“Doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is one element of faith.” Paul Tillich

Faith is not the same as religion. Faith is about being uncomfortable. Religion is about staying cozy. Faith is about giving up control. Religion is about keeping it.

Faith by its mere definition means taking an action hoping the outcome you’re wanting will actually happen. Jesus lived this way. Think about it. Jesus repeatedly said that He was going to be arrested, beaten, killed and then risen from the dead as that is what the Father asked Him to do.

The easy part of His faith journey would be to get arrest and beaten. The hard part was dying. Talk about being uncomfortable and out of control!

The only way for Jesus to show that He actually believed was to let Himself be killed. Faith is not faith until you actually put it into practice. Jesus did.

Action while doubting is being real, as faith is the assurance that what He is asking you to do will turn out for your good and His glory. Jesus trusted His Father so much that He knew life after death was a done deal.

Was it still a risk? You bet! But Jesus moved beyond religion to faith and rose again. Are you not glad He did?

My friends, the world needs a little hope today. Choose to take the faith step Jesus is asking of you. We all will be better off because of that step.

“Christ-likeness is the eventual destination, but the journey takes a lifetime.” Rick Warren

A friend of mine made a passing comment that has changed my thinking about life.

He was taking a trip from Northern California to a momentous occasion in his granddaughter’s life in Southern California. The trip would take eight hours, without stops, all by himself.  

He said, “I got in my car. Turned on my worship music. After, I entered the freeway, I got in a lane, put the car on cruise control and stayed in it. I didn’t worry about going faster to get ahead of others. I didn’t care if others passed me. I just enjoyed the drive with Jesus. And you know what? It was the most relaxing drive I’ve ever had.”

We know our destination, being with and like Jesus. We just don’t the when or how at this point.

But this is what I picked up. I will eventually be home with and like Jesus. So why sweat the details until I get there?

Paul writes that Jesus began my faith and will perfect it. John wrote that when I see Jesus, I will be like Him. So, why not live each day enjoying the music and conversation with Jesus until then? The rest will take care of itself.

Seriously. Enjoy the journey with Jesus. And what you learn, pass onto others. It only makes the journey more enjoyable!

“When faced with tough decisions, are we going to abandon or apply our faith?” Fearless

Adam Brown was in the top 1% of all Navy Seals. He overcame extreme challenges to achieve and stay at this level.

He battled drugs after high school and into his military career. He learned to hear it call his name and run to Jesus for strength to stay clean. Faith applied.

He lost an eye in a training accident. He learned to shoot his rifle using his non-dominant eye. Faith applied.

Four fingers on his right hand were severed and sewn back. He learned to shoot with his other hand. Faith applied.

Why would Brown keep going through such struggles? He knew Jesus wanted him in the Seals saving and protecting lives. And to Brown, “To fail at something was acceptable. To fail to try was not.”

A friend said this about him, “To truly live one’s faith, in word and deed, is a mighty, and a daily struggle; and Adam embraced that struggle and devoted himself to it.”

Faith is all about trying, even when Jesus is asking you to do something that goes against your current way of thinking, understanding, feeling and/or ability to do it.

Keep it small. Take a small faith step now. Repeat. Repeat again.

As you do, you’ll end up down the path of a changed life today and into eternity!

No one is too old or too young to experience the life Jesus has for them.

Your eyes are not deceiving you. It’s the same picture from last week. But it’s here for a different reason.

I recently read that “a team from the Natural Medicine Research Center in Jerusalem sprouted six new trees from 2,000-year-old seeds of Judean date palms, discovered at various archaeological sites” throughout Israel.

The age of the seeds is absolutely irrelevant to the one eating the sweet delicious dates produced by those seeds once planted into the ground.

And just like those seeds, age is completely irrelevant to the Jesus believer. It’s what you do with those seeds that counts.

So don’t worry about your age. Grow your faith!

Keep planting the seeds of truth the Spirit gives you into the soil of your life in order to experience the sweetness Jesus has for you.

“Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life’s problems fall into place on their own accord.” J.I. Packer

The book of Ezekiel has a common thread: know that the LORD alone is God.

He lists a number of events that when they occurred, the observer would know it was the LORD doing them and it was time to put their faith in the LORD, not themselves or other gods.

One of those events was that a Temple would be built where each gate to the Inner Court had a picture of a palm tree.

Why a palm tree? Ancient Hebrew used picture symbols, which eventually evolved into the letter symbols used today, which was another way – a dead language coming alive – for people to know that the LORD alone is God.

The word for palm tree has three picture symbols – a cross symbolizing a monument, a squiggly line symbolizing water, might or blood, and the head of a man symbolizing the head, first or beginning.

Isn’t interesting that Jesus died on a cross where He shed both water and blood as the head of creation to cleanse humanity of their sins and to bring them into the presence of the Father, who was enthroned above the Ark in the first Temple?

Is it any wonder that Jesus calls Himself a gate in John 10:9 and said, “I am the way, the truth, the life and no one comes to the Father but through Me” in John 14:6?

Wait there is more! Ancient Israeli palm trees produced sweet dates! Want sweetness in your life? Jesus as God is the path to know God where sweetness is found and life’s challenges seem to melt into the background.

This means believing that Jesus died on the cross by shedding His blood and water to cleanse you from all your mistakes, even the tiniest of them, so you can enter the presence God today and one day to be home in heaven.

Haven’t done that yet? Take a moment right now to tell Jesus that you are transferring trust from yourself in doing more good than bad to Him and His death and resurrection to give you that sweet life today, tomorrow into eternity.

Done that already? Take faith steps each day to know your Father and the sweetness He has for you. His sweetness invigorates in a life sucking world.