How do you know whether you are a legalistic or not? Mike Taylor provides us a simple test to check whether you are prone to a legalistic thinking: “ask yourself, “How does God feel about me today?” If the answer is anything other than, “He is passionately in love with me,” then you are falling into the trap of thinking that God’s attitude towards us is determined by our performance rather than by his essential loving character. In other words,…
We all know it would be good to read the Word of God (or….add any spiritual discipline here). But how come so many Christians go by weeks, month, even years without reading it? The enemy is good in making us believe his lies “you already know all the stories”, “you don’t have time”, it’s boring” etc. But also anything we “ought to do” gets us to rebel. We might even say “I am not legalistic” as an excuse to not…
Sometimes we think that our life is so small or simple that it is not significant. Maybe not if seen through the eyes of the world. But God thinks you are a Very Important Person. God created you, gave his only Son to die for you and through the resurrection of Jesus Christ made it possible for you to be made right with him. God waits to hear from you and rejoices when you bring your joys, sorrows, concerns, dreams…
Our family attended a medieval festival this past weekend. We enjoyed an afternoon of family fun: tasted some medieval food, admired the gorgeous costumes and mostly had good time. What shocked my equilibrium was an over-heard conversation. There was an older couple talking with an acquaintance. The man used harsh words to describe a person they all knew and pretty much denigrated that person. I was appalled. Then the acquaintance left. And guess what the man did? He gave another…
The word for today’s blog carnival is “fences”. Immediately I thought of the saying “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence”. But I happen to deeply disagree with the sentiment. It might look that way because it’s far away. Only when we are close by we can also see all the dirt which, of course, we do not see when we look farther away. But even this is not the answer for the greener grass….
One of the many temptations in life is to forget where our blessings come from. We explain the blessings away thinking things happened by accident or it was serendibity. Or we take the credit for ourselves. But the middle verses of the Bible emphasize the importance of counting our blessings and remembering them. And giving credit where credit is due. O my soul, bless God. From head to toe, I’ll bless his holy name! O my soul, bless God, don’t…
This image of making ourselves at home in God’s love just captured my heart today. Just think about it! God’s love is perfect. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes. God’s love never fails. And we are invited to make ourselves at home in God’s love! There’s nothing better on this earth that being at home in God’s love. “I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my…
Is your faith an accessory or an addition to your life? Or is it the foundation of your life? Too often we push God and his will in the corner. Faith is nice and God makes us feel good but we leave it there. We go on with out lives without God and radical faith. “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words…
Do you have people telling you to splurge just because life is short? That the purpose of life is “to live a little, to enjoy luxury items, to get more toys, to have been there and done that”? “Because life is short and we live only once…why not to enjoy while we can?” That kind of talk leaves me confused. How about you? That kind of talk tells about emptiness and how utterly lost people can be. If we think…
What does it mean to be on the Jesus way? How should your life look like? The important thing here is to get your faith applied and lived. It’s not enough to agree with the message, we need to put it in action. It’s not something difficult. Actually, a God-loyal life is very simple but the benefits are out of this world. A God-loyal life keeps you on track; sin dumps the wicked in the ditch. A pretentious, showy…
