would give me the foundations of what I had to know to survive as a girl, and then let me be who I am, as long as it was respectful, decent, and didn't dishonor God or put me at too much risk. My childhood and continuing into my adulthood I have grown to believe that God created genders to complement each other and to create a more vivid picture...

So I was thinking about the major decisions that I've made in my life, and it hit me like a brick that every bad choice that I made started out with a small taste of bad.  What I mean is that every evil in me started off smaller and then grew to something even uglier because I entertained it by giving in.  My most visible failures were sexual and so I'll focus on that today, but what I am saying is applicable to every lust that draws us away from the will of God for our lives.      I would like to first say that we are all born with a sinful nature.  We are born into sin, and that is why we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  It's why babies are cute little selfish liars without being taught.  It's in our nature to look out for ourselves at any cost.  It is also why some people are so impatient and easily angered.  It's the reason why some people just love to fight and steal.  It's the reason why most of us have...

   Often times I will stall my life when it came to making important decisions.  When I have a fork in the road, I weigh the pro's and con's of each path set before me, and I look for the wisdom of God to help me make the right turns on my life journey.  There is a scripture that says that "my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:" John 10:27.  I find that my greatest triumphs and biggest failures have been directly proportioned to my willingness to get quiet before God and listen for his instruction.      If we can not discern the voice of God, it is not for his lack of speaking but our lack of hearing. John 10:27 says that God's sheep know his voice, and this means that God talks in ways that we can hear him.  God has not left us without any help to walk this journey of faith that we are on.  He has left us his word and his holy spirit to teach us, guild us, comfort us, and convict us. It is up to us to study and...

This made me cry, but it helps me to remember how significant the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was.  If he had chosen to live, we all would have been doomed to eternally be separated from God. He died so that we might live.  This is the greatest act of love that anyone could do. 

      Walls have varying purpose including protection, support, warning, and intimidation.  Walls are  not malleable, they either stand or fall.  Walls are meant to make the statement, "Do not pass." When I think about the walls of Jericho and how the obedience of God's people brought the walls down without a single act of violence, I am encouraged.       For seven days people walked silently around the walls of Jericho, and on the seventh day they walked around it seven times and then shouted.  At that moment it didn't matter how tall the walls were, how thick they were, how fortified they were.  Those walls could not stand up to the faith and obedience of God's people.  This shows me that it is the will and the way of God to work miracles for the people who call on his name in faith. Active faith caused the walls of Jericho fall down at the shouts of God's people.    ...