Category: Encouragements and Exhortations

Our Dallas preaching pastor, Craig Cabaniss, preached a really helpful sermon today on faith (listen to it here). The passage was Mark 5:21-43 which included the healing of the woman who had a flow of blood for 12 years and also the raising of Jairus’ daughter. Of the many good points about faith that he made during this sermon, there was one that struck me. As he described Jesus approaching the wailing in front of Jairus’ house, Pastor Craig commented: He comes in and he says, “Hey why are you making such a commotion and weeping? The child is not…

The last couple blog posts (part 1 and part 2) sought to answer the question “Does our justification lead to inaction?” Our hope is that these posts would spur all of us on to proactively pursue good works. We are speculating that another lie that Satan tells us to “slow us down” from pursuing good works is that… 3) Me Preaching the Gospel to Myself will Save other People “I must be doing well spiritually.  I am in an community group where I am vulnerable with others and freely confess my sin, I attend the gospel-centered Christian conferences, I am…

In our last post, we sought to encourage our own souls and those of our readers that the reality that we are justified in God’s eyes should in no way slow us down from seeking to zealously pursue good works.  We are speculating that Satan is lying to the church telling us that the doctrine of justification should slow us down in our attempt to please God with our lives.  The second lie that we’ve been tempted to believe is… 2) God always “Feels” the Same Way Towards Us I am sure I am not the only one who has…

Thankfully, very few Christians today would say that the doctrine of justification[1]gives us permission to sin.  This lie definitely has been used by the Devil to derail many believers, but I am not so sure that this is his lie of choice in evangelical churches today.  Instead, I am concerned that we emphasize so much that Christians are not saved by good works that we are suspicious of “good works” altogether.  A common refrain in American churches is that we need to “preach the Gospel to ourselves every day.”  When inquiring among our brothers and sisters about a career choice, we…

Someone at church told Stacey the other day that we should abandon the saying “Well, it’s not rocket science,” and replace it with, “Well, it’s not parenting.” That is because while I am sure that rocket science is really hard, I am all the more sure that parenting is way harder.  Anyone agree? When we parent we are dealing with real people who have real souls. And there is no one that can influence our children like we can. And it is often so hard to know how to respond to every circumstance that we encounter with our kids. But…

My friend Kameron posted a quote from G.K. Chesterton the other day that I thought was very insightful: “The worst moment for an atheist is when he feels a profound sense of gratitude and has no one to thank.” I was reflecting on this quote as I spent Thanksgiving with my family. It seems that within the American culture we do have a deep understanding of how blessed we are. We have, after all, set aside a day for the specific purpose of thanksgiving. But as our culture becomes more and more secular we begin to lose an understanding of…

Have you ever thought to praise God for his power in creating the world’s languages? There are currently around 6,900 languages in the world today. Some languages have evolved and borrowed from other languages so that if you were to listen closely you could pickup a word here or there. Other languages are so different from English that at best you could ignorantly nod your head and pray that the people talking in front of you  are not making fun of you. And no matter how similar the language, it is almost impossible to acquire a new language without an…

I am so thankful for my Dad.  I have never met anyone who believes with as much assurance and zeal that Christ could return tomorrow than him.  Heaven and the return of Christ comes up in almost every one of our conversations.  I can remember as a young girl that my Dad told me that if he were to die, he would want his funeral to be a party with lots of balloons and that he would want me to wear bright, cheery clothes–all because he would want me to celebrate the fact that he was in Heaven. And these…

by Dave I have had this conversation perhaps a million times: Me: [talking about the Gospel] The Bible says… Person: Well, you know that the Bible has been corrupted. Me: Oh it has? Person: Yes, it has been around for thousands of years and has been tampered with by men throughout the years.  Who knows what it said originally? Me: Okay. So, what parts have been tampered with? Person: Excuse me? Me: If the Bible has been corrupted and the earliest manuscripts are so different, what parts have been corrupted? Person: … Perhaps you have been on one side of…

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. – Romans 8:18   We arrived home safe and sound from California a couple days ago and while we were there we could not help thinking life in California was the life we were supped to have.  A few of the friends we spent time with were friends that I have had since kindergarten.  Several of my relationships were from high school and then in Southern California we spent time with people we knew in college.  We…