# BFA Blog

> Musings of an unidled mind


## Posts

- [What to Do When You Feel Spiritually Lost: Wisdom from Search and Rescue](https://bfadams.blog/2026/when-the-trail-runs-cold/)
- [When the Spirit Calls and Every Voice Answers: A Christian Poem About Obedience and Self](https://bfadams.blog/2026/when-the-spirit-calls-and-every-voice-answers-a-christian-poem-about-obedience-and-self/)
- [Why Christians Pressure Each Other to Be Normal — And Why That's a Problem](https://bfadams.blog/2026/why-christians-pressure-each-other-to-be-normal-and-why-thats-a-problem/): I was lied to. And now I must deal with the resentment. The lie? “Be normal.” From my earliest memories, I was told to “fit in,” to “act normally.” Problem is, I wasn’t normal. At least not in the normal sense of, well, normal. This was true before I came to faith, and it is even more true now that I am maturing in my faith. The pressure to fit in was implicit and explicit. It came from individuals, groups, and culture at large. Only recently have I come to fully appreciate just how different I am. A convergence of facts
- [Why the Institutional Church Keeps Failing: We're Fixing the Wrong Thing](https://bfadams.blog/2026/why-the-institutional-church-keeps-failing-were-fixing-the-wrong-thing/)
- [What It Really Means to Be Born Again: Surrender, the Spirit, and the Cost of New Life](https://bfadams.blog/2026/what-it-really-means-to-be-born-again-surrender-the-spirit-and-the-cost-of-new-life/): One can no more *choose* to be born again than to be born in the first place. Our second birth is foretold by the birth of Jesus. God’s will expressed through the consent of a woman, resulting in a new life. Now, hear me clearly — I am not suggesting our rebirth makes us divine. But it is designed to bring us into unity with the Father and the Son. “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you
- [Discovering the Self Behind the Self: When Spiritual Formation Reveals Another Layer](https://bfadams.blog/2026/discovering-the-self-behind-the-self-when-spiritual-formation-reveals-another-layer/): For nearly a decade, I have worked to surrender the old me — the worldly me — and take on the version of self God designed. I came to call the old version the “false self”: the self created by exposure to evil and sin, shaped by immersion in culture, motivated by pride and selfishness. The “true self” — the only self worth being — is the one God designed before I was born. At 62, I am late to the game. But I am here. The past decade has been spent learning to obey and surrender. Learning to mourn the
- [What God Had to Show Me About Myself](https://bfadams.blog/2026/what-god-had-to-show-me-about-myself/)
- [Living as a Christian in Culture Without Belonging to It](https://bfadams.blog/2026/not-of-this-world/)
- [How Your Relationship With the Bible Should Change as You Mature in Faith](https://bfadams.blog/2026/same-book-different-function/)
- [How God Enables Surrender Without Regret](https://bfadams.blog/2026/detachment-without-remorse/)
- [Experiencing God Versus Learning About Him: The Difference Between Knowing and Knowledge](https://bfadams.blog/2026/knowing-beyond-knowledge/)
- [Why Faith Without Action Is Dead: Moving Beyond Belief to Experience](https://bfadams.blog/2025/cheap-faith/)
- [Giving Yourself Grace While Pursuing Growth in Holiness](https://bfadams.blog/2025/keep-it-on-the-board/)
- [The Dark Night of the Soul - Poem](https://bfadams.blog/2025/the-dark-night-of-the-soul-poem/): Written by St. John of the Cross. c. 1578 I. In a dark night, With anxious love inflamed, O, happy lot! Forth unobserved I went, My house being now at rest. II. In darkness and in safety, By the secret ladder, disguised, O, happy lot! In darkness and concealment, My house being now at rest. III. In that happy night, In secret, seen of none, Seeing nought myself, Without other light or guide Save that which in my heart was burning. IV. That light guided me More surely than the noonday sun To the place where He was waiting for me,
- [Why Faith Requires Practice and Experience Beyond Bible Knowledge](https://bfadams.blog/2025/practiced-faith/): What kinds of boots should I buy? What kind of knife? What about a compass (or two)? Gear was the primary focus of my early days in Wilderness Search and Rescue (SAR). It was also the focus years later when I taught SAR classes. Without fail, students used the first break of the class to pepper instructors with questions about what to buy. Letting the students know we covered gear in a later chapter seldom stopped the questions. The same focus shows up in nearly any new sport or hobby. Photography? What is the best camera and lenses? Golfing? Need the
- [Why Modern Churches Are Removing the Cross and What It Reveals](https://bfadams.blog/2025/the-vanishing-cross/)
- [Recognizing and Resisting Spiritual Attacks as You Grow in Faith](https://bfadams.blog/2025/beware-the-evil-bear/): I was on the track team during my junior year in high school, typically competing in the mile and half-mile races. I won a few and lost a few more.  One weekend our team was competing in an invitational at Edwardsburg High School (Michigan). I arrived at the event ready to run the mile race in the morning, instead coach told me I would run the half-mile race after lunch. I preferred the shorter race, but I was annoyed the coach placed me in the “slow” heat. Determined to show coach I deserved to be in the “fast” heat, I ran
- [When Science Meets the Supernatural: Why God Isn't Constrained by Natural Laws](https://bfadams.blog/2025/really-really-new-earth/)
- [The Difference Between Looking Like a Christian and Being Transformed by Christ](https://bfadams.blog/2025/dirty-carpet/)
- [What It Means to Fully Surrender Your Life to God Without Knowing What's Next](https://bfadams.blog/2024/one-more-before-i-go/): I’m down to six hours before I have to be out of my apartment. A little over sixty days ago, God told me to move. To not renew my lease. I had hoped that in the sixty days between giving notice and moving out, God would provide some answers. Where am I going? Why am I moving? What is next? God has provided some general clues and some general timelines. But He has not shown me where I will live. Everything is going into storage. I will be on the road for several weeks, waiting on an answer. But as I
- [Why Spiritual Growth Requires Discomfort and Letting Go of the Old Self](https://bfadams.blog/2024/growing-pains/): “Maybe this isn’t about being comfortable.” Asked to perform a familiar task in a new setting, a friend of mine offered this observation. Although being helpful is in her nature, she admitted she wasn’t comfortable with the new situation. I recently had grown accustom to the idea of being “without comfort.” I lived in an apartment for three years. Pleasant community and good neighbors. Centrally situated near shopping, restaurants and walking trails, it was indeed an excellent location. Two months back, I received my annual notice to renew. “Do not renew your lease” were the first words I heard from the
- [How to Wait on God With Purpose Instead of Passive Frustration](https://bfadams.blog/2023/waiting/): In our modern culture, waiting often feels like a complete waste of time. Everything is “instant” and “on-demand”. We expect immediate gratification. However, God doesn’t work that way. He has proven that to me over the past year or more. The other day, I was reading through the book of Psalms. I came across a verse that spoke to me: Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. – Psalms 27:14 (NIV) Wait on the Lord. Comforting, but still frustrating. Later I was searching for the verse online and found another version of the same text.
- [Why We Can Trust the Reliability of Scripture Across Centuries](https://bfadams.blog/2023/telephone-game/): Remember the kids’ game telephone? A group of kids would sit in a circle. A phrase would be given to the first child who would whisper it to the second. The second would whisper it to the third and so on until the last child heard the phrase. I doubt the last child ever said the phrase exactly as the first one did. That game came to mind while reading the book The Story of Scripture: How We Got Our Bible and Why We Can Trust It by Robert L. Plummer (2013, Kregel Publications). The author asserts there are nearly 5,800 unique
- [Finding Peace Through Surrender to God's Design for Your Life](https://bfadams.blog/2023/wild-obedience/)
- [Prayers Answered](https://bfadams.blog/2023/prayers-answered/): “Prayer Answered by Crosses” by John Newton I ask’d the Lord, that I might grow In faith, and love, and ev’ry grace, Might more of his salvation know, And seek more earnestly his face. ‘Twas he who taught me thus to pray, And he, I trust has answer’d pray’r; But it has been in such a way, As almost drove me to despair. I hop’d that in some favour’d hour, At once he’d answer my request: And by his love’s constraining pow’r, Subdue my sins, and give me rest. Instead of this. he made me feel The hidden evils of my
- [Learning to Trust God's Daily Provision Instead of Tomorrow's Promises](https://bfadams.blog/2023/bird-brain/): Merriam Webster defines “bird brain” as a stupid person or scatterbrain. Perhaps somewhat unfairly, as many birds are quite intelligent. But that thought came to mind the other day as I watched a chickadee feeding at a small feeder outside my window. On that day, the cute little chickadee was determined to get the large nuts that were behind the glass. He attempted to peck through the glass instead of eating the food on the tray. A true “bird brain” I thought to myself. Bird Brained Me Mind you, I enjoy watching birds feed because they remind me of one of

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