Love | Laurie Coombs

Archive for the ‘Love’ Category

Failing Faith and Lost Hope

Posted on: August 9th, 2013 by Laurie Coombs 8 Comments

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After a long, exhausting weekend, I decided to turn in early. Yet as my head hit the pillow, thoughts began to running away from me. After hearing some news about our adoption––news that most likely won’t negatively impact our adoption at all––I began to think. And what you must understand about me is that I’ve always been a “thinker.” I analyze and reason through everything. This can be a good thing. But sometimes, I have a tendency to think too much, which can lead me down some pretty dark alleys. And that’s precisely what happened this night. An hour passed, full of thought and cries out to God, when I realized I needed help. I needed wisdom. And I needed someone else to pray alongside me for clarity about our adoption. So, I texted my girlfriend and said, Ok. I need some help. Feeling super discouraged about our adoption. Maybe…

The Day I Was Given Eyes to See

Posted on: July 30th, 2013 by Laurie Coombs 4 Comments

God, Jesus, Christian, Christ, Christianity, Love, Love God, Love Others, Ruth Graham, Billy Graham, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Ruth Graham Poem, Give me eyes to see, spiritual eyes, ordinary, mundane, souls, people, love people, love other, making a difference, make a difference, change the world, make the world better,

Look o’er the people about you–– faces so furrowed with care, lined and hardened by sorrow sin has placed on them there; think of the evil they live in, hopes none and joys so few; love them, pray for them, win them, lest they should perish, too. – Ruth Graham, age 13. (Billy Graham Evangelistic Association) … I love these words. But more importantly, I love the heart behind them. Give me eyes to see, I pray. For, when we see as we ought––when we see with spiritual eyes––the world and the people in it take on a different hue. Checking out at the doctor’s office a few months ago, I stood waiting. The receptionists busied themselves with work. One was helping me. One was speaking to a patient on the phone. Another typed intently at her computer….

Will God Fail You?

Posted on: July 19th, 2013 by Laurie Coombs 8 Comments

Will God fail me? I think if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ve all asked this question––either consciously or unconsciously––at one time or another. In fact, it may be this very question that underlies our inability to give ourselves fully to God and His purposes in our lives. We think, perhaps God doesn’t love me. Perhaps God is too busy or too majestic to care about one individual such as myself. Or even if He does love me, even if He cares, He certainly doesn’t care about each intricate detail of my life. Will God pull through? Doubts come. Questions arise. All of which are a part of the normal process of faith. But I think the real question behind all our doubts is: Does God really love me? This is the real doubt behind our unwillingness to surrender. It all comes back to love. We were created to be loved and to love others….

{Lessons Learned} God is Calling You to an Adventure

Posted on: July 16th, 2013 by Laurie Coombs 6 Comments

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I’ve been a follower of Christ for only four years now, but I can honestly say that the last four years have been an adventure without parallel. I sat in on a church service last weekend. The pastor asked his congregation, “Who here thinks of your walk with God as an adventure?” No hands went up. It seems to me that most Christians fail to recognize the adventure God calls them to. As Christ followers, we are not called to bunker down and simply hang on until the rapture. But instead, we’re called to join the mission of God in this world. And what a mission it is. Brokenness: The Need We needn’t look too far to see brokenness throughout the world. Sin. Darkness. Pain. Enslavement. Fear. They’re all there for us to see. If we take a closer look, we see children orphaned and dying on the streets each day, without anyone to love…

{Lessons Learned} Overcoming Evil with Good Words

Posted on: July 12th, 2013 by Laurie Coombs 3 Comments

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Jesus made it clear. If I were to have any impact on Anthony (the man who murdered my dad), I would have to live out the commands found in Romans 12. Jesus spoke: Repay no one evil for evil. Love your enemy. Overcome evil with good. Yet still, the questions plagued me: How? How do I overcome evil with good? How do I love Anthony? What does it look like? And then it became clear. I was to love Anthony through my words. Words hold power. As Jeff Goins recently wrote, “Words are powerful, painful, awful, and amazing tools. They can hurt, help, hinder, and heal.” I wanted my words to be used for good. I wanted them to bring light to a very dark part of my past. So when I sat down to write Anthony for the first time, I chose kindness over my feelings. I felt a strong conviction that…

{Lessons Learned} Abiding In Christ – We Can’t Do Anything Apart from Jesus

Posted on: June 11th, 2013 by Laurie Coombs 14 Comments

And there's nothing we can do that will have significant, lasting impact apart from God. [Tweet that] First John 4:9 tells us, "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him." Jesus came that we might live. Truly live. Not endure. Not get by. But live fully, bountifully.

I camped out in the fifteenth chapter of the gospel of John for quite some time during my correspondence with Anthony, the man who murdered my dad. I knew I couldn’t do it on my own. I knew nothing of any value could be accomplished through my endeavor apart from Jesus. For apart from me you can do nothing. I read these words over and over. Jesus says, I am the vine. Abide in me. Abide. What does it look like to abide? I looked it up. Abide – to stay; to wait; to remain fixed in some state or condition; to endure; to sustain; to submit to… Abide in me. I clung close to the cross, I devoured God’s Word, I prayed like never before, I got down, prostrate before our mighty God and learned what it meant to abide in Jesus. And as I did, it became increasingly…

{Lessons Learned} Your Faith Requires Action

Posted on: May 31st, 2013 by Laurie Coombs

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I’m seeing that the Christian life is NOT a life of passivity but a life of choices empowered by the Holy Spirit. – My prayer journal, May 13, 2010 The Christian life is not one marked by passivity, but instead, it requires that we step out in faith, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to do whatever it is Jesus calls us to. Following Jesus means that we get off the couch and do something. [tweet that] When I first became a Christian, (only about a year before I was called on my crazy journey with Anthony) I was under the impression that Christianity should be characterized more by a “let go and let God” theology than one that requires action. But, when Jesus called me to love and forgive the very man who murdered my dad, this paradigm was shattered. I was presented with commands. Forgive. Love your enemy. How…

{Lessons Learned} An Intentional Life

Posted on: May 28th, 2013 by Laurie Coombs 1 Comment

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Let all that you do be done in love. – 1 Corinthians 16:14 All that we do should be motivated by the love of God. As you may have noticed, I’ve been hung-up on this topic lately. Many of my most recent posts have had this theme, or a variation of it, threaded throughout them. But this has been a mega-theme of my life recently. Honestly, I have to confess. I think I’ve been missing the mark on this one for quite some time now, but God’s giving me grace, and He’s renewing the love I had at first, which I am unbelievably grateful for. It All Begins With Love As I’ve mentioned time and time again, my journey with Anthony began with God’s whisper, showing me my need to forgive. But then He told me I needed to love my enemy. You see, it all began with love. All the craziness that happened, all the tears,…

Choosing to See

Posted on: May 24th, 2013 by Laurie Coombs 1 Comment

And truth was this: we can choose to see and focus on the good in life and in the people around us, or we can choose to see and focus only on the bad.

Abraham Lincoln, one of my all-time heroes, once said, “If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.” And I do believe Lincoln was right. After all, we do live in a fallen world. Yet, I also believe the opposite is true. If you look for the good in others, I think you’ll find it as well. While it is true that we are sinners in need of grace, it is also true that we are image bearers of God (Genesis 1:27). We were created in His likeness and image, which means that we’re a reflection (though only a dim reflection) of who God is and of His character. Though it’s unpopular to say in some Christian circles, mankind is not completely bad. I grew up watching the movie Pollyanna. It’s a Disney movie about a young orphaned girl who is taken in by her wealthy aunt. Before their…

{Lessons Learned} Be Gracious or Forgiveness Flows Out of a Changed Heart – Part 2

Posted on: May 13th, 2013 by Laurie Coombs 1 Comment

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Early on in my walk with God, I was told that the Bible says that we’re sinners. Logically then, I thought, this would infer that I sin. It was a novel concept to me. Really, it was. Up to this point, I never really thought about sin, and I certainly never thought I was a sinner or that I needed anything, let alone the help of a supposed God that could very well be the figment of someone’s imagination. Truly, I was blind to the ways of God. One day, after attending church for several weeks, however, I prayed. God, I said feeling a bit foolish, if I have any sins, show me. And boy did He deliver! I went from self-loving and self-idolizing (even though I was in a very bad place at the time) to self-loathing in no time at all. Once stripped of all deception, I began to see…