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God is Not Disappointed In You (Revised)
This was the first post I ever wrote on this blog. Even though it was originally less than 300 words long and probably not my best work, it still gets traffic. People often search “is God disappointed in me” and find their way to my blog. Feeling like God is disappointed in us is very common! Today I am re-posting it with some revisions and new thoughts because I need to hear it again, and maybe you do too! Have you ever found yourself avoiding God because you could feel His disappointment? I do! Back in my cultic days, I used to feel like I needed to perform all the time…
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A Rant About Christianity (and Jesus)
I read a young man’s deconversion story today, and it broke me. Yup, you read that right, his deconversion, as in the story of how he decided that God wasn’t real and walked away from his beliefs. I’ve felt a lot of emotions since this morning…frustration, anger, sorrow. Do you want to know why he walked away and chose to stop believing? A lot of it came down to the fact that when his life fell apart, the Christians he knew had plenty of judgement and quick answers, but not a lot of love. And the people who took him in, and loved him, and cared for him, and accepted…
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Trust and Panic Attacks
I was an illogically worried child. If it was five minutes past 8pm, then I would keep myself awake being worried about not getting enough sleep. I could never sleep at other people’s houses, which then would make me worried about being exhausted the next day. I couldn’t have clocks that I could see in my bedroom because then I would worry if it got too late. I specifically remember lying in bed at night as a child, thinking about my three greatest fears: my house burning down, a tornado coming (unlikely since I lived in Michigan), and throwing up. This was a nightly occurrence for years. I had an…
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No Condemnation!
I remember the exact moment when I realized that Jesus not only loved me, but He also liked me unconditionally. Somehow in my mind I had confused the two. Love seemed like something He had to do because He was God, but I was pretty sure He only liked me when I was performing correctly. It makes sense, sort of… Parents and teachers like us better when we follow the rules, and we feel their dislike when we are making poor choices. It’s hard to imagine God being different. We put God in such a tiny box, a box made out of our own human reasoning and logic. Silly us!…
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What if We’ve Got it Wrong?
Christians are known for their amazing ability to tell people what “not to do”, and what “to do” in order to be a good Christian. I’m guilty of this myself. But what if we’ve got it wrong? What if it’s not about what we do or don’t do? What if Jesus saved us for a different purpose? What if He saved us because He wants us to know Him? Our sin, disobedience to God’s ways, is what separated us from God in the first place (Genesis 3). We hear this a lot and are familiar with the story of Adam and Eve. But get this, before Adam and Eve disobeyed…