derrickhurst.org

living for eternity today

Tag: Jesus (Page 21 of 53)

The Best Defense Is Intentional Offense

September 8, 2021 / / 0 Comments

At the outset I’m going to admit that I will probably, inevitably offend or upset some of you. I’m sorry if you take offense by these thoughts but this is my belief based on my understanding of the Bible. But please understand that I am admitting there are two sides of this issue and I believe we cannot stop by merely addressing one side of it.

A recent ruling by the courts in Texas and then deemed Constitutional by the US Supreme Court put a block on the unnecessary killing of children still waiting to be born. This for some was a huge defeat but for others was a significant win. But if we stop here, I believe it’s actually a loss. It’s a loss because we’re making the whole scenario rest on the shoulders of the women. Only one woman has conceived a child by herself and she’s no longer walking this earth.

My personal perspective is that I operate from a pro-life point of view. That means that I value life from conception to the date God decides we leave this earth. This encompasses all life from womb to tomb and says that we are living beings in need of the utmost care and respect. I believe being pro-life means taking care of my neighbors and looking out for those in time of need. I believe it entails helping those who are down trodden and lifting up the fallen. It’s not just a matter of life and death but a matter of enhancing life as best we can.

The ruling to which I referred deals with one very small aspect of this matter. It drastically limits what someone can do to a viable life growing inside them. And I know this ruling puts a lot of pressure on women. I can respect the concern some women have over this which is why I’m going to let the ruling speak for itself and use the rest of my time here to address the men who led to this moment.

How dare we! Men we have neglected to be the life protecting people we are called to be. To be very blunt and direct, if you’re not going to take care of the woman and the child you better darn well keep that thing zipped up. I’m tired of hearing about women being the object of some self proclaimed man’s episode of fornication. I’m sickened by the men who think they can do what they want to a woman and then leave her when things get rough.

If we’re really going to address this matter of being a life cherishing society, we’ll teach these oversized boys in our culture to be men. We’ll teach them how to get up in the morning and hit the gym. We’ll teach them how to dress up and get a job. We’ll teach them to take up a trade and work for a living. We’ll teach them to provide for the woman before they knock her up. We’ll teach them to lift up not push down on those around them.

There are far too many boys dressed up like men playing a game of pretend. Get a job with your broke rear end son! Take some responsibility for crying out loud. If you’re mad, take it out on a punching bag not a woman.

When you realize the gift God gave you in the women around you, you’ll stop thinking you can just use them as a toy for your pleasure. This isn’t a game. It never has been. A woman or a child should not have to pay the price for your weakness.

There you have it. I’m pro-life. I for the life of the unborn child just as much as I am for the life of the woman who is carrying her. I’m for the man who needs to step up and be held accountable for his actions. You can’t put all of this on one person. We don’t have to agree on all the specifics but I sure hope we can agree that we all can do a better job of looking out for and loving those around us. We all can do a better job of holding one another accountable to a more intentional way of living. We all can do a better job of being the people with our actions that we claim to be with our words.

The best way to protect life is to teach the absolute value of it – all of it.

No Cost Christianity?

September 2, 2021 / / 0 Comments
There's no such thing as no cost discipleship.

Is there such a thing as no cost Christianity? I’m starting to think that much of what we call Christianity in our culture today is something significantly less than Christianity. As I sit to write this post, I’m in a coffee shop in central Ohio. I’m listening to music through the shop’s sound system but that’s just for ambiance. The real thing is the conversations around me. I’m curious, intrigued, and slightly appalled at the same time.

The guys sitting beside me are talking openly about Jesus which is pretty cool stuff, but there is some complaining going on. They’re talking about their church and the uncomfortable nature of how the pandemic was handled. Now I’m not getting into details here but I want us to think for a minute about the things that cause us to complain.

We complain about the temperature in the building or the volume of the music. We draw lines in the sand over preaching style and what people wear to worship services. We’ve become massively divided around issues of capacity, distancing and mask usage. And I fear this is only going to get worse. And while I have an opinion about all of these matters, none of it really matters. These are not “cost of Christianity” kind of issues.

The bible says that we’re supposed to take up our cross and follow Jesus. That doesn’t suffer some slight inconvenience on a Sunday to be in worship for an hour. It’s not putting up with a subpar praise team or out of tune choir. Taking up our cross is more. Much more.

Another conversation I’m listening to at the moment is about the situation in Afghanistan. There are American helicopters lifting Christians above Kabul with a noose around their necks and hanging them just for being Christians. The forces that have overtaken the city are going door to door confiscating phones and if you’re caught with a Bible app or even pages of a Bible in your home, you’re shot on sight.

There is an underground church in these parts of the world that are being told to deny Jesus and turn from their faith or die. They’re told that they are next to be tortured to death. In our American context, these ideas are foreign, but this is a real cost.

When we talk abut the cost of following Jesus, I think we’ve grown so comfortable with our views that when we hear something we don’t like or see someone we don’t care for or aren’t being given what we want or are asked to do something we no longer want to do – we just move to get a change of scenery or throw up our hands and say there’s nothing we can do or blame someone else.

Where’s the cost of discipleship? Where’s the not my will be yours be done? Where’s the focus on what really matters and the willingness to be uncomfortable for the sake of being right where Jesus wants us to be?

I do not wish what’s happening in Afghanistan on anyone…ever! But we need to stop thinking that getting up on Sunday to go to worship is a sacrifice. Comfortable Christians in 2021 in America need a wake up call that our brothers and sisters around the world are being tortured just for believing. They’re literally dying to go to church while we’re making excuses for why we just don’t have time to go. They’re cherishing their bibles even though it will cost them their lives, while we let ours gather dust on the end table in our living room.

Friends we need to get real for a minute. We need to realize that we have it easy. Maybe today we will step out just a little and take a small risk for the kingdom. What would happen if we loved Jesus the way we claim to love him? How would our lives be different if we actually loved our neighbors as ourselves? We just might stand out in a crowd. We just might know a little more what a cost of following Jesus really is.

What Is Discipleship?

August 26, 2021 / / 0 Comments

There’s a buzz word in some churches these days, but what is it and why is it important? The word is disciple or discipleship. This is something Jesus talks about a lot! And the bible is filled with pictures of what healthy disciples are and why we do this disciple thing. I’m a firm believer that if Jesus commands it, we should be about it. And I believe it’s pretty clear that Jesus commands those who follow him to be about this business of making disciples. See for yourself.

Going therefore, make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And behold, I will be with you until the end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20

So if Jesus commands it and we agree that what Jesus commands, we should be actually doing, do we have any idea what target we’re shooting at? We’re supposed to be making disciples but what even is a disciple?

The technical yet simple definition is a learner or follower of someone. The idea behind Biblical discipleship was that you would do everything your teacher (Rabbi) did. There was even and old saying that went something like may you be covered in the dust of your rabbi. That means that you are doing everything in such lock-step with your teacher that even their dust kicks up on you because you’re so closely linked to them.

The definition of discipleship that I’ve used for years now is the process of being transformed into the image of Christ for the sake of others. There’s nothing perfect about that definition so take it or leave it. But for me here’s how it breaks down:

Discipleship is a process. That means you won’t do discipleship in a book or a study or a class. It happens in the context of relationships over time. But the fact that it’s a process means that it’s also replicable and comes in cycles. The idea of a process also indicates that you’re not done, not now, not tomorrow not ever on this side of eternity. There’s always more distance to go in this journey toward being transformed into the image of Christ.

Transformed. I’m reminded of the Transformer movies when I think of this word. The yellow Camaro drives down the road then all of a sudden springs off the pavement and becomes a robot. I love the cinematography in those movies but what’s really cool is that even when the Transformers are in car form the robot is still there. I mean it doesn’t materialize into a robot from something else. It’s a robot turning into a car. I think a similar thing happens with us in the discipleship process. We were created in the image of God. That means inside us, albeit broken by sin, we are created in the image of God. Discipleship is the process of seeing the perfected image of God in Jesus and letting the Spirit work in and through us.

Into the image of Christ. We’re not going to become cars or robots or something silly like that. But we will become what we spend our time dwelling on. If we surround ourselves with brokenness, pain, anxiety, worry, fear and the like, then we’ll be filled with these very things. But disciples don’t surround themselves with these things. We will face them, but because of the image of Christ being revealed in us by the Holy Spirit they won’t define us. As we’re being transformed, parts of us are removed and the stuff of Jesus comes to the front. Over and over this process is enacted.

For the sake of others. Discipleship never has the self as its ultimate end. The goal of discipleship is that the world might know Jesus as Savior. As we are transformed into the image of Christ we take upon ourselves the mission of Christ. If our discipleship is focused on getting people to look like us, we’re doing it wrong. We are not the master in this thing. We are disciples leading others to Jesus. If we’re leading people to anyone other than Jesus, we’re doing it wrong and for the wrong reason. Salvation for those created in the image of God (all mankind) should be our focus.

Jesus said he came to seek and to save the lost. That means those who don’t yet know him as Savior are people he sought while here. These should be the very people we seek to love on in the name of Jesus.

Discipleship is massively important but understanding what it’s all about will keep us pointed in the right direction.

More Than Just The Bible

August 13, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I always thought knowing your bible was enough. I thought if we had bible verses up our sleeve for a variety of matters we’d be good to go. You know a bible verse to remind us that Jesus loves us. One that he’s always with us. One that he knows our needs and provides. One about repentance and forgiveness. One about living rightly. All the issues we face, I thought we needed a bible verse to address those and whammo we’d be perfectly fine.

But the more I think about it and the more I read the Bible, the more I think I very well might be wrong. I’m starting to think that reading our bible and memorizing verses is good and all but that’s not what we’re told to do or how we’re told to live life. I’m reminded of the Bible verse from James 2:19 that says even the demons believe God and they are afraid. I really think that many people who call themselves Christians have a good working understanding of the Bible and what it says, but they have zero clue what it means for their day to day life.

The bible is far more than a series of one liners to shoot at people, and ourselves, in good and bad times in life. It’s more than a wishing well or a fortune cookie. It’s not enough to just be biblically literate. We must approach life with the ability to correctly apply the gospel message to our day to day lives. I call this being fluent in the gospel.

Now the gospel, for those of you who aren’t aware, simply means the good news. Many of us know the good news, but we’re not all that fluent in its application. Think of it like learning a new language. We can learn the alphabet and even some key words and how sentences are structured but none of those things make us fluent. We become fluent when we are immersed in the language and the culture it represents. As a matter of fact the longer you are immersed into a given culture, the more likely you are to begin picking up the dialect of a given language. It’s like staying down south long enough and you’ll pick up a little southern twang.

The longer we’re immersed in the language and culture of the gospel, the more fluent we become in it. But how do we become fluent in the gospel? How do we immerse ourselves in the language and culture of the good news of Jesus? This will be the focus of our message on Sunday at Living Word Galena and the topic of a couple of posts next week. But for now look at John 3:16 and the surrounding bible verses and Ephesians 2. These are good primers for having a base line understanding of the gospel message. Don’t assume you know the message. Read it again. Slowly. Word by word. Consider what this means for you tomorrow when you’re enjoying the nice weather or Monday when you’re having a bad day at work. Just soak up the gospel like you do the sun when you’re lounging at the beach.

Are You A Good Friend?

August 6, 2021 / / 0 Comments

So I’ve been doing a little thinking lately (can you smell brain cells burning?). I’ve been thinking about friendships and what it takes to be a good friend. I really didn’t think about writing anything about this because, well to be honest, I don’t consider myself a super friendly person. It’s not that friendship isn’t important to me but it seems in life friendships come and go based on preference and time. But perhaps it’s because we don’t really understand how friendship works at its core.

I believe that many friendships are internally focused. We kind of ask the whole what’s in it for me kind of question when it comes to friendships. But that’s really not what friendships are about. Friendships are not about me but about the other person. If we’re asking the me questions then we have the wrong focus. And I fear that we have an improper focus in a lot of areas.

So if friendships aren’t about me then what are they about? The other person!

We enter friendships with questions like why don’t they do things how I want? or I don’t like it when they tell me that truth, even though it’s truth, because it hurts my feelings.

I recently ran across an article titled 7 Tips for Being a Good Friend. It had some pretty golden points in it. I’ve linked the article here, but below are the 30,000 foot view of those points. By all means follow the link to check out the full article.

  • Face to Face is Best – we live in a tech savvy world and often prefer text and social media to actual contact but when it comes to friendships in person is always the best option.
  • Establish Rhythms – when our friendships are not intentional they’ll easily dissolve into something unhealthy and eventually just fade away.
  • Ask Deeper Questions – friendships sometimes deal in some pretty surface level stuff, but a lasting friendship will go deeper to what’s behind the obvious.
  • Be Affirming – there’s nothing better than to have someone who’s opinion you value give you some affirming feedback. Give and receive this affirmation well.
  • Get Away Together – so this might be a little more challenging in some circles but taking a friend-cation might be a fun thing to do to deepen and grow your existing friendships.
  • Be Early Stay Late – one challenge the last 18 months has brought us is a lack of connection at church. So when it comes to worship, show up 15 minutes early and don’t bolt when it’s over. Instead stick around and strike up conversations with people you care about.
  • Dig Deeper with Discipleship – So for those of us who are Jesus followers taking a friendship to the next level will happen only when we bring Jesus into the middle of that friendship.

While this list is likely not exhaustive, nor will it fit all friendship circles, there is certainly some friendship gold in here for all of us. I have some friendships that don’t do all of these things, but the biggest part of friendship is being present in the moment.

Finally, if you and your friend don’t see eye to eye on something, it doesn’t mean you have to disown them. You can be friends with people with whom you don’t agree. Have some robust conversations. Engage in dialogue. Listen well. Be there for them. Most of all be kind it goes a long way in a world that’s void of kindness.

Time to Take a Risk

July 23, 2021 / / 0 Comments

If you knew me growing up, you would have probably pegged me as a cautious, backward, quiet person who was anything but a risk taker. And to be honest, you’d be completely correct. And to a large part I feel that I am still some of these things.

While I’m not quiet anymore by any stretch of the imagination and pretty much the obvious of backward, I’ve been wrestling with the idea of risk. Do I take enough risks in my life? Am I really doing anything that would be measured as stepping out in faith and doing something that in any way could come back and bite me in the backside? Am I risking losing something to gain something far greater?

I’m reminded of a story in the Bible about a man who left sums of money to three of his workers. Each of them were given different amounts and each of them reacted differently to the money they were given. They knew their boss was a harsh man and that he was shrewd in his business dealings and this informed how they were going to react.

One man took some big risks and ended up doubling his money. It doesn’t say exactly what he did but he didn’t just throw it in the bank. And the second guy who started with about half what the first guy did had the same result. These two men understood the character of their boss and took some significant risks. They could have lost it all and that might not have had the same ending!

The third guy however had the smallest amount to start with and ended up just hiding the money and simple returning it when the boss returned. No less than he was given and no more either. He didn’t take a risk at all. He just buried it. The boss was livid because he saw that as a total waste of time and effort. The man could have at a minimum put the money in the bank and drawn some form of interest!

I think about my life and I wonder if I’ve really done anything that was risky? I don’t really know if I can answer that but I have an uneasy feeling lately that says more needs to be done. I just keep having this overwhelming feeling that God’s given me some form of a gift and that while I’m faithfully using it. I’m not sure I’m doing anything more than playing it safe and investing it. There’s nothing wrong with the work being done or the results of the work being done, but the times in which we’re living mean just enough isn’t really enough anymore. More has to be done. A greater risk has to be taken to live out the calling God has placed on my life. It’s time to stop burying the gifts I’ve been given. It’s time to stop merely investing them. It’s time to risk it all.

I don’t know what that looks like in your context by any means. Shoot I don’t really even know what that looks like in my own context! I just know that the time is now for me as a follower of Jesus and a pastor to do more. It’s time for the church to do more. It’s time to stop burying the talent, or even just investing it. It’s time to take some calculated risks for the sake of the Kingdom.

What’s your first move?

No Greater Love

July 16, 2021 / / 0 Comments
No Greater Love - Bethel Baptist Church

There’s a Bible verse that talks about the greatest love being one that’s willing to self-sacrifice for the sake of others. This verse obviously talks about Jesus and his sacrificial love for us. But I really think that we can sometimes see a closely linked version of this love in our worldly relationships as well.

What does it mean to lay down one’s life for his friends?

The bible verse states that greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. This is found in John 15:13 for those of you who’d like to look at the context. In its context and admittedly the intended meaning this passage is stating that Jesus is the perfect example of God’s love for humanity. He would literally lay down his life, give it up, trade it so that we would experience a secure future. That’s love.

But could there be something more to it? Can you demonstrate this same kind of lay down your life kind of love without dying? I believe it is possible and providing this love hurts just as bad.

Take for instance there’s something you want to do, probably more than anything. You’ve dreamed of this since you were a child. The time never seems right so you keep pushing it back but never stop thinking about it. Then one day the cards line up so that you can move toward that dream. One step after another it seems like this might be your chance. Your life’s dream is less fuzzy than ever. You can almost touch it, it’s so close to becoming reality.

But one day you receive news that causes you to pause. You could move forward with your dream and potentially cause confusion and turmoil in relationships around you. Or you could give up your dream to better serve your friends.

Great love doesn’t just mean dying physically, but sometimes it entails dying to yourself and your passions. It means sacrificing your wants and dreams and even your happiness so that someone else’s life isn’t impacted.

The greatest love was demonstrated when Jesus gave up his whole life for us. When we give up a piece of ourselves for someone else, we demonstrate that same kind of love to the world around us. Be the love you wish someone showed to you. And if someone loves you like this, recognize it for what it is.

Losing Ground

July 14, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Hold the line! I can hear this echoed in movie after movie. Whether Braveheart or one of the Marvel movies, hold the line is a reference to battle where everyone stays put and does not let anything through. Hold the line can by and large be seen as a defensive methodology. But simply holding the line is never the end goal. At jsut the right time, advancement is key. No military worth its weight will simply hold the line. They’ll advance. They’ll overtake. They’ll move forward and slowly, methodically, effectively overtake the enemy’s advancements.

Unfortunately it seems the church has for many years now taken a hold the line approach to ministry. We’ve grown largely comfortable simply holding the line. We’ve circled our wagons to protect the weaker ones in our gathering. We’ve protected our buildings and our programs, our staff and our families. But is that really the right way? Is that even biblical?

If we’re at all honest with ourselves, it will be very clear that Jesus never said Hold the line. He never said protect your buildings and programs. He never said cower in fear because you might lose your job or hurt someone’s feelings by telling them what you believe. Holding the line should not be our plan. It wasn’t Jesus’ plan and it certainly should not be ours either.

By simply holding the line we’ve given up a significant part of our identity as church. There are some in church-topia who are called evangelical. An evangelical church is one that identifies with the commission of Jesus to share the gospel. It’s kind of where we get our idea of evangelism. You can see how the two words are very similar. But when we circle our wagons and hold these biblical truths to ourselves, we lose this evangelical portion of our identity.

Jesus wasn’t joking when he said that he came to seek and to save the lost. This wasn’t a derogatory claim about people who saw life differently. It was an honest assessment that without Christ who is the way you are left without a way, therefore you are lost when it comes to eternal salvation. I don’t want to get all end of the world, book of revelation on you here but we’re living in a time that is unlike anything we’ve experienced before. Sure there are similarities to previous generations but due to population density and technology advancements, we’re moving faster than ever. And that movement is largely away from the way.

So the longer we try to hold the line the more ground we’re going to lose. The evangelical church across the country and likely around the world, is losing credibility. We’re losing ground because we stopped doing what was inherent to our DNA. An evangelical church is to be about the gospel, but the church today is more concerned with tradition, politics, social justice matters, buildings, programs, styles of music and dress code than the gospel. None of these things are wrong and the church definitely needs to take a stand in some of these arenas, but we must never step off of our primary identity as proclaimers of the gospel.

The gospel, for those of you that don’t know, is the truth that there is no other way to salvation than through Jesus Christ. It’s the harsh, for some, reality that Jesus lived, died and rose and went through what we deserved. The gospel is that on our own we can do good things like help our neighbor with their lawn but we’ll never do anything of lasting value in someone’s life. The gospel is that Jesus did for you what you could never do for yourself and that apart from him we all are lost.

If the church today wants to be relevant in society. If we want to have credibility in our communities, then we need to get back to who we are at our core. We must step back onto the Bible as our sole source and norm for all that we teach and confess. We must stop circling our wagons. The time to stop holding the line is now. We must advance into this world with the power of the gospel, the life-changing, sinner freeing, eternity unlocking gospel.

If you don’t know this gospel message, then by all means reach out. I’d love to share it with you! If you do know this gospel message, then who are you going to share it with today (not tomorrow but today)! The world is in desperate need of what you have to offer. It’s time to release the line. The time is now!

Measuring Time Differently

July 13, 2021 / / 0 Comments

If you’re a linear thinker then you like the idea of time being a very neat and tidy concept. We have seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years…you get the point. Linear thinking is how we live most of our lives going from task to meeting to appointment. But there are moments in our lives when something interrupts the flow of time. These can be frightening and yet exhilarating moments! It just depends how we respond to them.

One can see a timeline and consider it to be chronological in nature, going from set point to set point through a series of life circumstances. But the interruption in time doesn’t work this same way. There’s another word for this and it comes from the Greek word Kairos. It’s basically a cycle in time that will send our lives out on a potentially new trajectory.

Think of one of these Kairos moments as a loop in the middle of the timeline.

Interpreting Kairos

The drawing above is simple but it gets the point across. We go through life nearly on autopilot. Then a moment in our life takes us by surprise. Maybe it’s a death of a love one, new job, catastrophe, birth of a child, illness, win the lottery – who knows but it can be a good surprise or a bad surprise. The idea is that it takes your breath away and has the potential to alter your way of thinking.

When one of these moments happens we can basically have two responses. The first is to ignore it as if nothing happened at all. The second is to go through an evaluation process to learn what you can while the event is still fresh.

If you notice on the right side of the circle, you’ll see the word reflect. This is when we ask some questions. What happened? What emotions am I wrestling with? Who around me can I talk to about this?

This side of the circle is powerful and essential. This helps us process what’s going on. It’s about chance to admit that we could and probably should come out of this thing differently. The only problem is this is where most of us stop in the cycle. But there’s a whole other side that can really make this worthwhile.

The left half of the circle is about response. This is when we actually do something with what we learned through our evaluation and processing. If we just process and never act, we’ll get nowhere. In this side of the circle, as we make our way back to the timeline, we make a plan for how to implement change. We find the people in our lives who can come alongside us and hold us accountable to actually do what we commit to doing. And finally we determine check in moments to assure that we’re following through.

Now the really cool part of this circle is what happens when we reemerge back into our normal routine. Often the learning of the circle, from the pausing to the planning and implementing, will move us in a slightly new direction. It’s like riding a bike. When we learned to ride bikes as kids, we were able to go places faster than we could without a bike. In this case, when we learn the value of these interruptions in time, we’ll be able to get places we couldn’t have gone living in the monotony of a chronological existence.

So the long and short is be on the look out for interruptions to your day. Not all of these interruptions are bad. As a matter of fact, one of them might send you on a new path to a God ordained destination. Happy time hunting!

Scars in Heaven

July 12, 2021 / / 0 Comments
Scars in Heaven by Casting Crowns on Amazon Music - Amazon.com

This past weekend I had the opportunity to be with my family as we paid our final respects to my grandparents. The morning was filled with emotion from so many. There were tears shed, memories exchanged and reunions made. I was asked to provide the message, not eulogy or time of memory but the actual funeral message for my grandparents. It was my honor to be able to do this. However, my words likely weren’t what many expected and that’s honestly ok.

You see in my mind, my role as a pastor at a time of a funeral or Christian burial is to remind those gathered (and in this case remind myself) that our final focus in this service needs to be Jesus. Memories of our loved ones will only take us so far. We’ll be torn with happiness and sadness. We’ll remember the fun times but also wallow in the sorrows of the pains they suffered in their final days or the tragedy of losing them. But when our focus is on the one who beat the day, who changed the outcome of that moment before we even arrived there, our whole focus shifts to something transcendent and beyond ourselves.

A song that I’ve listened to recently is by a group that has always been one of my favorites. The group Casting Crowns, for me at least, has been a powerful truth talking group that often gives us a message that might be hard to hear but is very much needed in the moment. And this song is no different.

As we focus on our loved ones at their funeral services, this song reminds us that we have grown vastly shortsighted. If we focus on the accident, the cancer, the pain, the alzheimer’s, the crippling effects of any illness that claimed our loved ones’ lives, then we are left holding onto scars that don’t really matter anymore. Today we listen to a song Scars in Heaven.

The only scars that we’ll find in heaven. They’re not the ones found on you or me. These scars are from the one that died on that forbidden tree. I pray these words give you comfort and hope in whatever you’re facing today.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 derrickhurst.org

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑