Tag: christian encouragement

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I Used to Skinny Dip. Now I Chunky Dunk.

If you’ve read some of my previous posts and suspected that I’m crazy, you’ll be sure of it after this one. Stick with me though, it’s going somewhere.

For a few summers in high school and college, I worked at a Christian conference center. The summer staff, made up mostly of teenagers, lived on the campus and did a variety of jobs during the summer. “Summer staff” made for lots of fun memories. The days were long, but the weeks (and summers) were short.

I don’t know if this still happens today, but back then the girls had a tradition where, once a summer, they’d sneak out after curfew and hit the pool for some late-night skinny dipping. Every summer, the morning after the annual excursion happened, the guys would be disappointed because it had gone on right under our noses, while we were sleeping, and we hadn’t even been aware that it was happening. (We caught them in the act the previous summer, but I was on crutches, so I couldn’t play much of a role in it.) It was a huge morale boost for the ladies to get away with something so dangerous, and it would temporarily suck the morale right out of the guys’ side of the dorm.

Well, the following summer I was a counselor, so the curfew wasn’t an issue for me. It would have been fun to catch the girls in the act, but it would’ve been impossible to keep watch every night of the summer. Rather than have the guys stay up late trying to catch the girls (and making it tougher to stay healthy in the process), I decided I would instead try to deter the girls from sneaking out for their annual tradition. A few complete coincidences worked in my favor, and I probably went a little overboard further developing my “unhinged” persona. One time, by complete luck, while I was locking up the kitchen at night, I looked out the window and saw three of the summer staff girls running out of the dorm toward the kitchen, for what I can only guess was the need to raid the fridge. I couldn’t resist the opportunity. That night when I had entered the kitchen, I didn’t turn on any of the lights, so I was walking around in the dark. I hid and waited silently. Sure enough, the three came sneaking in without turning on the lights. As they drew near, I jumped out from wherever I was hiding and yelled “YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE IN HERE!” They screamed in absolute terror and ran out with their hair standing straight up. Hopefully they got a snack somewhere else.

Now, you have to understand that back then, I had more enthusiasm and energy than direction. I got a little crazier and, in my exuberance, I dug up a camouflage military uniform that I would put on as it drew near the time for lights out. Sometimes the camo makeup went on, too. I’d let everyone see me in it, and the impression everyone got was that even as everyone was going to bed, I was heading outside into the dark to do Heaven-only-knows what. I wouldn’t do this every night, but I did it often enough to keep would-be curfew breakers guessing whether or not I was out there waiting for them. It was a page from Bruce Wayne’s book.

In full summer camo one night…

Another complete coincidence worked in my favor. Sometimes I really would head outside, all dressed in camo. My main purpose was merely to be seen heading out into the darkness, but since I didn’t want to be seen coming right back in again, I had to stay out for awhile. Most of the time I just found a comfy place to lay down in the grass, and in truth I enjoyed the quiet and stillness of the normally busy place while I was out there. Sometimes I fell asleep. One time, though, as I turned the corner of a building, I came across four of the staff girls, just sitting on the grass overlooking the pool, breaking curfew. At least one of them was someone that I had earlier caught sneaking into the kitchen. They weren’t doing anything wrong (other than being out after curfew), but to them it seemed like I just…knew when they were out there doing something they shouldn’t be doing.

This is the winter version; blowing my nose wiped off part of the makeup, but when I painted up it looked like this

The end result of all this was that I cultivated an impression that just wasn’t true, and it ended up influencing others’ behavior in a way that I wanted. There were countless nights where they could’ve made it to the pool without any problem at all, but it was the fear of some weirdo in camouflage hiding in the bushes that kept them from taking part in the adventure they wanted to be a part of. More often than not, I was actually asleep in my bed way before lights out, but without knowing that truth, late-night pool adventures got postponed.

Here’s where we “land the plane” on this entry. As Christians, we have an enemy that cultivates the same kind of image. If you’re a Jesus-follower, you have the unimaginable power of the Holy Spirit residing in you, but if your enemy can intimidate you into entertaining or giving in to your doubts, he’s effectively countered the power you have inside you. In military terms, he’s negated your will or capacity to fight, even though you’re equipped to dominate.

It’s all just clever tricks and deception. Remember the truth: as a Christian, you are more than a conqueror! Don’t be held captive by lies! Not only do you have defensive armor available to you, but you have the greatest offensive weapon there is…the Sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:10-18). Properly prepared, you can walk boldly and confidently into a spiritual battle and emerge victorious. Think of it this way: if you don’t have the will to fight, the enemy can use the resources he would have used on you…somewhere else. Make no mistake: he’s going to use them, if not on you, then on someone else. If you and the Holy Spirit combat those forces, you are fighting back against the darkness and tying up enemy forces, enabling relief elsewhere. (See Daniel 10:1-14 for an example where this happened to an angel.)

The Prince of Darkness excels in lying and deception. Do you believe the lies he wants you to believe, or are you willing to trust God’s truth? Don’t believe the lies. Get up and get in the fight.

In a couple of weeks I hope to start a series on some more of the tactics Satan uses against you. Subscribe today to be sure you don’t miss it!

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Sad Update

Hi everyone, just a sad, quick update. A few weeks ago I mentioned Molly, a little 7-year-old warrior fighting for her life in the hospital. I’m very sad to report that this morning she passed from this life into the next.

God was gracious, and even though it’s been very difficult, I consider myself blessed to have been able to follow her story. In their updates, the family mentioned that every time they put out an urgent call for prayer, there was an improvement in Molly’s condition a short time later. An army of prayer warriors did what they could, but in the end, God wanted Molly in Heaven more than he wanted her here.

Please pray for the Ingram family, who, I have to imagine, is shattered, exhausted, confused, and has been focused on nothing else for the past month or so and now has to deal with the insulting reality that the world continues to turn even though their lives have been turned upside-down. Molly leaves behind a Mom, Dad, and little sister Sunny.

Molly, for those of us who trust in Christ as Savior, we’ll see you on the other side; it just hurts that we have to wait until then. Thanks for touching so many lives.

Lord Jesus, we don’t understand, but we know you’re good. May your name be praised, and may you bring good out of this somehow.

For additional info, please see Molly’s Belly Blog on Facebook. (You’ll have to request access, but it shouldn’t be an issue.) Also feel free to check out the Team Ingram Blood Donation Group in honor of Molly.

The most recent Belly Blog entry breaking the tough news from her dad, Cam:

5-Jul, 5:55AM (Hour 0)

Molly Alice Ingram was met at the heavenly gates by Jesus, who took her in his arms and said “well done, my good and faithful child.”

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Someone Call Security

Consider this paragraph a brief public service announcement: The major news outlets seem to have perfected the art of presenting lots of material that evokes powerful emotions without giving many facts. That being the case, I’d encourage you to limit the amount of time you spend watching the news (if it’s important enough, you’ll find out about it). I’m not encouraging ignorance, I’m simply noting that when there are few facts to present, you don’t need all the conjecture that gets you amped up in the process. If anxiety is a problem for you, I can just about guarantee this will help you out. Anyway, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share something a little more lighthearted.

My wife is one of four sisters, all of whom are married. At one point three of those sisters were married to men in the Air Force. As you might imagine, Uncle Sam has a way of scattering military folks around the country (and sometimes the globe). As a result, it’s not easy to arrange family get-togethers where everyone is present, and sometimes we can go for years without seeing certain family members in person.

When we found out one of my far-flung brothers-in-law was going to be flying through our area on his way to a deployment overseas, we decided to go meet him on his last layover before leaving the states. The logistics weren’t going to work out to bring him back to our place, so we collectively decided we’d go hang out at a mall near the airport and go out to eat while we were together. Some malls are great for sitting around and relaxing while others aren’t. We weren’t familiar with this mall, so after we picked him up from the airport we just sort of showed up at the mall and started walking around.

At the time we had two young kiddos who were generally well-behaved, but they would only stay happy for so long unless we found something to keep them occupied. We figured there had to be a play place around somewhere nearby, but for some reason the mall directory in this particular mall was very difficult to find. We found a spot with games and flashing lights that would keep the kids occupied for a little while, then my brother-in-law and I parted ways with my wife and kids and set out looking either for a playground or a mall directory.

We turned past a few corners and walked down a few hallways, but still couldn’t find anything helpful. Mindful that the clock was ticking and that walking around a mall like this was probably not going to make the start of a deployment any less stressful, I decided to go against the male instinct and ask for directions.

I spotted a mall cop standing on one of those motorized Segues. I didn’t think about it until after the words came out of my mouth, but I probably got us onto mall security’s radar screen. If you were a mall cop, what would you think if two thirty-something dudes with military haircuts and generally humorless demeanors walk up to you and say “hey man, where do the kids hang out in this mall?”

I haven’t been back to that mall since then, but if I did, I wouldn’t be surprised if I were tailed by my own personal mall cop soon after being identified.

Strange story, I know. Just meant to give you a chuckle. Anyway, it’s rough out there these days, but don’t let that steal your joy in Christ. Your joy in Christ is one of the things that will attract nonbelievers to the light you have inside you, especially during difficult times. Don’t let stuff get you down, because in times like this, your joy shines bright, and people need that right now.

Take care of yourselves and take care of each other.

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How Can a Rational Person be a Christian?

So you’re a Christian, huh? You seem like a pretty rational person other than the fact that you believe the universe and mankind were created in seven 24-hour days less than 10,000 years ago, that a 500-year-old man built a huge boat and then went out and gathered two of every kind of animal in the world onto it, that a big fish swallowed a dude and swam around with him alive in its belly for three days before vomiting him up unharmed, and that a virgin gave birth to the Messiah, who was able to turn water into wine, walk on water, and raise himself from the dead. But yeah, other than that you seem pretty rational.

Why on earth would any reasonable person become a Christian?

It’s okay to have and explore questions like this, because if you can’t provide a response, how will skeptics in your life ever learn the truth? This is the “mind” part of when Christ stated the importance of loving the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind. I’ll share a little bit about one thing that helps assure me that God is out there and that He’s in charge of history.

People that aren’t familiar with the Bible usually don’t understand that it’s not a monolith. It’s not a huge book that was written by a single author. It consists of 66 books written by nearly 40 authors, spread out over the course of hundreds of years (with a big gap between the Old and New Testaments).

Aside from the events that took place in the Bible, there are a lot of “nonreligious” things that happened in history. Think about major international news events of the modern era. World War II took place; men landed on the moon; the Berlin Wall came down; 9/11 happened; Russia annexed Crimea; and the Chicago Cubs finally won the World Series. In the same way that those events can all be verified outside of religion, there are plenty of other writers outside the Bible that captured some of the world’s major events that the Bible wrote about.

Can you imagine if someone predicted all those major events I just mentioned decades, or even hundreds of years before they happened, with a decent amount of specificity? It would surely raise a few eyebrows, and odds are you’d be curious to take a look at the other things the author wrote.

That’s exactly what happens in the book of Daniel. It predicted the rise and fall of several empires, and even described each of them to some degree. Daniel predicted the then-future (which is our history), and now in hindsight we are able to corroborate from non-biblical sources the accuracy of those predictions. That’s like Abraham Lincoln stating that Tom Brady would one day join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers…before the sport of football had even been invented. We can look in history books to verify that the Babylonian Empire was captured by the Persian Empire, who then fell to Alexander the Great, and upon his death the territory he’d conquered got split up into four different regions and was given to four of his generals. We hear of an unbelievably arrogant king that we learn from extra-biblical sources to be Antiochus IV Epiphenes. Daniel chapter 11 discusses some of the efforts at diplomacy and trickery between some of these four. Then the book describes events that are still in our future.

When you consider the magnitude of what this represents, you begin to understand that the book of Daniel is about much more than a story about a lion’s den. If you study the book of Daniel closely, you see that it laid out the future with a startling amount of detail. To anyone alive during the time Daniel’s prophecies came true, imagine the credibility his writings gained. Wouldn’t you want to learn more about what Daniel said and how he knew the future? Daniel pointed straight to God and gave Him the glory for being able to control and know the future.

This is only one case of how common sense and logical thought build a case for the idea that there’s more than what we can see. Put them together and the case starts to get pretty strong. How can a rational person be a Christian? How can you not at least consider it?

Mr. Spock: one of the most rational (half) people I know. Courtesy of Pinterest.

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Planned Obsolescence

Ever notice how you can say “they just don’t make it like they used to” about a lot of things?

For example, my parents have a clothes dryer that’s older than me. It’s complained a bit every now and then, but the thing is built like a tank and is still going after a few fixes. Modern ones seem to break if you look at them the wrong way.

Newer cars seem to fall apart much easier than the ones from, say, 30 years ago. What used to be fixed by a good hit with a ball peen hammer now requires more genteel computer diagnostics to figure anything out before you can start to make repairs.

I don’t know if this is true or not, but I heard that back in the 1940s and 50s, women’s pantyhose was of such high quality that the manufacturers worried they weren’t selling enough to sustain their businesses. Their product was so good that after a woman bought some, she didn’t need any more for a long time.

Enter the idea of planned obsolescence, or the intentional use of lower quality materials and construction to shorten the lifespan of a product in an effort to induce consumers to buy more of them. If it falls apart sooner, you’ll end up buying more units than you otherwise would have.

Here’s an odd thought: what if we are the lower-quality product? In 2017 the average life expectancy for Americans was 78.54 years. By comparison, at that point in Moses’ life, he hadn’t even stood before Pharaoh yet. Abraham didn’t have his first child until he was 86, and then he lived about 90 years beyond that. Noah was over 500 years old when he started building the ark, was 600 when the flood started, and he lived another 350 years beyond that until he was 950 years old! This was before antibiotics, nutritional supplements, and the medical knowledge we enjoy today. My friends, you and I are some of the best examples of planned obsolescence I can think of.

Even great figures of Biblical history are shuffled off the stage of God’s theater. Consider King David. Though flawed, he was one of the most genuine and passionate characters in the whole Bible. He’s the stuff legends are made of; as a youngster he vanquished a giant professional soldier with a sling and a rock, then went on to lead raids of enemy camps with ragtag mercenaries as his companions. Although defined as a man of war, his zeal for the Lord led him to set the stage for Solomon’s construction of the Temple by collecting an unbelievable amount of precious metals and other materials. Jesus came from the line of David, for goodness’ sake! At the end of his life, he was unquestionably recognized as a giant of the Faith. Yet even he was just a man, and was intended to play a small role in God’s overall plan. In spite of all his accomplishments, listen to how David is described in Acts 13:36:

“Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed.”

“Falling asleep” in the Bible is usually a euphemism for dying. That’s not the interesting thing though. There are a few different things we can take from this verse, but the two I want to focus on are 1. that he served God’s purpose “in his own generation,” and 2. when he had fulfilled God’s reason for putting him here on Earth, he moved on into eternity.

To the first point, can you imagine if you lived during a different time period? You could have lived 4,000 years ago, or you could have been placed on hold and not made your debut here on Earth for another 200 years. God put you in the here and now intentionally. You are a part of “your generation” because you are to fulfill God’s purpose within it. I don’t know what that purpose is and you might not either, but the fact that you’re reading this right now, today, means you probably weren’t born before 1940 or so. The “today” you see is not an accident or a random assignment, you belong here.

To the second point, you’re here on Earth to do whatever God put you here to do, and you might not be going anywhere until you do it. At some point after that He’ll escort you from this life, but it could be seconds or decades between when you “complete your mission” and you make your departure. To throw a curveball at the situation: almost none of us know with full certainty what our specific purpose is or when we’ll accomplish it.

Zooming back out to the big picture and our limited time on Earth, it seems we might be a little bit more like an aging toaster than we care to admit. We can tell when things are getting toward the end, but most of us can’t predict when we’re toasting our last bagel.

What are we to do then? I’ll summarize it as best I can:

Love God ferociously and use the talents, resources, and circumstances He’s matched you up with to make a positive difference in people’s lives, all the while giving the glory to Him. You will fall, you will have self doubts, and in many cases you will fail. There may be more bad days than good days, but you have been placed here, at this exact point in history, to make an eternal difference in some way.

There’s a song we’ve all heard a million times; it’s one we usually hear in December, but its message fits with the core of this post. If you were meeting the newborn King of Kings, and you simply couldn’t compete with the expensive gifts that others brought, one of the best things you could do is use the talents He’s given you to make Him smile. Isn’t that what we’re all after? (There’s a fun version of this song below.)  

Do your best to serve God’s purpose in your generation.

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I Hear What You’re Saying, But…

If I told you I’m a parent, you’d probably believe me, but it’s not the same thing as seeing evidence that I’m a parent.

I came home from work one day and saw a Frisbee on the roof over our garage. We often have misspelled words and stick figures drawn in different colors of chalk on our driveway or sidewalk. In the summertime I often see little bits of broken water balloons on our porch. Inside the house, the living room is seldom “all the way” cleaned up, even if we tell the kids to make it “Mommy and Daddy mode.”

We have kids, and there are signs of them everywhere. (It’s unquestionably a good thing, even though sometimes there are a few too many signs.)

These things, in and of themselves, are not proof that I’m a parent. To an observer though, these signs make the notion a lot more believable.

There’s something similar when it comes to Christianity. If you claim to be a Christian, yet you haven’t changed at all from the way you were before joining the faith, something’s probably not quite right.

Galations 5:22-23 describes the qualities that a Christian will develop over time. The author’s not saying that only a Christian could have these qualities, but, in the same way that the Frisbee on my roof is probably there because of a kid rather than an adult, a Christian’s life will contain signs, indicators, or evidence of the faith they’re claiming.

When someone accepts Christ, at that moment the Holy Spirit sets up shop in that person’s life. What does that mean? It means that from that moment on, God starts working on changing your attitude to be more like His. I heard someone say once that God accepts you for who you are, but He loves you too much to leave you that way.

My mom used to have a tee shirt with a three-by-three grid on it. Inside each box was a picture of some kind of fruit, but instead of labeling them “grapes” or “watermelon,” they’d say things like “patience” and “self control.” These nine things (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control) collectively make up what the Bible calls “the fruit of the Spirit.”

Having these fruits is not something that happens quickly. Fruit takes a long time to grow. You can’t put in a weekend of intensive Bible reading and prayer and have these things spring forth in your life; it takes time. The outcome of being a Christian and continuously pursuing a relationship with Christ is a life that is characterized by these nine fruits.

Consider taking a closer look at these traits. Is there one (or several) that you’d like to develop or increase in your walk with Christ?

Happy birthday Mom! Love ya!

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When a Fail is a Win

Strange times we’re in. While there are many people that no longer have the job they held a month or two ago, many others now work from home. For those folks, the reality is that sometimes they just can’t produce the same quality from home that they’re able to at their normal place of business. I don’t advocate for shoddy workmanship, but it’s important to understand that if you’ve turned in low-quality work of some kind, all is not lost.

We’ve heard many times that God can take terrible things and use them for good. It’s like saying God loves us. We’ve heard it so many times we lose our appreciation for what it means. What if I told you there’s a story in the Bible where God used someone’s poor-quality work to both glorify Himself and accomplish His will at the same time? That might make you feel better when you’re unable to produce the same quality of work you’re accustomed to turning in.

There’s a story in 1 Kings 20 that has a funny little twist. The Bible often glosses over big events in a very short amount of time, and if you blink, you’ll miss it. In this case, the Israelites were at war with a numerically superior foe, the Arameans. Verse 27 says that the Israelites were like two little flocks of goats, but the Arameans covered the countryside.

The Lord was kinda mad at the Arameans in this engagement, so he enabled the Israelites to cut down 100,000 of their enemy in one day, and verse 30 says that the rest fled into a nearby city. Here’s where you’ll miss it if you blink: “But the rest fled to Aphek into the city, and the wall fell on 27,000 men who were left.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen a wall large enough to fall on 27,000 men. In order to have a wall that big fall on so many people at once, we’re talking about failure at a spectacular level. The book doesn’t say anything about how that wall was constructed or what made it collapse; we just know that it happened, it was bad news for the Arameans, and it was all part of God’s plan.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not condoning work that’s intentionally sloppy or poor. If you can’t meet the level of what you’re ordinarily capable of though, do the best you can. There may be a divine purpose for that imperfection later on down the line.

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Brainstorm!

I don’t know if you or I are going to make it through this COVID-19 thing. I bet that we will, though.

How do Christians band together in a time of social distancing and self-quarantines? It’s an interesting question, and it’s going to take some innovative thinking. This is where the world needs your help.

Ordinarily the term “disruptive” has a negative connotation. “He’s disruptive in class,” etc. That’s not the only meaning of the word, thankfully. “Disruption” can also mean an upsetting of established norms in such a way that it forces a new norm. It’s what happened when motorized vehicles replaced horses. Digital cameras replaced film cameras. Cell phones took over for landlines. Amazon.com came on the scene and drove a lot of brick and mortar stores out of business. The people behind these seismic shifts are known as “disruptors.”

Coronavirus has certainly upended large portions of our lives and caused us to have to readjust in major ways. Schools and colleges are all of a sudden shutting their doors for the rest of the year. Churches are canceling in-person services. Bible studies and prayer meetings can no longer meet in the traditional sense.

People don’t usually like change. Well, this time around, a virus is forcing change on us all. Things are changing so fast that we don’t yet have established “norms” in the wake of this pandemic. For a lot of folks a major burden of our new reality is the loneliness and lack of in-person human contact.

We were created to be social beings. It’s simply how God made us. Some people need social interaction a lot more than others, but we all need it to some degree. When we’re suddenly unable to socialize in the ways to which we’re accustomed, it’s a major shock for a lot of folks. As Christians, we’re often reminded in scripture to meet together regularly, to “do life” together, and build one another up.

How do we do that when we can’t meet in person? I’ve watched church on my computer for the past two Sundays. I heard recently about a church that held a service at a drive-in movie theater. I think that’s a fantastic idea, but those facilities are not as common as they once were.

This is where you come in. I’m challenging you to think like a disruptor. Because this is an actual problem the world currently faces, I’d really like to encourage you to provide comments here. Here’s your challenge:

How can people still meet together to build one another up without physically being closer than six feet?

Technology is a mixed bag. Now we can have meetings without even being near the other attendees. You have Zoom, Facetime, and Skype, and those are incredibly valuable tools in some respects. Connecting two users isn’t difficult, but it gets a little more complicated if you want to have a dozen people in the same meeting. Also, when you’re stuck in your home, it’s a poor substitute if you’re facing anxiety or depression (to be sure, it’s better than nothing!). What other ways can we leverage technology to decrease isolation? Please post your thoughts!

The phone also works. I’m talking about actual voice calls. Everyone has phones, but nobody calls anymore. For some people, chatting on the phone versus sending an email or text goes a long way.

Then you have in-person meetings. These days I yell to my neighbors from across the street. It doesn’t quite have to be that far, but if you want to honor the authorities’ guidelines of having meetings no larger than 10 people, no closer than six feet together, is there a way to make that happen feasibly? This might be a ridiculous mental image, but it’s a thought-prompt; is there a way to have a dozen people sit close together by building little plexiglass “cells” (imagine a scene from a TV show or movie where someone is visiting someone else in prison)? What if a dozen cars came together in a circle in an otherwise empty church parking lot and everyone on the driver’s side of the car rolled down their windows to have a discussion? (That circle is probably a little too big and everyone would need hearing aids and megaphones, but can we make the idea work somehow?)

I don’t know what the answer is, I’m just trying to get the creative juices going. Right now Christians (and non-Christians, for that matter) need ways of meeting together and helping each other up after they fall or get knocked down. A lot has happened, and a lot of change has been forced on us. How can we implement change on our own to make this situation a little more bearable, especially for the people that need to be around other people?

“How does my idea help?” Well, you’re reading this, aren’t you? I don’t normally have a huge readership, but you’re not the only one that reads this. Your idea, even if it’s incomplete, can spark an idea for someone else. Let’s say you have no ideas. That’s okay, you can still help crack the code on this problem. Will you pass this entry on, either by forwarding it to someone or sharing it on your social media?

You are a string, but we are a rope. We WILL get through this…maybe in part by using your ideas.

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What is a Life Verse?

I believe all scripture is God-inspired and useful for Christian instruction/education in some respect. I’ll also acknowledge, though, that some portions of it resonate more strongly than others.

Ever read a verse (or group of verses) that really jump out at you? It’s as if that section applies directly to you, and God had you in mind when He inspired the author to write it down. It might be that this section of scripture can be identified as your life verse. A life verse is a verse in the Bible that speaks to you in a profound way, somehow has special meaning to you personally, or otherwise reaches you in ways that other areas of scripture do not.

Sometimes you hear another person’s life verse and you can totally see how it fits them. It makes so much sense that they would have that verse memorized! Just because they claim it as their life verse does not mean it’s exclusively theirs, though. I like to think that if someone has selected a life verse that fits well, it helps illustrate that verse’s meaning to others, who then internalize and appreciate it in a new way. In this manner, a person can become a living illustration to others of what God meant when He inspired that particular verse. In the hopes that that’s true, I’d like to share my life verse with you.

Mine comes from a point in Biblical history where there was a passing of the torch, and the successor had enormous shoes to fill. Humbled, perhaps even fearful of fulfilling the daunting role placed before him, Joshua knew that he could not take Moses’ place without the Lord’s help. Imagine Joshua falling to his knees, unable to lift his eyes, saying “God, I’m so afraid!” It’s as if God reached down and lifted Joshua’s chin with one finger and told him exactly what he needed to hear:

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” –Joshua 1:9

There are a few different kinds of “fear.” There’s the kind when someone sneaks up behind you and startles you, but that’s not the kind this verse is talking about. This is the kind of fear that causes anxiety and gives you an ulcer from worrying about it all the time. There are all kinds of things to worry about in this life if you choose to. We currently live in a time, especially as we seem powerless to stop pandemics, where there is much fear. It’s okay to be afraid…until it stops you from doing what God’s called you to do. God has a purpose for your life, and fear is not a legitimate excuse for avoiding it.

I’m not in the business of translating the Bible, and I don’t pretend to be. If I could paraphrase this verse and put it in our vernacular though, I’d probably state it a little more like this: “I already told you, hold nothing back! Don’t be anxious and don’t lose focus, because I’ll be right beside you every step of the way.” It’s easy for fear to get in the way of the tasks God’s called you to do, and it’s a very easy tool for God’s enemies to exploit.

Because of the life I’ve lived, the sights I’ve seen, and the things I’ve done, this verse resonates with me in a special way. It encourages me to work toward not blinking when God throws an enormous challenge in my path. I’m of the opinion that I will always have doubts during those times, but God’s with me every step of the way, and I’m trying to get better at not flinching when I “receive a new assignment.” Assuming I have more tasks to perform on God’s behalf in this life, this verse will help me when I feel inadequate or ill-equipped to do them.

What’s your life verse? Have you shared it with others? Will you share it with other readers in the “comments” section of this blog? There might be a verse out there that your life can provide a perfect illustration for. That would fall under the “love other people” portion of the “love God and love other people” mandate that God gives His followers.

Hang in there, keep the faith, and wash your hands. 🙂

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Church Canceled Today?

Good morning everyone!

Due to the whole “pandemic thing,” there are a lot of disruptions in life, including the cancellation of a lot of church services.

Don’t let that stop you from learning about the power of Christ working in and through you. If you need a substitute lesson today, try this one. There’s no worship music, but it’s almost 40 minutes of learning about how Christ’s power can be increased in you.

Hang tight, keep the faith, and look for new opportunities during this once-in-a-lifetime event we’re living through!