Throughout this season of Lent I’ve been trying to ready myself for Easter joy by praying, fasting, and listening to God. Today I will share the biggest repentance trigger of my Bible readings this Lent. Does this speak to you as loud as it did for me? Then Jesus went with them to a garden called Gethsemane and told his disciples, “Stay here while I go over there and pray.” Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he…
Some people think that living your life through faith would be boring. They could not be further from truth. Faith is not for the faint of heart! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” (Romans 8:15, MSG) God has called you out of death into resurrection life. When Christ becomes your Savior your own self is crucified and we are resurrected into new…
We are entering into the Holy Week by celebrating Palm Sunday by remembering the day Jesus rode to Jerusalem to fulfill his destiny. While doing so Jesus fulfilled also the prophecies of the Old Testament. “Shout and cheer, Daughter Zion! Raise the roof, Daughter Jerusalem! Your king is coming! a good king who makes all things right, a humble king riding a donkey, a mere colt of a donkey. I’ve had it with war—no more chariots in Ephraim, no more…
Do you let Jesus carry your burdens? Or do you still carry them on your own? Is your faith only intellectual or have you really let Jesus rule your heart? Do you trust Jesus to carry your burdens? Do you let Christ serve you, give you true freedom? Or do you still suffer alone? But the fact is, it was our pains he carried— our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that…
How long has it been that you’ve been embraced by God? How long has it been that you’ve been read by the Word? How long has it been that you’ve been home to God? God misses you. God is dying to see you. God is waiting for you to return to him! Do you remember the parables in Luke 15? 99 sheep and 1 lost and how the shepherd did everything to find the lost one? And how he rejoiced…
Grace is free but not cheap. We can’t earn grace but still it is not cheap. Because cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate, states Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Grace is free but costly. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:44, NRSV) “Costly grace is…
We are halfway through Lent already! The first half is over and now it’s time to evaluate how we are doing. How are we doing with our resolutions? Has anything changed? What has God been teaching us? Have we learned something? Have a seat! I will share how my journey has been going and I would love to hear about your experiences! I guess fasting in any form brings us little distress. That is a good think if we use…
When we live in grace God does not treat us as sinners anymore. We are his saints. But it does not mean that we would not be sinners anymore. We are not practicing sinners, that’s true. But we are recovering sinners. This does not mean that we could do whatever we want to and then ask for pardon. God forbid! A saint can’t willfully and actively continue to sin because we have been washed clean and died to sin. But…
Did you know there are beach pebbles that need water to stay white? If you take them away from beach they turn boring grey and they lose their whiteness? It is the same way with Christians. If we stay away from baptismal water and daily renewal we become grey, we lose our whiteness. I got an email yesterday from a new friend asking about “how does one saint not be also a sinner”. We all have experienced how difficult it…
What can we learn from the temptations of Jesus? Or are they inapplicable in today’s world? But it is not just about big temptations, it’s about our daily choices. It’s about putting God first in everything. My thoughts on Matthew 4: 1-11 were inspired by Eugene H. Peterson’s sermon notes found in Conversations – the Message with its translator. The core of the temptations is to put something else first in our lives and God second. The things can be…
