Rebel Bride

Belief is a powerful thing, and faith is an even more powerful belief. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines faith as follows: something that is believed especially with strong conviction. Often times people that believe in the triune, Christian God are referred to as just that, believers. Thus non-believers would be those who do not believe. Simple enough right? You might be wondering where am I going with this. Well here it is.

There are many people that would call themselves believers, but it is not evident in their life. They say that they have faith in the almighty God but live their lives the same as somebody who has never even heard His name. Do you see a problem with that? Our faith should shine in and through our lives! 

Often times in the Bible Christ is referred to as the bridegroom of the church and the church the bride of Christ. What makes up the church? People do. We do. WE are the bride of Christ! So now I ask you. When somebody gets married, don't they intentionally try to know everything and share everything with their partner? Bride and bridegroom seek out the most intimate of human relationships. Why don't we do the same when it comes to our relationship with Christ? Maybe you never even heard that it is possible to have an intimate relationship with Jesus. Scripture, as well as the life of Jesus himself, makes it pretty clear that that is the relationship that God desires for us though. 

Why do we rebel against that? Why are we so unfaithful to the marriage? How can our marriage with God prosper if we don't make it a priority in our life to spend time with Him? It simply cannot. We are robbing ourselves of everything that God intended for us when we just stick Him in our back pocket and use Him as a ticket to avoid hell and get to heaven. 

Do you know God? Is He a priority in your life above all creation? I challenge you to intentionally seek out and spend time with Jesus every day in order to continue to grow more intimately in your relationship with Him. 

Lead Me To The Cross

Have you had to defend your faith recently? Unless we intentionally go out and put ourselves into those types of situations, they seldom come anymore, at least that is true in America. I challenge you to put yourself in places where you have to defend your faith. Where you can either deny Jesus, or uphold him, no matter the consequences. That is where your faith grows the most. Acts 21 details Paul's journey into Jerusalem knowing that he will be persecuted and beaten for professing the name Jesus Christ. He was fully prepared to die for the name of Jesus as he walked into Jerusalem. He didn't stay where it was safe and neither did Jesus, so why do we try so hard to avoid judgment and persecution? We stay in our bubble because it can be awkward to talk about Jesus. We live in a place of no risk but infinite reward. The worst that can happen is them not liking you and it being awkward. The best thing that can happen is adding one to the kingdom of God. I don't know about you, but I would say that the good definitely outweighs the bad, and I'll tell you one thing. I'll take awkward over beaten and jailed any day of the week. But if being beaten and imprisoned like Paul is what it takes, we shouldn't hesitate to go down that road either because we serve a God greater than anything we can imagine.

The lack of risk is dangerous. It is easy for us to not depend on God as much as those who are under constant threat of being arrested and killed for their faith. Our faith is not tested like theirs. I will leave you with a few questions. If you're life was on the line and all it took to save it was to deny Jesus, would you continue to profess your faith or would you fold? What if it was instead the life of a loved one on the line? To take it one step further, would you intentionally walk into that situation knowing what would come of it just as Jesus did? Just as Paul did? Sometimes we NEED risk and danger to avoid complacency.