I used to always think the statement, “You must love yourself first” was so cliché. But, I have come to realize there is truth in it. The only problem with the statement is the word “first”.

You must love God first! But you without a doubt must come next.

For a long time I couldn’t see it though. I even remember writing a little note to myself kind of explaining my confusion. I was filling out a worksheet that asked, “How are you feeling today?” It asked me to list my positive emotions and my negative emotions at that very moment. My negative list was much longer than my positive list. In fact there was only one thing on my positive list, “somewhat hopeful”.

Continue reading “And Love…” »

Sin has its benefits and you should know what they are!  Find out the Top 5 Benefits of Sin in this episode of Moment of Clarity.

There is a time in everyone’s life when pain will occur. Most people experience the most pain in their lives when they’ve experienced some form of loss. Loss of a dream, loss of a loved one, even loss of expected outcomes can cause pain in each of us.

Now normally in Christian blog posts, this is where someone would begin to tell you, “What’s important is what you do with the pain.” Or they might say, “what’s important is how you respond to the pain.” I’ve even heard, “what’s important is not allowing the pain to affect you.” I’m not going to do that.

All too often in my life, people have tried to convince me to move past pain that I have yet to truly identify, understand, and own. In fact it has happened so much in my life, that even as I write this post, there are still times in my life where I struggle with owning my pain when it occurs. I still have moments where I take issue with understanding my pain. I still find myself having a hard time making the transition from feeling pain, to identifying why it’s there, and really embracing that this is the person I am. In that moment, I’m a person who is hurt.

Continue reading “Numb the Pain” »

There are two BIG lies churches, pastors, and Christians tell new believers or those considering salvation. In this episode Stefan identifies those lies, and gives clarity to the matter.

So, I’m considering running a little experiment.  I’ve noticed over my short lifetime that people are not nearly as sincere as they proclaim to be.

Especially here in America, we’ve developed this list of cliché sayings and questions that we spew out at the right times in order to seem interested, sincere, intelligent, or passionate.   But the question is, how many of us really care?

Continue reading “Tell Me the Truth” »

In an effort to help all you lovers out there today I am talking about the most important things to know about love, dating, and relationships, before going on your Valentine dinner. You’ll certainly want to hear this before you head out.

We all know the “church-talk.” Forgiveness is about your freedom, and we are commanded to forgive, and forgiveness releases the other person from hurting you any longer.

But this post isn’t really about forgiveness.

I remember a time where I was going through some very difficult emotions regarding what someone had done to me. Everything I felt was justified. In fact, I felt like, if I took the time to count, I would have reached 490 instances of forgiveness (70 x 7) that I had given to this person.

They had hurt me over and over and over again, and I had turned the other cheek, the other arm, the other ear, the other everything. Over and over again. Eventually it came to a climax. They did something to me, that I finally decided NOT to forgive them.

Continue reading “This Isn’t About Forgiveness” »