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Taking a Break From Trusting God

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As many of you know, I am in the middle of a one year church planting residency program from which we will be planting a church.

In order to do this residency, my wife and I had to raise my full time support, which was intimidating.

To be honest my thought process went like this: We would have to really trust God for a few months while we raised support, then we could take a little “break” for a few months at the beginning of the residency, and then we would have to resume really trusting God as we prepared to plant a church.

Well, I was two-thirds right.

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How To Save Thousands of Dollars Each Year

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Seriously. That wasn’t just a catchy title to get you to click the link.

Research shows that about 32% of people are already doing it, but that seems a lot higher than what my experience has been. Which, if I’m just going to be honest, means there is a good chance you are not doing it.

Here is how I know. From time to time in conversations with people the topic of finances will come up. And whenever it is shared that my wife and I have a budget that we really stick too, I often hear some variation on why the person I am talking to doesn’t have a budget, which is usually followed by some justification about how they are still smart with their finances and that they don’t spend more than they should.

Which leads me to two observations I always have.

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Please Take My Reader Survey

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I would like to say a big thank you for everyone that takes to time to read what I write. My prayer is that it is helpful and encouraging in some way.

In an effort to focus my writing to better serve those reading, I created a survey so I can get a better sense of who my readers are.

The survey is only 10 questions long and the results are completely anonymous. I can’t tell who said what. Your input is important to me and will go a long way in determining the future of what I write.

CLICK HERE FOR THE SURVEY

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One of The Most Misunderstood Concepts in The Bible

unnamed“Everything happens for a reason.”

“You’ll be stronger because of this.”

“Imagine how much good will come from this.”

These are some popular phrases we use that cause me to cringe and shake my head. Often by well meaning people trying to comfort somebody in the midst of suffering.

In fact, many Christians say things like this. Using the following verse like Romans for why they think whatever bad may be happening, good will always outweigh it.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

-Romans 8:28

People assume especially if you love God, of course it’s better that you are going through what you are going through. In fact, you would have missed out if you hadn’t experienced this thing!

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

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I Would Be a Better Person if I Wasn’t Married

unnamedI’d be a better person if I was single.

Has anyone else ever thought that? Sometimes after I get in an argument with my wife or after I am in the wrong in something that happened between us, this thought crosses my mind.

I think that if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have said that or did this. So even if it is my fault its really her who made me do it.

Yeah right.

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5 Random Facts About Me

unnamed1. I really like cats

This isn’t a surprise to anyone who knows me, but I’m definitely a cat person. Probably because we had a really cool cat growing up, but I love cats. Now a lot of people like to argue that dogs are better and cats are awful. But last I checked, the internet was invented for cat videos, so clearly cats are better.

2. I love Jersey Mike’s

Here’s the thing, I’m one of those people who eats to live. My wife says I like to eat boring things. I honestly very rarely have cravings for any type of food. However, I’m a huge fan of Jersey Mike’s. I could eat their roast beef (#6!) everyday and probably never get tired of it.

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Does God Really Want Me To Do This: 3 Thoughts

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I pray for wisdom every day. Another thing I pray for, particularly when faced with making big decisions, is that God would speak through godly people in my life when I go to them with what is going on.

But what happens when you feel quite strongly God leading you in one direction, but others you trust are saying something different? How do you navigate and discern the difference between whether God is really pulling you towards something, or its nothing more than a voice in your head?

Now to be up front, I don’t know the perfect answer for that. If you figure it out, write a book about it and you could probably retire early. But here are some thoughts when you are faced with something like this:

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Shouldn’t You Know That by Now?

unnamedGrowing up in church I listened to people share their stories and talk about what God was teaching them. When I was younger I often used to think, “They’ve been Christians for a long time, how are they still learning some of these things?”

I had this false idea that once you had followed Jesus for long enough, you would learn all there is to know about God, how to be a Christian, what it means to follow him. I knew no one would ever be perfect, but I figured you could (or should) at least know about the Christian life.

Man was I wrong.

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My Weekend With Finley as Told by Twitter

This past weekend I Christina went out of town and left me with our baby. For fun, I documented the adventure with the hashtag #SurvivalOfTheFinley.

To all the moms out there, you guys rock. To the single moms, you guys are superheroes.

Enjoy!

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Want to Read the Bible but Don’t Know Where to Start?

Below is an excellent two minute video for those starting to read the Bible for the first time.

Wondering what to read or where to begin? This video is quite helpful. The Bible is a big book that can be confusing to navigate and understand.

Here is some easy to understand advice on where to get started.