Born to be Free

One Sunday this summer, my pastor had decided to preach on the topic of forgiveness.  A topic that perhaps many of us have a tendency to glance over. It's easy enough to forgive someone when they bump into you, take the last sandwich or forget to call you, right?  But as my pastor was preaching through the Lord's Prayer and came to "forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us", that sentence - even though I've heard it read, recited and preached over hundreds of times before - pierced my soul that day. I'd always viewed myself as a forgiving person, but in that moment I remembered one person who I'd never even  tried  to forgive. It's easy to look past minor offenses, but when someone has hurt you so deeply that you find it hard to trust anyone, your heart will shut itself up in a tower and refuse to come down. Because of how my friend had treated me and the things they'd done and said - I had let bitterness and anger well up i

Last month, as I wondered where the summer would lead - God worked in ways unknown to me and directed me to a Bible camp in Missouri.  I spent last week there as a counselor. We as human beings like to think we can be on the same level as God - and carry the same understanding.  So we ask "Why?"  We try to figure out things for ourselves instead of leaving it to God to work out the details.  I wasn't sure what to anticipate from this past week, but decided to leave it with the One Who planned it. There are some experiences I find no one can understand unless they have gone through something with you, and perhaps this will be one of those instances.  But this past week was incredible, and though I'm very much writing this for myself, I hope that perhaps you may share in my joy. I've never been in an atmosphere quite like the one there.  From the moment I arrived on the scene to the night I left, I was surrounded by God's presence and people in a way I

If you're anything like me, maybe you wonder sometimes how exactly you got signed up for this.  Maybe one day you take a step back, look at your life and think "How is this possible?" You see the job and the people that God has given you and you're astounded.  "Really, God?  Why me?  I'm the last person you should've chosen."  Surely we speak like Gideon in Judges 6, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel?  Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” You've got a calling - a purpose driven by your identity in Him, and yes it may feel very scary.  I spoke in my  earlier post  about the fact that we must not forget Who He is.  But we must also not forget who we are. I've heard it pointed out by several people - what if Peter began to sink in Matthew 14 not because he didn't believe in Jesus, but because he didn't believe in himself?  "How can I walk on water?  I'm not the Son o

“ Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters ; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price .  Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy ? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.  Incline your ear, and  come to me; hear, that your soul may live ; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David ." (Isaiah 55:1-3) This passage has kept me up at night lately. There are some days, some times when it seems like you live in the flood-zone.  Time and trouble are rushing, always rushing by and you feel helpless.  You try to be strong.  You try to hold yourself and the people you love together because you feel like that's the only option.  The only way the world can go on is if you carry it on your back. So it seems. I find myself spending my d

Jesus was followed by crowds during much of His ministry.  Those who accompanied Him were seeking many different things. Some sought healing from disease, some wished for advice from a "good teacher", and others sought the sort of Messiah who would liberate them from Roman oppression. Jesus on the other hand wanted people to see Him for Who He was - the Son of God.  And to follow the Son, there was a risk.  So Jesus told them exactly that. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life,  he cannot be my disciple .   Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple .  For  which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost , whether he has enough to complete it?  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able

A few days ago, I returned home from my last national tournament as a Bible quizzer.  In the days following, there has been one thought that is yet to leave my mind - "There are no ordinary people.  You have never talked to a mere mortal..." (C. S. Lewis) Lewis goes on to say "... Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors..." I met a lot of people this past week at this event, many different types.  Some of them I've known for a while, while others I had met a few months prior and I knew I would see them again next season.  But sadly there were also several others I met this weekend that I know I may never see again. It's strange to try and explain how you can feel so connected to people after only knowing them for a few days.  It would be even harder to explain it to non-C

During some of the hardest parts of last year, there was one phrase God told me more than others. "You forget Who I am." When I've been on my knees in my closet, scrawling God's promises to me out on the walls, that phrase soon joined them. In the midst of my everyday, in the middle of any crisis we face - We end up forgetting Who He is. Isn't it strange?  How we can develop this soul-amnesia, lose sight of all that He's gotten us through? Remembering the past and passing down stories of their ancestors was very important to the people of Israel.  There were accounts delivered from generation to generation by word of mouth.  There were feasts, festivals, sabbaths, fasts and even certain years in their entirety set apart as a time for the people to gather, rest and  remember.   Remember the faithfulness of their God - how He had delivered them, brought them to the place they called home, gave them victory over powerful armies - and would soon send