Faith to Witness 99

All of a sudden God’s grace is not a one-time gift of unmerited favor marked only by the day I gave my life to Jesus. While God sanctified me in full at that time, it is through my spiritual growth I come into that fullness. Jesus adorns my life with a certain spiritual grace, a fluidity of divine movement through what I say and do. I find that assuring, inspiring, and enduring. I find the need to...

Knowing what delights the Lord is how we learn His nature while He is changing ours. It is not a mystery. His Word is filled with scriptures about what delights our God. Look some up. There are so many to pattern our life with God, to the delight of God.  Apple podcast:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/buoy-faith-that-rocks/id1648558274 Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/show/2xYrGsX0cBcuwe2...

Ansel Adams said, “A good photo is knowing where to stand.” This is an invitation to step through your world with a hyperzoom lens that only your Creator has—to capture the infinite WHY you are on His earth. If you treasure God’s perspective and seek insight… you will get THE SHOT. Every day is full with His presence. A spiritual life is knowing with whom to stand. All the comfort we seek from God...

I’ll be writing about 600-mile WHYs for a long time. How do I know this? Because I am human. Because I was so stubborn about not wanting that drive to ever have happened. I fought those 600 miles throughout the week. I mulled over the turnaround moment ad nauseum. I traveled an additional 2,000 mental miles over it. Although I had learned big God-stuff, I was in denial about owning the choice to b...

Recently I landed in an eddy of spiritual exhaustion. At first I didn’t know what it was. All I could think about was letting the current win. Being lulled into staying in one place. A mindset that was mesmerized by the sky above me, with no forward direction. There are plenty of articles about spiritual exhaustion, and Biblical references to being weary, tired, heavy-laden. But leaning on God, fi...

God puts a goal in your life, a purpose, that he will bring to fruition through his nature, power and love for you. All completely within reach because of the promises he has made to you. Why? Because every promise God has made is true. How he wants to use you is 100% attainable through him. God wants us to rely 100% on Him and collect on 100% oof His promises. When we do that, we are returning a...

What is a stronghold in your life that started with one of your gifts from God, turned self-powered fortress? What fuels it, why do you spend time building it? What are you defending yourself from? What value are you protecting? Will you share it with me at  deeperwater@kathrynbise.com  or @buoykathrynb, on my Instagram account today by commenting in the. post for episode 16? Doesn’t have to be lo...

What is a stronghold in your life that started with one of your gifts from God, turned self-powered fortress? What fuels it, why do you spend time building it? What are you defending yourself from? What value are you protecting? Will you share it with me at  deeperwater@kathrynbise.com  or @buoykathrynb, on my Instagram account today by commenting in the show notes for episode 16? Doesn’t have to...

Has anyone ever rowed across the ocean with just oars? Let me tell you about John... but first, to be transparent, I am still rowing. I am. It takes me awhile to break my rhythm and listen to God. It takes me a while to let Jesus back on my boat. Even when I know Jesus can see me straining with my oars, even when He is walking toward me. I turn away from these divine assurances as if I am a tide b...

On Monday I woke up thinking about rowing, one oar over the other, because I felt the waves of my resolution beginning to overtake me, so I began to row faster. The only boat I could picture was a weathered rowboat from childhood. My witness resolution began in October, so I have been on my water trek for a while.  I have found that when I lay my plan over God’s plan, I start rowing faster, as if...

My spiritual resolution:  I am a witness of God's divine persuasion in my life. BUOY is not a one-take testimony, a dramatic life story with a beginning, middle and an end; but rather, a sharing of my relationship with God as it evolves. And continuing to leave the 99 (the fold) and go out and find “the one.” Because bearing witness to others may begin with sharing how you came to hear the kno...

Jesus is familiar at 33 years old—what he was doing, where he was, what he stood for, what his purpose was—but more elusive to think about as a baby, the baby Jesus. This baby was a spiritual boomerang from heaven. A heavenly crusader who would crawl, walk, run through the darkest thicket of earth’s forest, earth’s wilderness, and then walk again along many dusty roads to find his way to his etern...

Jesus lived a modest earthly life with precious spiritual comforts:  joyous communal meals with his disciples; lively, piercing conversations with followers, questioners, debaters, and unbelievers; walking  with  others to show the way. Through this earthly journey, He made life precious. And eternal. Every footstep reflected what he treasured and how he makes life precious for whoever believes in...

If you missed the first post in this series,   Beautiful Earthly Things,  we are considering how to leverage our human affinity for treasuring earthly things to seeking heavenly treasures  in this life . Longing to know our Creator and answer His call by “His own glory and goodness”—more in our earthly lives than that which we can see, touch, hear, smell, buy, sell, trade and accumulate. I need to...

Today’s episode begins a  mini series on filling your 2023 earthly life with heavenly treasures.   This series explores the   parallel of loving high quality earthly things—the SEEN—with loving heavenly treasures—the UNSEEN. It is about filling your earthly life with beautiful heavenly things that make life precious for you, and others. How do I treasure eternity? To want to seek out the grain of...

Today I am working toward a place of resting in my gratefulness. To prepare, I am thinking about the mystery of God’s Will, the thievery of anxiety, and the gratitude that takes me beyond. Beyond to loving others more. To loving more “others.” Go to kathrynbise.com to sign-up for weekly podcast alerts. https://kathrynbise.com

“We made the 45-minute journey, a mini modern-day pilgrimage, to go beyond the ancient wall that had surrounded Rome, to pay tribute to this humble, obedient apostle. It was here that I heard what gratitude really sounds like. In another language. I knelt at the altar next to a young lady and was immediately brought into the passion of her prayer, the power of the “grazie” in her gratitude, of wha...

What are you so all-in about that it will take the entire year to define your resolve, express it, and ride the swell of gratitude for what God will teach you along the way? If you are thinking, oh, I have plenty of time for this later, oddly, this is a good time to note that there are a few rules about the ocean. Here’s one: never turn your back on the water. If you aren’t paying attention it can...

The Bible is the most widely distributed and best-selling book in the world. Returning to the same book over and over again—even in its stature amongst the classics—requires an act of spiritual congress, or more realistically, a paradigm shift of the heart. What part of your human nature casts a shadow over how you approach reading God’s Word? Is it something similar to ambition, anxiety, like me?...

How do we handle THE WAIT that runs between God’s timing and the answered prayer? It’s hard to get a handle on waiting indefinitely. Our culture has applied an algorithm to our lives that solicits our attention in a certain way at a certain time for a predetermined result. Automation is a given. We are readily impatient because of it. Go to kathrynbise.com to sign-up for weekly podcast alerts. htt...

When Jesus called four fishermen to follow Him, they already knew all about caught fish, lost fish, and the challenges of an empty net. Then they witnessed the seaworthy bounty from Jesus’ command to drop the nets. What were they first to do? Show notes at Kathrynbise.com @buoykathrynb (Instagram) Go to kathrynbise.com to sign-up for weekly podcast alerts. https://kathrynbise.com

God created us in His image, physical like the animals but with a spirit in His image so we can have a spiritual relationship with Him. He could have created minions, but He didn’t. He created us in His likeness. God gives every human the agency to choose what we believe.  Show notes at Kathrynbise.com @buoykathrynb (Instagram) Go to kathrynbise.com to sign-up for weekly podcast alerts. https://ka...

We live in a self-centered culture flooded with influence and persuasion. We can’t help ourselves. We buy, watch, imitate shamelessly. So how much more when we are divinely persuaded by the Master Debater? What does this have to do with growing our faith? Show notes at Kathrynbise.com @buoykathrynb (Instagram) Go to kathrynbise.com to sign-up for weekly podcast alerts. https://kathrynbise.com

You have never been a person who splashes around in the shallows. You swim toward deeper. You want to be out there in life’s wind chop. Buoy bears witness to a seaworthy faith—God’s divine persuasion in our deep blue lives. Faith that rocks. Spend a few minutes navigating a deeper perspective on how our faith is our witness. If you want to buoy your life, or your swim brought you to this open wate...