Know Your God | Laurie Coombs

Archive for the ‘Know Your God’ Category

Grace upon Grace

Posted on: July 5th, 2018 by Laurie Coombs

All through the book of Deuteronomy, the people of God were told to remember. Remember where God found you. Remember His faithfulness. Remember that He spared no expense to deliver you out of slavery that He might bring you into your promised land. Each time I read Moses’ words to the Israelites as they stood on the edge of their promise, I cannot help but hear these same words spoken over me. “Remember.” We are all prone to forget. One moment we stand in praise of Jesus after He did some crazy awesome thing in our life. And the next moment, fear comes when we face uncertainty, and we forget that Jesus had just parted the Red Sea on our behalf. Just like the nation of Israel, we are called to remember. Remember who our God is. Remember His heart toward us. Remember the gospel and the cross. Remember His…

A Bunch of Dirty, Cursed, Lost, Sick, Rebels

Posted on: October 13th, 2017 by Laurie Coombs 1 Comment

I addressed the question, “Who do you say that Jesus is?” in my most recent article. This was a question Jesus, Himself, asked His disciples after spending some time with them during His earthly ministry. In this article, I wrote of the importance of this question. How your very life hinges on the answer you give to this question. And that if your response is that Jesus is who He said He was in scripture. That He is the Messiah. Immanuel, God with us. The living God. Our Savior. Our Shepherd. Our Counselor. Our Comforter. Our Healer. Our Peace. Our only Hope. Our very life. If this who you define Jesus to be, then it demands every bit of us. We’re to be all in. Not wishy-washy. Not lukewarm. But all in. Shortly after Jesus posed this question to His disciples, we read, “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples…

Bringing Joy HOME!!!

Posted on: August 22nd, 2016 by Laurie Coombs 4 Comments

I finally finished my baby girl’s adoption video! Be sure to watch this incredible story of God’s faithfulness. What a crazy long, wonderfully messy, immensely beautiful and difficult journey it was!! We are super blessed to finally have our baby girl HOME! I pray our story blesses you… Having trouble viewing the video? Watch it on YouTube instead!

Jesus Is on the Throne

Posted on: December 17th, 2015 by Laurie Coombs

Jesus is on the throne, now and forever. It seems I’ve been reminded of this continually lately. Life’s circumstances have clouded my vision a bit, but with this simple reminder, I have consistently been brought back to the truth. Troubles lose their weight when we see and believe this reality deep within our souls. This truth gives us a heavenly perspective on the circumstances we face and allows us the ability to endure trials with confident assurance that our God is in control. Now, I cannot pretend to know all the reasons why God allows difficulties into our lives, but when confronted with them, I often think about what Paul wrote to the church in Philippi. He said, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance…

For the Love of God

Posted on: December 9th, 2015 by Laurie Coombs

Last week, I wrote about how important it is to engage in the pursuit to know God. About how we can use a Biblically accurate understanding of who God is to see the world and ourselves as they truly are. All truth, remember, begins and ends with God. There is, of course, so much to know about our God. Truly, we will never be able to fully grasp all that He is, and I think that’s okay. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a God who is able to be fully grasped by a mind limited by humanity. I love how J.I. Packer put it. He said, “A God whom we could understand exhaustively, and whose revelation of Himself confronted us with no mysteries whatsoever, would be a God in man’s image, and therefore an imaginary God, not the God of the Bible at all.” But God does reveal Himself to both…

To Know God

Posted on: December 1st, 2015 by Laurie Coombs 4 Comments

All of life should be viewed through the lens of the Gospel. A lens colored by who God is and who we are in light of Him. It’s a top-down approach, one largely neglected by many of us who choose instead to see life and the world from our own vantage point. In this bottom-up approach, we falsely define God, our circumstances, and the world in light of who we are. We allow our views to subjectively contaminate how we see life and our Creator. It’s easy to do. It’s easy to choose the wrong lens––to see God and our lives through the lens of suffering or the lens of betrayal or the lens of sickness or the lens of loss or the lens of discouragement. And it’s certainly easy to allow our feelings to color what we see, but ultimately, if we choose any lens but the Gospel lens we pick up distortions and grossly…

Paradigm Shift: What We Need More Than Answers

Posted on: October 1st, 2015 by Laurie Coombs

Life sure has a way of throwing us curve balls, doesn’t it? I recently heard someone point out a significant dichotomy that exists in our world that I found interesting. At any given moment throughout the world, this person said, and even in our own lives, we see and experience incredible beauty and extraordinary evil all at the same time. Herein lies the tension of life. In one moment of time, we can hear the joy of a baby’s laughter while reading of horrible atrocities committed against children around the world. We can relish a beautiful moment with our family only to be interrupted and left stunned by the latest tragedy seen on the nightly news. We can take time to soak in the beauty of God’s creation only to receive word that an unexpected tragedy happened that will effectively change the course of our lives forever upon our return home. There is joy and beauty and…

The NIV Bible for Women has just been released!!

Posted on: September 22nd, 2015 by Laurie Coombs

I received an email several months back from an editor asking if I’d consider contributing to the new devotional Bible by Zondervan called NIV Bible for Women: Fresh Insights for Thriving in Today’s World. There were apparently a few contributors who dropped out at the last minute, and this poor editor had only a few days to pull the whole thing together. It was Saturday. The project was going to print on Monday. And God had brought her to me (and I’m sure a few others). “I can do it!” I told her with excitement, as I thought about how God had done it again. He’d provided yet another opportunity to get my message out there, and I was thankful––even though this project had effectively hijacked my weekend. I was asked to write a devotion on Revelation 4:8, focusing on the fact that God is still on His throne despite all the pain we see…

While We Wait

Posted on: August 5th, 2015 by Laurie Coombs

The following is an excerpt taken from chapter 12 of Letters from My Father’s Murderer: A Journey of Forgiveness. While We Wait I trust God even though He doesn’t usually operate on my timeline or do things the way I’d like Him to. I wish I could say that I began trusting God like this the moment I gave my life to Christ, but I didn’t. Trust came with time as I saw God work in my life. As I witnessed God’s hand begin to work all things for good in my life, I came to believe that God does, in fact, know what He’s doing. So when things aren’t going my way, I now trust that God must have a better plan—a better way. I think that’s why I decided not to send that letter. I figured God knew something I didn’t, and I was pretty sure that God’s…

Letters from My Father’s Murderer is out today!!!

Posted on: June 27th, 2015 by Laurie Coombs 1 Comment

Hi friends! Today’s the day Letters from My Father’s Murderer is released! I must say, it’s a bit surreal. This project has been in the works for three and a half years, and it’s finally out for the world to see! If you haven’t ordered a copy yet, you can grab it from Amazon or Barnes & Noble or wherever else you like to buy books. It’s available on Kindle and Nook as well, by the way (but not iBooks––whah, whah). If you’re still not convinced enough to pick up a copy, perhaps hearing what others are saying (outside of my friends and family) will give you the nudge you need: “Truthfully, I could not put the book down.” – Dan “Powerful! …This is a must read.” – Page “Been reading every spare minute…. I honestly had a hard time putting it down.” – Patty “Cannot put the book down! I started it last…