Thomas Umstattd Jr.

Spoken Prayer and Our Insecurities (Praying Aloud Part 4)

Praying aloud can be scary particularly in a group setting where others can agree or disagree. Fear in Prayer Praying out loud can hit the root of our insecurities. We fear man. We fear our own pride. But it is as we pray anyway that we begin to find true healing. What better way to find freedom from the fear of man than in prayer to God. Remember, if you have turned from your sins and put your trust...

The Benefits of Praying Aloud: Power (Part 2)

Power of the Tongue We live in a world spoken into existence. The power of God’s tongue created the world. He made us in His image and our tongues have power as well. In fact, of all of the faculties imparted to mankind the tongue may be the most powerful. “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” - King Solomon “The tongue that brings healing...

The Benefits of Praying Aloud: Agreement (Part 1)

Someone once asked me. “Why should we bother to voice our prayers when God already knows our thoughts?” In response I have come up with four benefits to praying aloud. This is an adaptation from a series I did on my old blog. Silent Prayer is Fine Using our tongue to pray is by no means the only way to pray. In fact, it is possible to pray aloud for the wrong motives Matthew 6:5-8. We...

A Woman at a Well (Psalm)

You may not know Charity Chambers but she is an up an coming poet. Unfortunately, she has no blog so it is hard to read her work. The good news is that she gave me permission to publish this poem. I think you will like it even if you’re not into poetry. A Woman at a Well By Charity Chambers I was almost there, I needed one more day. I was following a vision, and I was on my way. Chasing after...

Does Jesus Have Cancer? – Part 2

In part one we talked about Spiritual Cancer and how to see if you are a cancer cell in the body of Christ. So now what do we do about the other cancer cells in the Body of Christ? Here is what Jesus has to say about it: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped...

Does Jesus Have Cancer? – Part 1

The problem with cancer is not that it causes harm (like a virus). The problem is that cancer cells do nothing. Cancer cells take resources from the body and give nothing back in return. They just grow and take the place of functioning cells. Soon there are so many cancer cells doing nothing that an entire organ can die causing death in the whole body. Unlike normal cells, cancer cells lack purpose....

The Sin of Sarcasm?

Why is lying wrong? Because it hurts people or because God said not to do it? Here are seven reasons why I think sarcasm is unhealthy and wrong. I would love to hear what you think by leaving a comment . 1. Sarcasm is a lie and not the language of the Kingdom. When I make a sarcastic comment I lie, assuming my listener knows my words to be untrue. What a trick of the devil to put lies in the mouths...

The Failure of Jesus Christ (and why we need to fail to be like Him)

"Success is a poor teacher." My dad must have repeated this maxim a hundred times as I grew up. There are some lessons that only failure can teach. If you want to mature, you need to fail. Jesus failed. So should we. Jesus’ Failure After bringing Jesus out of the desert, God calls Him to preach in Nazareth where he is unable to do many miracles because of their lack of faith (Matt...

In Defense of Religion

In recent years religion has become the whipping boy of society. The left says that organized religion is the root of all evil. The right considers religion a bad word insisting that “being a Christian is all about a relationship and not about religion.” Some Christians even go so far as to pray against the “spirit of religion.” The Bible disagrees with both of these views. “If...

Eternal Debate

Since we are on the topic of confidence, here is another post from the archive. The world says, “be self-confident.” Jesus says, “put your confidence in me.” The world says, “you can do anything you put your mind to.” Jesus says, “you can do nothing apart from me and all things through me.” The world says, “look out for number one.” The Word says, “think of others as more important...