Where I belong

Season 3 of "This is Us" is really about where Randall Pearson belongs. It starts when he comes to a new community, pitches a campaign speech because he cares about the people of the city, and is rejected. "Go back to where you belong." For people like him, and for people like me, hearing that …

Some Stars Don’t Align – two people who love Jesus and each other can have toxic relationships too

Well, some may not want to read this - but I hope you do. I think there's a huge treasure trove of wisdom in others' failures. Some of the greatest teachers in my life have been experiences that haven't panned out.I write this now, a couple months after the end of one of the major …

What I Loved About The Kite Runner (Massive Spoilers)

This blog post's about Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. This book's subject matter includes the occupation of Afghanistan by the Taliban and the ensuing destruction of Amir, the main character's way of life. While Amir grew up as a wealthy heir to a sizable estate and son of a respected man in his community, he soon discovers …

How to Pray Humbly Yet Persistently to “Change God’s Mind”

The common Christian understanding of God is that he is unchanging in nature, immutable. Omniscient, so his plans can have no flaws. He even states that he is not like a man in that he should change his mind; however, the Bible also contains several examples of God seemingly changing his mind based on human …

The Beautiful Irony of the Cross

Isn't it just beautifully ironic that The One True King (Jesus) died for those who rebelled against him, (Us) unjustly put to death on the charge of being a "Rebel against the One True King?" (Caesar, who let's not forget, claimed to be God). Perhaps that's why the Roman soldiers mocked Jesus as inhumanely as …

Testimony Tract – An Unshakeable Hope

What made you Lord, to die for me? Why would you die for me, your enemy? You took my place to hang on a tree To be a curse, MY curse for me. You loved me, Lord, so very long. And with a love enduring and strong Although I mocked and cursed you so long …

The Greatest Gift You Can Give Someone

Hi guys, it's been a while. I think I decided that I wanted to change up the content of the site a tiny bit - being able to post detailed "sermons" on biblical teaching regularly will be a bit of a challenge.  I'm going to update things with a bit more slice-of-life everyday occurrences, journal …

Good Samaritan? How this Story Illustrates the Gospel

Introduce yourself Introduce the topic When asked about who and how we should love, Jesus tells a story of radical love - how a Samaritan goes out of his way to show love to a Jew, his cultural enemy. Before we get into the story, though, we have to understand what makes this story significant …

Scriptures for Suffering

This post is dedicated to a loved sister in Christ who is going through difficult times. Blessed are those who Suffer! Matthew 5:10-12 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against …

Blind Faith is Not Biblical – We Need Truth and We Need Proof

As an ex-atheist, I have the unique vantage point necessary to say this: popular Christianity in America has failed atheists and has failed the rational seeker. Now, I want to say that this will likely be a very cutting post, but I do mean this from a place of love, saying "We need to be …

Truth is Controversial. So was Jesus.

There will be those who will tell us that it's arrogant to say that our worldview is right, and someone else's is wrong. That we're claiming to have a monopoly on the truth. History is written by the victors, isn't it? That might be your truth, but it's not my truth. Is truth even knowable? …

Good News! – What is the Story of the Gospel?

Hi, I just wanted to provide you guys with the most basic form of the gospel, told in a story format. I hope this proves to be a great evangelism tool (People love stories!) as well as provide some closure on the central storyline of the Bible. This is just a bare bones, dry skeleton …

What Daniel can teach us about Humility, Respect, and Being too exhausted for God

Hey if anybody’s down to do a little extra reading and Bible study, I highly recommend the book of Daniel! I'm here to give a brief synopsis and a little bit of context to flesh it out, but I highly recommend going to read it right after! Daniel is one of my favorite OT prophets …

The Case for Preaching Borrowed or Redundant Sermons

I think that there's a huge pressure on pastors in America today to come up with a new thing for each sermon: for each sermon to be original, and drafted from the growing experience of the pastor. I respectfully disagree. What's wrong with preaching the same message if it still needs to be heard?  What's …

God’s Radical Love (Even For His Enemies)

Hi, okay! Time to start another topic that I've been looking forward to getting into for a little bit! I have a couple things to share about the miraculousness of God's radical love, so stick around for a bit. This post should be a 10 minute read. Okay, let's start with our first aspect and …

Myers Briggs – Intro to Cognitive Functions

Hey, so I wanted to kick off my first post with explaining a little bit of Cognitive theory.  The Myers-Briggs personality theory is one of my favorites - for understanding people and understanding yourself.  So, the way Myers-Briggs tests work is that they ask you questions related to 4 dichotomies - E or I, S …

Welcome back!….me.

Ever come back to something so old, you could barely recognize yourself? Read old essays, pull up your memory box, and come face to face with a version of you that rings of a stranger? Yeah, that just happened to me - reading this blog again for a while. I was actually reminded of it …

I had a realization

The voice you believe is not the voice you have given the highest position to, but rather the voice you listen to the most in your daily life. Is your identity as “child of God” and what Christ describes you as - is that the voice you let speak loudest and most often when you …

Personal Proverbs (Updates Ongoing)

"Patience favors the lazy." "Every scar is a story." (Both physical and mental) "Vulnerability is the shortcut to humanity." "The best gift you can give someone is to listen to them until you fully understand them." "If you separate yourself from a group at any disagreement, how can you lead them? You can't lead a …