Dirty Bible, Clean Heart

  " And God confirmed the message by giving signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever He chose ." -Hebrews 2:4 Have you ever asked God for something big in your life? Maybe financial freedom, bodily healing, or the dream of having a child. The prayers that seem biggest to us are truly nothing for God. But many times we forget that. In the midst of our tear-filled prayers, we act as if our requests are too hard, complex, or big for even God Himself. And if this line of thinking is prolonged, our doubts will fool us into believing that perhaps God does not want to answer our prayers...that miracles are a thing of ages past. But the record of Scripture shows a different picture. All throughout God's Word we see a God who brings water from a rock (Ex 17:5-6), fights against our enemies (2 Kings 19:35), and heals those fighting illnesses and in bondage to evil spirits (Matt 8:16). We, through our own weakness and unbelief, oftentimes place G...

"David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife ..." -Matt 1:6 We live in a pessimistic world. Regardless of how many motivational speakers and life coaches we hear, our society bombards us with negative messages. From a young age we are subconsciously led to believe that our past determines our future and habits create our identity. For example, we do not say a person "has a drinking problem" but most times we say "he/she is an alcoholic". The habit becomes the identity. So we walk through life carrying the invisible baggage of our sins and mistakes. But God is bigger than our choices & past failures, regardless of how bad it may seem (i.e. Saul became Paul). Sins & mistakes do not derail God's purpose for us . God's plan is not a rigid line from point A to B. Usually, as a result of our free will, it becomes a curvy road with detours along the way. And though some of these detours were not in the original outline of o...