Madison Jade's Journey

I saw a quote the other day on Facebook that said, "Growing closer to Jesus isn't a result of trying harder, it's a result of surrendering more." I reposted it and said, "Religion < Relationship. Religion brings stress; relationship brings peace. I didn't think much about it, but later on I thought to myself, "Some people are probably thinking what is she talking about? Of course Christianity is a religion. She is just one of those crazy Jesus people." That is how I got the inspiration for this post. What if I were to tell you that Jesus Himself HATED religion? Lets just look at Matthew 15: 1-20.. It is a little lengthy but it will all tie together after you read this passage of Scripture: "Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!" Jesus replied, " And why do you break the com...

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” -Jeremiah 29:11 (esv) I am not going to start this blog post out the way you think that I am. I’m not going to just simply tell you what Jeremiah 29:11 says and tell you that if you just believe that then your life will be great. I am actually going to start by saying this verse is one of the biggest verses that people love to take out of context... This verse is read and taught to others almost 100% of the time as a verse that is to be read as a PERSONAL promise from God to you and I. But the problem with this is that it ignores who it was actually written for. Jeremiah 29:11 is arguably the most well known verse after John 3:16 and that is saying a lot. You see it all the time. Why do people love this verse so much? I think it is because when their life isn’t going the way they would like for it to, they want to know that God has a method to the madn...