I will share about Christian books I have read or listened to.
I will be sharing about my life before and after Christ. I will include stories about my pet and other pets I have encountered.
Where Doubt Meets Belief
In Mark 9, we read the story of a father who loved his son. He loved his son so much that, when his son was possessed by a spirit, the father brought him to Jesus, believing that Jesus could heal him and drive out the spirit. ”If you can do anything,” the boy’s father said, “take pity on us and help him.”
The boy’s father believed Jesus could drive out this spirit. But he didn't know it for sure. He brought him to Jesus, but he still doubted—after all, no one else had been able to heal his son.
Have you ever felt torn between that same belief and doubt? The boy’s father shares a struggle many of us have—the struggle to hold onto faith during life's trials.
Yet Jesus doesn’t shame this father. Instead, He responds in faith: "'If you can'? Everything is possible for one who believes."
Jesus invites this father to a decisive choice. To trust either in Jesus' authority, or to doubt.
In this story, Jesus did drive out the spirit through prayer, while his disciples could not (Mark 9:26-28). However, we must also realize that Jesus’ response does not promise us that faith guarantees our every desire will be realized. Faith isn't a license for wish fulfillment. Instead, it challenges us to recognize God’s supreme power and ability to fulfill His will, His way (Mark 1:40–42). True faith always comes under the authority of God’s sovereignty.
Faith, in its truest form, trusts that God’s purposes are greater than our understanding.
His Pain, Our Gain
Isaiah 53 is a stunning chapter in the Bible—in what is now commonly referred to as the “Old Testament.”
Approximately 700 years before Jesus walked the earth, Isaiah prophesied about a suffering servant who would also, somehow and in some way, be exalted. A coming Savior, a future Redeemer, the long-awaited Messiah—whose death would ultimately bring life.
A portion of Isaiah 53 says this:
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:5 NIV
So, who was this man who would be pierced, crushed, and wounded because of someone else’s sins? Whose undeserved punishment would be the catalyst for healing? Whose life would be given as an offering—so that others might live?
Jesus Christ not only fits the description of the suffering servant who paid the ultimate price to buy His people back, redeem them, and set them free—He ...
“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge...
