Spiritual Formation

Shame and Identity, Part 3: The Macro Identity

By Ryan Bailey / December 18, 2023 /

As we learned yesterday, God, our Creator and Master, has given us our identity. To make this truth more digestible, we can break our identity into two parts: our Macro and Micro identities. Today, we will discuss the Macro identity. Tomorrow, we will discuss the Micro identity. The Macro identity is the identity we share…

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Shame and Identity, Part 2: Where Does Our True Identity Come From?

By Ryan Bailey / December 18, 2023 /

Do we have the right to determine our own identity? Are we masters of our own fate and captains of our own souls? Genesis 1:27 tells us that God created us. As our creator, He knows how we are designed. He knows our essence. He even knows our worth. Genesis 1:26 says that of all…

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Shame and Identity, Part 1: Meet Jack

By Ryan Bailey / December 18, 2023 /

is the head of a ten-person law firm. He works with more clients than most attorneys do. He’s in a very stable and loving marriage. Jack has four children who respect and value him. He’s an elder at his church. Jack also struggles with his weight. He has no margin in his life and thus…

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Too Busy to Have a Quiet Time… Try this: Part 1

By Ryan Bailey / November 22, 2023 /

We all know that it is vital that we connect to God throughout the day.  The more we do, the more we can’t help but praise and thank Him. If we connect to Christ throughout the day, we will abide in Him, and we are often far less tempted to indulge the flesh. Most people…

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Too Busy To Have A Quiet Time? Try This: Part 2

By Ryan Bailey / November 22, 2023 /

Connecting to God is essential.  We can do nothing without Him. Yet all of us have had those days that are so full that it is hard to spend as much time as we want to with Him. On those days, we can pepper in some shorter ways of connecting to God. That way, we…

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Too Busy To Have A Quiet Time? Try This: Part 3

By Ryan Bailey / November 22, 2023 /

This series discusses how to have quick but meaningful quiet times with God for those (hopefully rare) days when things are absolutely hectic. In the first blog, we discussed practicing the presence of Christ and breath prayers. In the second blog, we listed four more ways to connect with God, including two more ways we…

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Too Busy To Have A Quiet Time… Try This: Part 4

By Ryan Bailey / November 22, 2023 /

If you’ve read the first three blogs in this series, you should see that there isn’t any excuse not to intentionally connect to God every day, even when you are super busy.  Some of the ideas we discussed could be done as you go.  The rest can be done in under five minutes. Of course,…

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Making Scripture the Standard of Truth Across Your Personal Life

By Ryan Bailey / November 15, 2023 /

What is your standard of truth? What do you choose as the truth when your emotions are saying one thing, your reason is saying another thing, your friends and family are saying a third thing, experts are saying a fourth thing, and the Bible is saying a fifth thing? As Christians, we say that the…

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Reigniting Sexual Intimacy in Marriage

By Ryan Bailey / December 16, 2021 /

Remember Song of Solomon?  it seems like the husband and wife depicted had a lot of fun together.  They expressed so many forms of oneness: emotional, relational, spiritual, and obviously physical. Where has that gone in your marriage?  Was it ever really there?  Working with couples for two decades, I’ve seen how easy it is…

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Rewarding Good Habits Doesn’t Last; We Need Motivation

By Ryan Bailey / December 15, 2021 /

In re-listening to Atomic Habits by James Clear, he makes it clear that when we are developing a good habit, we need to find immediate rewards for them.  That alone has been so effective in helping me stay on track with the weight loss system I am on.  Try adding that into whatever good habit…

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