Tara Lee Davis's Podcast: Recent Episodes
Tara Lee Davis
Reading, writing, and speaking gives Tara life. Having spent nearly a decade wandering from the heart of God and into a life of bondage, it was the love of Jesus which would ultimately set her free. Her story of redemption, freedom, and new life is woven into every facet of her stories. Tara is a gifted storyteller, using everyday examples, raw life lessons, and humor to reach hearts. Her passion is Jesus, her gift is storytelling, and her life purpose is simple: To make much of Jesus!
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Everyone has had chapters in the story of their lives, and most get stuck in this place by asking the wrong questions. While God is not opposed to our asking questions, just as Job proved, asking the right question is key to forward movement in our faith journey. What if we've been wasting time asking the wrong questions, like "If God is good, then why did this happen?" What if, instead, the better question to ask is, "Why is God trusting me with this trial?" Is there a purpose in our suffering? Is God still good when not all is well?
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What does it look like to fight the good fight of faith? How does God His children to engage with the spiritual battle that rages on? Have we lost our own hearts and in so doing forgotten how to fight for the heart of our King? It's time for God's church to rise up and fight! It's time for us to SEIZE the initiative, REGAIN lost territory, and DISRUPT the enemy. No more patty cake and nerf guns, lives hang in the balance and we are called to engage and win!!
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One of the things that I appreciate the most about who God is, is His love and long-suffering. Romans 3:23 says that all of us fall short, and we can easily fall into the trap of shame and self-condemnation if we are not careful. There is always a chance to get it right, but some of us miss that because we believe the lies of the enemy. Remember the guy who denied Jesus 3 times in Jesus' time of greatest need? He has an amazing redemption story, and we dive into that passage on this episode. What would your life look like if you dove deep into the grace that He offers, the grace that is always more than enough?
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What is worship? And what does it have to do with warfare? Is worship just sining 3 songs every time we find ourselves at church? Or is it deeper than that?
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Do you make God vomit? Are you like a dog returning to its vomit to eat? Have you found yourself in a pile of fish vomit because of your disobedience?
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We continue our series on David and Goliath, looking at identity. A mistaken identity, as God's child, will cost us more than we could know. The problem with a mistaken identity is that if we operate from that place, we will never be who God has called us to be or accomplish what He has created us for. David had every right to operate out of insecurity, but if he had, Goliath would still be taunting God and His people today.
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Every single human on the planet will make an impact, either in a good way or a bad way. What kind of impact does Christ call His followers to make? What good is salt if it loses its flavor? Have you ever thrown a blanket over a lamp once you've turned it on? Such is the Christian who refuses to let their light so shine before men. Is your life putting the glory of God on display, or the glory of self?
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The single greatest event in all of human history made an impact on every single human for all of history, whether they know it or not. When Jesus sacrificed His very life to pay for the sins of the world, that single event would change the course of human history for all of eternity. Some have embraced it and found salvation in Christ alone, some have rejected it and far more lost and hopeless than they realize, and some are indifferent while there are still many to hear the Good News.
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How do we live with intentionality as Christians as we make our way home to heaven? Is there more to the Christian life than just surviving? How does God call us to live with purpose?
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Psalm 23 is a jam packed chapter of Scripture, reminding us of who we are and who we are not. Our Shepherd, is more than enough and capable, of leading us well on this journey of life. We are book ended with grace and invited to the table of all tables, but sometimes we have to fight to get there! We were created to live our lives in wonder, wonder at this God who loves us so deeply. But some of us end up wasting our lives, wandering aimlessly without a shepherd to lead and guide us.
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What if my greatest struggles in life were actually God's gift to me? So many ask, "If God is good, then why........." and no one can come up with an answer. Are we so entitled as to think that we should only receive the good from God and not the hard, too? Is there purpose behind the struggles we face? How can we learn to view our struggles differently?
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What does the Bible mean to us? Are we approaching it in the right way, or with wrong motives? When we approach God's Word rightly, we find hope! What would it look like if we stopped taking our Bibles for granted, or misusing them to cut down others, and instead used it as mirror to reflect our own shortcomings and need for God's grace and mercy?
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What does it take to run your race well, as a believer? Cliff Young shows us the way. What an honor to be the guest speaker at the Cornerstone Christian School Annual Sports Banquet.
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Jesus gives His followers a striking command in Matthew 5:43-48, telling us to love our enemies. But we cannot love our enemies without first forgiving them. Are you carrying heavy weights that you were never meant to carry? Because there is freedom, healing, redemption, restoration and forgiveness at the foot of the cross! Loving our enemies is far more than just not hating them, but we cannot do that on our own strength for as Jeremiah 17:9 says, our hearts are desperately wicked.
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I was in a dark place while in college, and God used a professor of mine to rescue me. The secret weapon? She loved me where I was, but loved me enough to not let me stay there. I will forever be grateful for my professors and how God used them to rescue me! Love changes everything, and is never wasted!
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What if our greatest gift has been lost in the shuffle and chaos of it all? What would it look like to unwrap the greatest gift ever, slowly savoring Him? Advent, a season of expectant waiting knowing that the God who promised is the God who will deliver.
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Most of exhaust ourselves getting ready for Christmas! Has anyone seen the tape? Where are the scissors? We need more Christmas gift wrap! But what if we were exhausting all of our energy, time and resources on the wrong preparations? How do we prepare and get ready for the arrival of King Jesus? What does it mean for every heart to prepare Him room?
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Tired of sin ruling your life? Exhausted from riding the fence as a Christian? Feel like God is about to vomit you out of His mouth because of your lukewarm temp? Can we ever truly master sin? We can, and it’s easier than we realize! But most of us spend our lives looking for a way of excuse rather than the way of escape!
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If God is good, then why did I get cancer? Why can't I have children? Why did my parents divorce? Why did my friend die? The list of questions is exhaustive, and this is where many get stuck. Habakkuk faced trouble, big trouble. But he didn't give up, because at his core he knew that God had a plan and His plan was good, even if he couldn't see it in the middle of the mess.
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What if we viewed our obedience as God's children differently? How would it change if we didn't obey out of obligation but rather saw it as an opportunity? What impact does our obedience make?
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When was the last time you thanked God for a bad day? Same! But God calls us as believers to give thanks in all things! What if the hard parts of our story were actually intentional from a loving God? What if He was renovating our hearts from the cottage of our selfish, inward hearts into palaces fit for a King?
What do we do when the unthinkable happens? We all want to help, to fix, to take away the pain, but how do we tangibly do that? How do we help our friends who are grieving? Here are 4 simple ways that you can walk with others who are grieving. We are better together, and we need each other. You don't have to understand where someone is to be used by God to help them.
Is your life marked by desperation for Jesus? Or are you among the crowd, watching your miracle pass you by? For the woman with the issue of blood, she had no choice! She had to get to Jesus, no matter the cost! She had every reason to give up hope, to quit! But she refused to settle for less than what Jesus had for!
So many of us exhaust our resources chasing the next big thing. But what if God could do something incredible through our everyday, simple yes? How would obedience change if we delighted to follow His commands rather than out of duty or obligation? Is it really that simple for God to make something so beautiful from our ordinary lives? Yes, yes it is! We see this in a giant boat, an almost sacrificed teenage boy, and a jar of oil!
Are you ready for the return of Christ? Is it possible to look ready, yet not actually be ready? Let’s take a look at what Matthew 25 teaches us in regards to being ready for the return of Christ!
What is tenacious faith? And where does it come from? How do we live our lives as believers that are marked by victory and overcoming? Who's really in charge of our lives? Can others look at your life and declare, "The Lord, He is God!" What do we do when the odds are stacked against us?
In a fascinating exchange, Job questions God as to the misery he is facing when he loses everything in a single day. This story deeply resonates with all of us, as we've often asked "If God is good, then why ______________________?" But God in turn questions Job, and he responds in humility, brokenness, and repentance. What can we learn from this narrative? How do we respond when we face challenges that we deem as unfair?
Behind every successful person are 3 characteristics; they are quick to accept responsibility, they always say thank you, and they never give up. What is your life marked by, acceptance or blame? Is your life marked by complaining or gratitude? Do you easily throw in the towel or do you finish what you started? And what does a barfing whale, a bleeding woman and a leper have to do with any of it?!
Paul compares our walk with God to a race. Most start strong, but few know how to finish strong. What keeps us from finishing our race well? What are the things that get in our way?Nu
What does it take to be kind? Why does kindness matter? Imagine a world in which people threw kindness like confetti!
John 10:1-10 paints a beautiful picture of Jesus as not only our good Shepherd but also as the gate, but what exactly does that mean?
Specifically looking at the idea of peace in the advent season. does Jesus stand the test of time? When He's asleep on the boat as the storm threatens to take them out, is it because He is unaware or indifferent or because He knows something we do not?
Everyone knows that dogs eat vomit, but does anyone know why? Why is Proverbs 26:11 in the Bible, and what does it mean for us? Is sin really that big of a deal?
What's the problem with idols? Who or what am I worshipping, other than Jesus? Is Jesus really the Lord of your life, or is He just your genie-in-a-bottle?
What if the time and energy we spent trying to hide behind filters to fit in, be accepted and liked was the exact opposite of what God really wanted from us? How do we live unmasked, as we are? Is God's love and acceptance of us really enough, even if no one else loves and accepts us for who we really are?
Life is full of incredible disappointments, and certainly the graduating class of 2022 has faced 2.5 years of cancellations, new normals, and a majority of their high school lives spent in isolation with all of the fun cancelled. But, as God's children, how are we to respond in the middle of life's crushing blows? Can we trust the goodness, the Godness, and the faithfulness of God in the midst of life's crushing disappointments? There are 2 paths, the one less traveled is the only path in which we find true hope, sustainability, and the wildest adventure ever, walking with Jesus in all things.
Revelation 21:1-6 paints a beautiful picture for us of what's to come when Christ reigns fully with His glory on display, but how exactly are we to live within the tension of the here and now? How are we as God's children living out His love and putting His glory on display, or have we grown too sour for that? What does Christ call us to while we wait and yearn for the promise of heaven?
Hebrews 12 instructs us to throw off everything that weighs us down and hinders us from running our race, but what if what kept us held back from true freedom in Christ was our own obligation? Do we read Scripture out of obligation, or desire? Do we pray because we have to, or because we want to? Do we worship because that's part of our routine, or because it is our pleasure to do so? What does it look like to have heart in following Christ? How does heart affect the way in which we do things?
Isaiah 55:1-9 offers us an interesting invitation, an invitation to those who are hungry and thirsty to come and be satisfied, an invitation for those who are broke to come and buy. Oh how the grace and mercies of Christ satisfy us in ways we've never known. We are called as children of God to stay thirsty; thirsty for Jesus and His sweet presence.
In order to have compassion on others, we must learn to see others as God sees them. The father in the story of the prodigal son saw, from a distance, who his son truly was. And his acceptance of him, inspire of his failures, changed the trajectory of his life forever.
For Jesus, compassion was more than just a feeling. It was a commitment to get involved with hurting people. What could it look like if we embraced others, even with their oozing sores?
You cannot give what you have not received. Who is our role model for compassion? Christ, Himself. Have we forgotten the incredibly high price that He paid for us?
90% of conflict stems from misunderstanding, so how do we, as God's children, practice perspective in a Biblical way? We speak and be honest, we lean in and listen, and then we set our mind on things above. Those who learn to look through the lens of God at their life circumstances will find a power and strength they've never known. As Charles Surgeon so once wisely said, "Christian, remember the goodness of God in the frost of adversity."
What if a right perspective gave us a power to get through the hard things? Jesus gives us the ultimate example of this as He looked to the joy that set before Him and having done so, He endured the brutality of the cross. What does that mean for our everyday lives and the trials we face? How powerful can perspective really be?
We are in Part 1 of a 3 part series on Perspective. What shapes our perspective, and how can a blind man see Jesus more clearly than His closest followers?
What if all of the great things we've done for Jesus didn't amount to a hill of beans? In Revelation 2, Jesus issues a stern warning to the church at Ephesus, and to us as well. They had abandoned their first love. We are called to remember and repent, our love for Jesus is the most important thing we will have or grow in our lives. Have you abandoned your first love?
What could God do with our everyday lives if we live with eyes wide open? The opposite of apathy is simple, loving God and loving others. Embrace the process, it prepares you for the destination.
One of the roots of apathy is insignificance not given to God. However, we can overcompensate and in so doing, act out of pride and disobedience. Our pride and disobedience can actually keep us from the gifts and blessings that God wants to give us. Moses and Aaron were prevented from entering the promised land because of their pride and disobedience. What can we learn from their example in Numbers 20? Sometimes the biggest enemies we face aren't on the outside, but on the inside.
In the last 2 years, apathy has swept over our young people, and adults, like a raging wild fire out of control. What is apathy? Where does it come from ? What difference does it make? This is Part 1 of a 3 part series as we look to Scripture to find out how to live the abundant life that Christ paid for us.
What if the thing we longed for the most at the start of a new year wasn't found in the gym, our amazon carts, or wrapped under the tree? We all long to be the best version of ourselves, but what does that look like for a child of God? Here we take a look at the 5 signs of a life hidden with and in Christ, and what a difference it can make, not only for ourselves but for those around us.
Our lives are signposts, pointing to someone or something else. What or who is your life pointing to? The problem with a signpost is that if we follow the wrong one, we end up wasting our lives through a cycle or rerouting and we not only get to where we really want to go, but we lead others astray.
Are we living our best lives for God? God our Father longs to give us the Kingdom, but instead we are living in poverty, merely wasting our days eating dinner out of toilets. What does our best life for God look like that? And what is keeping us from living our lives to the glory and honor of Christ?
Have you ever felt like the odds were stacked against you? Are you unknowingly living with a "big me little God" mindset? How does God respond in the midst of our fear, doubt, confusion, and anxiety? What does God see that we cannot? How do we fully live as His children? Are we guaranteed victory doing things His way? Gideon was one of the biggest wimps in Scripture, yet God used him, despite his doubts and fears, in a big way. But the saddest part of the story? After such an incredible talent show with the power and glory of God on full display after He rescued the Israelites from the hand of the Midianites, the people of God forgot. And in their forgetting, they turned and walked away from God. How do you forget what God has done, how do you just walk away? By living with a dangerous mindset, the mindset of "big me little God."
What if our lives are filled with broken pieces of disappointment, pain, and confusion? Is it possible to worship Jesus and give Him our best? What does giving our best look like that? How do we keep going when we find ourselves in the dark?
What does it look like to live a life chasing after Jesus? How can we keep running when we've grown weary, discouraged and overwhelmed? Running with Jesus is intentional, requires discipline, and will be the greatest journey of our lives if we will simply keep going.
This week we dig into Acts 12 where we discover the purpose of persecution, the power of prayer, and the power of pride as we continue to learn from the early church.
Saul has a wild encounter with God Almighty and is struck blind for 3 days, God uses a simple man to pray over the man who was having Christians locked up worldwide, and after his salvation and baptism, God uses Saul, now Paul, in powerful ways as he leads others to believe that Jesus is the Lord!
How was David able to lament the death of Saul? After all, Saul the king who had gone mad did try taking David out, multiple times. David was a man after God's own heart, and was more concerned with counting his own failures and shortcomings than he was keeping a detailed list of everyone else's dirty laundry. When we lament our own sin, then we can truly honor others, even our enemies. Heart check, when was the last time you were honest with yourself and allowed God to search every nook and cranny of your heart?
Jesus always invites us to return; return to His grace, His peace, His presence. It's never too late to come home.
Peter, the disciple who denied Jesus not once but three times? Yeah, he was the one who recognized Jesus making breakfast on the shore that day and after being up all night fishing swim a hundred yards to shore. He was compelled by his love for Jesus, and it showed. How would our lives look different if we were marked by love, love for Jesus and love for others?
Does God call His children to excellence in all things? Why does it matter, or does it? What can we learn from Hezekiah's life? Most expect the blessing of God without putting in the work, and while it may look cute on your kitchen towel, God does not, in fact, "bless our mess."
What a gift that we can count on God to be the same today as He was yesterday and He will be tomorrow! Even when life ebbs and flows and the seasons we find ourselves in are constantly changing, we can always count on the One who never changes!
What does it mean that God prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies? Could we possibly be saying no to the greatest invitation ever given simply by the way we live our overly busy lives?
Hope is a powerful thing, and something we all desperately need as we muddle through this ongoing pandemic. Misplaced hope always misaligns our hearts with God and sets us up for disappointment after disappointment. Where or what or who is your hope in?
How quickly do you forget how God has taken care of you? Does it even matter that we remember what He did for us 7 years ago? One of the best ways to strengthen and build up our faith is to actively remember the countless ways that God has provided for us! Even the Israelites forgot how good God had been to them and their puny little lives and pathetic excuses made life miserable for them. What are you anchoring yourself to; the constant waves of life that ebb and flow mercilessly? Or the faithfulness of God and His unchanging, always good character?
Everyone loves a good story! But how do we live our best stories, especially when our lives are full of disappointment, pain, and heartache? Is there more to our story than just our accomplishments and failures? How can we live lives that are marked by Jesus and moved by love? One sinful woman shows us how, and what appears to be an extreme waste to some ends up being extravagant love for One.
What is God saying in this season? The pandemic, the political divisions, the violence, the quarantines and our lives completely upended as we knew them, is God speaking still? Does God's still, small voice speak louder than the screaming of the world in which we live? And why does it matter? What if in missing God's whisper we miss out on passing on a legacy to the next generation?
When do we grow from emotional experiences with God to actual encounters with God? When do we move from throw up to growing up? When do we stop wasting our lives magnifying and instead put Jesus on display? Is the Gospel partial to us and our own shortcomings, or is it for all? What do our hearts reflect about us? Jonah not only gets swallowed by a large fish for disobeying, but after surviving being thrown up by that same large fish, we discover that his heart is still far from God, even though on his second chance he obeyed. God is asking for all of us, our complete hearts. Obedience without a heart change is merely rule following.
In the midst of a pandemic and a quarantine that never seemed to end, we all found ourselves in the midst of a storm. What if the storms of life were meant to be danced in instead of sheltered from? How should we respond when faced with adversity? How does God respond to us and our endless questioning? While it's true that storms bring destruction, they also bring great growth when received with open hands rather than resisted with closed fists.
Jesus gave His followers a lot of authority, but what exactly does that look like and mean for us today? Elijah the prophet understood what it meant to stand and operate in God-given authority, and even though he stood alone, he used his God-given authority to put God on display and turn the hearts of people back to God.
The spies were sent into the land, which God has promised them in advance, for 40 days to investigate. 10 spies came back talking of the giants that inhabited the land, 2 spies came back saying that the land was theirs to take and that anything was possible because God was with them. Because of their murmuring, complaining, groaning and grumbling, the Lord was angry and turned them back into their wilderness where they would wander for 40 years until every single of them died off. What is louder to God, our worship and praise or our grumblings and complaining? Was it the report that our lives speak of? Do we spur others on in faith or cause them to shrink back in unbelief? Yes, the grapes are big. Yes, the giants are bigger. But God is greater even still. How sad it would be if we, just like the Israelites, forgot all that God has done for us and wasted the rest of our lives wandering aimlessly in the wilderness waiting to die, all because we didn't take God at His Word.
God has made it clear through His Word that His ways are not our ways, His thoughts not our thoughts. And yet many of us get stuck trying to understand what He is doing, rather than just yielding. God, much like our faith, cannot be measured. But when His plan goes one way and ours run perpendicular to that, we are left with the ultimate reminder, the cross. And it is the cross of Jesus Christ that reminds us that we can fully trust and rest in who He is, especially when we don't understand. God is good, God is faithful, there is hope. He, in fact, is really good and completely worthy of trusting...unlike us.
God never promised to bring us out of the fire, but He did promise to walk with us through the fire. And how you and I choose to walk through the difficulties of life can either point others to Jesus and make much of Him, or we can waste that opportunity. We have been called and chosen to suffer well, Christ did. The fire of life is a gift; it purifies, it refines, it makes us more like Jesus. We are better in the fire, with God at our sides, than out of the fire without Him. Our miracle is in the fire.
Living from a place of insecurity limits me to living only in and through and for myself. Living in confidence allows us to live fully confident in who God is, and in who He has called us to be. We live our best lives when we live in confidence, yet it's something we all struggle with in the everyday mundane of our lives. And yet there was one, David, an overlooked shepherd boy, who when living with confidence overcame the odds stacked against him and rewrote the history books forever with the slaying of a giant! Maybe instead of trying to live really big lives rooted in insecurity and ending up exhausted and confused, you and I could live everyday simple lives rooted in Godfidence, and in so doing be used by God to rewrite the history books for His fame and honor!
Why do we waste so much of our lives allowing others to define us? Only the Creator has the power and authority to define us as created beings. I AM was the name of a very holy God, long before it was a label we used to define ourselves. When we misspeak of ourselves, we not only speak what is not true but we are also speaking those same things of the very One who created us. So who are we, then? As long as we don't have a firm grasp on who we truly are, we will never live the life that God created and destined for us to live!
If contras is the "difference of degree of difference between the lightest and darkest parts of a picture," then what is the difference between life and death itself? The Bible is actually a story of contrast, highlighting the epic adventure of a good God who pursues evil man with the light of His love in the midst of the darkness and we find ourselves in the middle of this story, but we get to choose how it plays out for us.
When we encounter God and we find ourselves forever wrecked, how do we maintain that heart change? How do we ensure that it wasn't just a camp buzz, conference high, or believe the lie that nothing actually changed? When I struggle with sin that I once repented of, did Jesus not forgive me or set me free? How do we go home different and truly walk this thing out?
How do you spend your life? Every human on the planet has the same amount of time and access to that time/ 365 days in a year, 24 hours in a day, yet 1 life to live. Are you wasting your life building your own sandcastle kingdom? Or are you living a life that will live beyond your human years on this tiny blue dot we find ourselves spinning on?
Why does God pursue us? Is He a control freak? Are we mere puppets on strings? Is following a Jesus about a list of do's and dont's, or is there more? God simply wants a relationship with each of us, and relationship trumps religion every single time. Religion shuts doors while relationship opens them. In the story of the prodigal son, we see the contrast of religion and relationship and what set free was relationship.
Could it be that our lives are so consumed with self and what others think of us that we are missing out on the bigger picture of God using us to display His glory? Have we exchanged the glory of God for the cheap praise of man? Gideon proves to us that when we believe the truth of who God says we are, then God can rewrite the history books for His glory, fame, and honor.
As believers, what's the first thing that we ask when the storm hits? Where is God? Why has He left me? Is He not listening to my cries for help? Could it be that our questioning of Jesus, especially in the midst of hard times, points to a deeper issue that we don't fully know who He is? All throughout Scripture, we see story after story of those who have found Jesus right in the middle of their mess, even when they themselves were a hot mess.
What does Resurrection Sunday mean for us as believers? Is there more to it than "Dead Jesus, quiet Jesus, alive Jesus, hooray"!? The exact life and death and resurrection of Jesus was actually a blueprint for you and I and yet, we often want the resurrection power life without first dying to self. There could be no empty tomb without first a crucifixion. Only in the dying of ourselves and sinful, selfish ways will we be resurrected with Christ and find the newness and abundance of life that we were designed for!
If God's Word doesn't return void and is powerful and active, then why do we often not see good fruit growing in our lives? We often waste incredible seeds of truth that are planted in our hearts not because it's too high and lofty or something that is unattainable for us to grasp, but simply because the soil of our hearts is hard instead of being good soil.
God created each of us to live legendary lives; lives that are full and rich, far bigger than anything we could ever hope for or imagine. What if our tiny stories of pain and brokenness were actually apart of something much bigger that we can't always see and understand? We will never live out the part we have to play in this big story if we don't understand the Story that's being written and you cannot possibly understand the Story when you don't know the Author. Because there are going to be chapters of your story that are hard and painful, confusing at best.....but when you know the Author, you can point back to their heart and trust that they are writing something far better than you ever could. So what does a wee little man and Whataburger wrappers have anything to do with it? Everything, because it's all a part of knowing the Author of our stories.
Anytime you and I drink from something or someone other than Jesus, we will not only be thirsty but we will end up being dehydrated. Jesus is the Living Water and only He can satisfy the deepest longings our hearts and souls. The reason we are thirsty is not because Jesus isn't better or good enough, but because we are drinking from the wrong water source.
Your position determines your perspective and your perspective shifts everything. There are countless examples of people in the Scripture who found themselves in precarious positions and yet what they held to be true deep in their hearts, is what affected them most in their outcome because how we see and view the things of life greatly affects how we live our lives.
We often need to be recalibrated to who we are, whose we are, and what our lives as God's children are to look like. Can we say with confidence that God can indeed rescue, but even if He does not, He is still good and He is still God and we will still do the right thing?
Jesus coming to our earth to be born as a baby reminds us of the constant tension we face between the reality of our world as we know it and the truth of God's Word and yet in the midst of that tension, Christ still chose to come...Immanuel, God with us.
God does not mince words in 1 Corinthians 13 when He talks about love. Think you're doing well at loving others? Take the word "love" out and insert your own name.....Warning: Not for the faint of heart. We are told to love others well, simply because He first loved us.
In this introductory lesson, we give a breakdown and overview of the Parable of the Sower. What do the four different types of soil represent? And who is the Sower? And who does God love anyway?
The purpose of the fire is never to consume, but rather refine. And when we don't trust the God behind our stories with the broken, painful pieces of our lives, we will in fact be consumed by the fire and instead of looking, sounding and smelling like Jesus, we will look like and sound like and smell like we've been in the fire. But when we choose to trust God, and acknowledge that He is not only powerful enough to save us, BUT EVEN IF He doesn't, we are not only refined by the fire but others come to see and acknowledge that God is the only God worthy to be praised and worshipped.
There are many different names of God found throughout Scripture, and each one reveals the nature and character of God. Why does it matter that God is known as the Alpha and Omega? One word: Sandwiches.
It was a classic, dramatic scene of panic when they woke Him that day on the boat; "Teacher, teacher.....don't You care that we are perishing?!??!" We've all been there before, questioning what God is doing in our lives when things don't make sense. But when we forget what He has spoken, we invite the chaos into our lives and hit the panic button prematurely.
When the disciples tried to tell Jesus what to do, He commanded them to do the impossible. And when a crowd of 15, 000 people were able to eat until they were satisfied AND there were 12 basket fulls left, the disciples were reminded who God was..............and it wasn't them. The chaos of our lives is simply an invitation to Jesus, asking Him to be God, and He rsvps's a solid YES every single time because that is who HE is and He loves to prove Himself, even to His biggest doubters.
Many of us have heard the crucifixion story of Jesus our entire lives, but do we really grasp what He endured to set us free? Why do we keep returning to vomit like a dog when Christ prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies? Regardless of how you and I live, Jesus loves us.
I think the question that's asked most often, when in the midst of a difficult season, is this; is it to possible to endure suffering while still following Jesus? But perhaps, all along, we've been asking ourselves the wrong question. It's not a matter of possibility, but rather worth. Is it worth following Jesus when that involves enduring suffering? Job lived a life that proves that following Jesus, even in the mist of extreme suffering, is always worth it.
John 14:15 says that if we love Jesus, we will do what He asks of us. The greatest commandment is to love Jesus with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and the second is like it; to love others as ourselves. So when you and I have the opportunity to love the ones in front of us and we choose not, we are simply saying "I don't love Jesus."
Why does God desire obedience over sacrifice? Sacrifice is birthed from a budget, or rather a measured portion. Obedience is birthed from love for Jesus, according to John 14:15. The bottom line is this; Jesus doesn't want a measured portion of us or our lives, He wants all of us. Because when He has all of us, He has all of our portions and that is when He does His best work!
We conclude our series on Hope from Romans 15:13 which looks at the power of the Holy Spirit. We don't have to strive for hope, we can trust that God will keep His Word and empower us to walk in hope all the days of our lives, even when things don't make sense.
According to Romans 15:13, we are to live lives that are overflowing with hope. But what does that look in the everyday details, especially when we feel like we are drowning under the weight of the world?
Romans 15:13 makes it clear that while hope comes from God, joy and peace come first. But how many of us experience joy and peace on a daily basis? Joy and peace is ours to enjoy, even in rough times. So either God is a liar or we aren't doing our part. And what exactly is our part? To believe in God, or as another translation puts it to trust in Him. So my joy and peace is directly correlated to my trusting in God. But why is that difficult to do, especially when God has proven Himself faithful again and again?
Who doesn't need hope? In a busted up, broken world where it seems that evil prevails and the people of God don't win, is there hope? What does hope look like in our everyday lives? Why do we need hope? In Part One of our series on Hope based on Romans 15:13, we are looking at our need for hope!
We're told to live our lives in such a way that we are a walking advertisement for the value and goodness of the Gospel and yet, if we really look at our lives, they exemplify the false value of sin and self and pride. David was as bold as it gets, refusing to be backed down by a giant but instead being backed up by all of heaven and the Word of God, David turned history upside down on it's head and proved to every hater that those who are bold in their stand for God are always the winners!
Before he was ever born, Samson had been set apart for the purposes of God. Even though God remained faithful to him, Samson chose to listen to the voice of the enemy over the voice of God and in so doing, wasted not only his life but his potential as a man of God. When we choose to listen to the voice of the enemy over the voice of God, we not only lose our strength but we lose our ability to see.
If Jesus purchased our complete freedom and redemption on the cross, then why do so many of us live bound to sin and addiction? Why do we return again and again to the same sin that never satisfies and so easily entangles? Only in and through the cross of Jesus Christ are chains completely broken. Whether we choose to return to bondage or not lies not on Jesus, but on us. Bound people don't number their days, bound people don't worship God, bound people don't live with a heart of wisdom. Could it be that we are wasting our lives by choosing to stay bound when Jesus' desire is to completely set us free?
What kind of a God sleeps in the midst of the raging storm? Is He so disconnected from us and our everyday realities that He chooses to disengage and sleep? God loves to prove Himself faithful, but especially in the midst of the storms of life when all odds are against us!
How much of our lives do we waste by digging up dead things? Old relationships, past failures, recent disappointments, old habits and sins? When we dig up dead things, we don't number our days but rather number our losses and when we do that, we gain a heart of foolishness instead of a heart of wisdom. We will never find the living among the dead, we will never find what we're searching for, we will never find life in old graves. What if we were asking the wrong questions?
Every single day, the forces of evil and good collide in an epic war and lives hang in the balance and with nearly 2 people dying every single second and 2 billion people in the world who have never heard of Jesus, then why does it matter that we stand and fight? And if the Gospel isn't real and God is a fake, then why is the enemy of our souls relentless in his pursuit of trying to steal, kill and destroy us? And how do we stand and fight every single time? The Scripture makes it clear for us: Who the enemy is, what's at stake, and what the strategy is. And if that isn't enough, we also know the end of the story...............................we win every time in and through Jesus Christ who conquered it all for us.
Do you know what extreme measures they go to protect the Olympic torch flame? How much more should we work to protect the fire of God planted within our hearts? How do we fight to keep the flame alive?
Why does it matter that Jesus prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies? What keeps us from the table of fellowship with Jesus, what do we allow to get in the way of enjoying time with Jesus? David learned to strengthen himself in the Lord long before he relied on the Lord's strength to slay giants. Only when we choose to stay connected to Jesus and allow Jesus to stay connected to us will we ever fully be known and loved as we are, strengthened for the battle ahead. The ultimate way to shame the enemy of your soul is to sit and dine with Jesus and rest, knowing that He is God and He has all things worked out for our good!
In recent weeks, the current of the conversations have remained the same while the faces have changed. As God's children, there is constantly a tension between wanting to do the right thing and yet longing to do the wrong thing. And while tension makes most of us crawl under a table, this is the very thing that God uses to produce in us a work of art as He grows and stretches us and prepares to launch us into the next level. Stay in the tension, because as long as you do, it means you're in the fight against the enemy of your soul and we win every single time.
God desires obedience over sacrifice because obedience is birthed out of our love for Him. And even when we get it wrong, in His kindness and mercy, God gives us chance after chance to get it right. God not only uses vomit to show us the depravity and disgust of our own sin, but God will also use vomit to win our hearts back to Him again. We, like Jonah, would do ourselves a great favor if we would be quick to obey the first time.
Just because you slap some tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese on it doesn't mean it's pizza. As God's children, we often wear masks, unsure of who we really are and what our lives are about. God created each of us to look like Jesus, sound like Jesus, and even smell like Jesus. But so often, we walk around reeking of vomit because we return again and again to the same sins that never satisfy. What would it look like if we understood who we really are as God's children and took the masks off? Jesus endured the brutality of the cross because our lives weren't a game to Him. The prodigal son, after squandering everything the Father had given him, realized that all he ever needed was found in the Father. When the prodigal son failed to understand who his father was, he had no clue who he was and when we walk around not knowing our true identity we end up squandering the very thing that was meant to be a blessing.
I believe that prayer is one of the most powerful yet unused tools of our time. Think about it, direct access to an incredibly loving God who is available day and night and has the power to do anything, yet most of us utilize prayer as a last resort. What if we believed what we were praying for? How would that change the trajectory of not only our lives but the lives of the ones around us? Come engage in a conversation on prayer and hear an incredible testimony about a precious girl in Haiti by the name of Roberta who stole my heart forever.
Middle school is one of the most awkward seasons of life. After chasing a dream in basketball, God would totally interrupt my life with injuries and surgeries and disappointments. Could God be trusted in the midst of setback and crushed dreams?
The Father had to treat Jesus like Barabbas so that He could treat Barabbas like Jesus. In one of the greatest exchanges of history, Jesus stepped in and took our place on the cross yet how often do we reject that gift? We can become so comfortable with the stories we hear time and time again that we grow numb to the often gruesome details that bring the story to life. In this account, we get to hear from a doctor's perspective the impact that the cross physically had on Jesus. What does it mean that the crowd chose Jesus? Maybe we've been asking ourselves the wrong question all along...........instead we should be asking, what does it mean that the Father chose to love us like Jesus when we've lived like Barabbas?
I had the incredible opportunity to go on my first out of country mission trip at the age of 15 when I traveled to Haiti. When I was 11, I knew that God was calling me into full-time ministry and to travel the world and speak about Jesus. If Jesus is the greatest gift we've ever received, then what will we do with it? Are we spreading the good news? There are lives that hang in the balance, with nearly 2 people dying every single second. Are our lives living examples of a God who is big enough to save the day and transform us from the inside out? God wants to use our story, as part of His bigger story, to rewrite the history books for all the world........for His sake, name, honor, fame and glory!!
We all fight social media split personality, hiding behinds masks of Pinterest perfect lives and homes when in all reality, our lives are a mess. Adam and Eve once hid from God too, but they thing is they never were actually hidden, even in shame. The same God who walked the garden and knew exactly where they were hiding is the same God who sees you and I today. The problem with wearing masks is not in convincing others to see and believe what we see and believe, but rather that we've already bought into a lie ourselves. It's time to get real, it's time to take off the masks, it's time to surrender to be fully you; broken, sinful, messy you.
I will never forget the first time I heard her worship Jesus, she carried His presence so sweetly and had a beautiful anointing that ushered us into His presence. Anyone can stand up and sound good in a microphone, but to be able to steward the presence of Jesus in such a way that He just continually pours out more of Himself on you? That's my friend Kristin Baker, she lives a life completely undone and poured out for the glory and fame of Christ. I'll spend a few minutes in this episode asking her to share her heart behind worship, and then we dive in together for an evening of spontaneous worship through song, prayer and speaking the Word. I hope you'll join us and be refreshed in His presence.
Ever wonder how a Yankee like me ended up in Texas? My life has been a constant story of God weaving His mercies and goodness into the midst of my failures and heartaches and writing something beautiful.
The Israelites struggled in their journey towards the Promised Land because time and time again, they forgot all that God had done for them. We too will struggle in our walk with Jesus when we are quick to forget His faithfulness to us over the years.
What does sin have to do with vomit?! A whole lot! So often we talk about the pleasures of sin and how enticing it is, but the reality is much different. Sin is ugly, it's a cancer, and it always brings death. Just how deadly is sin? And since we all have a sin problem according to Romans 3:23, what do we with it? The Bible tells us to repent and obey, but what exactly does that look like? In this message we talk about how ugly sin is and yet how beautiful repentance is. Wordly sorrow always leads to death but Godly sorrow always leads to repentance!
What is Christmas really about? And what is the significance of Jesus coming for our lives today? Could it be that we've missed the real meaning of Christmas?
Worship isn't counting what it will cost us but rather worship is measuring the worth of the One we're adoring. All of us spend every moment of every day worshipping someone or something, and if we are not worshipping Jesus, then our worship is whack. We cannot worship who we do not know. What does a pinata filled with vegetables have to do with worship? Take a listen and find out!
As children of God, we have a unique advantage when it comes to warfare. We fight from a place of victory rather than fighting for a victory because Jesus has already won it all on our behalf! When it comes to engaging in spiritual battles, there are 3 keys to take away from Gideon, the ultimate underdog of the Bible.
When was the last time you realized what faith could do? Hebrews 11 is packed with powerful snippets of everyday people who simply chose to live their lives by faith rather than feeling and because of this, God was able to do incredible things through them. What would it mean for us, in today's jacked up world, if we were intentional about living by faith rather than feeling? Abraham lived by faith while Jonah lived by feelings, one ended up in a pile of puke while the other ended up walking home with his son whom he was to sacrifice. Be encouraged, God can do so much through just a little bit of faith.
Anyone who's ever done any boxing will tell you that the best boxer is the unpredictable one, and the same is true with our spiritual lives. David was the complete underdog with zero votes of confidence. What does it take to defeat Goliaths when you're just a David? Here, we take a look at 3 keys of success to be an unpredictable fighter and win the battle every single time. You and I were created for more!
Everyone is anchored to someone or something, and if you're anchored to anyone or anything other than Jesus than when life happens and things fall apart, you will not make it. Who is Jesus, and why does it matter to be anchored to Him?
Peter denied Jesus Christ not once or twice, but three times. And yet, this same Peter climbed out of a boat and walked on water. Peter wasn't fueled or motivated by a hunger for himself or his pride and or even a second chance, but Peter was motivated and fueled by his hunger for the presence of Christ. What does it look like to follow Jesus wholeheartedly? What does it mean to follow Him against all odds? How do we maintain our mountain top intimacy with Jesus in our everyday humdrum, mundane and busy lives? Could there be more to following Jesus than we realize?
In John 5:6, Jesus asks one of the most audacious questions when he encounters a man who's been lame for 38 years, "Do you want to be well?" The truth is, all of us have something that we are hanging onto today that cripples us in our walk with the Lord; idols, pride, sin, unforgiveness, bitterness, etc. And Jesus asks us the same question today, do we want to be well? Even Dagon, a fish god statue, could not stand before the presence of God, and the same is true today. It's time to quit living the lie that we are god, it's time to pick up our mats and walk.
The Bible tells us to wage war against sin but failing to realize the seriousness of sin and understanding the cycle of sin, we don't fully tap into the solution of sin who is Jesus Christ. Your sin will always cause someone else's storm and likewise, your obedience will always alleviate someone else's storm. What would it like if the people of God stopped picnicking on playdates in the park and parading around with the enemy of our souls and instead feasted with the Father at His banqueting table where His banner over us is always love? Sin destroys but Christ and His Word always bring life and life to the fullest, it's not too late to begin waging war against sin!!!
List most humans that have ever wandered this tiny blue dot of a planet, you've likely struggled to forgive someone. Somebody once said that choosing not to forgive someone is like drinking poison and hoping the other person suffers. So what does it mean to forgive and how do we do that? What does the Gospel say about forgiving others? Every single time I have struggled to forgive someone else, I simply stare long and hard into the cross on which Jesus died and therein find the courage and inspiration needed to let go of bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness. The cross of of Jesus Christ was enough for every last enemy of mine.
Have you ever found yourself winning when you never should have? Ever felt paralyzed by your own fear and hiding out in a cave? So did Gideon. In Judges 6-8, we discover a coward of a man that God uses to defeat an overwhelmingly large enemy, and God totally does the impossible and gives His people the victory. But in the end, Gideon makes much of himself and God's people yet again choose to follow after false gods, forgetting the God who delivered them!
There is nothing mediocre about Jesus Christ. Looking at Revelation 3:16, we learn that Jesus can't stand a lukewarm follower. What are the 3 signs of a lukewarm follower and how do we get back to being lit up for Christ? Until we acknowledge the one true God and stop trying to play god ourselves, we will never grow and mature to be hot followers of Christ. Even Jesus said it is far better to be cold than to be half-hearted when it comes to Jesus! Take a listen, join us as we discuss what this thing looks like and let's get back to the basics of loving Jesus more than self!! Be encouraged!
The Israelites longed for a God to lead them into their Promised Land, but when they grew impatient waiting on Moses to come down from his conversation with God, they took matters into their own hands. Burning gold, forming a golden calve, and bowing down and worshipping this was foolish at best, yet each one of us can find golden calves in our own lives that we need to shatter. It's time to return and repent to the one and only true God who never fails us!
We often waster our lives with peasant wanderings when we were created for Kingdom dwelling. God created us for so much more, but we often lose sight of that because we give up in our wilderness seasons. What if the wilderness path was intentional on God's part because He knew if you went the quick, fast way...you'd lose heart? Our lives mirror that of the Israelites, but there is hope even in the midst of a wilderness season but God is in the midst of it all.
What is the true meaning of Christmas? Who is it that we celebrate? Jesus Christ, He is the greatest gift of all! Come and explore the reason we celebrate Christmas, Jesus.
Ever feel doomed by temptation? Is it wrong to be tempted? How do we respond to temptation? What happens when I give in to temptation? You were created to wage war against temptation and win every single time with Jesus!
We take a closer look at Matthew 16:24-25 and ask ourselves what it means to turn from our selfish ways, take up our cross and follow Christ.
Here we talk about what it means to walk this out, how do we deny ourselves, take up our cross, lose our lives for Christ and yet go back home from camp where life is sometimes hard?
What exactly did Jesus mean when He told us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him? What does it look like to be all in for Jesus? And why did Peter jump out of the boat to swim to shore when the boat was only 100 yards from shore?
Esau exchanged what he most wanted for the temporary pleasure of here and now. Selling his birthright in exchange for a mere bowl of bean soup, he settled for less. How often, as children of God, do we do the same? God is trying to give us His Kingdom, but we settle all the time for the temporary pleasure of here and now.
Self or surrender? What does it mean to follow Christ? What does it mean to deny self and pick up our cross?
I was asked to give the commencement speech at a graduation this past weekend, and asked myself what's the one thing I'd want them to remember? Have you ever felt like the underdog? The one who can't seem to win or gain any ground? We all have, especially Cliff Young. A remarkably true story about how to keep running, even when life would try to persuade us to quit!
Taking an in-depth look at sin; what it is, what it does, and how to deal with it. It's time to wage war against the sin in our lives, Jesus paid too high of a price for us to play around with the evil in our lives.
Discouraged? Tired? Ready to quit? Jesus tells us to fix our eyes on Him so that we will not grow weary and lose heart, you were created to run this race with Jesus and win...don't quit! You've got this!
Every day our lives are engulfed in war, a clash between darkness and light, good and evil. Here we take a look at some battles of the Bible and are reminded that the battle does belong to the Lord, we must fight it His way, and we are guaranteed victory every single time we choose to trust Jesus and follow His plan instead of our own!
In a culture that uploads 17 million selfies a week to social media, we're consumed with ourselves. And the moments we're not, we've filled up with things and people and relationships that promise something more than they can give. It's time to rediscover what love it, Christ hung high and stretched wide on the cross because He is enough, He is always enough. At the conclusion of this message, 20+ high schoolers gave their lives to the Lord, while countless others confessed and repeneted, laying sins and dark secrets and lust and hate and unforgiveness and drinking at the cross. What a beautiful thing that God has done in our midst, nothing but Christ and His love will ever satisfy us.
I was invited back to the university I attended to speak about the process of reconciliation, specifically looking at the life of Saul. This was truly an honor and a dream to come true, to go back to where it all began and share my testimony and encourage others that yes, God uses broken people all the time!
This was a devotional I shared at a women's Christmas gathering...Christmas, when darkness collides with light and the world is never the same again.
Jesus came, Jesus left, Jesus will come again. A look at what the return of Christ looks like for those of us in the here and now of everyday life.
Based on Philippians 3:8...what do we consider as rubbish? Our very lives or knowing Christ?
This was the first message of our weeklong camp with middle school and high schoolers. The theme was "Chosen" based off of Romans 8:12-17. This message was an introductory one for the week.
This was the last night of camp where we talked about how in order to be considered coheirs with Christ we must share in His suffering in order that we may share in His glory. Again, based out of Romans 8:12-17 with the theme of Chosen......what a call to come and die to ourselves, and in so doing to truly fight for the heart of our King!
This is a message I shared with a youth group from Grace Fellowship Church, based out of 2 Timothy. Yes, I used an actual toilet full of spaghetti as an object lesson!
This was the session after many decisions for Christ had been made, so we needed to talk about what it meant to live as one who is chosen by God. This was taken from Romans 8:12-17.
This was the message of our second night of camp, again based on Romans 8:12-17. In this message we talk about freedom versus slavery, and crying out to Abba Father for help. After this message, around 50 people gave their lives to Jesus for the first time as well as 100 others choosing to lay aside unforgiveness, bitterness and anger as well as addictions, issues, and gender confusion at the cross. It was such a powerful night of God's glory!