Live courageously from your heart!
![#004: How to Live Courageously From The Heart [Podcast]](https://heartstonejourney.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/rescue.jpg)
I had the honor of being a guest on Purposeful Pathways Radio with Caroline Gavin; Christian business coach, speaker, author and radio host. Join our conversation as we walk through places in my book Heartstone: A Journey Out of the Midnight of My Soul and some things I learned from life’s struggles.
Join me as I share my journey in Jesus…and how to live courageously from the heart!
Was reading through one of my journals and wanted to share a snippet of that entry from September of 2005.
During my prayer time with the Lord this morning, He showed me an image of an open book with the pages slowly turning. I did not fully understand the depths of what He was trying to speak into my heart, but I did have a sense that part of this had to do with Him beginning to write new pages in my life. Later that day, God continued to pursue me with this in a message my dad gave me from his church called, “Life is a Storyline.” For me the paradox of this message was both simple and difficult.
It is so hard to keep going sometimes when life is so difficult, isn’t it? We know God has a purpose for us, but sometimes we just can’t see it yet.
The Weaving
My life is but a weaving
between my Lord and me,
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily.
Oftimes he weaveth sorrow,
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper
And I, the underside.
Not till the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
In the Weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern he has planned.
—Corrie ten Boom
Are you ready to start trusting Him with your life, even when it doesn’t make sense?
Have you ever paused and thought about the following story found in Matthew 17:24 -27?
After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”
“Yes, he does,” he replied.
When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”
“From others,” Peter answered.
“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”
Coins from the mouth of a fish? What?
Seems like a crazy story doesn’t it?
Recently watched the movie Gladiator, which is in my top five favorites along side Braveheart, Last of The Mohicans and Passion of the Christ.
For those who have not seen this epic movie, here is a brief walk through of the movie.
The movie is set in the second century A.D. and tells the epic story of a warrior from Spain called Maximus. He is a commanding general of the Roman armies and is adored by his men and by the aging emperor Marcus Aurelius. The plot thickens when the emperor’s son Commodus learns of his fathers plan to make Maximus keeper of Rome so that rule might pass from the Caesars back to the people and Senate.
Before Marcus can name his successor, Commodus devastated my the disapproval and love of his father strangles him and declares himself emperor. When Maximus doesn’t acknowledge Commodus as emporor, Commodus sentenced Maximus to death and his wife and son to crucifixion and burning.
