1 Peter 1:7

"That the trial of your faith, being more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it may be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and the glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."
-1 Peter 1:7

Everyone wants to know why they face trials. The answer is simple, to strengthen our faith so that we rely on God. The stronger our faith the more we will trust in God even in the small things. Although for some of us it seems that we always have trials. Is that because we don't trust God except during a hard time?

Now or Never

I used to think, I'll tithe when I'm older...I'll give money to those who need it when I can afford it...I'll get serious about following God when I am older and more mature. The question is, when are you older? when can you afford it? when are you more mature? You see if we don't start these habits now, then when we get 'older' we'll still use the same excuse because there is no black border that has these words on the other side Now you are older. It doesn't work that way, the longer we put it off the harder it is to put on.

Equality of Sin

All sin is equal in God's eyes, murder is equal to hate, lying to cursing, it is all sin. Sin is just a word for describing something anti-God. A lot of people may not see it that way but we need to. Sin is powerful, influential and unfortunately contageous. Imagine yourself in God's place. A friend continually offends you, and when you confront about it, they apologize sincerely. But next thing you know they do it again! That's how we are a lot of times with God, we are truly sorry, but then we fall back into sin! It doesn't matter much whether a friend bloodies your nose or kicks you in the shins, it still is hurtful to your relationship. The same with God, the more we offend our relationship with him, the worse off we are. Thankfully our God is a God of Grace and he will love and forgive us no matter what. But that still doesn't let us off the hook. A good friend forgives, but still has the wounds.

Our Bodies- The Lord's Temple

We all know the story of the Jews using the temple as a market place, and we all know how Jesus reacted. He became very angry and drove the evil out. Are we turning our temple into a market? In other words, are we letting everything come into our body, good or bad, and not caring? Our body is the Lord's Temple, we need to watch what we do with it.