faith | Heartstone Journey

Why The Enemy Has Your Affirmation In The Crosshairs

There is an epic battle going on for the human heart because rescuing your heart is everything. God is pursuing your heart with an invitation of life — to become fully alive with a new name, a purpose and a mission.

This is the theme of Heartstone Journey, but it’s also the backdrop for our story too. The mistake many of us make is being blind to the battle over our lives. There is a God who is after our heart with the invitation of life; and there is an enemy who will stop at nothing to take you out! Until we come to terms with this, we will misinterpret most of what is happening around us — and to us.

Are you tracking with me?

Our enemy is cunning and is systematically hunting us down, carefully watching every move we make so he can take the shot. Once you come into clear focus he takes the shot delivering a paralyzing blow. The worst part…we don’t even know what just hit us.

Let’s start unpacking this tactic of the enemy as so many of us find ourselves centered in these crosshairs and are taken out with a single shot. The good news is that God gives us access to the battle plans and we can learn how stay out of the crosshairs and walk a victorious life.

Let’s step into the narrative of Jesus’s third test in the wilderness.

Continue Reading (on bradandres.com)

7 Things We Can Learn From Joseph When Our Life Sucks

Have you ever experienced a crisis in your life? Persecution? Being mistreated by someone? You got a raw deal? Stuck in the “life’s not fair” narrative? Life just keeps knocking you down? Or fill in the blank________!

I have walked through hardships and many tough circumstances. I completely understand that walking through any of these is not fun, but there is a nugget that most of us never pick up through these difficult times.

You will quickly discover how real your relationship with Jesus Christ is in the midst of these tough places.

Your response to any of the trials that life throws at you will reveal what’s really inside of you and it will reveal the depth of your relationship with Jesus! When we step into one of these narratives we have choices; we can trust our circumstance to the Lord or deal with them in our own strength and probably crash and burn.

We all have dreams but often the reality of our life doesn’t line up with the picture we’ve painted in our minds, right?

Do you ever have those moments where you ask God, “why me?” I know I do! I wrote an article sharing a glimpse of the trials of Corrie ten Boom and realized that a huge illusion we have about our life, is that somehow we are in complete control of it.

Let’s take a deeper dive by stepping into the story of Joseph, the Old Testament guy.

Merry Christmas 2014!

Can you imagine what it would have been like if Jesus had not come?

A number of years ago a remarkable Christmas card was published by the title, “If Christ Had Not Come.” It was based on these words, “If I had not come….” (John 15:22). The card pictured a minister falling asleep in his study on Christmas morning and then dreaming of a world into which Jesus had never come.

In his dream, he saw himself walking through his house, but as he looked, he saw no Christmas decorations, no Christmas tree, no wreaths, no lights, no crèche, no Christmas cards, and no Christ to comfort and gladden hearts or to save us. He then walked onto the street outside, but there was no church with its spire pointing toward heaven. And when he came back and sat down in his library, he realized that every book about our Savior had disappeared. There were no carols or Christian music on the radio and no choirs or Christmas concerts on television.

The minister dreamed that the doorbell rang and that a messenger asked him to visit a friend’s poor, dying mother. He reached her home, and as his friend sat and wept, he said, “I have something here that will comfort you.” He opened his Bible to look for a familiar promise, but it ended with Malachi. There was no Christmas story, no angelic chorus, no shepherds or Wise Men, no Sermon on the Mount, no parables, no miracles, no “Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” There was no gospel, no light of the world, no “God so loved the world”, no Lord’s Prayer, and no promise of hope and salvation, and all he could do was bow his head and weep with his friend and his mother in bitter despair.

Two days later he stood beside her coffin and conducted her funeral service, but there was no message of comfort, no words of a glorious resurrection, and no thought of a mansion awaiting her in heaven. There was only “dust to dust, and ashes to ashes,” and one long, eternal farewell. Finally he realized that Christ had not come, and burst into tears, weeping bitterly in his sorrowful dream. There would be no Easter, and no hope of the kingdom of heaven and an age to come.

What Fleas Can Teach Us About Gratitude And Control

Corrie ten Boom, a hero to a generation of people who grew up after World War II left a legacy of Godliness and wisdom. She and her sister Betsie were victims of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands and she survived to tell her story of faith and dependence on God during horrendous suffering.

Corrie Ten Boon, along with the rest of her family were victim of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during WWII. They were later interred in a Nazi concentration camp for hiding fugitives and others hunted by the Nazis. Corrie was the only one from her family that survived the horrific conditions of the concentration camp and had the courage to share her story in a book she wrote, The Hiding Place.

I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that, I still possess.

—Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie was well acquainted with loss. She lost her family, possessions, and years of her life for no other reason other than helping Jews. During the hardships of the concentration camp, she learned to focus on what could be gained spiritually and emotionally by putting everything in the hands of her heavenly Father.

Wow, what courage and perseverance this woman had!

Here is an excerpt from her book that captures this.

How Miserable Christians Can Get “Life” Back In Their Lives

Have you noticed people around you (or maybe its you) who call themselves Christians are some of the most miserable people on the planet? What happened?

It seems that our relationship with God fades over years because we simply misinterpret life, who we are and what our purpose is. Because things don’t go our way, because we don’t get what we want, our selfishness becomes a heavy cloak of contempt and the relationship dies a swift death. It’s like a married couple who once loved each other running for the escape hatch of divorce.

When we understand our calling, it is not only true, but beautiful—and it should be exciting. It is hard to understand how an orthodox, evangelical, Bible-believing Christian can fail to be excited. The answers in the realm of the intellect should make us overwhelmingly excited. But more than this, we are returned to a personal relationship with a God who is there. If we are unexcited Christians, we should go back and see what is wrong.

—Francis Schaeffer

How do we get past ourselves and posture our life in such a way that we can live life courageously from our hearts?

Why The Enemy Has Your Affirmation In The Crosshairs

7 Things We Can Learn From Joseph When Our Life Sucks

Merry Christmas 2014!

What Fleas Can Teach Us About Gratitude And Control

How Miserable Christians Can Get “Life” Back In Their Lives

Favorite Quotes

Cool Scripture

Never Out Of The Fight!

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