...and a time to speak...

This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the  darkness  rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. John 3:19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy,outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I tell you about these things in advance—as I told you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:24 I remember very well what is was like to love the darkness. I remember going about my weekly/monthly/yearly routines without a single thought being given to anything resembling "matters of faith." I remember week after week after week of work hard to play hard and once the weekend came, play I did. I honestly ...

Cue Fergie... up in the gym... just workin' on her fitness. Okay, this is a terrible opener, but I also think it's kinda funny in my warped sense of humor way, so there ya go. But in all honesty, who is relating to this right now? It's the second week of January, y'all, and those gyms are PACKED! I mean, people are coming out from under allllll the rocks, running to their nearest Rec Center and hitting the treadmills like they're training for the zombie apocalypse. Every year it makes me laugh. Every year it annoys the tar out of me too because on February 4th, those gyms will look like abandoned ghost towns. I mean seriously, give it 3 more weeks and 75% of the people who are on FIRE will decide to cave and have a Baconater and large Coke for lunch and that will be that. Oh, it's only gonna be a Son of Baconator and small Diet Coke, you say? My bad. So sad, but so true. And if I can't make a joke about it, then is life really even worth living? Of course it...

If you have read my blog with any consistency, you have probably noticed that I like to quote a lot of scripture in my writings. I do this because I believe with all my heart that scripture is the very voice of God and He has an incredible amount of life altering things to say to us through His words. I can honestly say that I love the bible. I mean, love it so much I have read it cover to cover three times (well, almost three... the year isn't over yet) and plan to continue reading it as many more times as I possibly can. You know that feeling when you read your favorite book or watch your favorite movie more than once, you pick up on new and interesting things each time? It's the exact same for me when it comes to my bible. There will be verses, stories, biographies, etc. that I have known or read about since I was a kid, but somehow when I read them again and again, a certain portion of the verse or story will come alive for me in a way it never has before. I think that'...

I recently read Psalm 42 during my morning quiet time and have been kind of obsessed with certain parts of it ever since. In truth, this Psalm is quite sad. The writer was in a serious state of depression because of his circumstances of being in exile, away from his homeland and away from his temple of worship. He said "my tears have been my food day and night" because he was in a place where men mocked him all day long saying, "Where is your God?" Oh man. How many times has it felt like I am walking in this guy's shoes lately? How many times has it seemed like the evil of this world is winning the war and people in our own country are saying in a loud mocking voice, "Where is your God?" Heck, on really bad days I sometimes even ask for myself, "God, where are you? Are you even there at all?" Y'all, it's hard out there to continue to stand for absolute biblical truth when it seems like the rest of the world, including many influentia...

If you are at all familiar with the books of the Old Testament, you are most likely acquainted with the term "Asherah Poles." If you are not, here is a quick synopsis. After God led the Israelites out of Egypt using Moses as their leader, He was very clear with them about His feelings toward the pagan gods of the surrounding cultures they were about to go to war with. In fact, here are His words of warning to Moses and all of the community about the dangers of assimilating themselves into these pagan cultures instead of staying the true course. "Then the Lord said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you. Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the l...

I am so excited that my husband, Chris, recently made the decision to come and join me in the High School Ministry department at our church and is currently co-teaching a class for Juniors and Seniors. He and his co-teacher are doing a phenomenal job just being a sounding board for many of these young men who need solid, male mentors in their lives. Chris and I talked recently about a table conversation among his group where some of the guys were sharing how hard it is at school nowadays to really have a voice when you happen to be a conservative Christian who stands by the inerrancy of the Word of God. There is SO much "progressive" Christianity out there that has distorted God's truth and if you happen to disagree with it, your voice is immediately squashed and you might even be labeled as a hater. This breaks my heart for a number of reasons. High School is such a hard place socially as it is and then to add on top of that being made to feel like you have no place to s...

So, my 10 year old son often likes to drop spiritual bombs on me right around 8:00 p.m. What is happening around that time? Preparations for bed of course. So what better time to bring out the big guns than right before bedtime because he knows he can expect at least a short conversation to occur. A few nights ago, we were just getting home from sports practices and piano lessons and he was under strict instruction to take a quick shower and then get his book for nightly reading when... BOOM! "Mom, why didn't God just kill the snake if He  knew  it was Satan and that Adam and Eve would sin? Why doesn't He just get rid of Satan all together so we can all live perfectly and be happy all the time?" Now I have heard variations of this same question from both of my children at times, but this time the question was thought out and very specific. Why didn't He just kill that darn snake before Adam and Eve could even be temped by it? As I did my best to answer fully ...