Faith|Fiction

barnesandnoble.com 10 Days Without is a book written to inspire Christians to stop being passive. In the way they seek God. In the way they worship Him. In the way they serve others. I've noticed and prayed against this habit myself- the tendency we have to move beyond contentment and go into what Day calls 'slackitism'. It's feeling the conviction of the Holy Spirit tell you to do something, and then completing it half way. Or not doing it at all. Or relying on someone else to do what God Himself has called YOU to do. I love the idea centered around this book. It's calling us to GET UP out of the church and go out and see what God is doing in this broken world. As each section beckons us to give up a comfort to peek into the lives of others while praying and fasting, God gives us a glimpse of what it's like to live in the eyes of the person who doesn't have shoes, or legs. In this eye-opening book, Day challenged me to fight the tide of ...

googleimages This morning I had beautiful whitespace (as FaithBarista Bonnie Gray calls it) in my favorite place. My mind was muddled and I was trying to fix it myself. Walking along the beautiful lake, I clutched my books to my chest and thought. Even the gorgeous scenery against the light November wind hadn't calmed me. I heard something: Do you remember how you were when I first met you? Me: A mess. Don't you think if you were there, a mess without any sense of direction and I guided you out of that and brought you here, that I won't guide you? I will guide you out of anything and everything. You just keep loving Me and spending time with Me and you'll find you're already there. He spoke to me. He spoke to me!! I'd been so worried about where He wanted me to go and how I was going to get there and how far away I was from that place that I forgot His basics. I'm just here to love him and spend time with Him...then I'll look up one da...

uppphotos.net "But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward- to Jesus. I'm off and running and I'm not turning back " (Philippians 3:18, MSG). Do you see the determination in this verse? It was the first thing that stuck out to me when I read this in the Message Translation. I'd been looking back at my journal and memories from the last few months of having wonderful communion with the Lord, and wondered why my time with Him now didn't look like it had. It was something I'd been praying about this for awhile but hadn't really gotten an answer, just a little Scripture about the past that I shook off. I didn't want Scripture's answer, I wanted His. And I got Him. Not just an answer- Him. Comforting arms and all. I read this ve...

iheartinspiration.com Hello! I just wanted to encourage those of you who are going through something super tough. God's mercies are new each morning, and especially for those of us that are using our faith muscles. Know this:  we need to be renewed. We need to be reminded. We need a WORD from Him, letting us know that we are truly in the palm of His hand. I'm sort of in this place where a Word from God starts to get clouded in by doubt, and today, I realized that I needed my strength, everyday, from the Lord to get through the day. Are you in the same place? Did the Lord tell you something that, as time passes by, seem to get clouded by doubt? Let me share something He put in my heart today: "22  Then came the Festival of Dedication [ b ]  at Jerusalem. It was winter,   23  and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade.   24  The Jews  who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? ...

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...