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.

Loneliness & Other Church Stuff

     Alone. So alone. In an empty or crowded room, indoors or out, even in our own minds, we sometimes feel desperately, utterly alone. We wonder, does anyone else feel this way? Does anyone understand? Does anyone even care? We can be present with our very best friends, and still feel as isolated as a lone human being on a deserted island.

     We human beings are social creatures. We are meant to exist within communities; ideally, the church is the primary community that we belong to. In the church, we can support one another in prayer, give godly guidance, and worship together, all of which form a greater bond than can be found in secular circles. Or at least, it should.

Awesome Promises

     Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2)

Life, Death, & In Between

Sometimes I fall into dark places

Of hopelessness and despair,

And then ponder death:

Would there be freedom there?

Are You Here, God?

     This is the scene: you’re at church, surrounded by your peers, there’s music playing, and you’re having an amazing time singing to God.  Your hands are raised, there are tears in your eyes, and you feel like God is right there with you.  It’s a very real, very spiritual experience.  You want this feeling, this presence of God, to stay with you forever.  In your heart of hearts, you tell Him that you want to be with Him always.  Then the music stops, and you lower your hands, say goodbye to a few friends, get in the car and go home.  That night, you might say your prayers before going to bed, but that sense of God’s immediate presence is fading.  Then you get up and go to school or work the next day, and it’s gone.  You still believe in and love God, but He feels distant.  Though you want to believe that He is, it doesn’t seem as though God’s directly involved in anything going on in your life.

This God

    I think any Christian would agree that Jesus’ death on the cross was kind of important.  After all, His death and resurrection are what we base our lives around.  We believe that when He suffered and died on that rough beam of wood, He took the punishment for the sin of every individual, thereby allowing us to escape that punishment and be reconciled to God, whom we had been alienated from as a result of our sin.  That’s pretty amazing.  I mean, for us it is a sweet deal.  We get freedom, and life, and forgiveness, and all God gets is us.  But then, He’s pretty crazy about us, so I guess it works out.  I’d just like to talk about how crazy it is that Jesus, of all people, suffered what He did.

God's Tears

If rain were God's tears,

His pain would bring us life,

For we all thirst for water

And need it to survive.

More Than A Story

    Beth sat on the edge of the bed, slightly slumped forward, her elbows resting on her thighs, the gun limply dangling from her fingers.  Bright, cheery sunshine filtered through the blinds of the bedroom, oblivious to the dark decision being pondered by a troubled soul in an even darker world.  

Glorious God

I'm so forgiven,

So loved, and so freed.

Your grace never ceases,

And never ceases to amaze me.

Worship

     When I was younger and unsaved, my definition of worship was “the part of church when we sing.”  After all, the person who ‘led the worship’ just meant that they were in charge of the music that day.  I had never come across the word ‘worship’ in any other setting, so naturally, the music at church was all that worship was to me.  

What Doesn't Kill You...

     Do you know how body building works?  It's actually quite interesting.  When someone lifts more weight than their body is used to, the strain tears their muscle fibers.  When their workout is over, the body scrambles to repair itself and prepare for a similar strain, building itself up.  Gradually, the body adjusts to a certain amount of strain from a certain amount of weight, and in order to become stronger, the weight level must be increased.
     Becoming stronger in faith is like that, I think.

Only Jesus

     Introduction: Recently, I found myself drifting in my relationship with God.  I was focusing more on grades and friends and temporal things than on my Savior or eternal things, and not spending much time in prayer or Scripture.  Slipping spiritually caused everything else in my life to slip, ironically, including my schoolwork.

A Little Quiet

     Silence isn't always golden, but there is a time for everything. When you are quiet, you are much better equipped to learn, hear what others have to say, and to hear God! Also, there's less opportunity for gossip, curses, and hurtful words to come out of your mouth.


He who has knowledge spares his words, 
And a man of understanding is of a calm spirit. 
Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace; 
When he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive. (Proverbs 17:27-28)