Saying Yes to God | Laurie Coombs

Archive for the ‘Saying Yes to God’ Category

Committed to YES!

Posted on: December 9th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 6 Comments

My girlfriend and I have been looking at marketing strategies lately. With my book coming out next June, we want to ensure we’re doing all we can to disseminate the message I’ve been entrusted with to the greatest extent possible. I’ll be talking more about that as time goes on, but I wanted to tell you about a comment my friend said to me the other day. It was a text, actually, and it said, “So I am thinking the marketing plan should be… SAYING YES TO GOD…it’s amazing how even when you don’t want to do some of what He calls us to do…if you keep saying yes, He takes care of you…He has constantly given you favor Laurie! Kudos to you for saying Yes…” I had just been given another ridiculously amazing opportunity to share my story in a major publication, and let me tell you––this assignment was…

The Cost of Discipleship

Posted on: December 5th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs

Jesus came that we might have life. And life to the full. He came to bind up the brokenhearted. To bring good news to the poor. To proclaim liberty to the captives. To provide for our every need. To love us. To care for us. To provide a home for our wondering heart. He calls to the people. “Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). “Come, follow Me,” He says (Matthew 19:21). “Learn from Me…and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). Promising to guide us into His will for our lives, He beckons us to follow. We’re called to be disciples. Followers of Christ––the living God––but discipleship comes at a cost. All that stuff I wrote above is pleasant to the ear. We like hearing the truth of God’s promise to love and care for us. To restore us to wholeness and healing. These…

Sometimes It’s Just Hard

Posted on: November 13th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs

I was following Jesus into the unknown––into my scary places. Places I did not want to go. He was calling me to walk on the water with Him––to do things I did not want to do––but I knew those very things would bring me to the place He intended, a place of blessing. Still, I was scared. It was hard, laying myself down like that. Ridiculously hard. I knew my God. I knew who He is. I knew His heart toward me. And I knew where I’d end up if I followed, but what I did not know is what that narrow rocky road would look like along the way, and quite honestly that scared me. “I feel like I’m falling apart,” I wrote in my prayer journal, sometime during this season. “[The girls and I] have been sick, my emotions are all over the board, I feel weighed down by…

Watch “Heaven: A New Message from Billy Graham!”

Posted on: November 6th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 2 Comments

Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” – Isaiah 40:9 “Heaven” has been released! The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has done an incredible job with this powerful, thirty minute message, and I wanted to take a moment to share it with you. Quite honestly, I am still humbled to have been a part of this project. It’s unbelievable, really. Billy Graham has been an inspiration to me in my faith, as he has been to millions of others, since my early days as a new Christian. I remember reading his book, The Journey: Living by Faith in an Uncertain World (affiliate link), just about one year after coming to Christ. I was looking for answers, trying to figure out how to do…

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

love your enemies, how to love your enemies, martin luther king jr

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

my hope with billy graham, billy graham, my hope, hope, heaven, new billy graham film

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.

All is Grace

Posted on: August 21st, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 2 Comments

It’s easy to see the grace of God and be thankful for it in all that is good in our lives. But can we recognize His grace and be thankful in our trials? In the midst of uncertainty and pain? Can we see that everything––the good, the bad, and the ugly––all of it, is grace? Like many of you, my story is not one I would have chosen for myself. For years, I found it difficult to embrace the life I found my self living. But over the course of the last few years, God has opened my eyes to see the thread of grace He had been weaving throughout each and every moment of my life from the beginning. Grace, it turns out, was there all along––through the good and the bad. Grace was there, guiding me throughout my childhood. Grace was there, strengthening me through my parents’ divorce….

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…