What Is Your Will In Christ?

As followers of Christ, we know that marriage vows are w ords that should be carefully considered and soberly spoken as a lifelong contract - a holy covenant acknowledged by God that is truly fulfilled only by living it out - a vow recorded as sworn before Him and binding... Numbers 30:1-2 (NLT) 1 "Then Moses summoned the leaders of the tribes of Israel and told them, “This is what the LORD has commanded: 2 A man who makes a vow to the LORD or makes a pledge under oath must never break it. He must do exactly what he said he would do." To say the words alone, without the true promise of an enduring commitment, without the full intent of fully engaged and sustained relationship for the full span of a lifetime allowing the potential possibilities of life and living them out, is an empty use of them... and provides for offense. We have interest and concern for our own feelings, thoughts and needs and are intimately familiar with ourselves. As followers of Christ, we unde...

The social world pulse presently calls for the pursuit of many, many things and the pressure to succeed in all of those prescribed efforts is intense...  For a time the enemy of our souls has been allowed to orchestrate a limited opposition against mankind in the world and has a certain amount of success where he's able to exploit human weakness.  According to the relentless assault of advertisements in every form of venue humanly possible, mankind himself has made an incredible effort to assist his own enemy in his attempted conquest. We must be this, look like that, wear this, have that, live here, travel there, drive that, drink this, eat that,... possess... achieve... enjoy... do... love... ... ... idolize anything other than our Creator and Judge. And it obviously works or the drumbeat we're constantly subjected to would collapse under its own weight.  If the advertising didn't pay off, there'd be no point to advertising. But it does pay off, to more benefici...

My life is in some part a history of past failures. It's record contains a variety of moments when decisions, words and actions made in the past brought home their own foretold reward. But as I move forward to navigate what remains of this life, there's one mistake I refuse to make and it breaks my heart to think that I may be watching some others making it... Sometimes in ignorance and others in unthinking disregard, some of my decisions, words and actions in those past moments have run counter to the wealth of wisdom contained in the grace of biblical scripture. A nd each of those occasions in prophetically declared certainty, whether in immediate or eventual reward, has often carried with it a knowable price.  Living in conflict with what we've been instructed biblically often brings a knowable and certain cost to our lives. The details and particulars of that cost in some instances may not be clear to us in how they will play out, but the burden of a price is most u...

We're followers of Christ living in a world of growing offense and degradation. It's all around us and it's sometimes hard for some of us to not allow ourselves to be influenced by it. It's one of the things that a tender heart can struggle with the most in a world inhabited by insensitive, self promoting and apathetic people. But it's a tender, loving heart that we find in our Savior. And it's one that we come to recognize and love even more immeasurably with every new revelation of His kindness and grace as we grow in relationship with Him. It's a heart that we're continually drawn to and that we're continually seeking to emulate as we come to know Him better in a world that's not moving in that same direction...  In this world we're swimming upstream against the current and sometimes it can be rough going, but keeping who we're swimming toward and our end destination in sight continually can help keep propelling us forward even in ...

The Lord's given the ability to utilize reason to mankind and it's a useful tool in resolving problems and formulating conclusions. We use it commonly and possibly without much consideration to it's usefulness or even how often we use it. But as followers of Christ, a problem with the usefulness of that ability to reason arises when it comes in conflict with the divine authority of the God that created us. For example, our own reasoning can become a dangerous tool when allowed to be manipulated by the enemy or when reason is allowed to depart from the established decrees and declarations of the Ultimate Authority (E.g.- Adam and Eve and the Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil). In one definition - the one most applicable to my thoughts here, Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines "reason" as follows: reason verb "the power of comprehending, inferring, or thinking especially in orderly rational ways : INTELLIGENCE" Above all that we could possibly ...