Godly Insights for the 21st Century Life

"If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?"~1 Corinthians 12:17 (On Friday night, I went to a Christmas party involving a White Elephant gift exchange. One of the gifts was a Mr. Potato Head, which caused me to chuckle because I was thinking about the story that follows. I am including the story in this space so that the other attendees of the party, and you, my loyal readers, may read about and enjoy it.) During my college years, one of the most memorable sermons I heard was preached on 1 Corinthians 12. However, the passage itself wasn't what made it memorable. In fact, I have heard many sermons preached on this topic in my 27 years because it is such an important one. What made this particular sermon so memorable was how the pastor illustrated his point. The sermon started off like all the others with the pastor talking about the different types of gifts mentioned in the...

"I'm not the same me, and that's all the proof I need"-Britt Nicole, "All This Time" The title of this post comes from a conversation in one of the Harry Potter  novels. In this conversation, one of the characters is telling another about his love for someone, a love so strong that even his beloved's death did not quench it. Christ offers His people this kind of love as well, but His is even stronger because He loves everyone this way, and His love is unconditional. He has loved us since long before we knew Him, He loves us even when we make mistakes, and He even loves those who have turned their backs on Him or never want to know Him. There is nothing we can do to earn His love, and there is also nothing we could ever do to lose it. Christ's love is also transformative. As is stated in the song quote that opens this post, after we accept His love for us, we will never be the same again. Even before Christ was born, the Israelites knew that lovin...

I don't like worship music. Now before you think I've completely gone off my rocker, let me clarify what I mean. I think worshiping God is one of the best ways to grow close to Him and music can be a great way to help facilitate that worship. I just don't like the praise and worship genre of music. I like quite a few songs that fit into that genre, but I am not a fan of the genre as a whole. Here are the main reasons why. Too Restrictive Most of the songs in this genre have a certain sound, and all of them talk about worshiping God. However, there are a plethora of songs that talk about worshiping God that are not included in this genre. In my opinion, a worship song is any song that is either directed toward God or talks about all that God has done for us. That means that Skillet's "What I Believe," Tenth Avenue North's "Strong Enough to Save," and Group 1 Crew's "He Said" are as much worship songs as anything written by Chris ...

On August 11, America was shocked by the news that Robin Williams had died in an apparent suicide. Since then, numerous articles and blog posts have been written about the subject. Some say that suicide is a choice, others argue that Robin Williams died of a disease and it was no fault of his own. Some say suicide is selfish, others say it is not. From what I've seen, all of these articles and blog posts lack a crucial background point: none of them were written by someone who had actually survived the temptation to commit suicide. One article was written by someone who called herself a "suicide survivor," but really had no expertise in the matter other than the fact that her father had killed himself. Her claim that she is a "suicide survivor" is as ridiculous as me claiming that I am a lung cancer survivor because my grandfather died of lung cancer, and basing her article off of that flawed premise negates her argument. So how do I propose we fix this problem?...

"I have set before you today life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live."-Deuteronomy 30:19 On June 30, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of Hobby Lobby founders David and Barbara Green. They had petitioned the high court to allow them an exception to the Obamacare mandate with regard to four "potentially life-terminating drugs." As Christians running a family business, being forced to provide these drugs to their employees would be a direct violation of their First Amendment rights and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which is a federal law. In the aftermath, many decried the fact that such a ruling infringed on a woman's right to choose what to do with her body. However, this argument ignores the fact that these drugs are still available. The ruling didn't make the drugs illegal, it just made it so that Hobby Lobby and other companies like it won't be forced into paying for them. I am both p...

This past Sunday, the associate pastor at my church, preached on six short parables found in Matthew 13. Two of these parables, the first and last in the gospel lesson, talk about the end of the age. The first appears in verses 24-30, and tells the parable of the weeds among the wheat. In this parable, a farmer sows grain in his fields, but an enemy sneaks in one night and sows weeds among the wheat. As the plants grow, the dastardly deed is discovered, and the servants want to rip out all of the weeds, but the farmers tells them no. Ripping out the weeds would uproot the wheat, so the farmer allows them to grow together, and instructs his reapers to separate them out at harvest time. The second is found in verses 47-48, and compares the kingdom of heaven with a net that was thrown into the sea and caught many varied kinds of fish, It was then drawn in, and the fish were separated into good fish to keep and bad fish to throw back. Both the separation of the wheat in the first parable a...

A few months ago, a young lady I know got into trouble. Big trouble. Now the young lady in question is not a bad person. She just doesn't always think before acting. After she got in trouble, I prayed for her. I prayed that she would gain control of her impulsiveness and that she would know that she isn't a bad person just because she did something she shouldn't have. Most of all I prayed that the person affected by her actions would find it in her heart to forgive her. In his song "Forgiveness," Matthew West describes it as "the hardest thing to give away and the last thing on your mind today." I completely agree with his assessment. In Matthew 5:44, Jesus calls us to "Love [our] enemies and pray for those who persecute [us]," but this is more easily said than done. Sometimes we feel like our "pain's owed apologies and then it will stop" (Tenth Avenue North, "Losing"). If they can't take the time to apologize and ...

I am currently starting the fourth week of an online Bible study based on the book Living So That: Making Faith-Filled Choices in the Midst of a Messy Life  by Wendy Blight. I was drawn to the study because of the title. When I first saw it, I thought, Living so that what? Where's the rest of the title?  I now realize that the title was referring to those verses in the Bible that have the words so that  in them. The book has five chapters, each split into five parts and having a memory verse tied to the topic of that chapter. In the study, we are doing one chapter a week, and can split up the five readings for the week however we want to. I choose to read them on weekdays right after breakfast so that  I start each work day with some time spent in God's Word. Chapter One is "Jesus Came So That," and the memory verse is John 3:16. I figured, I know that verse in two languages. I got this.  I didn't figure I would have any trouble with that week because I alre...

I went to see the movie God's Not Dead  this past weekend, and helped to propel it to fourth place at the weekend box office, earning $9.2 million total in only 780 theaters. This total ranks seventh in all time openings for faith-based films, and first for those that opened in less than 1,000 theaters. This record-breaking opening weekend happened because of one very important reason: it is an amazing movie. The sold-out crowd at the showing I went to was clapping, cheering, laughing and singing throughout the almost two hour running time. One of the reasons is because the main character, Josh, is a stunning example of being willing to stick with doing what God calls you to do even when no one understands. The main story begins with Josh entering his Philosophy 150 class, taught by Professor Radisson. To easily avoid the debate posed by the religion section of the course, Professor Radisson instructs the students to hand in a signed paper with the words "God is dead," ...

I went to see the movie Son of God  this afternoon, and I enjoyed it. It was intense and powerful, but that was to be expected considering the content. I would highly recommend this to all my friends who are into movies because it is very well done. Here are some of the things I enjoyed about it. Characters: This movie helped the viewer get to know everyone who was central to the story. The disciples were shown to be human men full of doubts, but wanting desperately to believe in Jesus and follow him. Mary was portrayed as a loving mother willing to do anything for her son. The movie even developed the characters of the villains, Caiaphas and Pilate. Both men were characterized as power hungry servants of the Roman Empire, though Caiaphas pretends otherwise. The character of Nicodemus was also well developed showing his transformation from power hungry Pharisee to truth hungry follower. Additionally, John provides narration for the story, showing his reflections on being one of t...

Recently I read the oft-shared article "23 Things to do Instead of Getting Engaged Before You're 23," and I had mixed feelings about the list provided. Some things I've already done, such as cutting my hair, adopting a pet and getting a passport. Some things weren't my style, such as going to the Philippines and watching GIRLS over and over again. Other things were things I would NEVER do as a Christian lady, such as exploring a new religion, dating two people at the same time and posing naked in front of a window (I mean, who would really WANT to do that. Eeeeew!) After some thought, I decided to come up with my own list of things to do before getting married. Many of these are just suggestions, but they are great things for us Christian girls to do before tying the knot. So without further ado, 26 beneficial things to do as a Godly single lady. 1. Go on a mission trip, preferably to a place you've never been before. If you can, try to go to a foreign coun...