Truly Loved + Wholly Surrendered

Recently, I came across something that really piqued my interest and decided to look into it more. It came from a plan in the Bible app, and it said, "...the church need not test God..." and I thought about it and wondered why we, as a body of believers, should not test God, or if we're even allowed to test the Lord. I found that the Bible is actually very clear regarding this, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him in Massah" (Deuteronomy 6:16, NKJV). The words "tempt" and "tempted" here can also be read as "test" and "tested," which is interesting because the two words have slightly different meanings, but in the context of this verse, both are correct. So, here, in the general context of the verse, the Israelites just received the ten commandments (Deut. 5), and now they are cautioned against disobedience. There is the mention of Massah, which is when Moses struck the rock for the Israelites to be abl...

Hey y'all, I know I've been slacking on keeping up with this blog, but I'm sorry to say that my grandmother passed away last week, and so I've been dealing with the grief, and at the same time, joy that comes with it. My grandmother was a believer, and so I know I will see her again in Heaven. But, grief is hard, y'all. It comes so fast, and sometimes it comes unexpectedly, however, I also know that my grandma is pain-free in the presence of God. So, as you know, I've been doing a 'mini-series,' if you will, on what happens to us when we accept Christ as our Savior. I've briefly touched on  justification  and  sanctification,  and now I would like to talk about the glorification of our bodies. In a way, this is perfect timing to talk about this, since my grandmother has gone on to glory. The idea that our bodies will be glorified is a strange concept because it's a future reality. It's not something that has happened yet, and it will not ha...

I previously talked about how believers become justified in God when they accept His gift of salvation. I wanted to touch base on it again, before I continued on to sanctification. So, justification is something that happened in someone's spirit. Notice i said happened , in past tense, which is because it's a past reality. Justification occurred on the cross when Yeshua died and became applicable in our lives when He rose again. An easy way to remember 'justification' is 'just as if i had never sinned.' Because Yeshua went to the cross and rose again, we are saved from the penalty  of sin. Sin no longer has that power and dominion over us, so knowing that we're justified, it allows us to walk fully into God's will and plan that He has for our lives. Of course, our flesh gets in the way...and that's what i want to talk about next: sanctification. Sanctification is an ongoing  process that occurs in the soul, which comprises of your mind, will, emot...

For the next couple of posts, at least, I would like to share my thoughts on three things that happen in us as a result of accepting Yeshua as our Savior. Granted, there are more than three, praise God, however, these three deal with who we are in Messiah: justification, sanctification, and glorification. In my last post , I talked about how we can know, as believers, that our faith in Him is secure. However, the security of our faith, while important, mentions more of how the Holy Spirit works in us in order to have that secure faith. Now that faith is established, I think it's important to know what else comes as a (positive) consequence of it. Justification comes by faith. There are numerous verses in the Bible that talk about justification and being justified, which I personally take as a sign that it's something that God wants His children to understand. If we can't grasp on what occurs in us, how will we be able to explain our faith in the Lord? But, in order to ...

Have you ever wondered what it means to be secured in the Messiah? Or how does you know  that you're completely protected in His hands? I, myself, have wondered, not necessarily because I doubted, but I just wondered how I could explain how I know that I belong to the Lord, other than just saying that I just know . I recently came across three verses that answer this question for myself. I don't know if it will answer yours in the same way, and if not, I hope and pray that you will find your own answer to these questions as you continue your walk with God. If you haven't yet come to know Messiah as your Savior, then I pray that this might help you learn more about what it's like and what it means to be held in the hands of the Almighty Father. The first verse I came across that jumped out at me and screamed within me that this was the answer  I was looking for is 2 Cor. 1:22: "who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee." In t...

Hello and welcome to my blog! (again) I wanted to take this first post and share a little bit about myself and who I am as a person. I'm 23 years old, and have graduated UNC Charlotte, with a degree in English and Russian. I have been a believer for most of my life, and was raised in a Christian home/background. However, throughout my journeys, I have come into contact with various denominations, and am currently a part of a Messianic community. I believe that things should be questioned (1 Thessalonians 5:21), and that the Bible provides answers for everything. I'm in the process of learning how to take the Bible for what it says, and not simply believing what people  say about a certain passage. Although, people can give you good insights and guide you to the truth of what God is saying through His Word, however, I think it's important to discover truth on your own, sometimes. Some of my posts will be about various topics, and how I came to believe something because of ...

"You can't serve a full-time God with a part-time faith" is something that has been going around lately, and I've been thinking about how true this is. Also, how true the flip side is: "You can't fight against a full-time enemy with a part-time faith." I want you to think about this with me: a full-time job requires a minimum of about 40 hours a week. God works 24/7, and so does satan; that's 168 hours a week, a full-timer works only about 24% of their time. Not even a quarter of their week is spent at work. Now, imagine us, as followers of Christ, how much time do we give to facebook/twitter/snapchat/Instagram/other platforms? How much of it can be given to God? Why do we expect things to go so well with our lives if we don't even spend a quarter of our time with Him? He fights for us all day, every day. Satan is fighting against us all day, every day. If we were to just give Jesus a little more time, imagine how much more faith would be ...