My oldest daughter is headed off to her third year of college in less than four weeks. So when I received an email asking if I would take a look at a new book called, Starting Now: College is Hard - This Can Help, I was intrigued. The description states it’s a “30-Day Guide to Becoming Who You Want to Be in College”. The authors, Crystal Chiang, and Gerald Fadayomi, both have extensive experience working in student ministry.
Read MoreWhere does faith come from? As a kid who grew up in church, faith in God has long been a part of my life. Christianity was the faith of my parents, and as a young child, I would have said it was mine, too. But mostly, I was going through the motions- no personal relationship with Jesus.
Read MoreI’ve been thinking about the wonderful feedback I received from the reader survey that I offered recently. It was honest, encouraging, and constructive. I appreciate you; dear readers, and I want to say a big, sincere thank you.
Your words, as a summation, were a validation of a single word, that I’ve been pondering and hearing spoken to me from many different sources. The word is story
Read MoreFear and Faith, finding the peace your heart craves, by Trillia J. Newbell is a book that uses scripture, stories from women who have struggled themselves with worry, and points to the character of God as the reason that fear can be replaced with faith.
Read MoreOnce again, I’m pulling a line from that beautiful song, Oceans (where feet may fail), by Hillsong United, to focus on, as I write about trusting God. He’s never failed. Who can say that, but God?
Read MoreMy soul will rest in your embrace. What does that even mean? That phrase comes, once again, from Oceans (where feet may fail) by Hillsong. The soul, according to Merriam Webster, “is the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life”. It’s the spiritual part of us. It’s the part of us that trusts God- or doesn’t. How does our soul rest in His (God’s) embrace? I think it means that we need to trust in his unfailing love, and trust that he will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, in order to accomplish his will. He will show us what and how to do what we can do, and give us the strength to do it. We don’t need to be constantly striving and achieving on our own strength.
Read MoreThat previous story about me as a little kid, trying to walk on water, blaming my inability to do so on my lack of faith is funny, but unfortunately, I held onto some wrong ideas about God, long after, the result of which led to some tremendous pain. I don’t want to tell this next story- but I will, because out of the pain came something beautiful.
Read MoreHere’s where you’re going to find out what a strange child I was. Keep in mind, I was a church kid- and if you were a church kid too, don’t even try and tell me you never did this. I won’t believe you. I tried to walk on water.
Read MoreIn chapter one, I wrote about what trusting God looks like, and about the foundation of that trust, which is a faith in the gospel of what Jesus has done for us. I talked about why even the ability and the desire to believe in the gospel is gift from the Holy Spirit. We can’t muster that up on our own. Once we accept those gifts and decide to live in relationship with God, trusting and loving him, he sees us as holy, as part of his family. That’s what it means to be a Christian. And we are changed when that happens, with new desires.
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