On Fridays on Living with Power, I simply give things away.

There is a weekly $25 gift card give away to one of my lucky email subscribers. You can be a part of it by subscribing. Simply click here.

This week’s gift card winner is: ivy garven. Email me at lina@livingwithpower.org to claim your card!

A couple of weeks ago, I also started putting away $5 per comment each Friday towards a fund I’ve called the LWP Fund. You have helped me raise $625 so far. The goal of the fund is to meet needs. It may not feel like much of a fund yet, but it will grow with time. I posted more thoughts about this last week.

You can help in 2 ways:

Anger always leaves casualties and chaos in its aftermath.

Consider King Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther.

He was married to a beautiful woman named Vashti. Things seemed to be going great in their marriage until one day Vashti decided to do things her own way. You can’t blame the lady. Her husband wanted her to parade herself in front of a bunch of drunks at the height of one of the craziest parties ever thrown in the Persian kingdom.

Most Christians simply don’t know how to tell others about Jesus Christ.

They may want to do it. They may try to do it. But after a few failed attempts, they resort to becoming closet Christians living out their Christian existence in utter silence until their dying days.

That’s really sad.

And it’s utterly needless.

Jesus Christ commanded us to tell others about Him and faithful is He who calls us who also will do it! Learning how to share your faith regularly with others is easier than you think.  I want to present to you 5 tips on how to share your faith with others.

I recently asked the question: “What would you do if you only had 1 more year to live”.

Without a doubt the greatest number of responders said the same thing: I’d quit everything I was doing and tell the world about Jesus.

Which begs the obvious question: Why aren’t you telling everyone about Jesus already?

I suggest these 4 reasons why most Christians don’t tell the world about Jesus:

I like Abraham a lot.

He’s a man of faith but he’s not perfect.

He takes a jump of faith into the unknown, but then drops the ball when he agrees with his wife Sarah’s plan to have a baby with the maid. That never works out well. Just ask Arnold.

As if that wasn’t dumb enough, Abraham is one of those guys who seems to also have trouble learning from his own mistakes.

In Genesis 12 – right after God calls Abraham – a famine hits the land. Without getting God’s opinion, Abraham runs to Egypt to hide. In a self preservation kind of move, he lies to everyone including the king and claims that Sarah is his sister and not his wife.

Why would he do that?

I get easily stumped.

I set out to do something but get discouraged when I don’t see results as quickly as I’d like.

I stumble and trip at the slightest stone in my path.

I find myself afraid. A lot.

Afraid of failing. Afraid of being hurt. Afraid of being rejected. Afraid of running out of money. Afraid of making a mistake. Afraid of what people will say. Afraid of missing out.

You get the point. I’m afraid a lot.

Happy Friday everyone. I’m so ready for the weekend.

This has been a big week for me in some ways. God is shaping my vision for Living with Power and you are all a part of it.

First let me announce the winner of this week’s $25 gift card is: Kathy Lukav! Email me at lina@livingwithpower.org to claim your gift.

Second I happen to have 2 CD’s by my friend Lindsay McCaul who just released her first album this week. I would love to give them away to the first 2 people who email me at lina@livingwithpower.org.  Lindsay also leads worship at my church Harvest Bible Chapel so many of the readers of this blog know her too!

Third let me bring you up to speed on what I’m doing with your comments on Friday!

I’m one of those people who likes to know how I’m doing.

When I want to know how I’m doing financially, I check my bank account.

When I want to know how I’m doing in the dating world, I check my little black book. It’s been lost for the last decade, so there’s that…

When I want to know how I’m doing physically, I weigh myself – but the truth is that I don’t always really want to know this one!

What about when I want to know how I’m doing spiritually? How should I measure growth when it comes to my walk with Jesus?

There are many ways to answer that question. 

I haven’t written about sex in a while, and I’m feeling a little left behind by the Evangelicals.

Since my last blog post about sex, Pastor Mark has published a book on marriage that covers a healthy section on sex, and pastor Ed Young in Dallas has started his Sexperiment, that’s not counting the myriad blogs that have followed in opinion and discussion.

Sex is hot, no pun intended, and I won’t be left out.

But wait…I can’t talk about sex. I’m single.

I can’t think about sex.

I can’t look at sex.

I can’t even try sex.

All I can do is hope that some nice guy marries me so I can jump in on the discussion.

Or not.

Look, when it comes to sex, I believe we’ve gotten it all wrong.

A friend recently asked me to explain to her how to journal.

If you’re not familiar with journaling, it’s one of those additional disciplines that often gets talked about in Bible study, especially women’s Bible study.

I love journaling. I’ve journaled for years, ever since someone told me it would help me grow in my walk with the Lord.  I have closets full of journals, and I now have even transitioned to blogging, which is a form of online journaling.  That’s how much I believe in journaling.

But as I sought to answer my friend’s question, here’s the first thing that came to my mind: