God’s promises

The whole story

February 15, 2015 by fabsharford 2 Comments

Today’s sermon at my church struck a nerve. Following Jesus will cost you something. It is a Cross-bearing, death-to-self path toward joy. there is no way to get through the Christian life without pain and sacrifice.

And you and I have got to do a better job of talking about the hard parts; we have to tell more stories about self-death, because we are leading people astray with our version of Christianity where gaining Jesus threatens nothing else in your life.

I have someone who is precious to me beyond words. Even though we live thousands of miles apart we have spent hours these past months wrestling through our faith together.

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Filed Under: God's promises, Hard days

Two symptoms of not trusting God

February 2, 2015 by fabsharford 2 Comments

There are sweet and confusing promises in the Word of God. One such example is this:

“For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:7-11 ESV)

Can we pay too much attention to God’s Word

January 23, 2015 by fabsharford 2 Comments

I told you that I spent some time alone in Scotland recently. What I didn’t tell you was about the night I laid in bed in the middle of nowhere while 110-120 mph winds tore at the cabin so ferociously that I was prompted to lean over and grab my phone to ask google:”Do cabin roofs blow off in 120 mph winds”- which is when I learned that I had lost power and with it any connection I had to the outside world. No cell phone. No internet. No electricity. No water. Just Fabs and God and some sheep on a hill (if they survived the storm).

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Filed Under: Fighting apathy, God's promises, Hard days

The dangers of walking

January 17, 2015 by fabsharford 4 Comments

If you’ve ever trained for a marathon: sorry.

If you haven’t: don’t.

Actually ,you know what? The training for the marathon definetly wasn’t the worst part. I learned a lot about discipline and perseverance and such. I remember my first run over 15 miles. I learned a lesson that I promised myself I would never forget. I was SO done and close to the end of my run, so I thought: if I walk for just a minute, it will help me run faster and be done sooner. Big mistake. HUGE.

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Filed Under: Fighting apathy, God's promises

Answered prayers and tearful gratitude

December 19, 2014 by fabsharford Leave a Comment

This verse made me cry this morning:

All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O LORD, for they have heard the words of your mouth, (Psalm 138:4 ESV)

Psalm 138 is a psalm about thanking God with your whole heart. That feeling of heart-fullness that you experience when deep gratitude overwhelms you – that feeling is one of my favorite feelings in the world.

And this morning, I cried when I read verse 4 because it isn’t crazy to me. I totally get why kings would feel their hearts full to the brim with gratitude because of the gracious gift of God letting them hear the words of His mouth. And that is crazy.

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Filed Under: God's bigness, God's promises