Encouragement Prevails

"The World is the worst it's ever been." "Why isn't God stopping that?" "Why is he allowing this to happen?" "Why did God tell the Israelites to kill all of those people? Just so He could give them land? That doesn't seem like Jesus." When I read Genesis 18-19 all of these questions and statements came to mind, but it didn’t leave me wondering. It brought me clarity. In Genesis 18 God in human form, Jesus, appeared to Abraham, telling him the good news that Sarah would be pregnant in a year. The conversation then takes a turn toward Sodom and Gomorrah. Genesis 18: 20-21 The Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense, and their sin is extremely serious. I will go down to see if what they have done justifies the cry that has come up to me. If not, I will find out.” I love the beauty that God, Jesus, is having this situation looked into before doing anything. The two angels that came with Jesus walked to Sodom...

“It’s the least I can do. I mean he died on the cross for me.” I heard this statement the Easter of 2023 and it still comes to mind this day. It’s the least I can do… to attend church on Easter, to pray before a meal, to give to a charity, to read the Bible, and the list goes on and on. That phrase bothers me. It is a lie I am all too familiar with. That I need to be a good Christian. I need to be Jesus. In my strength, I need to check the boxes. I believe Jesus came to free us from checking boxes. Jesus died on the cross to free us from sin, which means to miss the mark. To break the barrier it had between us and God. To free us from the hold Satan had on our lives. The least we can do is accept the freedom given to us. Stop pushing aside what He so painfully and passionately fought for us to have. When I mess up as a parent, the least I can do is receive His grace. The beauty is, that doing so results in so much more. It changes my mental state to peace versus frustration, sel...