dealing with our troubles

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

How do you deal with your troubles, your wrong choices or your issues? By believing what God says about us after He saved us, we will think and act differently. But it is a choice to apply what God says to our lives. To act forgiven, we have to think and believe we are forgiven. To live full of love, we have to believe that God loves us and that His loves matters.

Choosing to crucify your issues and live by the spirit is not an easy task. The verse above reminds us that to live forgiven and as children of God we will make a conscious effort to nail our sin to the cross. That is to put our shortcomings in the past.

To crucify is to kill. To put something to the side is to nail it to something where it will stay put. Our flesh has endless passions and desires that go totally against God’s best for us. That is why we have to set them aside.

I’d like to ask us if we really want to live in the freedom that God provides, or would we rather stay tied up and bound to our issues? By choosing to live by the Spirit of God, we will do what God leads us to do. We will make wrong choices at times, but we will strive to take a higher road, to do things right and to set sin, pride and troubles aside.

God will help us win those battles as we deal honestly with our sin. It is not easy to crucify our passions and desires, but it is always right. To follow the Spirit is to find peace and strength and help to get through the battles of life.

I heard a quote the other day that has stuck in my mind:

Better to aim high and fall a bit short than to aim very low and hit it.

We aim high by being honest and dealing with our sin. To aim low is to sweep things under the proverbial rug and just live on like none of our sin matters. But they do. We can win. It is time to aim higher and see how God gives us victory in life.

Galatians 5:16 (NLT)

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

Francis Chan's "Forgotten God" (brand new book)

One of the most powerful preachers, writers and leaders of our time, in my opinion, is Francis Chan. His first book, Crazy Love , revolutionized my thoughts about God's love as well as my interacting with God. Now it is time for a brand new book from Chan being released tomorrow, September 1st. The book is Forgotten God . This is a phenomenal book about the power that Christians and the church can and must tap into. All of it is within the Holy Spirit. Francis talks about the power that was seen in the book of Acts when the Holy Spirit began to move among people. It is true that many have avoided or maybe forgotten what the Holy Spirit is all about. And like the Savior who poured out His life and blood so we have reason to rejoice, we were made to lay down our lives and give until it hurts. We are most alive when we are loving and actively giving of ourselves because we were made to do these things. It is when we live like this that the Spirit of God moves and ac...

inspiration from C.S. Lewis

There are many people, past and present, who get our attention by what they write or say or share. For me C.S. Lewis is one of those. He was a prolific writer who continues to grab the attention of thinkers from many different points of view. Lewis first grabbed my attention when I was in 5 th grader, and our teacher, Mrs. Foy, shared The Chronicles of Narnia with our class. It was a powerful time that this dreamer opened doors to thinking like I had never lived before. He wrote of faith, of far off places and of strong figures who found their character rooted deep in God. C.S. Lewis was born in 1898 and died in 1963, 7 years before I was born. It wasn’t until his 30’s that under the influence of his friend Tolkien that he came to be a Christian. He was raised in a traditional church going home, turned away from God as an Atheist in his teen years and through trying to stay away from God and faith returned to God with...

Catalyst ticket arrived

My ticket to the Catalyst Conference, in Atlanta Oct 8-10, just arrived. I'm excited!

Michael Harrison's e-devotion

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