Faith|Fiction

sharecovers.com If you're avidly seeking God and you make a mistake...don't forget- you're human. No matter how much we love and want to please the Lord, we will make mistakes as long as we're here on earth, unfortunately. If I had it my way, I'd love it if I could please Jesus every time, but we both know I'm human and that's just not going to happen. My experience is this: If you make Jesus your life and you try to do everything to please Him and you make a mistake or a series of them, and even after repenting you've still got a nagging feeling pulling your heart down- that my friend is condemnation. It's something all believers are tempted to feel, but if you stand on Him and let Him strengthen you, you don't have to fall into that trap. Jesus told me this today: "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings." --Hosea 6:8 (NIV) I'm not that hard to please. If you're tr

soverigngraceministries.org Out of all the courtship and purity books I've read (and hounded in my room, haha), this is one I didn't have a particular liking for. It was kind of...blah. Mr. Harris writes on a subject I fully support and am practicing in my own life, the principal of keeping yourself and letting God keep you clean in both your soul and your physical body, not only for marriage but for life. He writes on the importance of taking an interest in why you date and urges us as readers to take on a new attitude of selflessness and loving with Christ's love as we embark on a romantic relationship that starts first with friendship and then to marriage. I have no doubt in my mind that this book was written out of the Lord's will and the message spoken was His, but I felt in my spirit that this particular book was not for me. I could see his message but couldn't get into it, couldn't get connected to it. Although I identified greatly with the pur

blogs.cisco.com Today, the word celebration  is on my heart. Think about it: how many times a year do we just take time to celebrate ourselves and where we are in our journey with Jesus? As I was thinking about it yesterday I realized the answer was a whopping no. I've never taken time to just celebrate where I am and where He's taken me and the things I've been able to do because of Him. How sad this was to discover that I wasn't taking the time to appreciate how far He's taken me from where I was and how He is changing me everyday. This summer I took a month-long trip to Switzerland and in spite of the beauty landscape and my welcoming family, Jesus held my hand as I walked through a trial. There was almost nothing I could do! I set out to protect my heart from anything that could wrench me from my Savior and into the hands of the world (read: avoiding secular music, television...etc.) and apart from reading the Bible and listening to Christian music and wa