Illuminate

I was talking to my mom a few weeks ago. She was telling me a story of something hard they had went through. After the story my mom said a simple phrase that kind of put everything into perspective. She said, "Today's trials are tomorrow's testimonies." I am sure my mom did not come up with this thought but I think it is a principle that we need to get a hold of. To testify or to give a testimony, as described by the dictionary, is evidence or proof provided by the existence or appearance of something. You see we are God's testimony to the world. Not that God cannot prove his existence without our help but we help build the case for Christ with our lives and how we share how God has been a part of it. One aspect that we can testify about our God is through trials. No one has ever gotten something great or gone somewhere great without a few trials. We cannot expect the great things of God unless we are willing to go through the trials. We wouldn't really ...

When I was in my freshman year of High School our art teacher challenged us to create a large project. This would need to be something that would take a considerable amount of time and was personal. I thought about it for awhile and I decided to make a cross. I know that sounds simple but to me it sounded like fun. So my dad helped me as I created a cross made out of cedar. It was about 7 feet tall with multiple layers of wood with a base so it could stand by itself. It looked great but I felt like something was missing. So I decided to put a saying on that cross. The last thing that Jesus said before he died, "It is Finished". That phrase really stood out to me and has stuck with me ever since. That phrase "it is Finished" spoke to so many things. It spoke to the mission of Christ being Finished, it spoke to the enemy being Finished, it spoke to our sin and separation from God being Finished. Last time we were together as a student ministry we looked at Col 2:13-...