Faithful Writers

This isn’t the kind of life you can fake with a forced smile or spiritual performance. This is the kind of life that seeps out of your pores, even when you’re tired, even when you’re flawed, even when you’re unsure.

Recognition. Reward. At least a little celebration. But it didn’t come. Instead, I watched people walk away from the church, come back, and get welcomed like heroes. I clapped on the outside. But inside, I was thinking: Really? That’s it? Just throw them a party and move on?

Some allude that God could have used many ways to save humankind that were less barbaric; that He just preferred blood! He did it for His own pleasure and entertainment — much like the gods of Olympus, He used humans for entertainment to amuse His boredom of eternity.

The loving Jesus you follow, and cling to certain teachings of, said this about the Old Testament: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Matthew 5:17

When the Disciples couldn’t cast out the demon, Mark 9:14–32, Jesus demonstrated that the way life is lived between prayer sessions is much more important than the eloquence of the prayers spoken — after all, He knows what you’re about to say before you do.

Let’s start here: Shame is a liar. It doesn’t convict you, it crushes you. And that’s not how God works. When we mess up, it’s easy to believe the voice that says we’ve crossed some invisible line God won’t forgive. But that voice isn’t God. That’s fear. That’s toxic religion.

Revelation 20 seems an outlier among the Scripture narratives but, this is not unusual in Scripture as some of the most loaded messages with tremendous implications are very short.

I’m here right now telling you I am alive in Christ. I feel peace and confidence that God’s got this. This storm will pass, and when it does, I’ll be standing on firm ground with God at my side, because how can I not possibly believe after everything I have been through and survived?

Jesus loves the assembly line workers and the remote salespeople who only check in occasionally via Zoom. But he delights in the worker who knocks in person. Imagine his smile when you put a couple of donuts on his desk.

I’m not talking about our prayers. What about our daily conversations? Would God listen to the casual chats between you and your Christian bro or faith-filled gal pal? Yes. The proof comes from the Hebrew scriptures.

Yes, there’s judgment. God deals seriously with sin. But I also saw a God who is incredibly patient. Who keeps giving second chances, and third, and fourth. Who rescues people over and over again, even when they keep running away.

Suddenly, we weren’t in buildings anymore.We weren’t being led by a stage team with fog machines and countdown timers. We weren’t sipping free coffee between services or navigating church apps to register for “authentic community.” And many of us didn’t miss it.

We can see throughout the book of Genesis that God’s interventions are at their most intense during the early stages of mankind’s history and gradually take a backseat as His creation matures.

That’s the tricky part, right? Because the Spirit doesn’t always show up the way we expect. We want a booming voice, a divine sign, maybe something with flashing lights and a deep Morgan Freeman-esque narration. But more often than not, the Spirit’s help looks like:

So have you ever heard this argument? “How could God have created the universe in just six days?” “The Hebrews claim that by counting the generations we find the earth to be approximately six thousand years old.”

This idea that you can pick and choose what characteristics of God you want to believe and focus on is disastrous for your faith. You can’t select, elevate, and revere one above the others and expect a rich and abundant relationship with Him. 

There is a logical symmetry behind His actions clearly reflected in His creation. He is a God who draws up boundaries that are NOT to be broken. Let’s take a look at the creation story in Genesis Chapter One.

It doesn’t need a glow-up, a rebrand, or wrapped in skinny jeans or delivered by someone with a TikTok following and a smoke machine. What it needs is a person bold enough to live it out with honesty and imagination.

My story isn’t about choosing one tradition over another — it’s about finding the authentic spiritual path that allows me to connect with God in a way that speaks to my heart and mind. This journey, with all its complexities and revelations, continues to unfold.

Since we are talking about the one true God of Israel, why is the plural form of God being used, instead of the singular form, which is EL? The answer is that the IM ending in Hebrew also has another usage. Adding IM to the end of a word can also indicate greatness.

Scripture became a tool for being “good.” Read your Bible, pray, go to church — repeat. But what if we stop treating it like a test or task? What if we drop the performance and crack open the Bible for real?

My answer: If you knew the original Hebrew, you wouldn’t have that problem. In verses 3 and 4, the Hebrew word for “light” is OWR.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: a lot of what we were told about Jesus isn’t from Jesus. It’s our denominational image.

Today I would like to explore its opposite, the word CHOSEK. The dictionary defines this word as darkness or obscurity and as with owr also has strong spiritual significance but in a very negative sense.