For Eternity and Until

When temptations come.... and they absolutely will. God's promise to us in this passage is that He has provided a means for us to escape. He is faithful even when we are faithless.  

When we are satisfied by God, no tempting counterfeit form of fulfillment seems alluring. Paul warns us through his words to the Corinthian church to flee idolatry. But, Why? So that we can be fully satisfied in Christ. When we are, we won't hesitate to lay down a desire or right when we have an opportunity to love in the process. 

We are not called to please people, but we are called to love them. 
Carrying God to the world around us demands a sacrifice. It's a costly calling to be the body of Christ. 

This call to be the body of Christ can only be fulfilled by the spirit of God. Why would we forfeit our unity and peace in the spirit for anything? 

I hope this encourages you in a week of high tension and stress. 
Lean into the source of our hope today! 

You are loved. 
Tori 

Spiritual authority is not measured by the success of a ministry, but by the content of their character. In this Episode, Paul defends his character by the rights he forfeited for the sake of others. 

He gave up every single right in his life... except for one. 
He kept the right to preach the Gospel. 

Paul crossed the human boundaries of prejudice, race, religion to win men and women for Jesus. The bricks he used to build his bridges were the rights he willfully surrendered. 

Are we willing to follow in His footsteps? To run the race of our faith to win rather than to race not to lose? 

I hope this Episode Blesses you! 
Email me at [email protected] if you have questions, thoughts, or ideas for future episodes! 

You are loved, 
Tori 

Should Christians ____________________? 

I asked a few friends to fill in the blank in this question with “gray area” issues they have encountered in their life. 

Here are some examples of what you came up with: 

Should christians drink in public?

Should Christians drink at all?  

Should Christians listen to secular music? 

Should Christians watch Rated R Movies? 

Should Christians practice yoga? 

Should Christians get Tattoos?

These gray area debates have caused division in the church from the beginning.  

In Chapters 8-10 of 1st Corinthians, Paul answers one of these gray area questions for the Church in Corinth. “Should Christians eat food sacrificed to Idols?” 

At face value, this topic doesn’t seem really relevant to us. But, the principles given to answer this question can be applied to most of the gray area questions we face for culture today! 

Paul doesn’t answer this cultural question with a simple “yes” or “no” but filters it through the calling Jesus gave to us to love and glorify God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love others as we love ourself. 

Can you (insert gray area topic of concern) and glorify God with it? 

Are you setting an example of love through participating in that thing? 

The way you answer those two questions determines your course of action. 

This Episode Begins a three-week Series on Setting an Example of love to others through our behavior. 

To every single, married, dating, divorced, widowed, or re-married person reading this post...

Your relationship status with God never changes.

Before the beginning of time, 

He artfully fashioned you with purpose. 

He designed you for relationship with Him.

He ordained good works for you to walk in. 

Taylor made to fit only you. (Ephesians 2:10) 

God may have called you in the midst of a not so perfect situation. But the circumstances of your call don’t matter. Obeying God in the midst of your current circumstances does (1 Cor. 7:19) Obedience always proceeds blessing. 

You were bought with a price don’t become a slave of your relationship status. You belong to Jesus. 

Our time here is so short. Don’t waste one more moment with worry. 

In the midst of the changes and challenges of every human relationship, be ALL IN on the love story that lasts for eternity. 

Let's dive into 1 Corinthians Ch. 7 to hear Paul's wisdom on these things. 

You are loved ❤️ 

~ Tori 

Our culture is screaming “everything is permitted." 

But God has called us higher. 
He has called us to forfeit the permissible to choose what is beneficial. 

He is calling us to be a part of something bigger! Much bigger than our own body and it's desires. We are called BE the body of Christ. 

That means what we do with our body matters.... like, A LOT. 

As the world screams "freedom" the enemy uses our desire to prove ourselves and our sexual desires against us to hold us captive. 

God’s desire is to set us free in Him. 

We are continuing our reading through the book of 1 Corinthians this week in Chapter 5! 

Paul is addressing a pretty massive tragedy in the church. Sexual Immorality was not just being allowed, but this church was arrogant about it. They were proud of their tolerance and lacked repentance. 

Here's the thing though, when we give our life to Jesus we give our LIFE to Jesus. Including our Sex life. There should be no area of our life that isn't submitted to the original intention God created it with when we put our faith in Jesus. 

Sex is awesome. We were created with sexual desires. Those desires aren't bad. But we can fulfill those desires in ways that are contrary to how God created us to. THAT is bad. 

Why? Because we carry the image of God. We represent the character of God. With that purpose and calling comes a high expectation and responsibility. 

This church was crippled in their power and authority because they were allowing sin. Paul's solution is to remove this person from their congregation. Both to restore the reputation of the church and to help heal and restore this individual. 

God cares deeply about sex because he created it. Sex is sacred. It holds both biologically necessity while also carrying a greater spiritual reality. We're going to talk about all of this in this episode and continue the discussion forward in the coming episodes as well. 

Have a question or a topic you want to see covered on the podcast?? Send me an email! 
[email protected]

We are continuing our reading through the book of 1 Corinthians this week in Chapter 4! 

Paul's about to dive in to address some pretty serious problems happening in the church in the chapters following this one. But, before he does, he reminds the church in Corinth who he is. He is their spiritual father. He's not approaching them ready to bash them over the head with harsh punishment. But he comes with a loving warning and discipline for this church. Love disciplines. Love corrects. But the goal of love is unity. That's clear through every chapter in this book. 

When you choose to follow Jesus, you can expect to be misunderstood. You can also expect to suffer, sacrifice, and surrender. These things will come. It's 100% guaranteed. Paul was experiencing these things in his relationship with this church. He was like a good father being judged by his rebellious kids. To Paul, he makes it clear that his intention isn't to please them but to love them. Paul's love is one that was willing to follow the example of Jesus to go where others very rarely do. 

The corinthian church have a lot going for them... but they're lacking one thing that Paul has. The power of God. "The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power!" (1 Corinthians 4:20) Paul's ready to bust the bubble of arrogance and lead them back to the source of true transformation - the holy spirit.  

Let's dive in! 

Have a question or a topic you want to see covered on the podcast?? Send me an email! 
[email protected]

STOP acting like a ‘Mere Human’ 

You might read these words and think, “I am human. So, what else am I supposed to be acting like? 

Don’t you know?? You are God’s temple and the Spirit of God lives IN YOU. (1 Cor. 3:16) 

God is not just going to visit you in your room in the form of a burning bush anymore. That’s so Old Testament. He has majorly one upped that option. HE LIVES IN YOU. 

Holy Spirit fills you the very moment you place your faith in Jesus. Remember, it’s a gift from God that you even believe in the first place. (Eph 2:8-10) Then, a life long process of death to our humanness to have life in the Spirit begins. 

So, essentially, instead of burning bush, we get spiritual heart burn. Except thats a good thing. 

The Corinthians were struggling to understand this. They still put their security in world wisdom. 

Because of this, Paul said that if he tried to hand them a pice of spiritual bread they would choke on it. They were still bottle fed babies in Christ. 

How was this showing up in their lives? 

Envy, strife, and the worship of human leadership. 

Let's talk about it... 

Email me at [email protected] if you have thoughts in response or if any questions pop up! Would love to hear from you! 

By saying, "I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." What Paul was essentially saying is, "If I have Christ, I have everything I need." 

Paul didn't conform to the what the people of Corinth expected. He didn't come with eloquent well crafted human wisdom. But He DID come with was a demonstration of God's Spirit. 

The foundation of our faith cannot sit on human philosophy or understanding but on the power of God. In order to understand spiritual things, we need to get spiritual. 

When was the first time you had an encounter with God himself? What lead up to that moment? What happened afterwards? 

God has offered us His ACTUAL spirit as a gift. He desired to fill us up with Himself and empower us to do everything He has called us to. Are you ready to exist in this supernatural reality? Or would you rather play the walking dead game the current Christian church is playing. 

I don't know about you... but I want EVERYTHING God has to offer me. I'm willing to lay it all down and follow Him along the best pathway of my life for His glory and my good. 

Are you ready?? 

ps - Have an awesome story about the first time YOU encountered God? I totally want to hear it! Email me at [email protected]! 

We are mixing it up here on the podcast. We are going to read through scripture together. Here is why... my words just aren't cutting it. I don't want to rob this community of the true power of reading God's word for itself. When we only address things topically, we can sometimes miss out on the hard and uncomfortable conversations and topics. If we are going to live for Eternity in our until, we have to have God's word as our foundation. 

As I was praying about it, I kept coming back to 1 Corinthians! Which, to be honestly, absolutely freaks me out because its a heavy spank on the butt for the church haha! But, maybe that's what we need! It's a powerful letter from Paul to the church in Corinth and I believe God is going to change us as we walk through this book together. 

Praying with and for you all! 

For Eternity and Until, 
Tori Hein