Called to Live Radically

Have you ever felt beyond being loved? That if people knew who you really were - complete with all your faults, problems, and mistakes - they would turn away and leave you? You know who you truly are behind the facade so often kept up.  Who would love the real you?

Does it ever seem as if there are not enough hours in a day (or week... or month) to do all the things that you need to do? So often it's as if we are perpetually playing catch up from the day before. Inevitably some things tend to get dropped as business increases and time decreases. The things that we generally ignore when we feel that time is limited shows what our priorities are. We usually do not stop doing the things we see as most important, so we end up letting go of what we do not consider necessary. In light of this, I can't help but ask, why do we so often ignore God when we are busy?

Do you ever feel as if God has forsaken you? You know in your mind that God loves you and that "for those who love God all things work together for good" (Romans 8:28), but do you ever struggle to actually feel that God is near when the dark storm clouds come rushing in? Have you ever been so lost in depression that you simply lose all hope, that you feel as though God no longer cares? I have. In spite of all I know and believe is true about who God is, His sovereignty, and His love, I still struggle so often with my feelings and emotions. It's easy in those moments of deepest despair to feel as if we are completely alone, that no one understands, and that none care. How do you focus on God when you feel so lost - when you feel as if you are drowning in a whirlpool and you don't have the strength or ability to get yourself out?

Out of all the places I had been hoping to be working for at this point in my life, the fast food industry was not one of them. This time last year I felt as though I was finally "moving up the social ladder" in my occupational life, but due to various circumstances and necessary consideration, I left my previous job and soon found myself making ends meet at a fast food joint. So often in life, we find ourselves in situations that we don't want to be in, but we currently have no control over. How should we, as Christians, respond in these situations? Here are three truths God has been teaching me about the attitude and character He requires of me:

During the past couple of weeks I have come to truly appreciate the email subscriptions to blogs and websites that provide encouragement and teaching to Christians throughout the week - a few favorites of mine being jaquelle.ca, www.challies.com, and www.desiringGod.org. Though admittedly I don't read every article sent to me, the ones I have read have been a great source of encouragement to me. My read this morning was a post Desiring God emailed to me yesterday (February 8, 2017), titled "Seven Costs of Disciple-Making" by David Mathis. In his excellent exhortation, Mathis not only discusses what disciple-making is, but more importantly what makes it so difficult. This challenging article showed me the heart of Christians' neglect to disciple: discipling is a costly road, and we in our self-centredness would prefer the cheap and easy routes.

So often, when we share the truth of the Gospel with others, we can have a tendency to end our presentation with the following: choose whether you want to go to Heaven or Hell. We want our faith to sound easy and appealing so that others will be attracted to it. The thing is, many people are quite okay with letting a God take care of their punishment and then just living their lives the way they want. Sure, they'll try to do some good things (don't kill anyone, be a good person, read your Bible, pray, be involved in a church, start a youth group, take care of the poor and needy, counsel others, etc.), but at the end of the day, their lives and everything about them is more-or-less the same. Here's my point: Christianity isn't about making one big choice and then continuing to live your life no differently. Christ didn't come and die for us simply so we can say "thanks" and keep going on life's journey however we'd like. This misses the entiret

Welcome! Thank you for stopping by my blog. My name is Mandie Pitre, and I am a young adult who loves to read and write, especially about God and living for Christ. Writing is one of my main ways to not only express myself, but to understand myself better and stay focused on what I know is true.  Reading so many great books by authors such as the Josh and Alex & Brett Harris, David Platt, Kevin DeYoung, and Greg Gilbert - as well as following other blogs and websites such as jaquelle.ca, challies.com, DesiringGod, The Gospel Coalition, and AlbertMohler.com - have encouraged and inspired me to hold fast to Christ, regardless of what is happening in my life or how I feel.  This is why I want to write. God has used reading and writing in my life to draw me closer to Him - I simply wish to see if maybe He would use me and my desire to write about Him for His glory. Hope this humble little blog might be used as a source of encouragement. For His Glory, Mandie Pitre Soli Deo

As we are presented with the Gospel, each of us is faced with the fact that we have a choice to make. We either continue resisting God, refusing the gift of full pardon for our crimes and eternal life by insisting on being our own gods and choosing to live in our fantasy worlds; or, we can choose to humble ourselves, admit that we can't save ourselves, and accept God's gift of redemption - we stop trying to be god, and surrender our throne to the one who really is God. Our response will have implications. If we refuse God, we will get what we asked for - separation from God. This may be presently preferred, as we can do whatever we want without having to follow someone else's rules - but one day we will have to answer to a Holy God for the choice we made, whether we our faith and trust in Him or not. If we reject God in our life, we will spend eternity in Hell in our death, forever separated. If, however, we believe that Jesus came, lived, died, and resurrected to