Wade Poe

One day you'll get a phone call from someone telling you that your loved one has died.   Or maybe you'll actually be there when it happens. One day someone else will get a call telling them you've died. Or maybe they'll be with you when it happens. It's coming. And the world will go on.   You'll be a blip on the radar for a moment and then, except for those close to you, you'll be no more than a footnote or anecdote in someone's random story from years gone by - if you're lucky. So live your life.   Yes, you have to work and find ways to make money and get by, but there's more to life than that.   Go enjoy it.  Enjoy your work.  Enjoy food.  Enjoy the people you watch TV with.  Enjoy all the things. Be in the moments that you have now.   Why say that?  Because there's a temptation to keep living in the next thing and in things that are days or years out from us. There's a temptation to worry about what's next.  And usually worryin...

Which takes more faith?  Trusting that God has already forgiven all your sin forever or believing that he only forgives you as you remember to "ask for forgiveness"? That was probably one of the biggest shifts for me in the last few years - from believing you need to constantly ask for forgiveness to trusting that he's already done so - even for "future sin". That's usually the biggest thing that people want to ask me about - how you can believe that and what that means for your life.   Specifically, what is a person's motivation to "be good" if you're not always "on the hook" to stay prayed up so you can make sure you're always forgiven? __________ In short, it's a different way of seeing "being saved" entirely.  Forgiveness of sins is usually thought of as being the same as being saved, but I don't see it that way anymore. Forgiveness of sins makes salvation possible, but it's not salvation.  Salvation ...

A few years back, "yo mama" jokes were very popular.  You had to be careful to make sure you told them in a clear, joking way so people didn't think you were actually talking about their mom. There was and still is a sense that if you talk about someone's mom or other relative or friend, that you're inviting trouble.  With some, if you insult or talk about their mom, they are considered fighting words. I remember witnessing a few interactions where a person felt their mom/relative was being talked about and they said they were ready to commit violence against the person who did the talking. Why?  Because you don't talk about someone's mom.  Why not?  Because in their world, mom is untouchable.  If you speak poorly of their mom, you're speaking against all they hold near and dear. Even if you told something that was true about someone's mom, if it made them look bad, you could be inviting a great deal of conflict. There's something deep about so...

You don't get to choose to be born or who you are born to.   It's one of the things in life that some people wonder about at some point.   We compare.  We imagine other paths we could have taken or could have been given.  We wonder. "Why was I born poor?"  Or vice versa. "Why was I born into this family?" "Why did I get this body?" "Why didn't I get the kind of life that is so appealing to me?" And the list can go on. __________ There's a place in scripture where we're told to "honor your father and mother so that things will go well with you and so you may live a long life". People have discussed what that means for a long time.   Is it a practical thing?  Does it mean that if you honor them, you'll do well because they've likely trained you and know the paths you should take that are best for where and when you exist?   That's probably part of it. Is it a threat from God that if you don't "hono...

When God sees you, he sees someone he has already reconciled to himself.  He has already made peace with you.  He has made you holy.  He has made you without blemish and you are free from accusation. It's already done.  He did it because you can't. He wants you to rest in that and to see yourself through that lens because that's how it is. The moment you begin thinking it's about what you do or don't do, it begins to fall apart.   It's not because you're no longer reconciled to him or not holy anymore, it's because you're trusting in yourself and not in him. Keep on trusting that what he says is true.  Beware of people who say you have to keep on earning grace by what you do or don't do.  They don't know that they are misunderstanding what God has done. "Well, what about sin?  What about doing good works?"   Yes, we should understand what sin is and put it out of our lives, but it's not what keeps you right with God.  Removing s...

Just about anytime we've bought a vehicle, in the weeks and months ahead, I would see one like it just about everywhere we went.  Even way back in the day when we'd bought a Peugeot 505s and an Isuzu Trooper! There's something about familiarity - it builds as your perception widens. Your perception widens as you become aware of something and your eyes are able to see it more easily. I probably passed the same amount of vehicles that looked like that before, but now that I drove one myself, I saw it everywhere I went. God is that same way. Once you see what he's shown you about himself and about you, you see him just about everywhere you go. A lot of us grow up being trained to see God mainly in a church building.  But as Paul said, God doesn't live in buildings that we make. (Acts 17:24-28) When you begin to see him for who he is, you don't just look for key words or a certain look from people, you begin to see him in approaches and actions and other places. You...