Remaining Steadfast in the Lord

by Ashley Smith
 
June 2015
 
I recently viewed a documentary of a Los Angeles woman, Debbie Peagler, who was incarcerated after the murder of her abusive boyfriend. The story was absolutely devastating, but as I watched I could not help but notice the faith in the Lord this woman possessed. At 15, her mother introduced her to a young man who eventually forced her into prostitution, beat her horrifically, molested her daughter and threatened her life. Read more…

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Satisfaction Guaranteed

Career. Finances. Education. Family. To pursue such things is not inherently wrong; however, oftentimes, toiling in the world is a false attempt to fill an internal void that can only be satisfied by pursuing God and His word. In order to find genuine satisfaction in God:

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Truth & Freedom

The popular saying “the truth hurts” implies that what is good (knowing truth) for us will cause us pain.  It’s no wonder why we have conditioned our minds to avoid and reject the truth at all cost, because none of us want to experience pain. However, the Bible teaches us the opposite is true; our belief in a lie is what truly hurts, and our acceptance of the truth is what sets us free (John 8:32).  Read more…


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The Restaurant Man

A week ago, I received an unexpected appointment request via Microsoft Outlook Calendar from my friend. The appointment subject line read “Belated Birthday Lunch (Your Choice)”, and it specified the date and time (noon) she wanted to meet, but left out the location because she was going to let me decide where we would go. Of course I was excited and quickly accepted her invitation, as I love to eat and chat. The morning of our lunch date, I was thinking about where I wanted to go, and it hit me, Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles. Around 11:15a or so, I told her where I wanted to go, and she too got excited as she hadn’t been to Roscoe’s in a while either. Once we settled on the restaurant, we both decided that we should leave earlier than originally planned because Roscoe’s gets really busy during lunch hour, and we were both pressed for time. We agreed to leave around 11:30am. I Googled the directions and was ready to go, but then I got caught up reading a “quick” email. She got caught up on a “quick” phone call or something, and by the time we both were ready 30-minutes had gone by. Due to our time constraint, we both decided Roscoe’s was a no go. So after bouncing off restaurant choices, we chose Applebee’s because it was close by. Read more…


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Self-Evaluation

Honesty seems like the best policy, except when evaluating self. For when it comes to self, something in us will not allow us to judge, critique ourselves fairly. We are tempted to grade ourselves on a curve. The balancing scale of judgment always weighs more heavily on the “good” side of us. Somehow we rationalize that our good works always outweigh the bad that we do.  Besides, in comparison to others who are murders, adulterers, thieves, our little sins aren’t even worthy of mentioning.  However, when we begin to compare ourselves to the perfection, holiness and goodness of God, we realize like the Prophet Isaiah and Apostle Paul, what wretched people we are.  It’s only when we make God the bull’s-eye, we can truly see how much we miss the mark. Read more…


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