“Nevers” are always thoughts and declarations with intentionality behind them. So, life listens, life laughs, life moves on, but eventually, life comes back around. It just has an irksome way of revisiting the "nevers" in a “challenge accepted" sort of way.
Read MoreI am fascinated by people who are intrinsically motivated. There is something so powerful and unstoppable about a person who doesn’t require external incentives to keep them on target.
Read MoreI don't know why, but optimism always seems to take a concerted effort. I'm convinced that optimism is found in the bigger pictures of life's journeys.
Read MoreIt hurts how much I love you // When you're curled up in my lap // Your breaths so small and shallow // And in your lips, that tiny gap
Read MoreBecause I have grown to love mornings and have seen so much change in myself because of it, I wanted to share with you my top 6 morning disciplines.
Read MoreI am highly regarded yet rarely pursued. My grind is taxing, but my payoff is priceless.
Read MoreIn situations where we recognize extremes in emotions, our tendency as humans is to come in the opposite spirit. When someone is overreacting emotionally . . .
Read MoreWe deliver information through words all the time — sending an email, making a phone call, talking to someone in person, posting an update on social media. But how are the other, more arbitrary points of connection communicated, like intention, purpose, and perception?
Read MoreI recently watched the movie Whiplash for the first time. I went into it with high expectations because I had heard so much about it surrounding the 2015 Oscars.
Read MoreI recently had a chat with a coworker who was struggling with where she wanted to take her career. She felt that she was good at her role but wasn’t sure if that’s what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.
Read MoreWelcome to my blog. I have lots of dreams in life. One of them is to write a book. When thinking about this one day, I said to myself, "Courtney, if you have a goal to write a book someday, you should probably get used to writing in general."
Read More4 You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. 9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, "The seventh year, the year of release is near," and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. 10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, "You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land."
This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
...although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples.
10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.
And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked...
10 None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot.
And through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit for they are folly to him. And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
For we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are as filthy rags.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
