Loving Your Enemy | Laurie Coombs

Archive for the ‘Loving Your Enemy’ Category

A Story of Hope

Posted on: October 23rd, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 4 Comments

My family and I attend a church here in Reno called Life Church. It’s an amazing church full of people sold out for Jesus. And I love that! Our pastors have been teaching a series on hope, using the recently release book The Hope Quotient by Ray Johnston. Shortly before the series began, my pastor and I had spoken to one another about bringing my story to our church. And after a while, he asked if I’d be willing to film a short video to be used during this series to illustrate the truth that hope can be found on the other side of tragedy. To show that God does, in fact, work all things for good for those who know and love Him. I’m sharing that video here with you today, and I pray God uses it as He intends to bring greater perspective and hope and light to those who need it. Laurie…

My Book Cover Has Been Released!

Posted on: October 15th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 4 Comments

Letters from My Father’s Murderer: A Journey of Forgiveness will be released June 27, 2015, but I wanted to take a moment to share the cover with you. There’s a pretty incredible story behind the making of the cover that I may share sometime, but for now, it’s sufficient to say that there is not a doubt in my mind that this is the cover God willed for this book. I hope you like it! I am so looking forward to see how God uses this story for His glory! It is my prayer that He uses it to bring hope, healing, and even salvation to many!

Loving Your Enemies {A sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.}

Posted on: September 19th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs

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I don’t usually share sermons on my blog, but I came across a sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that’s pertinent to each of us. This may not be something you’re dealing with at the moment, but I guarantee, at some point in your life, you will be called to love your enemy, and so I encourage you to read the excerpts of his sermon below. It’s well worth the read. Loving Your Enemies A sermon delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama on November 17, 1957. …So I want to turn your attention to this subject: “Loving Your Enemies.” It’s so basic to me because it is a part of my basic philosophical and theological orientation—the whole idea of love, the whole philosophy of love. In the fifth chapter of the gospel as recorded by Saint Matthew, we read these…

The Billy Graham “Heaven” Trailer Has Been Released!

Posted on: September 3rd, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 13 Comments

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It’s here! The trailer for Billy Graham’s newest film, “Heaven,” was released recently. It’s the one I had the privilege to be a part of. The film is intended to be used as an evangelistic tool and will be released just in time for Mr. Graham’s ninety-sixth birthday in early November. If you’d like to get involved or if you’d like to see how you might be able to pre-order and use this resource, please go to the My Hope with Billy Graham website. What an honor it was to be included in such an amazing project. Be sure to check it out! If you’re having trouble viewing the video, click here to watch it on YouTube. Any thoughts? Share in the comments.

Choose Life

Posted on: July 31st, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 4 Comments

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice and holding fast to Him, for He is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. – Deuteronomy 30:19-20 We don’t often like to talk about obedience. It’s simply not a popular topic to address. Quite honestly, I don’t think any of us naturally want to obey God. We all seem to have this thing in us that wants to go it alone. To do our own thing. To be masters of our own domain and live our lives however we so choose. Even the thought of having…

{Guest Post} Loving Your Enemies as Yourself

Posted on: July 2nd, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 2 Comments

Loving Your Enemies as Yourself Written by Sophia Reed I cannot tell you how many times I have been deemed weird or seen as too forgiving because of my Christian ways. The natural, human thing to do when others do you wrong is for you to come right back at them and treat them the same way they treated you. I am not ashamed to admit that this is how I use to be. If you had something to say that I perceived as mean, I would fire back at you and bite your head off. I behaved this way even when I was Christian. Now, I am quite the opposite. I have grown. I know how to let things go and forgive, not because I want to, but it is because God wants me to. People who do not know how I used to be perceive this as a…

Can Jesus Really Redeem Our Losses?

Posted on: November 21st, 2013 by Laurie Coombs 2 Comments

I’ve been finishing my book proposal this week, and it’s almost done, which means it should go out to publishers within the next few weeks! It’s super exciting; I’m just so close, which is why I chose to focus most of my attention on my proposal this week. And it is also why today’s post is a repeat, of sorts. I originally wrote this piece for another blogger as a guest post a while back. Some of you may have seen it, but most probably haven’t, so I hope you enjoy and are blessed by it. I’ll be back with all new posts next week. Thirteen years ago, I sat on top of a houseboat next to my dad watching the sun set behind the towering canyon walls of Lake Powell. Dad half-heartedly joked about how he was getting older, and I was sure to poke fun at his old age. I…

{Guest Post} Kidnapped

Posted on: October 24th, 2013 by Laurie Coombs 3 Comments

Murder, kidnapping, kidnap, story, testimony, forgiveness, God, god's protection,

Today’s post was written by Donna Weisser, a woman who contacted me recently after having read one of my posts. She has quite a powerful story to share with us about how God has used and redeemed a tragic incident that resulted in her kidnapping and her husband’s murder. I believe this story is only in its infancy, and I am certain God will continue to use Donna’s testimony further, for her good and His glory. Thank you, Donna, for sharing such a painful, yet encouraging message with us all. … As I drove home from work on June 4, 2012, my heart was joyful. There were only 2 more days of school, and then I would be off for the summer and have more time to spend with my husband and my Father who had been hospitalized in May due to a broken back as a result of a fall. I entered into…

Pray for the Impossible

Posted on: October 17th, 2013 by Laurie Coombs 5 Comments

My girls are off this week for fall break, so I’m taking the time to be with them. Today’s post has been recycled, so to speak, but it’s still new to this site. Just like Tuesday’s post, I originally wrote this one back in 2012 to be a guest post for a friend. I hope you enjoy it! And I’ll be back next week with all new posts. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. – Matthew 5:44 Three and a half years ago, the Holy Spirit challenged me with this scripture. Love your enemy. This is a difficult command, and when confronted with it, I could think of only one person––Anthony, the man who murdered my dad. Jesus was calling me to love my enemy, and one of the only insights I had on how to do this was to pray. So, out of obedience, I began to pray. I prayed good…

{Love Your Enemy} Fight Darkness With Light

Posted on: September 17th, 2013 by Laurie Coombs 1 Comment

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Jesus taught his followers a new way to treat people. Usually when people hurt you, you want to hurt them back. If people don’t like you, you don’t like them either. But Jesus tells us to love our enemies. It’s never easy but Jesus can help you. If you do good to your enemies you could change your life and theirs forever. – Avery (right before her 6th birthday), quoting one of her children’s devotional books. I came across this piece of paper a few weeks back and had to share it. As I busily cleaned the house one day, my daughter, Avery, decided to grab her “devo” and copy down one of its entries. This is what I found. Now, I don’t know if her selection was intentional or not, but out of the 365 entries in her book, she chose this one, and of course, you all know how…