“Follow your heart! Do what makes you happy!” Pithy advice, to be sure, and quite common in the twenty-first century. We’re often told by celebrities, social media, friends, and sometimes even family that the desires of our heart are sacred above all and not to be ignored.

And, on its surface, all of this sounds wonderful! As Americans, this independent spirit runs deeply through our psyche. Our country’s founding document even proclaims that we as American citizens have an inalienable right to “the pursuit of happiness”…

“How can I grow in discernment? What does that actually mean? Is that different than wisdom?”

We talk about wisdom and discernment, but what do they mean? We may want to be wise and discerning but how do we do that? They are closely related, and we can grow in both, but before looking at how to grow, let’s define discernment and wisdom. In a devotional from the NIV Lifehacks Bible, wisdom is defined as “a capacity of the mind that allows us to understand life from God’s perspective.” Wisdom comes from a proper view of God…

We’ve all heard Christ’s statement, recorded in the book of Acts, that, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35) And sometimes, in our more private thoughts, we’ve responded, “Well, that’s not been my experience.” Maybe we’ve misunderstood “blessed” and maybe we just disagree with Christ, Himself. (…a truly frightening thought!)

Well, if we read our Bible’s at all, there’s no doubt that giving is strongly encouraged in the Scriptures. And whenever we find ourselves questioning or disagreeing with something clearly taught in the Bible, we should hit pause. Even when we don’t understand all of the reasoning or purpose of some biblical commands, we need to stop and remember Who gave the command, and that should begin to settle the issue for us…

2 Corinthians 12:9 became a comforting truth during a more challenging season of my life as a young adult. From a young age, a clear calling toward a career in the medical field gave my life direction and stability. However, after graduating from college, my path took an unexpected turn. Rejections from several medical schools left me very uncertain about my future and with a pre-med degree I had invested the past 4 years studying for that I wasn’t too sure what to do with…

Spiritual Disciplines. The mere mention of the topic conjures up in our mind images of Nacho Libre wearing a drab gray wool smock, a horribly bad bowl haircut living in poverty, praying and repeatedly cooking beans for the good of the order. The conclusion, that is great for a select few, maybe, but is it what Scripture means when talking about spiritual disciplines?

I’ve always tried to find a creative way to start my testimony other than saying “I grew up in a Christian household…” but that’s the truth. I was blessed to have been introduced to Christ and the Gospel from a very young age. By the time I was five or six, I understood the basic principles of the gospel and of faith and considered myself to be a believer. Growing up in the church, I had the opportunity to hear testimonies from so many believers. I would listen to their stories and was amazed at the hardships they went through and how God led them through those trials and closer to Him. I remember being in middle school and feeling like my story was SO boring…

There are over 250 verses in the bible about worship! It is obviously very important that we understand all we can about this topic. Worship is honor and adoration directed to God. We worship God because God created us to worship Him, worship is at the center of our existence, at the heart of our reason for being…

Proverbs 11:14 “Where there is no guidance the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.”

I’ve made a lot of poor decisions in my life. I tend to try to only recall the good decisions, but if I were keeping score of the bad decisions vs the good decisions, I think the game would have been called off a long time ago. Since graduating high school, it seems like it is the theme of life to be presented with opportunities to make tough choices. It never ends…

If you are a believer, fellowship is not optional. The bible gives us several commands that include the words, “one another” and we cannot obey these commands unless we are planted in a community of believers. How can we comfort one another, serve one another, bear one another’s burdens, etc. if we aren’t around one another?