Tag: christianity

Contending for the Faith

On By Stace.ihsIn Sojourner & ProfessorLeave a comment

The Truth Didn’t Change. The Doorway Did.

Sojourner:

Professor, I have been thinking about Paul in Athens, when he encountered the altar inscribed “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.”

We are told to contend for the faith. But sometimes I wonder what that is supposed to look like.

Does contending mean confronting everything that is wrong? Do we have to argue against every false belief, correct every error, and challenge everyone who sees things differently than we do?

Because when I look at Paul standing among the philosophers of Athens, I see something different.

He certainly wasn’t weak. He wasn’t afraid of their beliefs. Scripture says his spirit was stirred when he saw that the city was given over to idols.

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Whose Voice Can We Trust

On By Stace.ihsIn Sojourner & ProfessorLeave a comment

When Every Voice Sounds Certain, Who Can We Trust?

The Sojourner & The Professor

The Sojourner says:

Today, a well-known minister posted a YouTube teaching about what he believes is wrong—and even evil—about the Word of Faith movement. That alone was not new. People have disagreed with Word of Faith teaching for many years.

What unsettled me was that he used ChatGPT as one of his sources of authority.

ChatGPT supplied him with information that appeared to support his position, including criticisms that tore down teachers and people I have respected for many years. I understand that the answers he received were probably influenced by the questions he asked, the way he framed them, and the sources upon which those answers were built. Still, I have to be honest: it bothered me to see ChatGPT being used against my people of faith.

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When the Strong One Gets Tired

On By Stace.ihsIn ♦️ Start Here – Hearing God Clearly, Sojourner & ProfessorLeave a comment

When the Strong One Gets Tired

The difference between resting, disappearing, and walking away wounded

SOJOURNER:

Professor, I received a message from someone who is tired. Not the kind of tired that a good night’s sleep fixes. She is tired of helping. Tired of being the nice one. Tired of making sure everything runs smoothly. Tired of being careful not to offend anyone while it seems nobody is particularly careful about offending her. She said something that stayed with me: I’ve given so much that I don’t have anything else to give. And then she asked me a very simple question: What do I do?

I understand her more than she probably realizes. There comes a point when you begin thinking, Fine. If nobody notices me while I’m here, maybe they’ll notice when I’m gone. But something bothers me about that response. There has to be a difference between stepping away because you need restoration and disappearing because you want people to finally realize what they had.

PROFESSOR:

There is. And that distinction may be the most important thing to recognize when the strong one gets tired.

There is nothing wrong with rest. There is nothing wrong with saying no. There is nothing wrong with recognizing that you have reached the limits of what you can presently give.

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I’m Not Apologizing Anymore

On By Stace.ihsIn Sojourner & ProfessorLeave a comment

I’m Not Apologizing Anymore

There is a difference between humbly carrying a calling and being ashamed of it. There is also a difference between acknowledging its cost and using that cost to make others feel sorry for us.

Sojourner:

We were watching Roberts Liardon teach about the high call of God when something he said reached into a place in me that needed healing.

He spoke about Paul’s words to Timothy:

“Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner.”
—2 Timothy 1:8

Paul had been called by Christ, but that calling had led him into circumstances that did not look particularly admirable to the natural eye. He was imprisoned. He wore chains. He was misunderstood, opposed, and rejected.

Yet Paul told Timothy, “Do not be ashamed of me.”

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Where is God’s Supernatual Power Today

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Where Is the Supernatural Power of God Today?

The Sojourner:

God is supernatural.

Jesus walked in the supernatural.

He healed the sick. He cast out demons. He knew things naturally He could not have known. He multiplied food, calmed storms, raised the dead, and demonstrated the Kingdom of God wherever He went.

Then I look at the Church today and find myself wondering:

Where is the power of God in a supernatural way now?

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When Faith Does Not Look Like Deliverance

On By Stace.ihsIn Sojourner & ProfessorLeave a comment

When Faith Does Not Look Like Deliverance

Two groups. The same chapter. The same God. The same commendation of faith. But very different outcomes.

Sojourner:

I was reading Hebrews 11 again, and something caught my attention.

“Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.”
— Hebrews 11:35

It says some of them did not accept deliverance.

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Contemplation of Life and Death

On By Stace.ihsIn Sojourner & Professor, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Sojourner says:

Contemplation of Life and Death

If I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and for just a moment imagine leaving this body and standing side by side with Jesus, something becomes startlingly clear.
I have no pain. No sadness. I feel light, loved, content—happier and more whole than I have ever felt in my life.

And then I realize there is no yoke upon my shoulders anymore. The one I had been sharing with Jesus is gone. Not because it was meaningless, but because I am no longer on planet Earth, where we bore the burdens of His people and labored together. That work belonged to another place and another time.
But now I stand here free.

And I wonder…

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Hear Jesus: “Let Me Teach You How To Understand Your Story”

On By Stace.ihsIn Mind Reset, Sojourner & ProfessorLeave a comment

The SoJourner:

There have been wonderful things in my life—far more than I sometimes allow myself to remember. I have snorkeled over the reefs of Puerto Rico and walked through the old forts of San Juan, touching walls that have stood watch over the Caribbean for centuries. I have bivouacked beneath the enormous skies of Alaska and trekked through the rugged Uncompahgre country of the Colorado mountains, surrounded by landscapes that make a person realize just how vast and magnificent God’s creation really is. From Puerto Rico to Alaska, from the mountains of Colorado to the lakes of Florida, I have lived some remarkable adventures. I water-skied across those Florida lakes back before we began joking that the alligators had taken possession of them, wandered through the historic thirteen colonies where so much of America’s story began. This and much more.

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