Openhearted living is what God wants for us. He wants us to be fully alive, living in grace and loving him and each other. The enemy wants exactly the opposite. He wants us to be separated from God and other people. He wants us to build walls around our hearts. He wants to kill an destroy all the goodness in our lives. The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have…
There are good reasons why you are you. God made you unique and he wants you to be true to your real self. Don’t try to be someone else, that’s not who God made you to be. Sometimes we even forget who we really are. It might not be intentional, some circumstances just have pushed our inner self to retreat. Then we need to ask God to show us who we really are, whom God made us to be. I…
God’s promises are not too good to be true. Jesus even promised something that some of us wish he hadn’t. Jesus told us that in the world we will have trouble, tribulation, and trials. But that’s not the end of it. Jesus also told us that he will be with us until the end. He told us that he deprived the world of power to harm our souls. Read for yourself! I have told you these things, so that in…
What makes you yield into temptation? If we know this, we are more likely not to yield into temptation. Because then we know for what to pray. And that’s the key to living well. When we invite God into our lives, we are empowered to victorious living. That’s why the chapter ten of Mary DeMuth‘s new book The Wall Around Your Heart concentrates on this very important matter. Mary gives us a new way to look at temptations. She writes…
We all know people that either drains us of energy or drives us other wise nuts. How are we supposed to deal with these very draining persons? Especially as Christians? I’d rather not deal with them at all. But that’s not a very constructive attitude, is it? Certainly not very Christian anyway. What would Jesus say? “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to…
Are you a good manager of your time and money? Is your life in good order? Do you have what it takes to navigate wholesomely your life journey? Or do you need help? Time for evaluation: “Take a good, hard look at your life. Think it over. You have spent a lot of money, but you haven’t much to show for it. You keep filling your plates, but you never get filled up. You keep drinking and drinking and drinking,…
What matters in faith journey is what we do when we fall short. Do we deny our shortcomings and start pretending to be what we are not? Or do we run to Jesus? Why is this so important? Because if we keep from admitting that we are sinners, we harden our hearts. Blessedly this is not the end of the story. God can change our hearts, we just need to ask God for forgive our sins. And I will give…
The writing prompt today from Five Minutes Friday was ‘together’. My immediate association was Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s wonderful but challenging book Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community. Bonhoeffer teaches us how to be church together, how to live out faith the original way. Faith is not just an individual affair, no matter how much we would like to be independent. Faith is not just a communal affair, no matter how much we would like to keep it social….
Do you pray daily? Or do you save it for special occasions? Jesus taught us to ask for daily bread. He told us to ask daily for anything we need, nothing more, nothing less. God is our heavenly father who wants to take care of our needs and sustain us to victorious living. (But realize that Jesus advised us to ask for our needs not wants.) Give us today the food we need. (Matthew 6:11, NLT) Mary DeMuth wants us…
How to build our lives on God? That’s the question. By following the example of Christ is the quick answer. But let’s try to find some blueprints for building our lives on God. The sixth chapter of the letter to Romans give us some advice. For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it] once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him]. (Romans…
