Year in Review: August

Continuing with the Year in Review, here are the top posts from August 2010:

SUNDAY, AUGUST 1, 2010

"Love your neighbor as yourself." An Inconvenient Conviction

"Think about Jesus' statement: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt 10:31) It can only be meaningful if the love of ourselves is quite extensive. If we did not love ourselves, then the command would be to not love others, or love them only so much, only as much as we love ourselves..." (read more)

FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 2010

A Psalm to My God

"I feel so alone. Yet I am not alone. Lord, You turn loneliness into inspiration for action. I feel helpless, but I am not. I am more than helped—by my Father I am carried when I cannot stand and watched with joy when I can..." (read more)

SUNDAY, AUGUST 15, 2010

The Spirit Manifested: Belief and Discernment at Once

"...God’s Holy Spirit needs no embellishment. The Holy Spirit is God and God has never needed human embellishment, only obedience and confession of the Source. For those of us who have experienced such a raw, amazing touch of the supernatural, we can easily stray when we embellish His natural moving..." (read more)

SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 2010

The Best for the Journey

"Imagine you have a son who is 18 years old. You have plans to buy him a reliable car that is also extremely pleasing to him in every way—aesthetically, performance, interior, reliable, easy to maintain, fuel efficient. Now you’re on your way to go get the car..." (read more)

SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2010

Acknowledging the Inner Conflict – Time with God

"...There is an elementary concept in chemistry called “activation energy.” Simply put, it is the minimum energy input required to induce a given chemical reaction. It’s almost like an investment—you put money in a good investment, then you get even more back. Many chemical reactions take an initial “boost” of energy..." (read more)

Year in review: July

Top posts from July 2010:

(to see all posts, click here)

MONDAY, JULY 5, 2010

Cars, GPS, Our Lives, and God

Our lives and our bodies are like cars, and we are the drivers and God is the navigator. In operating the vehicle of our lives, we often fall to either side... (read more)

FRIDAY, JULY 16, 2010

We will be filled

...never seek to be half full of the Spirit, because then you'll be half full of the world--we don't stay empty, even partially...we will fill with something... (read more)

MONDAY, JULY 19, 2010

Get Out of the Crib

...Others of us never seem to leave our cribs, content with a diet of milk and to be sheltered from the difficulty of the world, but also impaired in the good that we might bring it via Jesus Christ... (read more)

SUNDAY, JULY 25, 2010

Playing to Win...or Not to Lose?

We know we are not to sin—it is succinctly the separation from God, apart from whom there is no life and is only death. We also know that we are to aspire to and desire righteousness. So is there a difference between not sinning and becoming righteous in God’s sight?... (read more)

Year in Review: June

Continuing with the "Year in Review" of 2010 posts, here are three of my favorites from last June:

SUNDAY, JUNE 6, 2010

A Great Struggle: Trial vs.

Complacency

...There are two sent

ences that jump more than any other to me. The first is “I am sorry for the Christian who has not something in his circumstances he wishes was not there.”... (read more)

SUNDAY, JUNE 13, 2010

Are You Comfortable with the Human Predicament?

...The above speaks to confidence or lack thereof in our own abilities and experiences. However, I would like to extend the idea of comfort to a much broader application: the problem with being human verses the holy perfection of God... (read more)

SUNDAY, JUNE 20, 2010

Silent Spirituality

...It happens most purely when no human knows of your impact, but God sees in secret. It happens when the slightest of circumstances gives glory to God in the eyes of an observer and you never know it until Heaven. And it even happens when you are unfortunately aware of your impact and are seen by others as spiritual... (read more)

Year in Review: April

Now that "As Iron Sharpens Iron" is over 1-year old, I thought it might be beneficial to highlight selected posts from the same month one year ago. I plan to do this on a monthly basis to bring to the forefront of this blog any inspirations that I feel are still relevant, though they were posted a year prior. I hope you enjoy the tour of the blog. From April 2010:

Relationship with God: Courtship

SUNDAY, APRIL 4, 2010

As part of the singles demographic, I often get asked about dating or finding that special someone, especially by those in the married demographic. For those of us still single and out of college, this is a frequently raised subject... (read more)

Should I?

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 2010

It occurred to me this evening that there may be a better approach to the question, “Should I _____?” The blank can be filled by just about anything and everything we make a decision on daily, from the salient to the mundane... (read more)

The Cure

SUNDAY, APRIL 11, 2010

I have not always had a relatable answer to those who might ask me why I witness. And that has led to timidity. But there is a good answer that I think most people will relate to, even those who are not yet saved... (read more)

Hope and Loss

MONDAY, APRIL 12, 2010

In this life, I feel at times like I have lost so much. So many dreams and ambitions, so many things that were once mine and are no longer mine. So many things that I might think of as my right as a human being... (read more)

Going too far?

TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2010

...I have always looked at that story as an inspiration and example of how to give up everything to God, and God’s blessing through it. I think that is good and true. But O.C. mentioned something that absolutely floored me:... (read more)

Year In Review: March

Now that "As Iron Sharpens Iron" is 1-year old, I thought it might be beneficial to highlight selected posts from the same month one year ago. I plan to do this on a monthly basis to bring to the forefront of this blog any inspirations that I feel are still relevant, though they were posted a year prior. I hope you enjoy the tour of the blog. From March 2010:

Thought for the day...

SUNDAY, MARCH 7, 2010

What if you lived as though you were the face of Christianity to those you encounter every day? As though they knew nothing of Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Would they be convicted to follow the god that they see you “following,” as shown by your behaviors?... (read more)

The Wealthy

SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 2010

...The gist of the message is this—if you’re reading this, you’re rich. Instead, to find any way that I am poor, I have to turn to my attitudes and weaknesses—if I am poor, it is spiritually. But even spiritually I have lived an advantaged life. Think about it... (read more)

Thoughts on Jesus' Physical Death

SUNDAY, MARCH 14, 2010

...We hear things like “living sacrifice” or “perfect sacrifice,” but do we really grasp their meaning? I still have much to discover, but tonight I feel a small step closer to appreciating the wonder of the crucifixion, its impact on us, and why it was needed in the way that it happened... (read more)

Our Assignments

MONDAY, MARCH 29, 2010

...Think about yourself—who are you? When I first answer this question, at some point I begin to focus on and list the things that I do well and the things I don’t. Who I am as the sum of my abilities and limitations. Then I realized how obviously different that could be, or could have been. Why should I be good at this, and you good at that? It could have just as easily been the other way... (read more)