Growing in the Lord & Walking in the Spirit

When pondering the holiday titled "Thanksgiving" I feel like most Americans, and sometimes even Christians, don't care much about the reason behind Thanksgiving. They just show up for the food or want to begin their month-long Christmas mood. Yet, there is so much more to Thanksgiving than food or Black Friday and Christmas to follow.  Whenever I think of my blog or Thanksgiving, right now my mind goes to when I wrote a blog article about staying thankful throughout the whole year. I posted the blog exactly six months after thanksgiving was celebrated by the United States of America nationally in 2019, and titled the post: "Are You Still Thankful?". The point of the article was to helps us all to remember that we are called to be thankful for everything we have no matter what time of the year it is.  The most interesting thing about that article and the timing of it all is that God chose to have me publish that article just about a month before the world seemed ...

What does it mean to be faithful? When I hear the word faithful, I immediately think of Pilgrim's Progress, in which one of the characters who helped Christian on his journey was named Faithful. Faithful was the truth-seeker who Christian first heard about when he began his expedition. Faithful made the choice to be faithful along the journey of the Christian walk until the end. In the book the Pilgrim's Progress, Faithful was killed by townspeople because he was a Christian and chose to follow God until the end.  As John Bunyon was, he did not make a mistake in choosing the name Faithful to go with the character and the storyline. Faithful was called to stay faithful to God and His promises no matter what it meant he had to sacrifice. In Faithful's case, this meant even death. This is not always the ending for us Christians, yet sometimes we become too afraid of what the world thinks to stay faithful to God and His promises. God calls Christians to stay faithful to Him, Hi...

Is there a difference between "good" and "goodness"? Can you identify it? Oftentimes when we do good things we are told we did a good job. But is that showing goodness? Is goodness all about following the rules? Goodness is probably the oddest part of the Fruit of the Spirit compared to how straightforward the rest of the attributes are.  According to Bible Study Tools, goodness means "the deliberate preference of right or wrong" (biblestudytools.com). Goodness is understanding a clear distinction between good and bad and choosing to do what is good or what is right. This an attribute in the Fruit of the Spirit because it ties together with many of the other attributes, and it is important when becoming exactly who God made you to be.  When we focus on what is good in our lives and chose to make the right choices, we are shining a light in the darkness that helps others see that we are different. As Christians, we are called to represent Christ, and goodne...

The election happened; didn't you notice? Two major parties (and a few minor parties) were running against each other in a political battle for the presidency. While everyone seems to have an opinion on what they think should take place, it does not seem like they really have much control over the situation. It seems like whoever is elected has a fault or a few and it seems like there is no winning side. Also, there is talk of protests that will take place as soon as the extremists of the losing party hear of the news. It seems that there is a whole bunch of chaos and the election is just the kick start of it all. Yet, it is important to compare it all to what the Bible has to say about this.  Jeremiah 29:7 talks about how when Israel is in captivity they need to pray for their enemies who just took over them. Isreal was called to prat for the prosperity of Israel's enemies. We need to pray for America, or any other nation where we live, and the people who are put in authority ...

There is a memory I have in my head that I just cannot seem to shake away. I remember one summer my family went to San Diego for a conference for my dad. My mom, my siblings, and I were there simply for the vacation part of the trip. One day as my dad was in one of his meetings, mom decided to head out with us and get us some pizza for dinner. She walked into the store with the exact cash she believed was needed according to what dad told her and the standards we were used to back home. Yet, mom came out of the store in a hurry with the pizza, grabbed something real quick, and told us she would be right back again.  When she finally returned she explained to my siblings and me the situation. See, she was just a few cents off the amount needed for the purchase. We always kept spare change in the car so she knew that she had the amount needed in the vehicle. At this point, none of us kids had a way to communicate with her on our devices because there was no internet in the car. The s...

Have you ever thought about how best to study the Bible? Many people will just pick it up, read a passage or two, and call it a  wrap. They do not choose to dive deep into what the Bible says. But, how could they begin? The first step towards being able to dive deep into God's Word is by knowing what passage to study. You need to choose a passage before you can study it!  Pre-Requisite: Read the Passage           Read the passage about three times John 20:30-31. This passage has an "obvious purpose statement".  He is clearly explaining why he wrote what he did. It explains that John is an evangelical book.    Acts 1:8. This passage explains exactly what the goal was.    Revelation 1:19. John is writing as Jesus is giving him this information. Whenever the author is writing what Jesus is telling him to write about, it is an important passage.    Look for possible key passages   Look for section divisions...