Have you ever taken a selfie? Do you enjoy seeing your friends’ selfies? These self portraits usually give us glimpses of their lives. Have you ever wondered how the selfie of God would look like? The Son is the image of the invisible God, the one who is first over all creation. (Col.1:15, CEB,*) The selfie of God is Jesus. The selfie of God is indeed Jesus. And it is a huge blessing. Without Jesus we would not have an access to…
Too often we take life granted. We forget how fragile we are. We forget that we can’t control everything. We forget that there are not guarantees in life. And most of all we focus on the earthly things and forget God. We flirt with the destructive things and wonder why we don’t feel close to God. We are in danger of becoming enemies of the cross. As I have told you many times and now say with deep sadness, many…
Do you have Jesus in your heart? Good for you. But do you have inside out faith? Does your faith get an outside expression too? Does the workings of Jesus in your heart get you also work out your faith? These are fundamental questions. When our faith becomes an inside out faith, we are truly experiencing the joy of salvation. Sure, we are saved only by grace through faith in Jesus. But that is not the end of it. We…
What do you think? What is spiritual formation all about? I think it is simply becoming what God has meant you to be. It is the process of becoming Christ-like. It is growing in con-FORM-ity to Christ. How does it happen? Only by letting God work in and through us. We can facilitate the process of spiritual formation but it’s always God’s work, not ours. Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in…
Oh, how sweet the light of day, And how wonderful to live in the sunshine! Even if you live a long time, don’t take a single day for granted. Take delight in each light-filled hour, Remembering that there will also be many dark days And that most of what comes your way is smoke. (Ecclesiastes 11:7-8, MSG) Summertime seems to be an on-going bliss in our household. Life is easy and worries are small. Thanks be to God! The…
Over and over again the Bible proclaims that if we repent, God will forgive us. This grace feels too good to be true. Yet it is true. Love, grace, and forgiveness form together the very essence of God. Because we are not able to become holy on our own, God sent his only son to redeem us. Because Jesus died on the cross for our sins, we can be forgiven by grace through faith in Jesus. But if we confess…
The parable of the prodigal son is powerful in so many ways and it speaks to us in so many levels. How about you? Do you identify more with the prodigal son or with the elder brother? I just realized that the brothers had something in common after all. They were both unhappy with their father. They were both unable to understand their father’s goodness. The younger son decided to find his happiness elsewhere – with no success. The older…
Some people assume that God tries to take our freedom and restrict our joy. But they’ve bought the lies of the devil and they could not be further from the truth. Because God made us free. But we have been abusing the freedom by making bad choices from the start. Like Philip Yancey has said “God’s terrible insistence on human freedom is so absolute that he granted us the power to live as though He did not exist, to spit…
Do you live in Me-Me land? Are you only looking for self-fulfillment in this life? Or are you living for something bigger? This world around us tries to teach us to solely look after ourselves and seek self-gratification. Like that would bring us happiness and fulfillment in the long run. But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will…
Do you ever feel that you are not doing enough or accomplishing enough? Even in the realm of faith? It is time to step back and look at the big picture. Then hopefully you will be able to relax and rest in God’s grace. Because all is well. So then [God’s gift] is not a question of human will and human effort, but of God’s mercy. [It depends not on one’s own willingness nor on his strenuous exertion as in…
