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Absolute GAME CHANGER! "The Road Back to You" by Ian Cron.

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My wife, Jen, and I are starting a church small group in our home.  It's not our first time leading a small group, but it's the first time in a while, so we didn't want to do an exclusively marriage study so we could appeal to a wide variety of people.  The staff at our church, Puyallup Foursquare , are reading a book called " The Road Back to You ".  We've heard great things about it so we figured we'd give it a shot. HOLY SMOKES!  This book is amazing!  We knew it would be good, but we had no idea what a game changer this is.  Here we were not wanting to do a marriage study, and we find a book that will forever improve our marriage! This a book about personality types, but it's different than any other study or test.  It's based on the Enneagram, which is a very old diagram for understanding personality types and interactions. We started by taking this online enneagram personality type assessment , to get an idea of which number ...

Jesus, and...

There seem to be a lot of people who take a buffet-style approach to spirituality.  They like a little bit of Christianity, a little bit of Buddhism, etc. The only problem with this is that Jesus made this impossible with what He said. Jesus said He is they way, the truth, and the life, and that  He's the only way to get to the Father . That might seem narrow-minded to some.  But when you're the 2nd person of the Trinity and God created everything through you , it makes sense that you would have a line on what is true. God bless you.

Who is Jesus?

Who is Jesus? If you ask non-Christians (and some Christians) who Jesus is/was you'll get anything from moral teacher to homeboy. What did Jesus say about himself, though? Jesus claimed to be God. I know, I know, he never said the words, "I am God".  But, if you look at the responses of the people he said these things to it's obvious that they understood he was claiming to be God.  This is why it's important to look not just at how we would understand the words in the Bible, but look for clues by seeing how the original audience responded. I'll give you some examples of Jesus claiming to be God, but we need some background understanding first.  In Jewish law there are crimes punishable by stoning, but nobody could be put to death without a trial and the testimony of at least two witnesses. In John 8:31-59 Jesus is speaking to the Jews and he references Abraham.  The Jews prided themselves on being the "children of Abraham". ...

Shame and Grace

Shame and Grace Many new believers, and not so new believers, struggle with guilt and shame.  They do something sinful and it eats them up inside.  You need to know that this is not now, nor has it ever been, God's desire.  This is honestly one of the strategies of the enemy to derail your progress, get you distracted, and keep you from being used effectively by God. Think about it - can you change one thing you've done?  Can you go back and undo anything?  Take back words you've said?  Nope.  You can make amends with people you've wronged, but you can't undo anything. Satan is always focused on the past.  He's focused on his own past, furious for being ejected from Heaven for his wrong, and wanting to take down as many of God's children as he can.  He also will do everything he can to keep you focused on your own past.  He wants you focused on your past sins, mistakes & regrets, and he wants you focused on wrongs th...

A new adventure

I'm embarking on a new adventure.  I used to be really focused on politics, and tried to convince people one way or another, but have come to realize that's a useless endeavor.  For the most part, earthly politics don't matter - and certainly not in an eternal sense.  In my reading of the New Testament I notice that neither Paul or any of the other NT writers seem concerned about politics at all.  Paul never mentions Roman immigration or health care policies when he wrote Romans. Instead, I'm going to try and impart any wisdom that God has given me about Christian living, apologetics, Bible topics, etc.  I hope my words can be helpful, and that people would grow in their understanding of faith through reading what I have written.  It would be wonderful if seekers read any of it and that aided them in becoming believers. As I'm writing these things, if you notice any errors in thinking or you simply disagree and would like to discuss it, I encourage...