laura gould

Mark 3:1-6 Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there.  Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.  Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stan up in front of the everyone." Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath:  to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" Buy they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, Stretch out your hand.  He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.  Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus." In this story, Jesus breaks the law.  Did that mean that Jesus did a bad thing?  Did that mean that the law was bad? I don't have much commentary on this story except that I think it's good to remember sometimes doing the right thing...

That was my attempt at a click-bait title.  Did it work? I need to preface this post by saying that when I say "mothers and fathers"  I don't mean my mother and father, I'm talking about spiritual mothers and fathers, the older generations in the churches.  My parents raised us in a God-centered home and all 3 of us are grown and serve Jesus.  This also doesn't really refer to my local church, we have found I think a rare place that has a lot of generational diversity and I am so grateful for that.  We are part of a movement that seeks to serve the next generation and that's why we are raising our daughters in the Vineyard.  There are tons of kids and also tons of elders.  I also have had Mothers and Fathers in the faith who have loved me, believed me and empowered me so I'm grateful for them .  :) Malachi 4:5-6 TLB "See, I will send you another prophet like Elijah before the coming of the great and dreadful judgement day of God. ...

I've been thinking a lot about prophecy recently.  A lot of it because, at least in Charismatic/Pentecostal circles, there seems to be a lot of "prophecies" and prophets wanting to sell these prophecies around.  So I've been trying to reach back in my brain to my Lee University days and remember what I learned about the markers of a prophet.  I learned a lot in classes about prophets and prophecy, but I learned a lot more by hearing actual prophets. The textbook definition of a prophet is someone who forth-tells or fore-tells the word of God.  So it's someone that brings forth God's word for a nation, a church, a situation; or someone that can tell the future; or both. Now because I've grown up in Pentecostal circles, I am extremely cautious when a "prophet" wants to start telling the future.  There was always someone trying to sell a book to predict when Jesus would come back or when God would judge America or when we would be attacked by...

I called my blog "after his heart" when I started it several years ago because I really want to seek Jesus. With everything. I want his heart for this world and his perspective and his kingdom. It supercedes everything. Now is reality of my life reflective of that? No. I'm a freaking mess and I miss it all the time. But it's my aim. I try to live the best way I know how today. That 's what most of us do, isn't it? We are all doing the best we can with what we have been given. We all come from different backgrounds and perspectives but most humans want to do the right things and be a good person. Most Christians want to follow Jesus well. Recently I've been learning how important empathy is in this time in history. We need to hear other people's stories and try to put ourselves in their shoes, in their perspectives. When we chose to not listen to another person's experience, we chose to not honor their humanity. Their experien...