Whatever you did to the least of these, you did also to me

Whatever you did to the least of these, you did also to me

by | Apr 16, 2026 | faith, grace, salvation, theology

We can live our lives doing many mighty works, but the works must be done from a right heart posture. Our many mighty works without faith, without truly loving and knowing God intimately, fall upon dry ground. Actions mean nothing without love.

Photo by Rio Adi Marhedra

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:37-40

 

In last week’s blog we began looking at the steps of salvation and the reasons why the Gospel is the Good News we are called to share. This week, we review the Biblical context for why we need a Savior and why our response to grace is an active doing.
 
Why we need a Savior
 
In Christianity, the definition of salvation is “to be delivered from sin and its consequences”. We also know from the scriptures that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
 
Sin is anything we do outside of God’s Law:  It separates us from God, and it always requires a sacrifice. Sin is sin — ALL sin is the same — and all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
 
The reason we need to be saved from our sin is that God is so perfect, righteous and holy that there is nothing we could ever do to meet the standard of God’s Law. In the Old Testament, burnt offerings were required to absolve the Israelites of their sins. Only priests could conduct the sacrificial rituals in the tent of meeting- in special garments (Leviticus 8:5-9). Animals were sacrificed as sin and guilt offerings. The animal’s blood was splashed around the altar and poured out at the base of the altar, before the offering (usually a ram, sheep, goat or dove) was burned at the altar (Leviticus 4:27-31).
 
The rituals in Leviticus establish that, for sin to be atoned, something of value must die or be given up in our place for each sin. The Israelites were cleansed of sin by the blood of their burnt offerings. This is the Old Covenant.
 
Now, could one sacrifice cover all sin? Enter Jesus. Jesus is God’s perfect son given up for all of our sins so that we could spend eternity in heaven with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (John 3:16). Jesus is referred to as the sacrificial lamb symbolically (John 1:29) to represent the animal sacrifices that were required in the Old Covenant and are no longer required in the New Covenant. Once we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord, we are saved and covered by the blood of Jesus, the blood of the New Covenant (Luke 22:20).
 
Before Jesus, the Israelites could only access God through a priest; however, when Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple was split (Matthew 27:51), giving us direct access to the Father through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence and clear of sin. Christians can live under a banner of peace in Christ in the knowledge that we are truly saved by his blood. Yet, God does call us to more.
 
Love does
 

Let’s build from the WHY behind salvation and take a look at some verses that illustrate what a righteous life within God’s Law looks like — because Jesus says that not one part of the Law will pass away until heaven and earth pass away (Matthew 5:18). While we are liberated from the Law through Jesus’ sacrifice, we are still held accountable to the Law and to the Gospel of love. 

 

  • Love the Lord with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul and all your strength (Matthew 22:37-38)
  • Love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39-40)
  • Take care of widows and orphans in their distress (James 1:27)
  • Keep oneself from being polluted by the world (James 1:27)
  • Give the hungry something to eat and the thirsty something to drink (Matthew 25:42)
  • Know God intimately — as with a spouse (Psalm 46:10)
  • Follow the 10 commandments (Deuteronomy 5:7-21)
  • Have a meek spirit (Matthew 5:3-10)
In Matthew 7:21-23, we see that not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will be saved. To some who prophesy in Jesus name and cast out demons in his name, and do many mighty works in his name, Jesus will say, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”
 
How could Jesus say “I never knew you” to those who follow him? We read in Matthew 25:41-46, in reference to the workers of lawlessness, that they didn’t give Jesus something to drink when he was thirsty or to eat when he was hungry. To ignore the Law is lawlessness, and in its most distilled form, the Law is to love God with everything that we are and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
 
In both Matthew 7:21-23 and 25:41-46, Jesus is illustrating some core principles for salvation:
 
  • Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father except by Him
  • Our first and greatest commandment is to the love the Lord with everything that we are- body, mind and spirit
  • The second commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves- to look after strangers and those who are poor, unclothed, hungry, thirsty, in prison, orphaned, and widowed
Lawlessness is living in defiance of the two greatest commandments above, and at the end of our lives, these verses in Matthew clearly state that we will be held accountable to the Gospel of love and for our actions and inactions. We can live our lives doing many mighty works, but the works must be done from a right heart posture. Our many mighty works without faith, without truly loving and knowing God intimately, fall upon dry ground. Actions mean nothing without love (James 2:21-24, 1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
 
In the same way, our faith without works is dead (James 2:14-17), because the Gospel is an active doing. The Gospel is Jesus’ open arms and hands and feet working on earth today — to help the unloved, unseen, desperate, sick, hungry, thirsty, lost, and broken. To care for the least of these.
 
Today, it is so easy to overlook the poverty that is all around us. Christians can fall into the pitfall of blaming poverty on the person when it’s the system or the trauma or the medical issue that actually caused the poverty. Whereas some may feel it is acceptable to turn a blind eye, this is simply not Biblical. Some of our neighbors, just miles from our homes, are stuck in generational and systemic cycles of poverty and suffer greatly. It doesn’t have to be this way, and we are called to more. Jesus looks for us to care for our neighbors as we care for our own selves, just as he was first gracious to us.
 
In God’s economy, the last shall be first, and the first shall be last, and we are charged to run to win the prize of hearing Jesus say, “Whatever you did to the least of these, you did also to me.”
 
How will you live mindfully that salvation is an active doing and that our mighty works in Jesus’ name are nothing without love? Will you choose to love God and to know God intimately, and will you look after your neighbor as yourself? Will you treat your neighbors and strangers with the same dignity as you would your own family? 
 
Lord, remind our hearts today that our salvation is an active doing. Make our faith active through works and keep us from becoming so distracted by works that we miss the knowing you and loving others that are central to the heart of the Gospel. Amen.
 
We encourage you to keep in touch with 3 Strands and to watch for our next blog where we will explore preparedness for salvation and some deep heart matters we need to address to operate freely in God’s perfect love.
Verses for study:
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 
Romans 3:23
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
 
Leviticus 8:5-9
Moses said to the congregation, “This is the thing which the Lord has commanded to do.”
Then Moses had Aaron and his sons come near and washed them with water. He put the tunic on him and girded him with the sash, and clothed him with the robe and put the ephod on him; and he girded him with the artistic band of the ephod, with which he tied it to him. He then placed the breastpiece on him, and in the breastpiece he put the Urim and the Thummim. He also placed the turban on his head, and on the turban, at its front, he placed the golden plate, the holy crown, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.
 
Leviticus 4:27-31
“‘If any member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, when they realize their guilt and the sin they have committed becomes known, they must bring as their offering for the sin they committed a female goat without defect. They are to lay their hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it at the place of the burnt offering. Then the priest is to take some of the blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. They shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the fellowship offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar as an aroma pleasing to the Lord. In this way the priest will make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven.
 
John 1:29
The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
 
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
 
Luke 22:20
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”
 
Matthew 27:51
At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.
 
Matthew 5:18
For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
 
Matthew 22:37-40
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
 
James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. 
 
Matthew 25:42
for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
 
Psalm 46:10
Be still, and know that I am God.
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth!
 
Deuteronomy 5:7-21 — The 10 Commandments
1. “‘You shall have no other gods before me.
2. “‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
3. “‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
4. “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. For six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
5. “‘Honour your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
6. “‘You shall not murder.
7. “‘And you shall not commit adultery.
8. “‘And you shall not steal.
9. “‘And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
10. “‘And you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbour’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbour’s.

 

Matthew 5:3-10 — From the Sermon on the Mount
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
 
James 2:14-17
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled”, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
 
James 2:21-24
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
 
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

What is salvation really? + kingdom urgency

What is salvation really? + kingdom urgency

by | Apr 16, 2026 | holy spirit, kingdom building, salvation

The Gospel of Good News isn’t a one-time profession of faith in Jesus Christ. It is an active doing that renews day by day. At the end of the day, we will all make an accounting for our actions (and inactions) before God.

Photo by Yoal Des

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2


Running to win the prize

There is a Proverb that says, “He who is wise wins souls.” (Proverbs 11:30)

This post is about winning souls, and it’s a little uncomfortable to write — because it should be.

After detailed review of the scriptures, there are mysteries about salvation that we don’t have definitive direction on and we acknowledge that we, as humans, simply cannot speak on them. But as salvation is the primary value of Christianity, we need to be talking about these things. In this blog we’ve aimed to tackle some of the tough questions around salvation, and we want to be clear before we start about what we at 3 Strands believe.

We believe, above all, in a merciful God who is mighty to save. We believe that God gave up his son Jesus to die on the cross as atonement for our sins (because we simply cannot approach the holiness of God of our own accord), and that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father except by him. We believe that, to be saved, we must confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord, and that baptism is our response to faith in Christ. Whereas some Christians believe baptism is a requirement for salvation, we believe it to be an outward expression of the inner transformation and posture of our hearts, and not a requirement.

But if you don’t also believe this, please don’t stop reading because there’s so much more.

This is the point where I (Kristin) pause to take a breath because I have wanted to speak these words for a long time, and before speaking, I have wanted to be sure that they are so, so true. Because salvation is a matter of eternal life or eternal suffering and it’s a huge deal. I’m humbled to even be sharing this message, because I don’t feel qualified to — yet, I know in my heart that Jesus died for everyone; he loves us all the same; and he will give people from all faiths an opportunity to accept him. 

Salvation is so much more than accepting Jesus into our hearts as Lord and Savior and going to church on Sundays. These are the first steps, and they are beginning of a life transformation, but they are not enough.

As a child, I was confronted by the incongruity of the Gospel with church life in upper-middle class white affluent America. I couldn’t understand how Jesus could speak the words he did, yet they didn’t change us. We ignored those in need. We lived beyond our means. We lived excessively. Our hearts were chained to worldly things instead of Kingdom things.

Something was missing, and it was the radical and spirit-filled movement of the early church in Acts. The church in Acts displayed a fervor and zeal for Christianity in the power of the Holy Spirit that some of us, even as long-time believers, struggle to access. We have quenched the Spirit from moving because we have forgotten the urgency of the gospel.

I think back to the story of Stephen and his radical testimony to the goodness of God prior to his stoning (Acts 7) just moments before he would die for the Good News of the Gospel.

Friends, the Gospel is the Good News we cannot miss in this lifetime, and the Gospel is so URGENT it’s worth dying for.

There are many roadblocks to faith. If we’ve been believers for a long time, we can slip into the legalistic oughts of faith instead of focusing on all that we gain through faith in Jesus Christ. If we don’t know how we feel about Jesus yet, following him on the surface can seem like a long list of restrictions and can’t dos — why would we even sign on?

The truth is that the oughts of faith are not true Christianity. The Gospel of salvation is not about what we give up; rather, it’s about yielding ourselves entirely to the Most High God because we cannot ever be good enough to meet the standard of God’s Law, and what we GAIN through salvation is worth celebrating and sharing (Philippians 1:21).

In Jesus, we gain abundant life (John 10:10) full of the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and the peace of Christ which surpasses [defies!] all understanding (Philippians 4:7). We gain freedom from the bondage of sin (Romans 6:17-18). We gain the strength to stand in the darkest nights of our souls and to find contentment in every circumstance (Philippians 4:11-13) — even, and just as, Stephen standing in the city center waiting to be stoned to death. God is so good that we cannot ever measure up. Jesus was the sacrificial lamb. He stood in the gap that we could never stand in. He died in our place so we could be raised to new life with him.

When we have the Good News of Jesus Christ, we are:


1. Transformed — When we die to our old selves and become new in Christ, we are born again and the who, what, why, how, and whens of our lives change because we’ve given ourselves as living sacrifices to God (Romans 6:1-3, 2 Corinthians 5:17)
2. Exuberant — We are joyful and zealous. Because of God’s goodness to set us free and make us new, we share the Good News with others (John 4:29)

3. Renewed — We have an energy and enthusiasm for the Gospel that is renewed day by day (Isaiah 40:31)

I sometimes ask myself the question “What would it look like if I operated in the immeasurable power, strength and fullness of God’s love 100% of the time?” The answer is more Kingdom power and focus.

Satan wants to distort our God-views and condemn us to shame and fear and self-condemnation because, if he can cripple or immobilize us through these bondages, he can also narrow our mission fields when we need to be widening them.

The Kingdom of heaven is here and now and whether someone hears the Gospel is literally a matter of life and death — the difference between hope and hopelessness. Truly, I know because, without Christ, I wouldn’t physically be here.

People in need of a Savior and healing and hope suffer all over the world, and the calling to faith, hope and love is urgent. The Gospel is truly the Good News and when we’re living it, we’re also feeding the hungry and giving the thirsty something to drink. Something precious, invaluable and eternal. Living water that cannot be quenched.

Take a look at Matthew 7:21-23 and 25:41-46 below. In our opinion, these are some of the most challenging passages in the Bible — because they show us that salvation is so much more than accepting Jesus.

 

Matthew 7:21-23

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’


Matthew 25:41-46
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

The Gospel of Good News isn’t a one-time profession of faith in Jesus Christ. It is an active doing that renews day by day. At the end of the day, we will all make an accounting for our actions (and inactions) before God. 

Whether or not you grew up in church, whether or not you believe Jesus is the son of God, these words should command our attention and reflection. Not everyone who says, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven because true righteousness is a heart posture that acts to do the will of God to care for the poor and the sick and the oppressed, to give them something to eat and something to drink — physically and spiritually (James 1:27).

Salvation is doing the work of the Kingdom:  The work is urgent and the suffering on Earth is great. Here on Earth as it is in heaven. 

God is searching for Kingdom-doers with pure hearts, and everyone is invited to the Banquet. Stay turned for our next blog where we will delve deeper into why not everyone who calls out to Jesus will be saved and outline further with scripture how the Bible represents salvation as an active doing.

 

 

 

Verses for study:
Philippians 1:21
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Philippians 4:7
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:17-18
But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Philippians 4:11-13
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Romans 6:1-3
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

John 4:29
“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”

Isaiah 40:31
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Genuine + a digital confessional

Genuine + a digital confessional

by | Apr 16, 2026 | forgiveness, grace, mercy, the heart

You will not find genuine without authenticity. But genuine is further characterized by the absence of disingenuousness and insincerity. Genuine is a matter of character and a matter of the heart.

Photo by Imani Bahati 

Mixed motives twist life into tangles; pure motives take you straight down the road.
Proverbs 21:8

 

Heart check

 
What does it mean to be truly genuine and how is a genuine spirit different from an authentic spirit?
 
I’ll be honest, this is the topic God gave me to write about this week, and I’m kinda wrestling him about it. I know what I’m supposed to say; I just don’t want to write it. This is going to require a new level of vulnerable and exposed that I’m uncomfortable with, but here goes!
 
We’ve talked on 3 Strands about guarding our hearts because they are the wellspring of life. We’ve also talked about how much God cares about our hearts and about keeping a right heart posture. Yet, despite our sincerest efforts, our hearts can become vulnerable to sin, ugly and corrupt. We can excuse all kinds of less than righteous behaviors.
 
Here are some noteworthy things the Bible has to say about the heart:
+ In his heart, a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. (Prov. 16:9)
+ Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. (Prov. 4:23)
+ A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. (Prov. 14:30)
+ But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. (Matt. 15:18-19)
+ The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jer. 17:9)
+ You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. (Matt. 12:34)
 
Are you noticing a trend? Our hearts can run wild with evil intentions and mixed motives if we are not careful to keep them in check because sin originates in the heart.
 
Here’s the part where I get really vulnerable. You guys, I have had the worst heart. My motives have been unclear – and worse – hidden. I have hurt people. I have convinced myself I was justified in manipulating and hurting someone who violated me because of how they hurt me. I lied about talking to, and nearly cheating with, another guy when I was in a serious relationship, albeit unhealthy. No excuses. Even though nothing happened, I misled the person I was dating. GROSS. This was in college, mind you, but it is a part of my life I’m not proud of.
 
When I started my first job out of college, can you even guess? Yes, more manipulation. I figured out I could push people to get things done faster and use brash language to accelerate projects. I excused myself in the name of efficiency, but really, you guys, my heart was ugly. I was winning at any cost short of cheating, which I didn’t do. But my approach certainly wasn’t above board and my heart was a mess.
 
Lastly – the kicker – withholding pieces of my truest self from people I have loved dearly, including my ex-husband. Getting married, I wasn’t honest about some of the deepest desires of my heart because I was still defining them. Maybe that’s an honest mistake that many young people make. But looking back, I sincerely regret not fully finding a truly authentic expression of myself before walking down the aisle. I was insincere, and I was disingenuous.
 
Being afraid of being our truest selves is like not living. It is going through the motions and pretending.
 
Genuine, even though it is often used interchangeably with authentic, is in fact different from authenticity. Genuine according to a formal definition means that someone is free from pretense, affectation, or hypocrisy. It means that we show up with all parts of ourselves without mixed motives or deceit. There is no falsehood in genuine, and it cuts right to our characters.
 
Authenticity is ideally always found with pure character and intention, but by definition it is focused far more on knowing who we are at our core and expressing that version of ourselves to the world than it is about our characters. You will not find genuine without authenticity. But genuine is further characterized by the absence of disingenuousness and insincerity. Genuine is a matter of character and a matter of the heart.
 
So…  how’s your heart? Are you above board or if someone looked would they find pretense, affectation, falsehood or hypocrisy?
 
Friends, we have ALL been disingenuous at some time or another, but we have a choice, today and every day, to live differently – to live a little better, to live a little more genuinely.
 
We may have hurt others and hurt ourselves, but we can be assured that the Father loves us and we are forgiven. His mercies are new every morning.
 
I’ll close with a charge from Hebrews.
 
Hebrews 10:22 – Let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
 
Amen.

 

 
Lord, help us to receive your mercies that are new every morning, and the water and the blood that have made us clean. We have hurt others and hurt ourselves, but you died so we could enter your presence cleansed of all sin. Help us to guard our hearts that can run wild and astray. Help us to keep our motives clear and pure, without deceit or the intent to deceive. We confess that we are flawed human beings in need of your grace and we need your help to keep our hearts in check, righteous and genuine.
 
 
Choose the good portion

Choose the good portion

by | Apr 16, 2026 | contentment, faith, knowing God, trust

frequently with no cash and with loads of debt to my name, I was feeling so defeated. I was sick. I was living with my parents. I was 31. And I couldn’t provide for myself. This was my breaking point, and the beginning of finding my identity in Christ apart from independence and income.

Photo by John Towner 

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:12-13


Anxious about many things

I had five dollars in my bank account and zero credit because I’d put myself into $24,000 of credit card debt with a failed business venture. I needed to get to my best friend’s wedding in Cincinnati two days from now, and I was waiting on payment for some contract work I was doing on a website. My parents were coming out of their own financial crisis and it was out of the question for me to ask for the $100 I needed to buy a new dress and for gas to Cincinnati. I was hanging out on a limb, in a prisoner’s dilemma of cash flows and circumstances, and I had no idea how I was going to make it to the wedding. At this moment, I had a choice. I could spend my energy worrying and in self-pity, or I could choose to trust God.
 
It might sound trivial, but frequently with no cash and with loads of debt to my name, I was feeling so defeated. I was sick. I was living with my parents. I was 31. And I couldn’t provide for myself. This was my breaking point, and the beginning of finding my identity in Christ apart from independence and income.
 
I was unsure how God was going to provide, but I had to believe that He would just as He always did. Taking a few breaths, I stepped outside into the sunshine and got still. Just still in the sunshine with the King. I closed my eyes and looked towards heaven and stepped into this peace so golden that I knew — a deep-down in my soul knowing — that I was worthy and complete despite the storm of circumstances swirling around me and my own perceived inadequacy. The peace was so tangible I felt that God required nothing more of me in this moment than to just be, just as in Luke 10:38-42, to sit with him like Mary sat his feet.
 
Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
 
And so I sat with Jesus and felt his peace. My client delivered the check to me later that day.
 

Hanging-on-the-impossible-edge moments like these used to stress me out so much. I have been anxious and troubled about so many things. But I believe God took me through these messy circumstances and challenges over and over to show me that He is good; He is sovereign; and He alone provides. He is the good portion.

Peace in every circumstance

 
We all have our stories of anguish and souls rended before the Lord, bare hearts and limp hands just barely grasping at the edge of His cloak. If we could really know and believe in the power of the Lord to heal and to provide, we wouldn’t ever be anxious again.
 
We’re taught in life to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and to deliberate over every agonizing detail until we’re exhausted trying to keep up and we never get ahead. Yet the peace from simply touching the presence of God is accessible to all of us in every moment. Peace is not just a fleeting feeling: it is a way of life.
 
Friends, God knows the priorities. He knows the sequence. He knows what’s urgent and what doesn’t matter as much. He is a master planner and organizer. Will we trust Him to order our days perfectly?
 
So many of us miss out on the peace that God calls us to right now because we are spent running down deadlines and sequencing a waterfall of tasks without any help from the King. The beautiful truth is that we don’t have to go it alone, and that the best response in times of overwhelm and exhaustion is…. to sit. We sit like Mary at His feet. We choose the good portion.
 
The abundant life in Jesus is rest and peace at his feet, touching Heaven and being filled yet again with his love over and over. In Jesus, we can find peace in every moment, right in the storm of circumstances. God is in control.
 
Just as in Mark 4:35-41, Jesus calms the storm.
 
On that day, when evening had come, he said to [the disciples], “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But [Jesus] was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
 
You are probably braving some storms of your own right now. Or as a therapist once told me, “We’re all in crisis, coming out of a crisis or moving towards crisis.” At some point or another we’re going to find ourselves struggling, and God calls us to perfect peace in the storm. Here are a few steps to enter into the peace of God’s presence:
 

1. Find a quiet space and get still. Give God any worries and concerns on your heart. Release the anxiety: You have to turn it over to Him to feel His peace (Matt. 6:25).

2. Receive God’s love. Meditate on God’s unfailing love for you. In your spirit, know with all of your being that He is a good God, and He has nothing but good gifts for you. He promises to see you through every storm. Be grateful for His love and feel His love because perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18).

3. Trust God and step into his peace. While the sea may be swirling wild around you, you can be anchored to Jesus in the storm. Just as Jesus calmed the storm with one breath, God quiets the storm and invites us to radical trust (Mark 4:35-41).

 
4. Walk on water. We can step out onto the water like Peter. Do the impossible thing. Trust that God will not let you fall. Believe it with all your might. It’s a faith walk, but if you can trust that the sea will not overtake you, you will find peace in any circumstance because your faith in God’s goodness and provision will not be shaken (Matt. 14:22-33).
 
 
Dear God,
Many of us have weary souls that have been beaten by the storms, trials and crises of life. We’re overwhelmed. Just as Jesus spoke to the sea, Lord, speak to our spirits, “Peace! Be still!” Help us to walk daily in your peace Lord and to know you are sovereign and you have attended to even the smallest details of our lives. Help us to know we have nothing to fear. You have already provided. You are the good portion.
In Jesus name,
Amen

 

Verses for study:

Matthew 6:25
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
 
1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
 
Matthew 14:22-33
Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
 

 

Prayer + co-laboring with Christ

Prayer + co-laboring with Christ

by | Apr 16, 2026 | holy spirit, kingdom building, prayer

As believers walking in the spirit we are sons of God and co-heirs with Christ, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to do even greater works than these. This mighty power of God is within all believers, and it’s time for the Church to rise higher and to battle deeper in prayer for our families, for our communities and for our world. We cannot rest any longer on the laurels of salvation. We are accountable for the power that lies within us to move mountains.

Photo by Antonio Grosz 

Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Romans 8:17
 
“Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Matthew 17:20

Bold prayer
 
Jesus said if we have faith as small as a mustard seed, we can say to this mountain move from here to there and it will move.
 
But what is prayer and why are we called to pray when the God of the Universe is in control? Are our futures fixed and finite or fluid and undetermined? Could prayer really move mountains? Why would an omnipotent God entrust us with that power?
 
Prayer is an active part of the Christian faith walk, but it is all too often misunderstood and underutilized. Many of us are familiar with the standard liturgical prayers recited out loud, the Lord’s prayer, the silent prayers of our hearts, meditations, and even arrow prayers that we send up to heaven throughout the day. These are all beneficial forms of prayer, but we believe in a Biblical footprint for prayer that is much bolder.
 
We believe Jesus calls us to pray BOLD prayers. Prayers that bend heaven and rend hearts so they can be remade. Prayers that CHANGE the world.
 
Just as prophecy, prayer is a spiritual discipline of action. We pray for a specific purpose and our prayers are meant to change our environments.
 
Satan doesn’t want the Church to know how much power we have in Christ, and he definitely doesn’t want us to know how much power we have through the ministry of our prayers. He is sneaky and if he can keep the Church perpetually worried, anxious and distracted — asleep — then we won’t be using the mighty power we have in Christ to move mountains, to heal the sick and to save souls.
 
I don’t pretend to be a theologian or to be educated about the various schools of thought surrounding the Protestant Reformation and the concept of predestination. I do, however, believe the Bible is very clear that we are partners and heirs with Christ called to co-labor with him in prayer. I also believe that each of us is uniquely positioned to change our environments through prayer.
 
Let me caveat that I understand people have many different views of how the Universe works. We personally believe in one true, triune (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) God who created the Universe and is sovereign over the Universe. We believe in a God who is omnipotent and omnipresent. We believe that God gave human beings free wills and that there are many paths we can take in this life, but that our omnipotent God who stands outside of time, and is not time-bound, knows all of our choices before they are made. We believe he gives us infinite opportunities and infinite paths. We also believe that, because of the element of free will, we can write our own paths with God. So while some things, such as salvation, are known to God from the beginning, we have the ability to shift our lives and our environments through prayer. Our prayers can heal, soften hearts, bring hope and comfort, and change people’s life paths for the better — just as Jesus was a minister on earth to the sick, weary and brokenhearted, so are we.
 
Prayer is an instrument of change to be used for the Kingdom as co-laborers with Christ, and God made us to be co-laborers because humans with free wills need God in the flesh to help them find Jesus. All gifts of the spirit, including intercession, are given to edify, exhort and console — to glorify the Most High God and to shepherd people into his presence.
 
Praying change
 
As Christians, we have the power of influence, and we have authority in Christ through prayer to move mountains and to pray change. Jesus says all of [his works] we will do and even greater things than he when we pray in his name.
 
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
John 14:12-14
 
Let’s be clear that this is a not a prayer for a new car, promotion or new house in Jesus name in order to spend what we get on our pleasures (Jam. 4:3). Yes, we should pray for our needs, but our Heavenly Father already knows these material needs and he has gone out of ahead of us to provide (Matt. 6:26). We can, however, believe with a faith so concrete that God will move boldly in the lives of our friends that he heals marriages seemingly beyond repair and does miraculous works to bring his people back to him.
 
A bold prayer is a prayer prayed deeply from the spirit, in union with the Holy Spirit. 
 
A bold prayer is prayed silently or out loud in the stillness of a quiet, private space or in fellowship with other believers wherein we call out to God for healing; for someone to know Jesus; for the leaders of our nation; for the presidents of nations; for our Church body and leaders; for God’s comfort and provision; or for discernment facing complex decisions. 
 
A bold prayer says, Lord, if it is your will, please move this mountain in Jesus name. Please bring a greater release of your Holy Spirit in Jesus name. Please do the impossible thing and save this marriage that seems broken beyond repair in Jesus name. Please stop the emotional abuse in Jesus name. Please rescue someone from codependency in Jesus name. Please help my family to stay connected to the You in Jesus name. Please help my family to reach their highest Kingdom potential in Jesus name. Please keep me on my path, Lord, and do not let me waver from You in Jesus name.
 
A bold prayer ushers change. 
 
Bold prayers get results. When we pray with the right motives, in Jesus name, to edify, exhort, console, heal, or correct, and when our motives are in alignment with the will of Christ to heal the sick, God answers. God is attentive to a persistent heart in prayer (Luke 11:8). Maybe his answer will be no, and it’s possible the answers may take years to come, but bold prayers do move mountains. I have seen desperately broken marriages restored, hearts softened, people grow in their creative God-given gifts and potential, people return to Christ, and even miraculous manifestations of God’s holiness as a result of bold prayers I have prayed. But we must pray with selfless intent as co-heirs and co-laborers with Christ. This is a deep work of the Holy Spirit to which all believers are called, and as co-heirs, the more we share in the suffering of Christ, the more effective our prayers will be.
 
Obstacles to effective prayer
 
Heart blocks. We are called to love our neighbors and to forgive as Christ first forgave us. If we do not remove the bitter roots of unforgiveness from our hearts, we are living in unrighteousness and our prayers will not be effective.
 
Wrong motives. When we pray for our own pleasure and material comforts, above and beyond our actual needs, we are praying with wrong motives. Prayer is not an instrument for personal gain, as the pleasures of the world are not meant to be spent on ourselves in excess. It is okay to ask for more resources to give more away, but the world is not our playground. It is a broken place full of injustice, poverty and sickness, and as believers, we are called to be ministers and keepers of those less fortunate than us.
 
Flesh-driven. All who are led by the spirit are sons of God (Rom. 8:14). When we are walking in unrighteousness and living according to the desires of the flesh, rather than in the Holy Spirit, our prayers will not be effective.
 
Fear. Will God give us a snake when we ask for a fish? (Luke 11:11) Certainly not! If we fear that God will give us something bad when we ask for something good, especially in alignment with the will of Christ, we are living in fear and not faith, and we cannot advance in prayer or in our relationship with Christ until we restore a right perspective towards God. We are his children and he loves us with an everlasting love. It is his pleasure to release more of the Holy Spirit.

 

As believers walking in the spirit we are sons of God and co-heirs with Christ, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to do even greater works than these. This mighty power of God is within all believers, and it’s time for the Church to rise higher and to battle deeper in prayer for our families, for our communities and for our world. We cannot rest any longer on the laurels of salvation. We are accountable for the power that lies within us to move mountains.
 
To summarize:
+ Our prayers move mountains
+ It matters immensely that we pray
+ Our prayers cause heavenly shifts
+ Our prayers minister to the body of Christ
+ Our prayers are a hedge
+ Our prayers HEAL.. marriages, hearts, fears, wounds
+ Practice the discipline of prayer and pray fervently for friends and family, then check in
 
Pray boldly, friends. We are co-heirs and co-laborers in Christ. Let’s rise and move mountains!
 
 
Blessings and love,
three strands
 
 
 

Verses for study:

James 4:3
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
 
James 5:16
The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
 
1 Corinthians 3:9
For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
 
Matthew 6:26
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds 
them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
 
Luke 11:5-14
Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
 
Romans 8:12-17
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
 

 
 
 
 
Radical authenticity

Radical authenticity

by | Apr 16, 2026 | grace, love, priorities, relationship

Photo by Tachina Lee

Love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
Matthew 22:37-39

A few years ago, the book Radical Candor, by Kim Scott, was published and it’s on my mental checklist of “books I will someday read”. Maybe it’s trendy to put “radical” in front of a noun or a quality you want to intentionally cultivate in your life, but I think Radical is so relevant in a broken world. 

Radical is something arresting enough to capture our attention, and it extends far beyond Religion. Radical is active. Radical is a way of living and doing. As the Church, we should look Radical. We should BE Radical. We should be something so extraordinary — something so captivating, something so uncommon — that people are drawn to Jesus.

Over the last few years, I have focused on cultivating three values in my life, and while these values are individual aims, I believe that if the Church intentionally cultivates these three values, then we will look much more like the Church that Christ commissioned us to be.
1. Radical Love 

2. Radical Courage 

3. Radical Authenticity 


Today our focus is Radical Authenticity. And we have some serious truth to drop, friends. Are you ready for it? 

The Church people are the ones who might need to work on Radical Authenticity the most. 

Yes, I said Church people. Yes, I attend Church, so I suppose I am talking about myself, too. In fact, I was a Church person in a past life. Today, I am a radically authentic person saved by Jesus. Hear me out — there’s a difference.

Before I explain, first I want to set the record straight. You, dear reader, are EXACTLY who God made you to be. You are GOOD. You are ENOUGH. You are LOVED. You are BEAUTIFUL. Just as you are RIGHT NOW. You are all of these things BY DESIGN.

So many of us “Church people” came to age in a Church culture wherein faith meant ticking boxes of oughts — and, mostly, avoiding sin. Sins of commission particularly. Our focus on sin fostered a culture of performance-based Christianity steeped in legalism and false reality. Friends, some of us grew up thinking that the desires and the dreams God placed in our hearts were trivial, and didn’t matter, and it was sin to even think about ourselves.

This is so sad, and I lived here in this place of rejecting my true self and my God-given identity for far too many years. In fact, long enough to believe my desires and interests weren’t worth too much, and I settled for so much less than this wild-crazy-beautiful-God-breathed adventure that I’m on today. 

At 25, newly married and on a plane, I remember thinking, “I have everything I have ever truly wanted in life. I’ve had a good life.” WHOA. God had so much more for me. Like far beyond anything I could ever ask or imagine. He has much, much more for you, too.

The life God has for us is bigger than our wildest dreams, expansive and purpose-filled, and it’s centered right in the heart of the unique gifts and skills that God gave to you alone. God is a dreamer and an artist, and he had a beautiful plan for your life from the moment he knit you together in your mother’s womb.

Let’s unpack the truth of the scriptures because God has some really awesome stuff to say about YOU.

Psalm 139:13-14

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

Like me, you may have read Psalm 139 many times before. Paraphrased, David’s words and prayer to God are saying:  God, you know me. You created me. Your works are good. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

For so many years, I took this passage as a comfort and not as a promise. Dear reader, you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Did you know that when you reject your core identity that is actually sin? What I mean is, rejecting the authentic YOU that GOD MADE YOU TO BE is like saying to him, your work isn’t wonderful. I don’t accept your creation. I don’t accept myself. Self-rejection is coming into agreement with Satan and his lies that we aren’t good enough and akin to rejecting God’s craftsmanship. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Self-love is not God-hatred, and self-rejection does not glorify God. The real sin lies in rejecting your true nature and the unique you God created you to be, and until we accept ourselves and love ourselves fully, authenticity will always be a reach.


The Hebrew word for knit, quashar, also means “to bind”. God bound you together in your mother’s womb; you were CREATED. You are not an accident, and you were planned and purposed long ago.

The Church needs to flip the paradigm and to overcome some deep lies that can be ingrained from an early age.

Self-love is not God-hatred, and self-rejection does not glorify God. The real sin lies in rejecting your true nature and the unique you God created you to be, and until we accept ourselves and love ourselves fully, authenticity will always be a reach.

Radical Authenticity must begin with self-love and it requires sincere vulnerability. It’s reflected in our willingness to embrace our imperfections and mistakes and to be transparent with those around us that we are not perfect.

Performance-based Christianity is Religion and legalism and striving. True Christianity, real Christianity, is Radically Authentic. It is flawed and vulnerable and free. Freedom from the jaws of perfectionism chasing us down. Freedom to be late because the kids blew up mac n’ cheese in the microwave, or because you’re sick and didn’t sleep all night, or are chronically ill and taking a shower that day is a victory. Maybe walking into church was scary but you did it anyway. God sees your heart and he’s cheering with you, friends. Over victories big and small.

Radical Authenticity is not only embracing our authentic selves — it is embracing the hearts of our fellow humans and loving them with God’s eyes, not human eyes. When we’re all mindful that God doesn’t make mistakes and we’re just different from one another, then we reflect the Radical Authenticity Jesus always intended for the Church.


1 Peter 3:8-11, MSG
Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.
Whoever wants to embrace life
    and see the day fill up with good,
Here’s what you do:
    Say nothing evil or hurtful;
Snub evil and cultivate good;
    run after peace for all you’re worth.
 
Have you accepted your core authentic identity? Do you love the unique YOU God created you to be? If you have struggled with self-love, open Psalm 139 and substitute your name each time you see “me”, “my” or “I” as you read it. Meditate on a God who made you unique and whole, just as you are. Then ask Him to see yourself with His eyes.
 
God, I have struggled to accept that I am beautiful and worthy and deserving of good things, and I have also struggled with loving myself, and this has affected me in deep ways. Please give me your eyes to see myself in a new light as your beautiful, hand-made creation and help me to know in the deepest places of my spirit that being my authentic self and expressing all of the creative gifts you placed within me brings you joy.

A note on divorce + joy

A note on divorce + joy

by | Apr 16, 2026 | divorce, grief, healing, hope

It’s kinda like taking a jackhammer to a heart surrounded by concrete. The excavation is a little violent, but if you don’t smash the barricade, you also trap all the beautiful emotions of life down in that cement dungeon; in suppressing the painful and the uncomfortable, you aren’t able to access the beautiful and carefree.

 

Photo by Sasha Freemind 

 

Rejoice always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

 


Brokenness

 

I was married less than 6 months when the unthinkable happened, and the foundation of trust fell apart between me and my husband. The gaslighting started then. Whether it was real or perceived, I may never know, but I was sure my ex-husband was hiding something from me.
 
My trust was shattered, and I was heartbroken. I began to question whether I was losing my mind. Was this the beginning of a mental illness or was it real?
 
I cried myself to sleep most days for months. I cried quietly when he was sleeping because I didn’t want to disgrace him. One night when I was crying my eyes out — in the dark, on the bathroom floor — I asked God to break me, and to break us. Because our marriage was broken and we needed brokenness to know our need for a Savior. 
 
“I don’t care what you do, God. Just please don’t take my hair. But if that’s your plan, that’s okay, too. I trust you. But please don’t take my hair.” God understands our wisdom-laden, childlike pleas and they touch his heart.
 
Our story did not come with the happy ending you might expect. We divorced after three and a half years of marriage. My world fell apart, and I didn’t think I would see joy again for a long, long time.
 
God split me like a tree in a storm, and everything everyone told me about divorce was true and worse. It was like a death. Of pieces of myself. Of my best friend. It was a fresh start on my hopeful days, but most days it was like carrying a heavy cross. I was exhausted.
 
Yet God did something beautiful in the breaking. He collapsed the foundation of sand my house was built upon, and he anchored me to a foundation of rock — the rock of Jesus Christ (Matt. 7:26-27) — where I knew I should have always been, but I had let so many things slip away in my marriage; I made too many compromises of character, of authenticity.
 

Baggage
 

Here’s the thing:  I had a file cabinet of baggage going into my marriage, like we all do. But mine had been locked tight and I was stuffing all of the hurt deep down into those unwieldy files until the lock finally broke because the cabinet couldn’t hold any more pain.
 
When you can’t lock it back up, you have to deal with the mess. So, I faced the pain and the breaking and realized all the stuffing had been a source of my competitive nature and approval seeking. For years, I had taken the anger and channeled it into success. But without that cabinet of hurts swelling, I had to learn to find momentum again — from a healthy place this time.
 
It’s kinda like taking a jackhammer to a heart surrounded by concrete. The excavation is a little violent, but if you don’t smash the barricade, you also trap all the beautiful emotions of life down in that cement dungeon; in suppressing the painful and the uncomfortable, you aren’t able to access the beautiful and carefree.
 
My divorce was the jackhammer, and that’s when joy started to break through the lovely cracks.
 
Do I regret my divorce? Absolutely. But I wouldn’t be the healed, whole, free and heart-broken-wide-open person I am today without the wrecking of divorce and all the struggles that followed. God answered my prayer for brokenness, and the brokenness was the biggest blessing because it brought with it a dependence on Jesus that I had never imagined. Peace about death. Peace about life. Peace about who I am, really, in Christ. My faith became my own instead of something I learned from someone else. I encountered the goodness and the kindness of God, and I knew from the deepest place in my spirit — He is truly God. He is real. And he loves me with an unfailing love.
 
Brokenness yields understanding, empathy, and compassion. It also yields joy.
 
God says in Isaiah 61:3, “To all who mourn in Israel he will give: beauty for ashes; joy instead of mourning; praise instead of heaviness. For God has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory.”
 
If you are going through a divorce, or in a rocky marriage, God has not forsaken you and he promises to give beauty for ashes and joy instead of mourning. It is 200 percent worth it to fight as hard as you can for your marriage, but know that sometimes marriage doesn’t work out, and that is okay too.
 
The church has a lot to say about marriage, and the Bible says more. If your husband or wife has been unfaithful or verbally, emotionally or physically abusive, God does not call us to stay and be a doormat for anyone’s anger or abuse. When a spouse no longer loves or respects his or her partner, and quits trying, there is only so much the other can do. A marriage is hard and beautiful. But it takes two committed people to make it work.
 

None of this is to oversimplify the mysterious covenant of marriage. God hates divorce, but I think he hates it because it is a death of a holy union that he forms and because it breaks lives and families. I don’t believe he condemns it. Because marriage is a model for Christ’s love for the church, is it sacred and holy. But if man destroys the sanctity and hates his husband or wife, the covenant is broken.

In the end, divorce is one of the most terrible things a person can go through, but in my experience, it has also been the source of my deepest joy because it was the pivot point that brought me back to Jesus. Even in my sin and my human shortcomings, God never let me go.

This is part one in our series on divorce. Stay tuned for next week’s blog where we will take a closer look at the Bible verses addressing divorce and share more about the Biblical context for divorce.


Dear God, Many of us have experienced the heartache and brokenness of divorce or are in hurting or broken marriages. No matter the outcome, Lord, please help us to lean on you and to stay anchored in you through the storm as you are Lord Healer, and you are able to mend even things that seem impossible to heal. Please also shelter and protect anyone who is going through divorce right now and help them to know that you are with them through this hardship and that there is hope, joy and healing on the other side.

In Jesus perfect name,
Amen

 

Verses for study:

Matthew 5:26-27
But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its collapse!”

Luke 6:47-49
“As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

Ephesians 5:22-32
“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

 

 

 

 

God, can you forgive even this?

God, can you forgive even this?

by | Apr 16, 2026 | forgiveness, grace, love, mercy

My decision to be involved intimately with this man before acknowledging all the red flags was not without consequences. I ended up spiritually, mentally and emotionally scarred, and that burning red hot brand on my soul kept me in a place of inner self-condemnation and turmoil for several years. I will always have the scar, but I know that God’s mercy, his forgiveness 70 times 7 times, covers even this.

Photo by Kev Seto 

Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”
Matthew 18:22

 

Off the tracks

 
I was sitting in the sanctuary, which at Trader’s Point Christian Church feels more like an auditorium- except that it’s filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit. 
 
I was newly engaged to a man I’d just met just six weeks ago, and the sermon was about David and Bathsheba.
 
If you don’t know it, this story shapes the book of Psalms and David’s legacy.
 
David sleeps with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, and she becomes pregnant. David calls his army home so Uriah can sleep with Bathsheba and cover up the pregnancy, but Uriah won’t leave his troops to sleep with his wife. So, David puts Uriah, a trusted friend and confidante, on the frontlines of battle and knowingly sends Uriah to his death. It is a great cover up to save face, and David falls deeper into sin as the story unfolds.
 
The point of the sermon was that God’s grace is wide and that God always gives us a chance not to sin. In the story of David and Bathsheba, David made several wrong choices.
1. From a rooftop, David saw Bathsheba bathing and summoned for her
2. David slept with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife, and she became pregnant
3. David tried to cover up the pregnancy by urging Uriah to sleep with Bathsheba so Uriah would think the baby was his
4. David sent Uriah, his close friend, to death in battle
 
At how many points in my own brief affair with this man sitting next to me had I missed an out?
1. The 236 times he urged me to smoke a cigarette when I don’t smoke
2. The time he urged me to pee in an urban public park
3. The time he urged me to stand on a roof with him naked
4. The time he told me he tried cocaine (not for me!)
 

It felt like I was being primed to make compromises and choices I did not want to make, and this is how I’d become engaged so quickly in the first place.

I’d made choices that were far from my heart and values. There were red flags everywhere.

 
Here’s the thing, friends:  God always gives us an out to keep us from sinning. There’s a inflection point, a warning red caution light and check in our spirits, that says, “No, this isn’t right” over and over until we listen. Stop or go, it is our decision. We can yield the warning, or we can proceed into danger and suffer the consequences later.
 
God’s grace is sufficient and it doesn’t matter what we’ve done:  it’s never too late to come back to him and to confess the mess we’ve made in doing things our way. He’ll be there to help us pick up the pieces and deal with the consequences. But we will be scarred by our sins. In my case, I felt branded with a scarlet letter.
 
I sat there that Sunday, listening, heart beating steady and loud, with a narrow window to get out of this relationship. Like David, I’d had my own rooftop moment of poor choices that led me into sin. God, can you forgive even this?
 
We got lunch after church and this man whom I barely knew told me he hated Christians, though he’d led me to believe he’d previously accepted Christ four times in his life. 
 
Friends, I got the wool pulled over my eyes. In so sincerely hoping for a long awaited partner, I was deceived and I believed so many of Satan’s lies and excused so many red flags. This man offered to give me the world in exchange for God, and I’m alarmed and grieved by how close I came to spiritual death.
 
My decision to be involved intimately with this man before acknowledging all the red flags was not without consequences. I ended up spiritually, mentally and emotionally scarred, and that burning red hot brand on my soul kept me in a place of inner self-condemnation and turmoil for several years. I will always have the scar, but I know that God’s mercy, his forgiveness 70 times 7 times, covers even this (Matt. 18:21-22).
 
Friends, this part of my life story is scary stuff. Staying with this man would have stolen my life path and so many good gifts God has planned for my life. It was an attack from the pit of hell.
 
There are people out there who will try to steal, kill and destroy any good that God is working in our lives, and we need to be so cautious. We have to keep vigilant watch over our hearts (Prov. 4:23) because they can sometimes desire something so much that we will ignore all the red flags and flashing warning lights.
 
I think God wants you to know that even those close to him can sin gravely, and that his mercy is not conditional or predicated upon our actions. He doesn’t require perfection; he simply asks for our repentance. He loves us the same through all of our mistakes, and nothing is too big for him to redeem.
 

I praise God my past is redeemed and I am healed enough to shine a light on this part of my story, and I want to confront the lie that you have to be perfect to be a Christian or to know God. Christianity is so far from striving for some impossible ideal:  Only God himself can achieve perfection. He knew we could never be perfect like him so he sent his perfect son Jesus to pay the bride price for our sins. Jesus has the power to lay down his life and pick it up again and he lays it down for you and me (John 10:17-18).

 

Ultimately, God wants our hearts. He wants our sincere devotion and love. He simply wants us to know him and to love him back. If we make redemption about anything else, we have missed the point of grace. His forgiveness is 70 times 7 times, and it’s never too late for him to redeem our even this.

 

If you are processing any wounding sin, find someone to soundboard with (a friend you trust, a counselor, a pastor or priest) to help you bring it out into the light. The enemy cannot keep us trapped in shame unless our sins remain in darkness. Know that God’s mercy is greater than your sin.

Dear God, Some of us have hearts that cry out to you from a place of brokenness and desperation over our sins. We don’t feel good enough for of deserving of your forgiveness, yet your mercy is wide and unfailing. Free us from any shame we have over our mistakes that taught us something about life, and redeem our messes in your forgiveness 70 times 7 times. We trust you to bring new life out of sin-full dead ends. Help us to bring what hurts out into the light.

In Jesus name,
Amen.

 

 

We encourage you to read through 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12 to see the consequences of David’s sin and the blessing God brought through it.

Verses for study:
2 Samuel 11  |  David and Bathsheba
In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David.  When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.

David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”

Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”

Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”

So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were.

When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.

Joab sent David a full account of the battle. He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? Who killed Abimelek son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, ‘Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’”

The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.”

David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.”

When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.

Matthew 18:21-22
Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

John 10:17-18
The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life–only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

Proverbs 4:23 MSG
Keep vigilant watch over your heart;
    that’s where life starts.

Luke 7:49
The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this [Jesus] who even forgives sins?”

Lamentations 3:22-23
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
 they are new every morning;

 

Who am I living for?

Who am I living for?

by | Apr 16, 2026 | sacrifice, the heart, treasure, wonder

With hearts made for eternity, we search for fulfillment in worldly things — accomplishments, family, education, work, material possessions — without ever being sated. We cannot fill that vastness with the world anymore than we can number the stars.

Photo by Inbal Malca 

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 
Matthew 2:11

 

Stars

 

Over the holidays, I was thinking about the Magi who traveled to Bethlehem, led by the bright star and awaiting the Savior, only to lay their treasures down at the feet of a newborn baby as an offering of praise. And it occurred to me that, just as the Magi, we must lay our treasures down at our Savior’s feet.
 
Oh, how I yearn for the times when six minutes under the stars and stillness balmed. Times when I was so close to God I could step outside at night, look up, and feel peace deep and love wide and time stopped.
 
Have I forgotten the wonder of our Savior’s birth? Do I hold enough space in my heart for him? Have I laid down my treasures at the feet of Jesus?
 
As we enter the New Year, I would like to ask the question to you and to myself, “Who am I living for?” 
 
The honest answer for me is myself. My goals. My plans. My future. While God has stretched me to give more and more of myself away in service as an offering of praise, I still find myself tripping on, well, myself. 
 
It’s not an accident that Jesus was born in a manger, humble and low, and wrapped in swaddling clothes. Our lives are meant to be fulfilled in full abandonment to the Savior. 
 
With hearts made for eternity, we search for fulfillment in worldly things — accomplishments, family, education, work, material possessions — without ever being sated. We cannot fill that vastness with the world anymore than we can number the stars.
 
We are made, it seems by design, with a God-shaped hole that is filled only by the humble and lowly things.
 
My lofty goals, my lofty dreams, my lofty plans — they are all humbled at his feet where I realize to live in Christ is to lay down my treasures as an offering of praise. It was never about me.
 
As Christians walking through this world of ambition and material comforts, we can become so comfortable with the status quo and distracted from the truth of the gospel. A new year is timely for reflection on the core tenants of faith.
 
+ The gospel is for everyone. Rich and poor. Young and old. Free and in prison. In God’s economy, the last will be first and the first will be last. 
+ God is love. Love conquers all things.
+ We are made to love God, just as he first loved us. The world cannot fill our God-shaped holes.
+ It matters greatly that the posture of our hearts is love.
+ We are created, by design, to love and to care for one another, just as Christ loved us and loved the church.
+ We die to ourselves and gain eternal life when we accept Jesus.
+ As offerings of praise and thanksgiving, we lay down our treasures at the feet of Jesus. Things we have cherished above him. Material comforts. Selfish ambition. Worldly desires. Jesus knows it’s hard for us to lay down our treasures. He invites us to abandon ourselves to the greatest mysteries of heaven anyway.

 

None of this is to say that I shouldn’t be pursuing my dreams or using the talents that God has given me. Each and every one of us is created to pursue our passions and to contribute something only we can contribute to the world.

 
Yet have my passions and goals overtaken my love for the Savior? Have I idolized self and selfish ambitions? Do I focus on myself above others? Do I think about myself before I think of God? Truth bomb.
 
I’ll be looking up at the stars a lot more this year. When I do, I will remember a tiny baby in Bethlehem and the Magi who came to lay their treasures at the feet of the Savior — then remember to lay down my treasures, too.
 
 
 
Lord, help us to remember that you alone are worthy and that you alone fulfill the desires of our hearts as we are created to love you. Help us not to cherish any of our worldly treasures above you or before you, Lord. Help us to remember the gift of our Savior and the wonder of His birth all year as we set our hearts towards you and lay our treasures down at the feet of Jesus.
 
Amen.
 
 
Verses for study:
James 2:5
Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?
 
1 Corinthians 1:27
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
 
Matthew 16:24, KJV
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
 
Mark 10:21
Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
 
Isaiah 9:6
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
 
Matthew 2:1-12
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
 
“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
 
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
 
 
Learning to yield

Learning to yield

by | Apr 16, 2026 | holy spirit, pneuma, priorities, relationship

Photo by Khara Woods

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. John 3:8

I used to attend Fairhaven Church in Centerville, Ohio. The lead Pastor at Fairhaven, Dr. David Smith, once preached a sermon on “Pneuma” which is the Greek word for the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. Translated directly from the Greek, it means, “wind”, “breath of life” or “spirit”.

There were many teachings in this sermon, but the one that particularly stood out to me, that I remember so many years later, was this:

Seldom resist a generous impulse.

When you put most generous impulses up to this filter, they are helpful and good. Because the Holy Spirit moves as wind, through that tiny nudge in our spirits, and sometimes even in that loud tug we can’t ignore, we can feel the impulse, catch it, evaluate it and determine whether it is generous. If the impulse is generous, in most cases, it is an impulse we should seldom resist.

Give the $20 bill to the person begging on the streets. Buy tires for a friend who can’t afford them. Provide food for a family who is hungry. Reach out a helping hand. Give an encouraging word. Respond to the Spirit’s promptings. Yield to the generous impulses.

There was a time in my life that I was afraid of pneuma coming and blowing me right where I did not want to be. I recall a youth pastor who shared that he was once nudged to pray with three high school students he did not know in a public place. It was probably an ice cream shop. Let me pause here for a moment because this terrified me. I was truly afraid of the Holy Ghost and even more afraid he’d lead me to pray with strangers in an uncomfortable place!  For a while, I’ll admit, I pulled back. The Holy Spirit seemed too extreme.

Today I know that the Holy Spirit moves in all places and all ways, and often takes us outside of our comfort zones, but I have found He will not push us farther than we are ready to go in our spirits.

If God asked me to pray with strangers today, I hope I wouldn’t hesitate. But God wouldn’t have asked that 10 years ago when my spirit wasn’t ready. Let me also say this: I have a long, long, long infinite way to go in cultivating obedience to the Holy Spirit, and God’s refining work in me will not be complete on this side of heaven.

The Holy Spirit is literally the power of God within us. He is our Counselor and Helper, whom Jesus promised before his death would be given to us as a gift (John 14:15-26). In Jesus, the Holy Spirit has the power to raise from the dead, to heal, to give words of knowledge, and to direct us to people who need our help that we otherwise never would have met, and it is by the Holy Spirit that we can do all things and even greater works than Jesus (John 14:12).

What? That sounds scandalous. Does the Bible really say this? Check out John 14, and you will see these very words in print! By the Holy Spirit and through Christ, all things are possible.

Our entire lives are a process of yielding to the Holy Spirit. I think of the rich man in the New Testament, who asked Jesus what else he lacked to gain eternal life, for he had followed all of the commandments. Jesus answered, sell everything and come and follow me (Matthew 19:16-22). This is the wildest abandon to the Holy Spirit and it’s an uncommon path that most of us will not take. Even so, the Holy Spirit is working in our lives today and actively refining us.

 

 

 

 

 

God doesn’t ever force us to choose him. And the truth is, friends, that God doesn’t want our mindless obedience. When he calls us to love him with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind, God is calling us to know him with our minds. To think. To work out our faith with fear and trembling.

Here are a few truths about the Holy Spirit we should be mindful of as we learn to respond to pneuma.

  • We should fear God and have a holy reverence for him.  
    The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 9:10
  • Our bodies are temples to the Holy Spirit and God’s Spirit dwells in us. 
    Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
    1 Corinthians 3:16
  • God desires our obedience to the Spirit’s promptings. 
    “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Acts 7:51
  • It is possible to quench the Holy Spirit if we do not yield to his promptings. 
    And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30
  • Despite our mistakes, shortfalls and unworthiness, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence through Jesus Christ.
    Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16

To summarize what we know from scripture, we are called to fear God and to obey him and to hold a holy reverence for God and what he asks from us, yet even when we quench the spirit, because of Jesus we can approach the throne of grace with confidence. In our spirits, we can go to the throne room of God and lay down our raw burdens, concerns and fears — we can even argue it out with God (Genesis 32:24-28). God will always win, but he understands sometimes our spirits need to find their own paths into Holy submission. 

God doesn’t ever force us to choose him. And the truth is, friends, that God doesn’t want our mindless obedience. When he calls us to love him with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind, God is calling us to know him with our MINDS. To think. To work out our faith with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).

God is inviting us to follow him because we sincerely want to. This is the first step of faith. The second step is a longer path that takes an entire lifetime. It is a path of learning to yield to the Holy Spirit’s promptings and generous impulses. To move when God calls our spirits to action. These are often quick promptings with narrow windows to act. The closer we get to God, the more windows he will show us to love his people and to be his hands and feet. This is awesome and we miss so much because we’re human. But as Christians, we should leap to our feet when God taps us. As Christians and Presence-carriers, we are co-laborers with Christ in the work of the Kingdom and God moves in us through his Holy Spirit, through pneuma, to reach all people with his love. 

 

Verses for study:

John 14:15-26: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

John 14:12: Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do.

Philippians 2:12: Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed–not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence–continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

 

Matthew 19:16-22: Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
“Which ones?” he inquired.
Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Genesis 32:24-28: So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”