One Way

The Proverbs are full of so many amazing nuggets (and floods!) of wisdom. And yesterday, my study in self-control took me to this incredible gold mind of knowledge. Though it's a short verse, Proverbs 11:6 sure packs a punch! "The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the unfaithful are trapped by evil desires." There are two questions we can ask here - What makes makes a person righteous that they are delivered when temptation strikes? And why are the unfaithful trapped? Ultimately, as a Christian, my salvation and righteousness comes from Christ and Him alone. But my mind also goes to the verses that talk about Abraham and His righteousness before God. I love what James chapter two says about this great man of faith: "Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the script

It's been a little over five months since I got back from Ghana, Africa! Almost half a year! Wow, where has the time gone?!? A lot of great things happened on my missions project this past summer ( you can read my trip summary here ), but there were some wrong thoughts and expectations I'd had about long-ish short-term missions (I'm not sure what else to call my nine week trip :) ) that were soundly debunked while actually on the field! And I'd like to share five of these with you today. **And just a quick note before we get to these five points - they only illustrate misconceptions from MY experience. There are loads of factors that could make your missions experience totally different - the people/organization you're involved with, where you go, how long you're there, what you do, etc.** So, here goes - 5 Misconceptions I Had About Missions: 1) Mission work is glamorous.  My teammate and I...crammed into one seat of a taxi for 2 hours in

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!! It's 2015, y'all! Whoot! A new year, a new beginning! This morning, I started into one of my New Year's resolutions - to do an in-depth study on the topic of self-control. I took the first verse the online concordance gave me, little knowing it would carry a huge New Year's truth! God is so cool like that. :) The verse was Acts 24:25. Sounds kinda random, doesn't it? Paul has recently been taken into custody by the Romans after he was nearly murdered by the Jewish leaders. Now under the protection of Governor Felix, who is apparently familiar with "the Way", Paul gets several opportunities to share the gospel with Felix. Verse 25 tells us about his first conversation: " As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, 'That's enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.'" So Paul is going deep, not just skimming the s