Real World

Speak Life

/ Joshua Thomas / 1 Comment

“Don’t let any evil talk come out of your mouths. Say only what will help to build others up and meet their needs. Then what you say will help those who listen.”

Ephesians 4:29

I love words. It’s one of the reasons I love to write, so many words with deep meaning can come together and create a complete thought. That thought can then translate into an idea, and ideas become unstoppable. They create change and leave an impact, but we have to be careful with our words. Many times, we get excited by the power of positive change and movements from people because of words, also have the capability to tear down and destroy others. I have a deep love of words, but I also understand that they have a dark side to them. It all depends on how we utilize this powerful tool. We all have a responsibility with our words, one that we can use to build up and encourage, or tear down and crush others. Today I want to talk about the impact of speaking life can be towards another person, because we need this more than ever.

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University, Analyzing, and Hustle: Now What?

/ Joshua Thomas / 3 Comments

Well, it’s finally here. This past Thursday I officially graduated from UNCG! It was an awesome experience to say the least, and to be honest, never really sunk in until I was standing there waiting for my name to be called to walk across the stage for my department graduation. I was able to walk and feel like the last four years were worth it, that I had accomplished what I had set my mind towards. Today I’m doing a bit of a different post than I normally do. My typical format (for those of you who may be new readers, welcome!), is I will have a topic, a scripture, and break down to three-ish core principles that God has shown me through it. I like to break form here and there to share my heart from time to time. You see I don’t have all of the answers, I know I know, shouldn’t I be some kind of all-knowing guru? Yeah not really. Life at the moment went from being normal and sort of have a flow to it, to again being shaken up. I hope today that through some personal stories that interconnect, you will be able to look at the shifting in your own life and know you’re not alone. That’s the biggest reason I write at all anyways, I never want anyone to feel alone for any reason.

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Love & Family

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This week marks my last week as a full time college student. Pretty weird but exciting at the same time. For one thing it marks a new start, a chance for me to get out of the mundane and into my passions. On the other hand it brings unknowns and uncertainties about the future. It’s all exciting and nerve wracking, but I can’t wait to see where God takes me. I’ve learned so much over the past four years during my time at university, but there was a moment about two weeks ago that taught me immensely about two things, love and family. I’ve written about these two things several times before, but I am taking a non-traditional approach to what it means to have family and what it means to love people. I want to talk about them because I feel like in our culture today, especially in a Christian spiritual culture today, we tend to see our family as just the people we serve alongside in ministry or flesh and blood. We also use love as a bargaining chip, saying if you do “x,” then I will give you love. That’s not what we are called to do, and today I want to talk about a moment that was a turning point in the life of someone I experienced not long ago.

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How to: Hearing the Voice of God

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Hello there dear reader! I hope your day is going well, it’s a tad rainy here (which is fantastic), but I hope you are enjoying your day during this spring season. This past week I had a lot on my mind. I have papers to write with the end of the semester coming quick, and I was preparing a message I had an opportunity to give Sunday night with our youth. Throughout the week I will typically have God speak to me and give me a topic to write on Monday morning, but this week, I felt like I heard nothing. I was a bit frustrated, because in the two-ish years I’ve been doing this, I never really struggled with having a topic. I chose not to give up. I got up this morning and began my drive to the coffee shop I write in, and it hit me. It was so obvious about what I could share. You’ve most likely guessed because of your detective skills being able to see the title of this post, but I decided to write about hearing the voice of God. There are many misconceptions about what it looks like to have God speak to us and how we can listen to what he is trying to tell us. It was so apparent that I needed to write about this because I read a verse the other day that I pretty much just looked right over, but there is so much truth to it. It’s a verse that tells us how we can listen to the voice of God and shift our behavior when we don’t feel like God is there at all. James 1:19 says,

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”

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Faith in a Modern Age

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“He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

‘You have answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’

-Luke 10:27-28

What does it look like to truly follow Christ? I think so many times for us we wonder if what we are doing is the right thing, if we are allowed to do or say different types of things, or if we can associate with certain people. We need to stop. We need to break free of the mindset that faith is a set of rules. Faith with Christ is a relationship, an authentic relationship shared with the creator of all things. It’s so easy in the church world mindset that we have to follow a certain list of rules in order to be allowed in the club. Following Christ is not about earning enough gold stars to go to heaven, it’s about a relationship of love with the king of kings. This can be difficult. We live in a modern age where following Christ can be pushed to the side. We have endless entertainment and can post pictures of our bible on Instagram without ever actually reading it. The crazy thing is, this has been a struggle since Jesus came onto the scene. No they didn’t have hours of shows to stream on Netflix or some Jesus and coffee aesthetic to keep up with on Instagram. What they had was the core of the struggle, what does it look like to truly follow Christ?

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Thank (Full)

/ Joshua Thomas / 1 Comment

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

1 Thessalonians 5:18

This is a big year. My life at this time will look radically different from what it looks like now. I will be graduating and begin the search for jobs. I will be moving into new places and meeting new people. I will face new challenges and old hurts. I am very nervous about this next year. Last week I wrote about fears, I wrote about the reminders that I have to give to myself on a daily basis, because fear is the thing that tries to tear me down. I fear being a failure, I fear being rejected, and most of all I fear dying and having my life not have made an impact. I believe that God has made each one of us special and unique, capable of doing incredible things. Yet, I have seen people close to me take this fact for granted and run after their own desires. Our desires, our earthly desires, are meaningless. Sure making money to provide for your family is good and all, but why is that the focus of your life? There is so much more to life. You have so much more to give. I’m still one of those crazy people that believes I can change the world, I believe that you can change the world too. In a season of life where I feel afraid of the future and what it might bring, I choose to be thankful no matter what. I choose to be thankful, because I am full of thanks. In the midst of my fears and weakness I’m reminded about the things I have been blessed with, and in the midst of your own fears and weaknesses, you can be thank full too.

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Faith for the Real World

/ Joshua Thomas / 1 Comment

One of my favorite things to do is watch campy b-movies (in case you couldn’t already tell with the title of this blog already!). It always makes me laugh, especially while watching with friends. While having dinner with a few of my old roommates we were joking around about this movie that we had kept seeing clips from, some direct to video stuff. The movie’s premise was showing the dangers of playing dungeons and dragons, and in it you see a comical caricature of Christians. The movie looks ridiculous, but that got me thinking (not about the danger of D&D, because it’s just a game, silly), but it got me thinking about what a real world faith truly looks like. You see, there are so many misconceptions of what having a relationship with God is truly like, and many people are turned off by some of the types of people that claim to have a relationship. A relationship with Christ is one of the most incredible and real things. What that means is that you have acknowledged that you’re a sinner, which creates a disconnect from God, but God sent his son to bridge that gap. His death and resurrection allows us to enter into a relationship with him, it is a relationship that is real and raw. A relationship with Christ isn’t some legalistic or holier-than-thou type of thing, it is an authentic walk with Christ.

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