As a community, we must seek to engage young people and believe that they are just as called as the rest of us. We must show them that God’s love and the hope that they have is no less valuable because they can’t buy beer yet. I am not saying that a teenager is an adult, but we must allow them an opportunity to sit at the table, both to learn and to contribute.

Young people matter more than we want to realize.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to be around some really awesome and inspiring people. Here’s the catch: they were all under the age of 18. I cannot accurately articulate the level of impact they’ve had on my life. Being in the midst of students as they worshipped was just…absolutely beautiful.

I will never forget the experience. I want more.

We can fight fear with faith, hate with humility, rejection with reason, and depression with decision.

Everything’s back up.

Now it makes sense that you can do all things through Christ which gives you strength. Walk in confidence that you know God and can love unconditionally.

Well dear comrade, the truth is that you’re not.

Unless you’re realistically enlisted in some form of militia in some well established country, you’re not a soldier. You aren’t a spiritual warrior, and you certainly aren’t a conqueror. Your pride…our pride has swelled our eyes shut to the reality that peaks through every now and then.

In theory, you’re saved. That would mean you’ve yielded whatever struggles you’ve dealt with and are fully trusting in God. However, like most theories, the above stated probably isn’t true*. I’m willing to bet that you, like me, have yet to yield one important struggle. It’s the struggle man has been dealing with since he first took it on. The struggle to trust.

That’s where the real fight is. We fight to hide behind the veil of happiness; fight to guard our viral pride; fight to push off any threat to hurt our fragile person. We’ve fought for generations and are becoming exceedingly efficient at it. We fight God. Being. We fight the only thing that keeps us alive.

The more you hide behind your fight, the more you’ll feel the need to fight. The more you feel the need to fight, the more you will and the more you’ll hide. Stop fighting. Throw away your weapons. Learn to love, and by loving you’ll be more than a conqueror. You’ll be a servant.

*Salvation is a process.

Everything we know is flawed, because our knowledge is based on our flawed perception. We can be sure of our feeling. Not emotion, but intuition…instinct. God has embedded man with the intution toward truth.

Relax. Let intuition…God’s spirit be your guide.

Satan spends his time convincing you of things that aren’t true. When you believe something that isn’t true, you don’t trust anything.

God wants you to do the opposite. He wants you to trust Him and believe nothing.

Belief depends on knowledge. Knowledge is gained purely by man’s own doing. Trust depends on relationship. Relationship is gained by love…God is love.

An update to this post:

John 10:10 may have come to mind when you read this. According to John, Jesus said, “A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of” (The Message).

This is absolutely true. However, Jesus wasn’t referencing Satan. He was referencing people outside the Kingdom. Pharisees. Sadducees. Your haters.