Practical Faith

Let’s consider something for a moment: why did God choose to relate to us as Father? His creativity is unlimited.  e literally could have chosen any kind of relationship that He could think of to relate to those rescued & redeemed by Christ, and He chose that of Father & children. This is not a metaphor or a figure-of-speech. This is literal – this is who He is, and this is who we are.  In the Lord’s Prayer...

Christ shares His own eternal inheritance with those He has saved – and the inheritance He shares with us is so much more than physical properties and possessions. It is amazing to realize all that we inherit from God through Christ Jesus...

Today, I want to invite you into the lawyer’s office. But don’t worry! You’re not in trouble – in fact, quite the opposite! This is the office of a lawyer who determines the rightful heirs to an estate. This lawyer’s job is to follow the mandates of a written will, and to distribute the rightful inheritance of the estate to the legal heirs named in that will. Now in this metaphor, we can consider the Bible to be “The Will of God” – and for this episode, I have woven together a few significant teachings from the Christian Scriptures to provide a basic but powerful “will” for us to understand...

Most of the Bible was written to be understood literally, describing historical events that actually happened. There are some parts of the Bible, though, that were written in figurative language; they are poetic or didactic in nature, describing an indescribable God using the limited words we have, and using allegory to teach us about ultimate reality in Him...

Did you know that the truest things about you are the things God’s Spirit says about you?  And if I could condense those things down into one, single word, it would be this one: BELOVED.

The following is a prayer I wrote in a moment of unique clarity with the Holy Spirit. I had just realized that it takes so much - so much! - for God to really have all of my full attention. It’s a hundred little things that I’m embarrassed to even say right now... All these layers upon layers of external and internal distraction... In this moment of clarity and realization, I scribbled the following prayer to God in my journal:

We see pain, and experience suffering... We see tragedy, despair, death... We don’t have to pretend like these realities are not difficult. The circumstances of unpredictable life take their toll on us over time. So what’s the answer?  What are do we do?  Today, I want to talk about telling somebody.

Today, we finish up a multi-episode series looking at the Jesus Way of Discipleship.  This was the theme of a spiritual life retreat my family attended a few years ago with a pastor, counselor, and speaker named Barry Brown.

The second phase of the Jesus Way of Discipleship is “FORMATION.”  The wilderness is a sacred space of formation in the Scriptures. The wilderness is where God sends His best. It’s where God takes His people to FORM in them the new identity that He gave them at their baptism. The wilderness is where Christian character is formed...

I am excited to get to bring you a guest on today’s episode of “Practical Faith.”  Lisa Williams is a gifted young minister, worship leader, and writer, and she has a unique calling to grief ministry.  Lisa loves serve and support and journey with people who have experienced a loss in their lives.  And today, Lisa will share with us about the important role of grief in the life of a Christ-follower.