Welcome to EMBER, where faith ignites like wildfire. Dive into raw, unfiltered stories of real-life encounters with Jesus, challenge your understanding of God, and fuel your spiritual journey in a community that’s unapologetically passionate and accepting.
At EMBER, we’re not about polished sermons or cookie-cutter spirituality. We’re about real, raw stories—the kind that hit you in the gut and make you rethink everything you thought you knew about God. We believe that religion is just one path, not the whole journey. What God truly craves from us is a raw, honest relationship, stripped of pretense and full of authenticity.
Here, we don’t just share our experiences; we unleash them. We believe that these stories can spark the wisdom and knowledge of the Holy Spirit, igniting a fire within you that no ritual or routine ever could.
And let’s be clear: we believe that Jesus is the truth, the way, and the life. Life with Him isn’t just better—it’s the only way to fill that gnawing void that nothing else can touch. We’re here to show you that the journey with Jesus isn’t about religion; it’s about finding something real, something that transforms every part of your life.
EMBER isn’t just different—it’s a revolution. It’s where your faith stops being just another checkbox and starts becoming a wildfire that consumes every corner of your soul. Welcome to the spark that changes everything.
Based on the title, I have to say this one might be a bit controversial, but that’s a big part of Christianity and following God, right? I mean think about it, it says time and time again that you will be persecuted because of Me (me being Jesus). The world hated Him from the moment He came into the world. Why? The devil resides in the world. That’s a lot, let me break it down, biblically speaking.
I am making it my goal to write a blog post at least once a week, on Tuesdays, that’s my dedicated day. Well… obviously today is Wednesday… so what happened? Well, life did. Other business tasks became more of a priority, and I had to move my days around. I don’t know about you but I’m so much of a perfectionist and planner, that if my schedule is moved around even a little bit I start to fret. It’s been a challenge for me to realize, I don’t have control of every aspect of my life, and I’d dare to say, anything in my life—but that’s too tough of a pill for us to swallow. The other night was a perfect example of the unexpected taking over my plans. I was having a day, I had rested much of the day, reeling from burnout, and all I wanted was to eat ice cream and watch Family Guy (yeah, I know as a Christian I shouldn’t, but I’m also too real of a Christian to lie). I grab my remote, ice cream ready to go, and I find it, I find Family Guy on TV, I click away, ready to enjoy the rest of my evening in peace… when suddenly, I look up from my ice cream induced daze and I hear the voice of Joel Osteen? What, where’s Peter Griffin? Joel Osteen had just started preaching his sermon. I don’t know about you, but I typically do not watch him or his services, but I said, ok God, I hear You loud and clear, what is it You want to tell me today? Boy, did he slap me with a message. Joel began to speak about the pressures of life and not letting them take you out. God, through Joel, reminded me that life is hard, it is unpredictable, but with Christ we need not worry about the weight crushing us. Christ will allow us to suffer, have bad days, and in my own experience lead us right into the fear we don’t want to face (all for our greater good). But, through all of this, Christ helps us grow, find our deep-rooted connection to him, and prepare us for eternal life with Christ.
I recently started a new book- “Don’t Believe Everything You Think” by Joseph Nguyen. So far, it’s a really good book. I could tell that the author wrote this book from a spiritual point of view but did not allude to Jesus as the truth to this. The book describes that our suffering comes directly from our thinking. We all think. The author describes thoughts as random ideas that pop up into our head, the connotation we prescribe to the thoughts become thinking, thinking (usually negative) leads to spiraling. I don’t know about you, but my mind runs a thousand miles a minute… I’m serious, sometimes I wonder how fast it’s going. Especially when I’m stressed or worried. As a self-proclaimed introvert, don’t even get me started about what it does in public with a million people. Let’s say, some days I’m completely exhausted. I know I am not the only one. I know that others share in this pain, hence why I write this. This book really opened my eyes. According to the author, we stop our minds by the recognition and awareness of when our minds drift from thoughts to thinking, in particular “connotation thinking.” For example, as I sit at one of my favorite coffee shops I notice someone staring at me, “they must be staring at me because I have something on my face, my outfit must look terrible, there has to be something wrong with me.” All the while, they are completely lost in their own thoughts, unaware of me. This negative connotation I prescribed started the spiral and left me feeling, well… terrible about myself.
I’m looking at that quote on my new computer screen background as I start this blog; “Faith gets us through the darkness.” Kudos to whoever said this first, you must have had the same revelation I did. It’s the perfect quote that God has been revealing to me for a LONG time, it never clicked until this week. This week started like any other, but man has it been a whirlwind of changed plans, unexpectedness, and sadness. It sounds so trivial but as a DINK millennial my pets are my children. My beloved cat, P got incredibly sick with pancreatitis and the vet kept throwing out the C word (Cancer). After 10 years as my side kick getting me through breakups, change ups, and screw ups, I couldn’t bear the thought that now or soon, may be the time I say goodbye to him. I got angry, my typical response to any sort of trauma. A lot of you don’t know the full story of my life, the trauma, and the ups and downs, but when I tell you I’ve been through about everything in life, I mean it.
Do you ever feel like a fish out of water? Lost. Confused. Unsure about your next steps but something deep within you knows you need to take that step? Do you feel like you can't do it all on your own? Psst, you're not suppose to do it on your own. Welcome to our first blog. Read about my experience being a fish out of water as we embark on this journey together.