Dear Carly,

Faith is tricky. It's hard to walk in the life of faith without any "real" guidance for where you're going. To be honest, some of the time I'm not fully sure if the bible is real. But, then there is always something that goes down in my life that assures me that God is real and my faith can be real, if I pursue it. But I'm not here today to tell you about the cool things that God has done in my life -- that would require far more, much longer posts than this. But I am here to shine a small light on why faith is so hard. It's going to be straightforward, but hopefully it will make sense and open up something that you maybe didn't think about before. And that, is how to walk of life of sticky faith. In Exodus, a miraculous story takes place. The Hebrew people are slaves in Egypt, and the Pharaoh has ordered that every newborn hebrew boy gets drown in the river (as a means of population control). There is one, Hebrew mother in particular who didn'...

At floor bible study this week, we were talking about James 2: 14-16, which talks about faith and deeds. It reads: " What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?  Can such faith save them?   Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.   If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?   In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.   But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds,  and I will show you my faith  by my deeds.   You believe that there is one God.  Good! Even the demons believe that —and shudder. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?   Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?   You see that ...