I was making banana bread. (Yes, I know my way around a kitchen!) I mixed all the ingredients, prepped the pan, put the ingredients into the pan and baked it for the prescribed time.
After letting it cool, I sliced it up ready to be enraptured, but gagged instead. The ends were done, but the middle looked like this picture – gooey! Even though my intentions were good, I ended up with half-baked banana bread that wasn’t very tasty.
Jesus was asked, “What is the great or biggest commandment?” He answered, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
Loving Jesus halfheartedly is like eating half-baked banana bread, nasty. It doesn’t satisfy and ends up being spit out. Jesus said that if you want a healthy faith, one that satisfies, it must be based in truth (He quoted Deuteronomy 6:4) and put into action with each choice.
Thoughts, which form the basis of our actions, are stored in our hearts and minds. We must take truth based thoughts and choose (soul) to put them into action with everything we’ve got (strength). Anything less is half-baked banana bread.

A friend wrote, “Are we more afraid of God who is trying to save us than sin which is killing us?”
We struggle to hold onto what our God has been asking us to give up, only to realize that what we’re holding onto is rotting us from the inside out.
Sick and tired of being sick and tired? If so, it’s time to give Jesus whatever He’s been asking in you and then let Him heal/change you from the inside out (aka FREEdom process).

I thought I’d pass along some wise advice I recently received.
“In a way you’re wrestling with the Lord and with yourself. You know what He’s telling you to do; and yet, you’re struggling to do it. When you stop struggling with the Lord, you will stop struggling with yourself. Every relationship has struggles, even our relationship with the Lord.”
It would be nice if obedience were instantaneous and continuous. Sometimes, though, it’s a start and stop struggle. This is not an excuse to abuse grace. Know this, disobedience only hurts you!
When we stop choosing to do what Jesus says, we’re basically saying, “I’m going to live my way.” And thus, the struggle continues and peace is kept at a distance. Peace, which is the absence of struggle, comes through surrender to Him and living His way.
My friends, isn’t time you and I choose peace?

A famous poet once said, “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”
The Lord had me take a small hike to the top of a mountain today to pray. When I got to the top, I was looking at endless tracts of houses, some recently built and some built years ago.
As I sat there looking at them, He said, “If you love Me, you will not see houses, but homes filled with broken people who need Me. Will you express your love for Me in mere words; or, as I wrote, with deeds and truth?”
We can say we love Jesus, but do our choices reflect that love? We can be so focused on our lives and challenges that we forget that our ultimate victory is already assured. We are children of the living God, who are living in His presence both now and forever.
Can I say that about those living in the homes around that mountain? Show your love for Jesus right now. Obey His command to pray for Him to send workers into those homes, into those lives, so He can heal the broken and give rest to the harassed.
Love Jesus both in words and truth based actions.

There’s a stretch of road by my house that has a huge pothole. The city has “repaired” it so many times it’s comical. They simply fill it in with asphalt and call it day. Yet before you know it, the pothole is back.
The only way to permanently get rid of that pothole is to pay a bigger price. This portion of the road needs to be torn up, regraded and then repaved. Patchwork is easier and looks nice, but the problem only returns.
Jesus didn’t come to add Himself or new behaviors to us, but to replace us with Him. Adding new behaviors is patchwork. It makes us look “good” in the short term, but the underlying cause, our sinful thinking, is still present. The sinful behavior only resurfaces just like the pothole.
You must pay the price if you truly want to change. New Christ-like behaviors only come through the hard work of renewing your mind through Spirit empowered faith steps.
Pay now or keep repaying the costs of failure. You and those around you need hope. This kind of hope only comes through Jesus shining through you, not a plastered on Jesus.