Author and Speaker, Lisa Buffaloe, recently asked me to share my testimony on her radio program, Living Joyfully Free. If you’re interested, head over to her website to listen to my interview. (Just as a bit of a heads up: The program lasts about one hour, so be sure to set aside some time or listen while engaging in some other “mindless” activity.) Praying you are blessed this Monday morning! Laurie
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….
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…
“Where should we sit?” I question my thirteen year old niece. I have a mind to go right. Emily, my niece, points left. “Right there,” she says with resolve, pointing to a booth next to the window. We sit down, McDonald’s ice cream cones in hand. I have a lot of kids with me. Two, my own. Three, my sisters, including my two month old nephew. At once, all four big kids eagerly take their first lick. Soon, the baby begins to fuss, so I take him out of his infant carrier and stand, bouncing and soothing. I notice the man sitting in the booth next to ours. He looks at me, sees the kids, and smiles a warm, inviting smile. A whisper comes to my soul. Speak to him, the Lord prompts. Tell him about Me. The man looks to be about seventy or so. He has warn skin, but seems to…
I was a wreck. “I’ve spent my entire life trying to achieve and set goals for myself,” I told my husband, Travis, “and I’ve hinged all happiness on the achievement of those goals only to continuously fall short of true happiness. It’s like there’s this emptiness inside, but I don’t know how to make it go away!” I felt empty, defeated, depressed, and anxious. And I had no answers. It was a very dark place. Over and over I kept saying, I just want to feel peace. I just want peace. Yet, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t save myself. [Tweet that] Blind and Paralyzed Then, I had a dream. I dreamt I became blind and paralyzed. And when I awoke I was perplexed and greatly disturbed. I didn’t know what it meant. Perhaps it means nothing, I tried to convince myself. But still, I couldn’t shake it. Yet, it wasn’t…
Today, I’m over at Leanne Penny’s blog, sharing my story, focusing upon loss and redemption. Leanne has quite a story herself. She writes about loss, grief, grace, and hope. I know you’ll find her to be a source of strength along your own journey, so go ahead, check her out! But here’s the question I pose today on Leanne’s blog: Can Jesus really redeem our losses? It’s an appropriate question, I think, one that I struggled with for quite some time. And I hope you’ll join me as I attempt to answer this question in my post titled Can Jesus Really Redeem Our Losses? If you’re joining me from Leanne’s blog, I’m happy you’re here. Welcome! I hope you’ll take a moment and stay a while. One More Thing Okay, I have only one more thing to share, so stick with me! Since writing my post for Leanne, God has given me…
![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.](https://lauriecoombs.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/I-Am-the-Vine-300x300.jpg "Abiding In Christ - We Can't Do Anything Apart from Jesus")
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…
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. – Philippians 4:8 I’m a “thinker,” by nature. I think and analyze constantly. I’ve always been this way. And over the years I’ve learned that this trait can serve as one of my best assets or it can work against me proving to be one of my greatest weaknesses, which is why Jesus spoke Philippians 4:8 over me very early in my walk with Him. Honestly, when Jesus found me, I was a mess. My thought patterns were extremely toxic, and because of this, I learned quickly the power our thought life has upon us. The Influence of a Thought Follow me for a moment. First, you have a thought. That thought impacts what you feel…
I didn’t want to go digging around my past, but I knew I needed to. I knew some residual effects of my dad’s murder had to still be there. As I walked through some of the most difficult times in the weeks, months, and years following the murder, I remember thinking I sure hope this doesn’t screw me up. My dad wasn’t married at the time of his death which meant that my brother, sister, and I were legally responsible for picking up the pieces when he died. Our extended family helped quite a bit––as much as they could, really, which I am so thankful for––but there was only so much they could do. My mom, however, was the backbone that held us all together, and I will forever be grateful to her for that. She played an integral part in the process of helping us wade through all the mess. (Thank you,…
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…
