Wisdom

Courtney12 Comments

Hey everyone, big news! My Mom, Saved By Grace2009, wrote a guest post for my site! Because she is older than many of my readers, I decided to ask her to write it on wisdom. I believe that she has a lot of wisdom and she did a great job with the topic! So, without further ado, here is my mom’s post! 😊

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First I wanted to thank my daughter Courtney for graciously inviting me to Guest Blog. I was immensely humbled when Courtney asked me to write on the topic of “Wisdom”

Subsequently, I have been praying about this for quite sometime and therefore a little late in completing this ~ please forgive me

As Courtney’s mom, I am much older and therefore I have experienced and learned a lot over the years I have walked on this earth. Therefore, I am always happy to help others by sharing what I have gleaned in my life and share the knowledge the Lord has graciously bestowed upon me.

However, I have been abundantly blessed because the Lord has placed the most amazing individuals in my life who took the time to bless me with their words of wisdom.

When I think of wisdom, like you the first person to come to my mind is Solomon.

Therefore I went back and read Solomon’s prayer and I learned a lot about wisdom as he was very transparent and it was obvious the attributes he possessed when asking the Lord to give him wisdom.

Solomon’s Prayer

6 Then Solomon said, “You have shown great lovingkindness to Your servant David my father, according as he walked before You in [b]truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart toward You; and You have [c]reserved for him this great lovingkindness, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.7 Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 Your servant is in the midst of Your people which You have chosen, a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted. 9 So give Your servant [d]an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this [e]great people of Yours?”

Let’s unpack Solomon’s prayer to the Lord …

First, Solomon praised God for all He had done in the life of his father, David.

I believe wisdom is continuing to praise God every day and not forgetting all the ways the Lord has worked in our lives. Praising Him for the big and little things He orchestrates for our good.

Second, we can see that Solomon loved the Lord and trusted Him. Therefore wisdom is expressing our love to the Lord and trusting Him with our lives. This is not always easy to do because we can only see the here and now but putting our life completely in the hands of the Lord and trusting Him in all situations, Also, remember you are His masterpiece, fearfully & wonderfully made in His image. The Lord loves you and He does have a plan for your life. In the good times and bad … wisdom is loving and trusting the Lord with all your heart and not relying on your own understanding.

Thirdly, we see that Solomon is grateful for the position that he holds here on earth. Solomon realizes and understands that without the Lord he would have nothing. Everything we are and all that we have comes from the Lord.

Next, wisdom is” asking” the Lord to supply you with “wisdom” specifically what you need to know and understand to make an impact here on earth for His glory. I believe courage would be added to that as well because having the knowledge is the beginning and then partaking in the action that follows is crucial.

Lastly, we can see that Solomon is humble. I believe humbling ourselves is where wisdom begins. We cannot begin to gain wisdom or knowledge without humility.

Humility is not a common character trait we often see but I believe if we truly want to gain wisdom then we need to humble ourselves.

To conclude, every day is a new experience. When we begin the day clothed in humility, read our Bible to gain knowledge, and courageously do what we know is right in the eyes of the Lord … loving Him and praising Him. Then I believe the Lord will bless us with wisdom.

If we ask the Lord … He will answer ….

Sometimes wisdom is gleaned through living life and other times I believe we can humbly ask the Lord to give us the wisdom we need in our life.

God bless you always !

Diary Of A Christian College Student: Chapter Two

Courtney8 Comments

Dear Diary,

Today was my first day of college.

Dana came by early so we could ride to class together. Just like the first day of high school, we were both excited and terrified for what the future might bring.

“I can’t believe we’re going to be college students!” She exclaimed. “I feel old.”

I laughed at my best friend’s familiar sense of humor. “I know, right? It feels like I was just a freshman in high school.”

“I know, right?” She breathed, looking out the car window of the passenger seat.

Dana hates driving, so she managed to talk me into being the one to get us there.

There was a pause for a moment, as we both thought back to freshman year.

“I was so awkward as a freshman.” She said, with a cringe.

“Me too.” I nodded, keeping my eyes on the road. “I had a horrible acne problem and my social skills weren’t quite there yet.”

“Hey, at least you didn’t attach any bunny clip to your backpack! I thought it was cute but all the other girls thought it was childish – it was humiliating!”

“Well, now we have a chance to make a fresh start.” I took a turn as I spoke. “We have four years here – I guess now is the time to figure out who we’re going to be. What we’re going to change and what we’re going to take with us.”

“Well, I’m definitely taking my best friend with me!” She said, grinning. “And my faith.” Dana added, followed by a long pause.

We were silent for a moment. We both knew what the other was thinking, as we’ve had this conversation multiple times before this day. With the popularity of movies like God’s Not Dead, we were both terrified that we’d get a professor like the one in the movie. We’ve both heard the horror stories of universities and we were both worried that we’d end up living one of them.

“We just have to stay strong.” I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt. “I’m sure whatever happens, God will give us a way out.”

“I hope you’re right.” She turned to me as we pulled into the parking lot.

Westside Oak.

It was about ten times bigger than Holy Cross, the small private school that we grew up in. People flooded towards the campus from every direction – some texting, some talking to someone else, and some skateboarding. The freshman there all had the same fate ahead of them.

In just a few minutes, we’ll be walking into a whole new world.

I exhaled and got out of the car. This was it.

“We’re in this together.” Dana said, walking up to me.

“Right.” I smiled, looking back to my friend. “Together.”

With that, we began heading for the building, in search of another familiar face. Suddenly, as we were walking, we heard our names being called.

“Hey, Olivia! Dana!”

Dana glanced at me with a freaked-out look on her face. “They’ve been expecting us!”

I turned around and as soon as I saw where the voice was coming from I laughed. “Hey TJ.”

“Hey.” He said, walking up to us, wearing his familiar letterman jacket from high school. “What’s up?”

“Not much, just college. You?”

“Same.” He said, glancing around. “Have you seen Nathan?”

I adjusted my backpack and tried to look nonchalant. “No, you?”

“No, but he’s got to be somewhere. Our class is supposed to start soon and we’re in the same room. I was thinking we’d head over together.”

“Hey guys!” I heard a familiar voice say from a distance. I turned around to see Nathan rushing towards us. Dana shot me a familiar grin, the way she often does when we both see Nathan, since she knows I like him.

“So,” he asked, shoving his hands in his pockets

“So,” he asked, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Are you guys ready for college?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Dana said, glancing at the frighteningly large building.

“What classes do you guys have?” TJ asked.

“English, Math, College Success, and Speech.” I replied, looking at my class list.

If I don’t have a printed list of my classes, their numbers, and a map, I’m sure to get lost.

“Nice.” He said, with his signature smile.

I whipped my phone out of my pocket and glanced at it. “I guess I’d better get going.”

To the first day of the rest of my life.

“Alright, we should all meet up again for lunch though – try to stick together.” Nathan commented.

“Yeah, let’s meet back here around twelve – no one has any classes around that time, right?”

We all shook our heads.

“Great, catch up with you guys later.” TJ said, walking towards the towering maroon building.

“Later.” I breathed, unable to take my eyes of the building, which looked frightening and a bit like a county jail. But then, that’s probably just my imagination getting the best of me. “I guess I’ll get going too.” I told my friends as I held tightly to the straps of my backpack.

“Bye Liv!” Dana exclaimed as I began walking.

“Bye Dana, bye Nathan!” I called back.

Suddenly, my friends got smaller and smaller in a distance.

As did my old life.

Diary Of A Christian College Student: Chapter One

Courtney8 Comments

Hey everyone, I have officially entered the Wattpad community! For those of you who don’t know, Wattpad is an online story sharing site that allows you to share your work with fellow readers! I have begun my first fiction work on the site, called Diary Of A Christian College Student.

Since I already have a faithful audience over here at WordPress, I decided to post my chapters here for y’all to read! I hope to publish a chapter weekly, and I hope you guys enjoy these writing shorts! My longterm goal is to publish a fiction series the traditional way, but I’ve heard that this is a good foot in the door. Since I love writing anyways, I figured, “Why not give it a shot?”

So, without further ado, here is chapter one of Diary of A Christian College Student!

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Dear Diary,

They say that your faith grows the most in the face of adversity – in the face of major life changes. These are the times that make you grow – and show you where you ultimately turn in times of chaos and uncertainty.

If this is true, I’m in for huge spiritual breakthrough.

In just two days, I’m starting my first day of college at Westside Oak, a nearby university in the humble state of Indiana. Leaving my small, Christian school behind, I’m heading into the “real world” for the first time – at least that’s what my dad would say.

Not that Holy Cross Academy was perfect. It had the same problems as every school – cliques, mean girls, boy  problems, and everything else under the sun. But, whenever life felt like too much to handle, I always had my friends to turn to – especially my best friend, Dana Sanchez.

Dana and I have been friends since the 8th grade – when we sat next to each other in English class. We started off talking about the usual things – school, books, music, TV….but soon moved on to more personal details. We were both going through a rough patch during this time and helped counsel each other through it.

We’ve been best friends ever since.

Another close friends – who could be more accurately described as a brother – is TJ. We met when we were only kids and he used to annoy me like crazy. When we met at only eight years old, he would constantly pester me. One time, he planted a frog in my bag when I wasn’t looking, even though he knew I was petrified of frogs. I screamed so much when I saw it, but he only laughed, clearly getting a kick out of the whole thing. I later got even by telling him soda was made with cow pee. For a month he avoided any kind of soft drink like the plague.

Somehow, despite our bickering and childish pranks, we managed to eventually become close friends.

And then, there was Nathan.

Nathan and I have had classes together for years, but we’ve only become close within the past four. My relationship with him was easily the most complicated.

Two years ago, I developed a crush on him, and it hasn’t let up since. It happened on a day like any other. We were both taking a theater class together and we were assigned a skit where we had to play a couple. In that moment – a moment I remember like the back of my hand – I realized that I had feelings for him. I say “realized” because I suspect feelings were dormant much longer, but too subtle to notice at first. When you’ve known someone for so long, it can be difficult to see them any different than the way you always have. They’re familiar, snow on a cold winters day or the sun in the middle of summer.

Nathan had a naturally magnetic personality. His smile was genuine and his posture was confident without being cocky. More reserved and introspective than the other guys, I could easily have long conversations with Nathan, about life, school, current events or literature. I think he’s one of the few people in my life who understands my love of writing – my desire to share the depths of my soul with the world. With dreams of becoming a pastor and a hobby of sketching, he understood the burning desire to make a mark on the world.

The complicated part? He couldn’t be more oblivious to the fact that I liked him. The only people who know are my mom and my best friend Dana. Other than that, my secret crush has remained just that – a secret.

This year, in the midst of an entire new chapter to open, I had one major blessing to look forward to. Dana, TJ, and Nathan would all be at Westside Oak with me. 

No matter how much might change, and no matter how many trials I may encounter, I knew I had one thing I could count on.

Three crazy and amazing friends who would stay together.

No matter what. 

All The Single (Christian) Ladies

Courtney8 Comments

Hey everyone, happy Sunday! Today I’m posting an awesome guest blog by the wonderful Emily from Fearfully Wonderfully Me! Her posts are awesome and very inspiring, so be sure to check them out! 😊

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There are a whole lot of blog posts and articles online that discuss life as a single lady from a Christian perspective. However, it seems the topics are always about three common themes:

A) Knowing when the right man is coming along

b) How not to focus on dating while waiting for this man

c) Trying to figure out God’s will for your life while you pray to not become a lonely woman with a lot of cats.

Although I may be exaggerating these points a little bit, we all know it’s true. There just seems to be something missing from these articles. Although I’m sure God has a wonderful husband planned for me (and yes, I still want a lot of cats too), I want to know what to do in my single life right now. I want practical advice that I can put into effect immediately, and if you’re reading this, I’m sure that is your desire as well.

Well guess what? The Word of God has the answer we’re looking for! Although I never saw the New Testament as much of a guide to living life as a single Christian woman, there’s actually a whole passage dedicated to us in Luke 2.

In verses 36­-38, we read about the prophetess Anna, a widow of almost 84 years. You might be asking, what does an old widow have to do with my single years? A lot actually. Anna was only married seven years (verse 36), so while she knew what it was like to be a wife, she had way more experience with the single life. More importantly, Anna’s life was a reflection of how our lives should look right now.

 

Here are the three acts of Anna that led her to a victorious single life.

Abiding

…and this woman was a widow of about eighty­four years, who did not depart from the temple…(Luke 2:37 NKJV)

Anna never left God’s temple. She prayed and fasted constantly. She was always abiding in her Lord’s presence. Now I’m not saying you have to chain yourself to your church doors, but we need to realize the importance of abiding in Christ.

Since Jesus lives in our hearts, we can do this anywhere. We need to make it a priority to put Jesus first in our lives and seek alone time with Him always throughout our day. This is how we build a solid foundation in our faith.

Serving

…but served God with fastings and prayers night and day (Luke 2:37).

The key word here is serving. Anna clearly had a servant’s heart. She was a prophetess, so she prayed and spoke the Word of God to people. We all have different gifts, and it’s important that we use our single years to cultivate these gifts and develop a servant’s heart.

It does not matter if you are younger or older; God can use your passions to do amazing things. We just need to be ready to serve Him in both big and small ways.

Proclaiming

And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem (Luke 2:38).

When Anna found out about the birth of her Savior, she didn’t waste any time. She told everyone about Jesus. Anyone who was lost or broken who ended up at the temple would hear the Gospel from Anna.

How many lost souls have you told about Jesus? How many broken people have you loved with the grace of God? I know I haven’t done enough, but it’s something I try to work on everyday. Anna’s life mission was to glorify her savior, and it should be our mission as well.

So now, my beautiful friends, you know how to live your single years to their fullest by abiding, serving, and proclaiming. This is a life that is dedicated to worshipping and pleasing God, doing your best to honor Him with your whole heart and soul.

This is really how every Christian should live­­ single or married. This is the purpose of every child of the Most High King. And as single women, no matter what our age, our lives should be a shining example of God’s marvelous love and grace.

Love, Emily.

I’m Emily, owner and blogger at FearfullyWonderfullyMe.com. Jesus is my life, and writing is my passion. I strive to inspire young women through faith and fashion.

When Questions Consume

Courtney4 Comments

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” ― Voltaire

I’m a questioner—I have been since I was a child. I was one of those excessively curious kids who would ask questions about everything. “Why is the sky blue?” “Why is the grass green” “Why do birds fly but people can’t?” Not sure whether these were ever my exact questions but you get the picture. Obviously I’ve out grown those questions, but in there place are more complicated ones—ones that can’t get immediate answers.

Some of my questions are about theology. I’m kind of a Bible geek and stuff that intersects theology with the lives of human beings fascinates me. I regularly read magazines like RELEVANT and Christianity Today and have spent heaps of time researching random current issues in relation to the Bible. The only problem is that sometimes I end up with more questions than answers. The Bible covers most topics, but what about the ones that it doesn’t address or is unclear about? What do we do then?

Other questions are more immediate—questions about my own life and future. Will I be able to find a job? Will I be able to break into the writing industry? Will I fulfill all of my dreams? Will I end up lonely? Will I have a roommate? If so, than who? These questions can be simply maddening at times! As someone who is kind of obsessed with fiction, I find myself watching movies, TV shows, and reading books to try to get an accurate picture of adult life6356388427610595271282450916_969748_10103227871636285_1801255318_n-1.jpg
Here’s what I’ve found over the years—questions aren’t bad! Questioning something about your faith doesn’t mean you’ve lost it. Questioning something about the future doesn’t mean you don’t have faith. You want to know what it means? It means you’re human! Congratulations on surviving as an earthing! You have a pulse!

All jokes aside, God wants you to bring all of that before Him. Matthew 11: 28 says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” I think sometimes it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking we have to have it all together before we come to Jesus. I’ll be honest, if that was the truth than I’d be in trouble—because I don’t have it together! I’m just one young college student trying to figure out this rapidly spinning world. And, if you’re experience is anything like mine, you probably also don’t have everything together. You probably have doubts and questions of your own, and that’s OK!

The key is to be honest—with God and with each other. God gave us family and friends for a reason! It’s OK to open up sometimes—in doing so we become a bit more human and a bit more connected. We weren’t meant to keep everything inside and try to look perfect—we were meant to be real! Real messy, real transparent, and real people!

We may not be perfect, but God is! We may not have it all together, but God does! And, He’s big enough to handle any questions, doubts or fears that we have.

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.” Hebrews 1:3-4

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6

My Day In Selfies

Courtney8 Comments

Hey everyone, I was nominated a while back by Katie from Concealed Foundation—and I finally got around to posting this! Sorry for the delay, I’ve been trying to find a day interesting enough to actually record in photos!

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The Rules Are…
– Take a selfie every hour during one whole day of you going about your life.*
– It would be cool if you could show what you’re doing in the selfie as well as showing yourself. Feel free to include other people in your selfie too if you’re with others!
– Post all your selfies in a blog post so your followers can see what your day looks like. Feel free to include captions.
– Include the rules of the tag.
– Nominate some other bloggers to participate

So without further ado…the challenge! Sorry it’s so late Katie! 

 

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Today I woke up and got ready for an eventful day of volunteering in Sunday School at my church. I volunteer once a month and today was one of the days that I was signed up for.

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And here’s one of the photos here. At this point in the day I’m playing with two young children and listening to very redundant background music from one of the videos.😂 Today’s lesson was on Jonah and the whale and we made a lot of crafts involving the Bible story.

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And here I am at home about to eat lunch (Vegetarian chicken patties covered in spaghetti sauce). At this point in the day I’m recovering and pretty hungry.

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Still pretty tired, I decide to put on some TV. In the background, there’s my cat, a poster from the movie Grace Unplugged, and two inspirational wall decals.

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After spending some time watching TV and hanging out with my mom, I take on the challenge of organizing that messy closet I wrote about here. In case you’re wondering, it’s much better now. 😂👊👍

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Finally, I settled down to one of my favorite hobbies…writing! As you may be able to tell from the picture, I’m very tired now.

On a side note, I had a good reminder from an unlikely place today. The lesson for the Sunday school class was about trusting God, something that I needed to hear myself. Between college and stress about the future, I’ve kind of been panicking and trying to map out my whole life, wondering what it will all look like. The lesson ended up being a good reminder to trust God and not try to make everything work out myself.

Now, the new nominees for this challenge are…

Everyone reading this post! Yes, that means YOU! I’m looking forward to seeing all of your awesome selfie pics!  

*Confession, I do not have a selfie from every hour but I managed to record the highlights of my day. 

Choices

Courtney15 Comments

Hey everyone, my good friend Mfon from Dainty M. just submitted an awesome article that I think you guys will love! It’s the first of many guest posts that I plan to have here, so keep your DMs open and regularly check your inboxes! I plan to have more guest posts in the future! 

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I watched this movie ‘The choice’ and I think it was pretty good. Though my over analytical mind kept asking questions and trying to solve an unknown mystery. Lol. Suffice to say, everything we do in life hinges on our choices. Each choice has pros and cons. If you’re like me, you probably have the pros and cons list where you weigh every option. But even with that obsessive need for perfection, we still make mistakes!
So yes, choices are important. And God liberally gave us the chance to choose. We get to choose life or death, happiness or sadness, black or white. And sometimes these distinctions won’t be so clear- like picking between different shades of grey for instance. It gets really tricky and we need God even more!

I watched a romantic movie today from Hallmark. I like Hallmark movies, clean and brilliant! So yeah I had the whole ‘coil up on my carpet and eat chips’ moment while watching the fairytale unfold and letting out the ‘awws’ and ‘I want that!’. Well there you have it, I’m a hopeless romantic. Lol. So after the movie I went all whiny to God like ‘would I ever have that perfect love relationship?’ Long story, I decided to look at Ruth in the Bible. And I found something interesting.

She made choices. First was to follow her mother in law even when she knew there was nothing left for her. Second, she didn’t just sit home as a sad widow, she chose to go get a job. Third, she chose to follow her mother in-law’s instructions of making the right move. Starting from there, I probably wouldn’t have done that cause I always expect the guy to make the first move. Then secondly, why go out when you can just stay home depressed at how unfair life is? And yeah, I also may not have followed Naomi knowing she had no sons left.

So what if she hadn’t taken the job offer and rather wandered to other fields to glean? What if she hadn’t even followed Naomi? We probably wouldn’t be reading about her in the Bible.

Choices are so powerful!

Eve chose to eat the apple… Adam also chose to eat it. No one forced them.  There could be some convincing and nudges here and there but at the end, we get to choose. God has given us this chance to choose but He tells us to choose right.

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live- Deut 30:19

I’d like us to get a little more cautious about the choices we make every single day. Most of these choices have ripple effects and they flow down a long time.

I pray the Holy Spirit guides us as we make choices.

 

The Future Of Our Faith: By Ron J. Sider and Ben Lowe

Courtney4 Comments

Hey everyone, sorry I haven’t posted in a while! I promise to get better about that moving forward! 

A couple of months back, I read a book called The Future of Our Faith by Ron J. Sider. and Ben Lowe. This book is an “intergenerational conversation on critical issues facing the church“, and throughout this book, we see commentary on important social issues through the eyes of a baby-boomer and a millennial.

Ron J. Sider is seventy-six years old, a professor at Palmer Theological Seminary, and the author of over ten books, including Living Like Jesus, Just Politics: a Guide for Christian Engagement, Churches That Make A Difference, etc. He is passionate about social justice and has been working within the Christian community for years to help Christians better engage with the world around them.

Ben Lowe is a Christian author (Green Revolution, Doing Good Without Giving Up, and The Future of Our Faith) and Senior Advisor with Young Evangelicals for Climate Action. He has worked in the Christian community to try to raise more awareness for Biblical environmentalism and once ran for congress in 2010.

Reading this book, it’s clear that both authors have done a lot of research on trends and problems facing the modern day church. Deeply frustrated with our current dysfunctional patterns, they strive to pave a new way forward in our approaches to topics like race, wealth, homosexuality, politics, gender equality, the environment, social sin vs. personal sin, divorce, etc.

The chapters are broken up into nine chapters, each addressing a separate topic. They’re both well-researched in different stances on important issues and strive to present their views with sensitivity and grace—especially on some of the more controversial topics. They don’t always stick with popular opinion and are quick to call out dysfunction when needed, but they always remain Biblical and stick to God’s Word as their number-one-source.

The Future of Our Faith remains relevant throughout, and addresses some of the very questions that we’re asking as a Christian society right now in a very nonpartisan way—avoiding siding completely with either political party. It avoids focusing on legislation and is more concerned with how we, as the Body of Christ, operate in the world around us. I appreciated this, as I believe that the current hyper-political atmosphere of the church is damaging our witnessing and making the us look bad.

At the end of each chapter, each author comments on the other’s points, and despite the extremely wide age gap, they tend to wholeheartedly agree with each other’s perspective. It was clear that they each valued the other’s opinions and appreciated the unique perspectives of their counterpart.

Personally, I believe that every Christian should read this, as the choices that we make at this point of history have the potential to shape the “future of our faith” (No pun intended). The authors have an excellent and consistent worldview and present a positive framework for how we can move forward in a changing world. It was easily one of the most insightful books that I’ve read in a long time.

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To conclude, I would easily give this book a five-out-of-five stars and I’d highly recommend it to any Christian interested in engaging Biblically with the world around them. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Signs of Flirting?

CourtneyLeave a comment

Hey everyone, I was scrolling through my feed this morning and I stumbled across this hilariously awesome article by The Recovering Legalist. I found it too funny to keep to myself so I decided to share it with you guys. I hope you enjoy it!

Anthony Baker's avatarThe Recovering Legalist

The following is Part 1 of a 3-part series originally written in Sept. of 2013. I thought it would be a good time to repeat it.

Uncomfortable Topic

OK, so this is not a subject I normally discuss, but I feel I must say something.

I have seen several pieces in the news about how to know when a man is flirting, but the signs leave me a little puzzled. I mean, I am a man, so I should have some knowledge of when I am flirting, correct? But, evidently, I may be flirting when I don’t know it!

I don’t remember the sources for the following, but if you want to, just Google them (It is not my intention to plagiarize, but I am not getting graded on a paper, applying for a job, or getting paid for this post, so I’m not going to worry too much at…

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Love: Because Anger And Apathy Aren’t Enough

Courtney13 Comments

“As the church, we are in community together trying to fulfill this Great Commission that Jesus left us with. As we gently press into each other, we form one united thing, His church. As we work together, sharing the space God gives us to do His work, we all become shaped a little different. We all become a little more like Him.” ― Jennifer L. Lane.

As I’ve passed on from high school to college, I’ve noticed a series of distinct difference between the two. Granted, this may not be the case for all, but considering I’m contrasting a Christian education with a secular environment, there already appear to be a world of dissimilarities.

When I was in high school, pretty much everyone said exactly what they thought—for better or for worse. Classes were small and typically, disagreements during class discussions were fairly common. When it came to views on important matters, everyone had an opinion. Sometimes the opinions were loud, and sometimes they were quite militant, but they were opinions nonetheless.

Now that I’m in college, the dynamics have done a 360. Few people really seem to have strong feelings about anything, and if they do, they manage to hide it well. The hallways are quite sterile, and it’s infrequent to even really make eye contact with anyone. The overall mentality seems to be “You stay out of my business, I’ll stay out of yours“. I hung out with one of my friends recently who’s still in high school at a local public school and she said that she rarely shares her opinions with anyone, as that only causes drama.

From what I’m noticing, it seems that the general consensus in Christian environments is “I’m going to give my opinion very loudly whether you like it or not” and the general consensus in secular environments seems to be “Stay out of my business and try not to get in anyone’s way“.

Both approaches fall short in interacting with the world as Christ would. 

When someone only wants to yell and point fingers, they fail to care about the very people they’re supposed to be loving. When someone never stops to give advice or to try help someone work through a problem, they communicate coldness and apathy. As Christians, we’re supposed to love and be a family, which presents an entirely different vision than either approach offers.

When you’re in a family, you don’t just spew off disagreements without a relationship and the other person’s best interests at heart. You also don’t only chat casually and avoid any subject that could potentially bring conflict. Both of these approaches are dysfunctional and both fail to live up to Jesus’ calling to “Go and make disciples” (Which could also be thought of as, “go bring people to the family“).

Many times in the media, we hear the word empowerment being used frequently. I believe this word best sums up my point here. Our goal as Christians is not to condemn or to be cold and uncaring, but to empower people to find their best selves in Christ. This means caring about forming relationships with other people, helping them sort through the messiness of life, and helping them to find God’s will in their lives. Clearly, there are many matters where it’s best to “agree to disagree” but we should never, in our pursuit of kindness, default to the booming, loud apathy of disconnection.

Our love needs to come from a deeper place than silence and rage, it needs to come from our living breathing Savior, who loves us and has adopted us as His own. 

We can only become all that God intended us to be through caring, building up, and watching over our family and potential family-to-be. 

Anger and apathy will never be enough.

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