o me of little faith [the vlog project]

Have you ever doubted God?

I know. That’s a loaded question, right? I know that I can say that I’ve struggled from time to time with my doubts. And if you’re completely honest about it, then you probably have at some point in your walk with Christ too. Most of us have our doubts, but few of us are willing to actually talk about them.

Why is that?

Do we feel like that if we doubt God that we’re somehow walking away from our salvation in Him? Or maybe we feel like we’re supposed to be strong and suck it up and put on this show like we have it all together.

I sometimes wonder if guys like Abraham, the father of faith, ever doubted. I imagine that when he got the instruction to go sacrifice his son Issac that he must’ve doubted God, even if just for a moment. Wouldn’t you?

I wonder if it’s not as important that we doubt God (because we most likely will), but what we do with that doubt. Doubt can be an important part of having faith. Do you agree?

The book

Writer/speaker Jason Boyett recently released a book about this topic called O me of little faith: True Confessions of a Spiritual Weakling. In this book Boyett shares the stories about his doubts, and explores things like how we doubt, why we doubt, and what to do about it.

The project

Are you interested in getting a free autographed copy of this book? I’m giving away a copy, but you’ll have to work for this one! You can enter this drawing the following ways…

1. Submit a video about your own struggles with the following criteria (5 entries)
   - No more than 3 minutes in length
   - Share about how/why you struggled with doubt
   - Share how that experience has been important to your faith
   - Add your video link (YouTube, blog, etc.) to this post using the Mr. Linky widget below (before June 11th)
2. Comment on this post (1 entry)
3. Tweet this post (must include @bibledude and #littlefaith, 1 entry per tweet)

The videos

found art: capture [beauty] photography project

This is one of those projects that I expect will blow me away as people like you share to bring together an amazing act of creativity. This creative photography project was inspired by the memoirs of Leeana Tankersley called Found Art: Discovering Beauty in Foreign Places.

This book is a series of stories from Leeana’s life as the well-traveled wife of a Navy Seal, and is interwoven with Ecclesiastes 3. Leeana shares how she finds incredible beauty in places that she least expected it.

As part of a greater project related to this book, Writer and Photographer Tasra Dawson (tasramar.com) will host a photography project on her blog during the week of March 1-5. Participants will be asked to capture beauty, especially in something that someone else might not see as beautiful, and then be given the opportunity to share their picture and explain why they find beauty there. And if you are a follower of BibleDude.net, then I’d like to post your photo here and submit the link to this part of the project.

I think that I may also have some goodies (including a free copy of this book) to give away to a random participant, so make sure you get your photo in for this project right away!

Here’s how you can participate:

1. Take a photo that captures beauty where someone else may not see it
2. Go to http://www.facebook.com/bibledude.net
3. Explain why you found beauty there in the “What’s on your mind?” field
4. Click on the photo icon (circled in red) to upload your your photo
   
5. Watch for the new post on BibleDude.net with your photo

If you are interested in following along, then check back with this post often as I will update the list below with links to all of the photos that have been submitted here at BibleDude.net.

• window by nancy rosback
• light wins by karen eck
• innocent play by larry meredith
• prayer walk by dan king
• the water by kailey morgan
• your photo here…

So check out the book, follow this project, and enjoy finding beauty in the most unexpected places!

Human Relations – Agape Communication

In my studies to complete my degree in Church Ministries, I am currently completing a class on Human Relations. One of the big foundations of this course is the idea that the love is an important part of all human relationships, and the source of that love (agape) is from God. This video is a class assignment that touches on the concept of achieving “agape communications” as an essential aspect of maintaining Godly relationships.

Watch the video, and answer the questions that follow…

YouTube Video :: Video :: Human Relations - Agape Communications

Questions to consider (feel free to answer in the comments to this post):

(1) How good of a listener are you? Try turning the focus of the conversation onto the other person, and consider whether they feel like they are being listened to.

(2) How clearly do you deliver messages? Are you sure that your audience knows what you are saying? Do you let emotion control your messages?

(3) Where do you typically stand when conflict arises? Do you rise to the fight, or do you make sure that you put yourself on the same team as the other person to commit to agape and partnering to find a solution?