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In: Bible and Theology, Fear and Anxiety, Prayer and Devotions

“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7) This is very good news for many of us who struggle with not only fear, but discipline issues. Self-control has never been my strong suit. I  suspect I could probably get a medical diagnosis making it official, in fact. So I am ever grateful God’s Spirit helps with that, because I am rather helpless at it in my own flesh. On the other hand, we can start to beat ourselves up when reading this. God’s given us a spirit of power, love, and self-control, yet weRead More →

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In: Bible and Theology, God's promises, Prayer and Devotions

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:11-13) Jeremiah 29:11 is a verse many Christians have on their list of favorite verses, myself included. We all go through times where we have nothing else to hang onto in life but the promise that, despite our current evil circumstances, God’s plans for usRead More →

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In: Bible and Theology, Prayer and Devotions

“Do they not go astray who devise evil? Those who devise good meet steadfast love and faithfulness.” (Proverbs 14:22) So much for the ends justify the means. Evil plans with good intentions, according to proverbs, still leads to death. On the other hand, we may be looking at this and thinking, “I’ve been good, I’ve not devised evil, but done things God’s way. So where’s the steadfast love and faithfulness?” God’s promises are true and met by God. We must  be good, steadfast in love and faithfulness, even when others are not. Or strive to. Most of us ought to be more concerned about stumblingRead More →

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In: Bible and Theology, Fear and Anxiety, Prayer and Devotions

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” (1 John 4:18) I have often turned this into a source of guilt rather than power. I struggle with fear, therefore my love is imperfect and inadequate. Such negative thinking does us no good and serves no purpose but to discourage us, and therefore is from the devil and should be cast out. Rather than beating ourselves up for our inadequacies, lets focus on the truth that, by focusing on our love for God and cultivating a Christ-likeRead More →

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In: Book Reviews, Gospel

This month, the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour is show casing The God Hater by Bill Myers. I should warn you right off that this is the author of Eli, a book that has greatly influenced me as a writer, so I am quite horribly biased, though he is an international best seller, so I suppose you will forgive me for ignoring some craft choices that normally drive me up a wall. I’ve always been quite impressed with the humility inherent in his starting off both this book and Eli with an opening statement confessing the theological limitations of his fictional treatment ofRead More →