Don’t you just love how strongly God can speak to you through his Word? Just this morning – like pretty much any morning – I was reading my Bible and suddenly Numbers 11 reflected back my own attitude. The riffraff among the people had a craving and soon they had the People of Israel whining, “Why can’t we have meat? We ate fish in Egypt—and got it free!—to say nothing of the cucumbers and melons, the leeks and onions and…
Do you feel God is distant and not interested in you? In that case don’t trust your feelings. God is near and very interested in you. But let’s see why we could feel that way. First of all we need to know that God is not hiding. God is waiting to be found. So if we are spiritually unsatisfied it has something to do with us. Do we rush through life so stressed out and busy that we don’t have…
Christians are citizens of two worlds: God’s kingdom and the world we live in. Sometimes it is a struggle to balance out these two. We don’t want to be worldly yet we are meant to live to the fullest. How should we balance life and faith? It’s important to note that the secular world does not necessarily mean an atheistic world. The secular world is a world that has no special religious connotation. C.S. Lewis has stated “Christianity was never…
It is very important in life to get the right perspective. Only then can we gain the right perception. Just think of the story of David and Goliath. The Isralites all thought “Goliath is so big we can never kill him.” But David thought “The giant is so big I can’t miss.” We also need to discern whose perception we trust. The world tries to convince us that only the knowledge that can be perceived through five senses – and…
He who has learned to pray has learned the greatest secret of a holy and happy life. ~William Law Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and…
View the story “The Cross & Dying to Sin or What Grace Is All About” on Storify] Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it…
Today is Martin Luther’s birthday, the day after mine. That’s why I’ve always felt a deep kinship with him. I love the passionate way Martin Luther talks about God’s grace. Luther’s most famous hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” is such a good example of his unwavering faith in Christ Jesus. The hymn is a paraphrase of Psalm 46. The hymn is widely and ecumenically used which brings me much joy. A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark…
Life is a journey. With the words of Billy Graham “My home is in Heaven. I’m just traveling through this world”. This life is not everything there is. God is waiting for us to get home. Life is a gift. It’s fragile and it’s precious, and it’s over before we know it. We need to be mindful how we use our time here on earth. But if God is the center of our lives, then everything gets meaning. Then even…
One of the most quoted Bible verses is Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God!” Too often we just think of it as an invitation to silence. But it is an invitation for a whole new way of thinking. It is an invitation for a peace-filled way of life! Let’s explore! The Message Bible paraphrases Psalm 46:10 this way: “Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above politics, above…
Does faith and luck have anything to do with each other? Not if we think that luck has nothing to do with God. But if we see God as a giver of luck or blessings, then faith and luck are closely related. Even the beatitudes could be translated “Lucky are those”. The Greek work used here is ‘makarios’ and it means “the ones to be congratulated” or “the ones who are fortunate”. Jesus starts his sermon on the Mount with…
