Stephen De La Vega

It could’ve been a trip like any other, but Shauna and her family didn’t take the usual vacation. Instead, they assembled their family and friends to spend time with strangers, and they made memories for many in the process. This is because their vacation was eye-opening, heart-expanding, and life-changing. They built a house for a family in need and, more importantly, they demonstrated to this family and to themselves how profound a life with Jesus can be when it involves sacrifice. Shauna, her husband, and their two boys, along with her parents, her brother, and family friends, sacrificed five days of their lives to serve on a Homes of Hope team in Mexico. Homes of Hope (HOH) is a ministry of Youth With A Mission ( YWAM ) who have been inviting youth into international missions work for 60 years! Shauna told me how great the trip was for her family and the family they served, and I want to share their experience with you. Below is an interview with her. Hi Sh...

God’s gift of eternal life is worth celebrating. Our freedom from the leash of sin is better than any other freedom. The love and adoration we enjoy from our Heavenly Father is comforting beyond measure. Praise God for His ever-reaching mercy and grace. But the Christian life is not all fun and games. God didn’t intend for us to stop at celebration. When we start off on the road called Hope, we should quickly merge onto the road called Holiness. Do we Christians and faith communities (and even churches) cruise up and down Hope and steer away from Holiness? Do we celebrate and thank God for His forgiveness, glibly excusing our humanness as that part of life God no longer holds against us? God expects more. We’re not only saved because it’s good for us. We’re also saved to sacrifice for God. Timothy wrote that God “saved us and called us to a holy life” ( 2 Timothy 1:5-10 ). And, of course, we remember Romans 12:1: …I urge you…in view of God’s mercy, to offer you...

[This post originally appeared here  with the title:  Wise As Solomon .  I wrote it as a guest blogger for Liz Petruzzi.   Be sure to visit her site  and enjoy her heartfelt blog .] Wisdom was nicely packaged along with a dreamy and delectable fruit dangling from a forbidden tree.   At least, that’s how it seemed for the woman… No, this isn’t the opening lines of a romance novel.   It’s our history.   It’s the framing of an eternity apart from God when you spin it from a crafty serpent’s vantage point.   But the fruit was supposed to be looked upon with reverence and awe toward God, the Creator, by anyone who fears Him. We can read about this fruit in Genesis 2 and 3 and recall the passing of events that determined the fate of humankind.   A universal death sentence, all because someone aspired toward something good (wisdom), but in a way that dismissed a required reverence toward God.   And Adam continued to d...