Brotherly Love: A Short Story

    Luke was no stranger to unkindness.  All of his life, he’d been bullied by his older sister, Anna.  Growing up, she was taller and stronger than he was, and so there was little he could do to fight back when she’d shove or punch him.

    Not only would she hurt him physically.  She was always calling him names, telling him how stupid he was, or that he was ugly.  Sometimes, when no one could see him, he would cry because he believed her.

You Must Go

     I stand alone. Ashamed. My shoulders are sagging under the weight of my guilt. With my head bowed, I pray to God, “Lord, I want to believe that You can forgive me for all I've done. For the countless times that I have failed You. I want to believe that You love me.” I stop, draw in a shaky breath, and continue. “But I can't see how. How can You love me when I've been so selfish? You are the One who made me, and I have turned my back on You and spit in Your face over and over again.” My heart is aching and tears form in my eyes.

Jesus' Face

     Why do people keep trying to depict Jesus or figure out what He looked like? Does it really matter? The Bible says that there was nothing particularly attractive about Him (Isaiah 53:3), making Renaissance style art and most modern depictions quite inaccurate. Also, every culture, not just the West, tries to make Jesus look like themselves. We conform Him to our own image. All those blue-eyes Jesuses are simply wrong. He was Middle-Eastern, a Hebrew, a Jew through and through. 
     The Word says that He has become a spirit (1 Corinthians 15:45), so the body He once had probably doesn't exist anymore. Not to say it died, but rather, it was likely changed, just as the body of the Believer will one day be (2 Corinthians 5:4). What does a spirit look like? I don't think we can yet know.
     What is far more important than what His physical appearance was is what His character looked like. He was basically the human version of God, and we Christians are supposed to be imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1). Therefore, if we can understand how Jesus spoke, thought, and conducted Himself (which we can accomplish through studying Scripture and just getting to know Him), we will begin to look like Jesus.
     So if you want to know what Jesus looks like: Beauty. Grace. Truth. Love.

I Am Nothing...Without Christ

     Some would say that a Christian admitting to being nothing apart from God is a sign that they have been brainwashed into dependency on their religion.  But it is merely a recognition of truth, and a truth that is quite freeing.  Please read on to discover how.  

A Psalm Of Longing & Fulfillment

O God, my soul yearns for You

As a tree thirsts for water,

As a wife for the arms of her husband,

As a starving child for bread.

I Just Want You All To Know...

     Jesus loves you. The Son of God, the Holy One, who has every right to look at you with scorn, is madly crazy about you. He isn't blind to all that you are, all you've done. True love isn't blind. True love sees the true you and chooses to accept you anyway. And that's just what He's done. He's forgiven you of every sin, those in your past and the ones you've yet to commit. He sees your scars too, but He thinks you're beautiful anyway. He created you Himself, and nothing you could do could stop Him from seeing you as the beautiful being He made you to be. He knows what the pain is like, having endured the cross, and is there to comfort you in what it is you're struggling with right now, at this moment. That's the way Jesus loves you, and I really want you to take that to heart today.

Loving Mandy

     My relationship with a girl I'll call Mandy has been an unusual one, to be sure. This pint-sized, loudmouth freshman is not the average type of person that I'm apt to befriend. Not to say that I would be unfriendly to her, but generally, our stereotypes do not associate. I, being religious and a model sophomore, m..ight scorn or at least avoid slackers such as her. She, being a slacker, might scorn me for not having any fun. But that's not the way our relationship has ended up.