My Online Faith Journal

    One of the most of quoted books in the New Testament is the book of Isaiah.  Isaiah had quite a bit to say about Jesus.  Even though, his ministry started around 739 B.C. before Christ.  Yet, he seems to barely be able to write a chapter without mentioning Jesus.      A verse that came to mind today is "The steadfast of mind Thou wilt keep in perfect peace.  Because he trusts in Thee." Isaiah 26:3.  It made me think about why it is that so many people, including many christians don't appear in the least to be experiencing peace.  Is it possible that our minds and hearts are not reflecting and focused on Him and His promises.  It is too often that we are focused instead on our circumstances rather than Jesus.  You will notice that this promise is for those who "trust" in Him and not themselves.      I'm really glad I read this passage because I needed it.  It seems to me that my day is much better when I start it with spending time with God and focusing

  If I had just a few things to say about the truths of the gospel that I would want anyone to know I could boil it down to a couple of truths that have changed my life and gave me hope time and time again.  There are three truths that I want to mention: 1. God loves you.  There is nothing more important for you to remember.  God is on your side.  He is for you.  He is totally and completely in love with you with a love that is not measureable.  You can't fathom it or contain it.  And he feels that way about your neighbors and relatives and everyone else as well.  He loves the unloveable and He loves the people who are easy to love.  Love is who God is.  Your Creator loves you enough to send Jesus to die for you.  You are that important to Him. 2. God won't abandon you.  Sometimes it feels like God left the building.  Sometimes life throws us curve balls.  We end up wondering if God was asleep for a while and didn't notice.  Our enemies start to laugh at us.  We end up

    I have been reading the Bible more this week and I wanted to take a minute to share with you some lessons learned this week.  The first thing that was reinforced to me is that prayer is about my getting on  God's plan and not His getting on mine.  If you recall, in Matthew 7:11 says, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in Heaven give what is good to those who ask Him?"  This verse tells me that it is not God's inability to answer that sometimes leads to a delay in answered prayer.  Sometimes it may be a matter of what I am praying for or the fact that God and I are not on the same page in the playbook.      In his book "Effective Biblical Counseling" Dr. Larry Crabb has a section about what it means to be a christian counselor  He talks about how many people, including many christians think the main objective in life is to "be happy".  While I don't think that God h

    If you've been following this blog for a while, you know I have not written much lately.  This is because a few months ago I started working on my Masters in Counseling degree.  This coming Friday I will actually finish two more classes and will have a total of 12 hours completed.  The program is a 60 hour program.  I will try and be a little more faithful in writing on here.     My last two classes have been on multicultural competence and ethics and counselor identity.  It has been an interesting semester as I have studied another culture and learned more about the importance of following a code of ethics.  The last week, we looked at couple counseling and group therapy.     One of the videos I watched recently showed two students at Liberty, one of who is from Puerto Rico and the other from Japan.  The student from Japan had only been in the U.S. about a year.  He mentioned that students here in the U.S. are much more assertive in talking in class.  Also, he mentioned that