Surrendering Fear. Exercising Faith. Living Free.

Shawn and I have been learning a lot about trusting the Lord in the little things lately. To you, the example I'm about to share might seem trivial, but to us it was monumental. Just like the saying "You can't run until you walk," my husband and I have been realizing that we won't be able to trust God with the big things if we don't learn to trust him with the little things. So, last week, our little thing was a patio table. For about two months now I have been searching for a patio set. High and low. The problem is, we didn't have the money in our monthly budget to buy a new one. We have been following Dave Ramsey's 7 baby steps from his Financial Peace University and we know that buying things used or for really cheap at the Goodwill is wise at this point in our lives. For me to stay home with Caleb, we've had to make a lot of sacrifices in terms of our "standard of living" and used things are pretty much all that fit in anymore, here...

After several months of being without a laptop or way to blog about the things Jesus, and my pastor, have been teaching me, I am so excited to share with you the one thing that was the most mind-blowing and eye-opening for me. It's from a recent Northpoint Church series called Brand New that our pastor shared last month. The reason behind the name "Brand New" is because Jesus came to Earth with a brand new covenant. Yet, so many of us are still trying to live under the old covenant, and the old rules. Andy talks about something called the Temple Model, and explains how our thoughts about God and Christianity have been influenced heavily by it. So, what is the temple model? Basically, it is a model of religion that most of today's churches are founded on, where sacred men, in sacred places, with sacred texts, do sacred things. And there are usually scared, or scarred, followers who don't know any better and are therefore very dependent on these sac...