Book Deal

I signed! New Reality is on its way to being a published book!

Have you ever wondered what abundant life looks like in everyday living? Do you doubt ‘the good life’ is even possible given your circumstances? Do you long for a close and intimate relationship with Jesus in which He reveals the secret of eternal life to you personally? In my upcoming book, New Reality, I describe what abundant life looks like and how it may be obtained in everyday life. I hope to enrich you with Biblical insight, inspire you with stories from my own life, and encourage you in your own dynamic relationship with a living, breathing, awesome God!

Time Change

So often I hear, “I just don’t have time.” It is true, our culture demands us to burn both ends of the night. We feel we are being jerked around by the world’s priorities. But there is another way in Christ. When I hear Christians say they don’t have time, I simply hear, “I haven’t made it a priority.” Usually this is just fine, but sometimes it reveals disobedience.

As humans, we bow to the time god and pretend we are victims to the timeline. But as Christians, we live in a spiritual kingdom which is defined by eternity. If we are willing to submit our time, like any other resource, we will find it in abundance. Our true priorities rise to the surface like a bubble in water. It’s really hard to say no to good things, but this is what it takes to say yes to the best, especially in the U.S. where opportunity abounds. When we understand our personal purpose and realize what it is that God intends for us to do for all eternity, our priorities become clear despite the demanding nature of temporal life. We are no longer distracted by the immediate pressing issues. We learn to trust God in an extraordinary way, knowing God will make sure the real need is met. We simply bow to what our Heavenly Father is saying in the moment.

And that is true blessing and freedom.

Faith

“Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].” (Heb. 11:1 AMP)

Faith becomes reality as we reach into the unseen world, grasp God’s promises, and draw them into this world. It is the basis of our perspective and the way we see this life. It’s not just something we do on Sundays, something we study, or something we blindly follow. It is our entire existence, our being at our very core. It is our work, our play, our home life, and our public life. 

Faith is to perceive things as they truly are. The human heart is proficient at denial, but God opens our soul to light. The Gospel invites us to live in the real reality, even if our natural senses cannot perceive it at first. God opens our eyes, opens our ears, and we taste, feel, and smell His goodness. He heightens our spiritual senses and we attain His promises by faith. Faith becomes tangible as we live out those promises in our everyday life.

By the Holy Spirit, faith seeks to influence our entire being. What starts in our inner spirit works outward, influencing our thoughts, emotions, and desires before spilling out into reality by our actions. Faith seeks to inform our thinking, which changes our feelings, which together remake our desires and we naturally act out God’s will. 

Faith is of the spirit (1 Cor. 12:9) and belief is of the mind. Faith necessarily influences beliefs, but sometimes our mind gets in the way. God puts faith in our spirit, yet our mind may create a barrier so we cannot see the proof of our faith! We know we have faith, but we have a hard time believing, so we never experience confirmation of our faith in this earth. Our heart fails when we cannot see or sense God is pleased with us.

God so lovingly wants to give us proof of our salvation and new life. There is so, so much more to life than fleeting good times. There’s a depth, a richness, a layer of eternity God wants to add. He desires to enhance our existence so that we actually receive a bit of our heavenly inheritance here on earth. We experience God’s promises by being sustained and controlled by faith. We trust naturally because we have experience and assurance through the Holy Spirit. What we do, say, and feel become the proof of our faith. Through faith, God uses our life circumstances to confirm His reality.

Confirmation

One day I was recovering from doing something I knew to be wrong. I confessed to God but was caught somewhere between my sin and forgiveness. I could sense the Holy Spirit was grieved by my disobedience and I was saddened by the seeming separation. Instead of wallowing over my sinfulness, which is so easy to do, I stepped into repentance. What this means is that I turned my mind from my old way of thinking in the flesh, about my sin, to think about that which pleases God. I focused all my energy on being led by the Spirit.

I pulled into a shopping center when an old man on the side of the road caught my attention. He was asking for help. I knew God was prompting me to give, so I prepared my offering as I was leaving the store. I positioned my minivan in front of the man and could sense there was something very different about this situation. He gradually rose from the camping chair where he was seated and steadily walked toward my van. Cars began to reroute as this encounter was already taking extra time.

When he reached my van he was rambling about needing a watch. We exchanged a few words and he asked if he could take my hand. I was surprised by how clean his hand felt. He kissed it and looked me straight in the eye. He delivered the most beautiful word of God that healed my heart in an instant. He said that if I asked God, He would clean my whole body. My eyes were drawn toward the silver cross hanging around his neck. I sincerely thanked him.

As I drove away, God’s love enveloped me. I was grateful for His confirmation and encouraged to believe the truth about my sin and forgiveness. By the blood of Christ, I am clean. I’m honestly not sure if the old man was homeless or an angel. Either way, God used him to deeply touch and heal my heart.

Sometimes we just need to hear we are "good." No amount of likes on social media, bonuses at work, or good deeds can give us the confirmation we truly need. We need to hear with our own ears that we are saved, forgiven, and God is pleased with us despite our sin. Today, when we walk in obedience to the Holy Spirit, this is the confirmation God so lovingly desires to give us personally. When we tune our ears to hear His voice above the rest, we will hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant." We will know without a shadow of a doubt we are good because of Christ's deed in us.

Let it Go!

In high school, I had the wonderful opportunity to work closely with our youth pastor as a student leader. My male counterpart, John, was a friend I dearly loved and admired. He was incredibly talented and a strong leader. Not only were we part of the planning and organization of our youth group, but we were personally discipled by our pastor and met on a regular basis to discuss reading assignments and life in general. This was a phenomenal opportunity to grow into the leaders God created us to be.

John and I went our separate ways in college. John was so talented he majored in English and then continued on to medical school after graduation. As I was starting my family, John was in his residency. In 2006, my young family and I were in my hometown visiting my parents. A flood of phone calls streamed into my parents’ house with rumors that John committed suicide. Immediately, I rejected the idea and denied my grief; my emotions were channeled into anger.

Indeed, suicide was just a rumor. John died from an anaphylactic reaction to a substance used to cut cocaine. He was a secret addict who struggled to overcome his addiction all throughout college. Having already returned home to Cincinnati, I decided not to travel back for the funeral. I spoke to our youth pastor and thought I would be fine. I wrote John an angry letter and filed it away thinking I had put it all to rest. Little did I know there was a sickness growing inside; I was carrying a seed of bitterness. From time to time I would return to the angry letter and stew over the shame of it all. I would look at the funeral notice and think about what might have been. I didn’t realize I was refusing to forgive John. I should have known something was wrong when I was surprised and slightly annoyed by classmate’s questions at our high school reunion the year after his death.

Just before Easter of 2008, God started to work on my heart. He led me to a website John’s parents created. It was an organization and scholarship program designed to help other parents and children struggling with drug addiction. When I explored the impact John was having on so many people, my heart began to soften. God has been accomplishing all He had in mind through John’s life and death.

On Easter Sunday our church had a call to repentance. When unforgiveness was mentioned, God pierced my heart. “I’ve forgiven John,” He said, “Have you?” Tears flowed freely down my face as I confessed my unbelief and lack of forgiveness. For the first time, I honestly mourned my great friend.