God’s Love Can Be Tough Love Too

God's love, tough love, love, God, correcting

“God is love” is a phrase we often hear in our churches, from our pastors or our Christian family members or friends. It’s true; God is love, but what does that truly mean? We often think that God’s love is always kind, always accepting, always soft. Like no matter what we do (as believers) God will always forgive everything we do. Yet, when we look in the Bible, is that truly the case? God’s love can also be seen as tough love in many cases.

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You Are Forgiven (*Terms and Conditions Apply)

forgiven, jesus's blood, forgiveness, sin, God

We’re always told to forgive people when they’ve wronged us. And ultimately, we should forgive them. But is there a limit for forgiveness? What if, after being forgiven, someone commits that same wrong again?

Think about ex-convicts out on parole. They’ve been released from prison on the trust of the state authorities that they won’t commit any more crimes. What good is that freedom for ex-cons if they break the law again and end back up in prison? They’re given freedom (“forgiven”) with a condition. That condition is to live a new life apart from crime. 

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Are You Living Up to God’s Standards?

God's standards, God, relationship, faith, knowledge

If we think about relationships, do you think it’s possible to have a successful relationship without having any standards? Maybe in a romantic relationship, you want to be with someone who lives a certain lifestyle that matches yours. Maybe in a friendship, you make an effort to keep friends who are positive and encouraging instead of gossipy or cynical.

Even if we don’t want to admit it, we all have standards and expectations for our relationships. And we should. Having standards is a way of ensuring you can trust the other person while also protecting your own heart. But let’s also think about when you have clear or set standards in a relationship, but the other party constantly breaks or ignores them. How would you react? Even when you sincerely love a person, you set standards that you hold them to and usually they do the same for us. For any of us who say we’re in a relationship with God, should we expect God to be any different?

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Does Questioning My Faith Make Me A Bad Christian?

I’m a millennial. Now, don’t leave just yet. I know millennials don’t always have the best reputation, but just hear me out. Or maybe you’re even a millennial yourself – welcome, you’ve come to the right place.  Millennials can be known as those who are always creating change. We’re also opinionated, we dig deep, seek truth, seek justice, and my personal favorite, we ask questions

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5 God-Centered Ways to Grow Spiritually in 2021

I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting to use the new year as a chance to refocus to grow spiritually. Maybe you want to develop better prayer habits or read the entire Bible. Maybe you want to try to go to church more often. But overall, improving your life of faith is admittedly no easy feat. I used to tell myself every year that this would be the year I’d finally become the “good, mature Christian” I’d always wanted to be. The problem was that I would set the same goals, year after year, without being able to make any lasting changes in my life. I was obviously doing something wrong.

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