Jessi's Faith Journey

This has been a rough time in my life. When it rains, it truly pours. In the recent past, my car has broken down, I have purchased a newer car, which promptly broke down the next day. It's been one thing after another with this car. My landlord decided to raise my rent by a good amount every month. I have to have some pretty expensive dental work done next month. Today alone has had many let downs. I woke up to a new voicemail saying I had money deposited into an account. When I checked, it wasn't true. It's the same four dollars that was there yesterday. I was expecting 300 dollars to come into another account from a work award. It never came. Upon further inspection it came months ago when I wasn't expecting it, and I just thought it was part of my paycheck. Which is like never getting the money, when you can't enjoy that it's extra. All of this was before noon. Then my coffee pot died. We all know how traumatizing that can be. My paycheck this week has been...

Christmas. The time for Christians to spread the real reason for the season, and anticipate the second coming. The time to be laser focused on Jesus. Here I sit, writing my first blog in a while. I have let myself get distracted by the world, as I do sometimes. This Christmas has been very different for me. I haven't been in the spirit of Christmas this year. At least not the secular one that I'm usually in. Enjoying Christmas movies, and songs, and decorations. None of those things have made my heart joyful this year. I think it's because of the things God has been showing me. The real Christmas story. You see, God has been showing me a lot, through sermons, prayer, and His word. I have been reading in Leviticus. This is my first time reading in Leviticus, and I have been properly warned. It is one of the more tedious books in the bible, and leaves people wanting to pull their hair out at the monotony of it. I am sure this won't be a shared view, but I'm rather en...

My mama passed on a notion to me, that she heard from some preacher she can't remember. The Bible is our sustenance, our manna. We need it daily. DAILY. Just like food. And who doesn't eat? Dead people. I remember the first time I heard that. It was so eye opening to the people I saw every day. I could tell just by a simple conversation who wasn't actually partaking in the word of God daily. The spiritually dead. One man in particular described that to me. He is my brother. I love him dearly, but honestly he isn't the type you'd want over for dinner. He's not a bad person. Made some pretty bad decisions over his life, but it's the language that would get you. He could make a sailor blush. I've never heard so many curse words in one sentence before. Matthew 15:18 says But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. Judging by that, my brother was the most spiritually dead person I had ever met. Saddest part is, if you...

It's very hard for me to tell this story, because I don't want any focus on me. I considered not telling it, or pretending it was someone else's story. I prayed about it, and here we are. I think it's important to say that I pray before I write any blog, and then I wait for confirmation before posting any blog. It started as a normal enough day. I had a million things to do, before I had to race back home in time to get the boys off the bus, and wait on the people in our small group to show up. I was in Sam's club, for a specific item, when I saw cozy thick blankets on sale for $9.99. I wasn't even headed in that direction, when I heard the Spirit say "get 2." I picked up 2 of the blankets and put them in the cart. I thought it was getting colder outside and I'm sure I will pass some homeless that need a blanket. I got a few more items and left the store. I went over to another store and got a few items there as well. Last place I had to go was to...

Grace. The free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings. That's what the definition of grace is. We talk about grace all the time. God's grace. Showing grace. I even named my daughter Arilyn Grace. I didn't understand the magnitude of grace. God has really been showing me lately that grace isn't just meant for God's gift of salvation that we don't deserve. It's also giving grace to others when they don't deserve it. Something Pastor Paul said recently has stuck with me. He said we aren't meant to be consumers, we're meant to be conduits. So it's not meant to just stop with us. It's meant to flow through us to others. Matthew 18:21-35 The Parable of the unforgiving servant 21  Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22  Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven ...

When I got pregnant with Arilyn, we knew it was time to move. We were fine in an apartment when it was just Brandon, the boys, and I. Now we would be five. Five isn't meant for an apartment. It was time to start looking for a house. I had always wanted to raise my kids in the country like I was raised, but I had given up on that dream since my oldest was 9 and we still lived in the city. This might be my chance to actually get us out into the country. Let me say ahead of time that we do not own our house. We rent. If God wants us here for good, then he will provide the way to buy. Until then, we are content in the waiting. So I start looking online. Any website I can think of. Even asking a certain wonderful redhead realtor. I was on every newspaper 'for rent' ad I could find. There are a few places we looked at. Most of them aren't worth mentioning. Some were so bad, some were okay, but lacking one important thing or another. Then we found two houses in Milford Center...

There are a number of different reasons people decide to go to church, or go back to church. As many of you know, I had someone who once was very significant in my life, pass away. When that happened, I wanted to know  who  God was. God used that to deepen my relationship with Him, but I was already through the doors, and in the pew. About a week before I starting going to church, my youngest son proclaimed that he didn't believe in God. He actually said that God isn't real. If you're a mother, take a minute to feel that. Imagine your child, approximately four years of age, looking you straight in the eyes, and telling you that the one who created him, doesn't exist. A panic set in my chest. What was I doing? I was just going through the motions of life, and I didn't teach him the most important thing. The meaning of it all. That the only thing that matters at the end of your life, is what you did with Jesus. My son can't do something with someone he doesn...