NextGenKent

Perseverance is an important virtue,  requires confidence in God,  and is your means to overcome! And it looks good on a T-Shirt! What is  one thing you feel like you are “persevering” right now? I have three projects I am working on at our house: an upstairs closet for my wife, a wall behind the fridge has come loose, and a small, stairwell window needs to be made bigger so we can move bedroom furniture upstairs (finally). I say three projects, but you and I know projects are never ending (I am also simultaneously working on painting the back patio and resealing our driveway and maybe ...). I think I am persevering a lot! James wanted us to know something about persevering. He wrote from a Christ-like perspective to inform us that perseverance is not a natural outcome unless faith is involved: the testing of your faith  produces steadfastness (or perseverance) . The faith he is speaking about is in Jesus specifically. When we have made it throug...

Without challenge there will be no growth. Without expectation there will be no challenge. Why is it that we think if we expect "too much" out of people they will turn away? Didn't Jesus issue commands and ultimatums? Why should His Church not remind His people of these things? I was challenged by a statement from someone in Sunday School that people "like" the way things are going. This "liking-ness" caused me to ponder the "state of the union" and internalize a "declaration of dependence" for the name of Christ. I repeat, Without challenge there will be no growth. Without expectation there will be no challenge. I do not want to bow down to "likingness" as the test for spiritual growth. What I see in fruitfulness is sporadic unquestionable commitment .An abandonment to the statements of Christ across the board. This is reflected in the hard work of hospitality we lack in our home-model of being the body of Christ. W...

We usually only hear the NOTHING CAN part in Romans 8. No one wants to talk about the BUT EVERYTHING IS TRYING TO part. Here is where I am getting this from. It's in the Bible. Paul is writing to the Romans and in chapter eight there is A LOT of good stuff! And it ends great, take a look. Let's begin with verse 35, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.--NIV. So how does everyday stuff seek to separate us from the love of God that i...