My Crazy Faith

[I originally posted this on one of my other blogs , Oct. 2021] So   according to this article , it appears that scientists have found evidence of the type of biblical destruction that happened to Sodom.  They say they found a town that was destroyed by a blast of heat so hot that it pretty much melted everything.  They say that there's no earthly natural heat source that could do this, so they speculate that it must have been an asteroid that exploded over the town, melting everything.  Oh, and they speculate that the reason no one lived there afterward was that the asteroid impact might have brought over so much salt from the nearby Dead Sea that nothing could grow.  This, they say, must be what inspired people to make up the story of Sodom in the Bible. But I say that here's your "asteroid," scientists: "The Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah - from the Lord out of the heavens.  Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, incl...

Learning to be okay with God’s Time and God’s Way A.k.a.: Learning to Trust (Somewhat of a continuation of #5: Just do your job ) 1 Peter 5:6-7 :   “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.    Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.” In due time!    Such a scary thought for us.    Such a hard thing to accept and to wait for.    How hard it is to humbly submit our lives to the Lord’s timing and way.    But if we want to have the kind of life He wants for us, then we have to learn to humble ourselves before Him and to wait for Him to lift us up - in His time and in His way. But we're too anxious for that, aren't we?  Too hasty?  Too self-focused?  We  want what we want when we want it.   W e have our own ideas of how and when things should happen.   We  have dreams we want to fulfill, plans we want to succeed, goals we want to a...

James 1:5 : "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." James 1:6-8: "But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does." I don't know why, but something just hit me the other day about these verses that I probably once knew but must have forgotten: They go together! Although it wasn't really conscious, for some reason my mind always seemed to keep them separate and apply them to different things: 1:5 is about asking for wisdom, but 1:6-8 is about any and all prayer requests, as if when we ask for something, we should believe that we will get it and not doubt it.  I mean, I know that "name it and claim it" is wrong, but for some reason, my mind still unconsciously applied...

Happy Easter Weekend!   Never forget how much  Jesus loves you and what He went through for you, for everyone, so that anyone who believes in Him would be saved (and anyone can!): Sweetly Broken  by Jeremy Riddle Oh, What Love  by The City Harmonic Secret Ambition  by Michael W. Smith Hallelujah Christmas   by Cloverton My Jesus  by Todd Agnew  I Am  by Crowder The Champion  by Carman (This will always be one of his best!) There are many people who resist God because they doubt He exists:  "If God is real, then why doesn't He prove He's real?" Well, He did ... it's called Creation. "Oh, that's just evolution. It's nature," they say.  "But if He's really real, why doesn't He send us a clear message, in black-and-white?" He did ... it's called the Bible. "No, no, that was just written by men.  An interesting old book, but nothing more.  But if He's really, really real, then why doesn't He come down here and sh...

Finally, another "hardest spiritual lesson" (here's #4: Thankfulness , #3: Praise , #2: Prunings , and #1: Let Go ): 5.    Obediently Doing Your Job and Letting God Do His Okay now, be honest and raise your hand if   you like to lead instead of follow?    To push through with your plans and make things happen?    To set your own rules and goals?  To follow your dreams?  To stand in the spotlight?   Our world values go-getters and leaders - people who succeed, who make the impossible possible, who dream big dreams and make them come true.    It doesn’t put much value on  people who shine the spotlight on someone else, who spend their lives in service to someone else, who work quietly in the background, or who follow and obey what someone else tells them to do .    It doesn’t respect submission, obedience, and following, not nearly as much as it does autonomy, self-reliance, and leading.    And so the wor...