Jessi's Faith Journey

Worship starts with a thankful heart. There are many forms. Singing praises is always the one that comes to mind for most. Raising your kids with a thankful heart, is a form of worship. Tithing with a thankful heart, is a form of worship. Serving the church with a thankful heart, is a form of worship. Work is also a form of worship. I used to think that I needed to work in the ministry to truly spread the gospel. I was way off base. The point isn't to bring all the Christians into a collective group. We are supposed to bloom where we're planted, so to speak. You may work in retail, drive a semi, or run the cash register at McDonalds. Wherever you go, you're living a silent sermon that tells the rest of the world of the love of Jesus. Colossians 3:17 says whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. I am a hospice nurse. One day I was called to see a patient. I was asked to help him get ...

As a Christian, I believe that every interaction I have with every single person, either brings them closer to Jesus, or pushes them farther away. Sometimes I fall short. This is about one of those times. This actually happened fairly recent. I'm not going to get into the details, but a fellow nurse at my work posted something that was meant to be funny. Not only was it not funny, it was highly offensive. I could have just scrolled on down my facebook feed. I could have hidden her post from showing up. I didn't do either of those things. Instead I reacted. I let her have it. Right there on social media for the whole world to see. To which, she promptly emailed me, letting me have it, and then blocked me from responding back. I was so mad. I felt completely justified in it. I had every right to call her out on that. To let her know that she was wrong. For a few days, I rode the wave of self-righteousness. After that I started remembering something I heard. Jesus had every rig...

Recently my small group has been reading a book called Jesus> Religion. It's taught me a lot. Definitely recommend it. This last chapter Jefferson Bethke said something that really stuck with me. He said thankfulness is the quickest path to joy. Recently, a few of us have been putting it to use. Whenever we are having a difficult time, we stop and thank God for our blessings. The point I have found in this, is it puts things back into perspective. C.S. Lewis said "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." Same concept here. By our blessings, we can see everything else the way it should be seen. So what is joy? I love the definition that was taken from the way Paul uses it.  Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy Spirit, as He causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the word and in the world. Christian joy is not of this world. It is stored in Heaven. N...