Living out Life with Passion, Purity & Purpose

Mass Shootings – My kids school on lockdown & Hope & Love > Fear I have read, listened to and seen so much information about the mass shooting in Parkland, FL that took 17 lives and forever altered countless others. I have listened to people debate gun laws, parenting or the lack of, hate groups and countless other topics this subject brings up. The day after the shooting my kids high school was put on lock down for an anonymous note found threatening to shoot up the school. Neither of my kids were at school at the time of the lock down. All of this makes me sad, tired and the enemy would love to make me afraid. Afraid to send my kids to school. Afraid for the parents of young kids in my church that have to send their kids to school for a lot longer than I do (mine are in 9 th and 12 th grade). But the truth is I still believe that Love > Fear & Love > Hate. Too simplistic -   you state. But let’s remember that in all of the stories of tragedy – s

This past Sunday we started a new Sunday School Series based on Jon Blooms book “Things Not Seen”. It is a cry to re-center our lives, our hearts and our focus on the unseen things of His Kingdom. You see, it is the unseen things that survive the fires in our lives.  Love, Relationships, Worship, Prayer, Communion, Giving – only those things that are unseen and centered in Christ will survive the storms we go through. We live in a world driven by accomplishments and accolades but Jesus is demanding that our priority be those things unseen. “Again, today, that’s always the call: slay the idol of the seen.” Jon Bloom We have to continually choose to slay the idol of focusing on only what can be seen, praised and noticed. Our souls are always prone to wander so Jesus himself reminds us in Matthew 6:6 NIV But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Today we finished up our Sunday School lessons on a Rick Renner book “Dream Thieves.” We discussed the Dream Thief of ourselves - or in other words - our own will. You see, we discussed that ultimately, I am the one who decides if I will fulfill God's divine destiny in my life or if I will choose to go my own way. We all come to crossroads in our journey - where choices have to be made - where we ultimately decide whether or not we will do what You want to do or what God wants You to do!  Honestly, we sometimes think that the small choices we make every day are insignificant.  But the book of John tells us about one of Jesus most astounding miracles - and this miracle only took place because a little boy made a simple decision to give Jesus his lunch instead of keeping it for himself. Read the story in John 6. Everybody knows this story!  John 6:1-15 After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias.  2  A huge