Article archive :: Jesus Rant

Graceful Rewrite part 5

09/02/2016 10:14

Your story has been rewritten. All those mistakes you made--all those things other people (and you yourself) hold against--no longer matter. Because of grace. Because God has chosen to forget about them. HE is not holding ANYTHING against you. He sees you as perfect. "Thou art all fair, my love;...

Graceful Rewrite part 4

09/01/2016 09:17

Grace has rewritten your story. And the only way what's come before matters at all is when we learn from it. It can't hold us back. It can't negatively affect us. Because if God forgot it... it's forgotten. Now people WILL probably try to use your past against you. But we have a saying in my...

Graceful Rewrite part 3

08/31/2016 10:55

The thing about a rewrite is that, while it may draw from the original... once it's "fixed," the messed up version doesn't exist anymore. Let me say it like this, sometimes you have to do something wrong before you can do it right. And while I guess you could call that making a mistake... I call it...

Graceful Rewrite part 2

08/30/2016 11:45

Grace can rewrite your story. It's kind of what we mean when we say God can turn your mess into a message. And I believe there is something very powerful about ministering out of your weakness. Out of your loss, and your hurt, and your pain. I think sometimes in order to reach people where THEY'RE...

Graceful Rewrite part 1

08/29/2016 11:04

As I writer I can tell you... editing is my least favorite part of the process. I'd rather write new things than rewrite old things. But, then again, when I look back at some of the first drafts I've written... they're pretty bad. Lots of mistakes. Lots of changes needed to be made. But that's just...

Past Tense part 5

08/28/2016 13:23

The past can make you tense... but only if you let it. Yesterday I said, "Get over it." And that's where my focus is for today. See, we throw the term "overcomer" around quite a bit in the church world. But I really think we use it incorrectly. We tell people they need to be an overcomer. They need...

Past Tense part 4

08/27/2016 19:27

The past is history. The future is a mystery. All we really have is right now. And that's why it's called the present; it's a gift. So instead of robbing ourselves of the gift we've been given--by letting the past hold us back OR by worrying about the future--what we ought to do is enjoy what we've...

Past Tense part 3

08/26/2016 13:45

There's a quote from a movie that goes like this, "The problem isn't the problem. Your attitude about the problem is the problem." And in many ways it's the same with your past. Your past isn't the problem. Your attitude about your past is the problem. Because so often we let our past define us. We...

Past Tense part 2

08/25/2016 12:02

The thing about the past is... you can't do anything about it. It is what it is. You can't change it. You can't fix it. You can't make it better. But, on the other hand, you can't make it any worse either. I'll say it again: It is what it is. It happened. And since you can't do anything about it,...

Past Tense part 1

08/24/2016 12:31

I want to pick up on an idea I kind of touched on in an early Rant. The idea that your experiences CAN define you, but don't HAVE to. Which is why I picked "Past Tense" for the title of this series. If you let it, the past can make you really tense. It can make you miserable. It can keep you...

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