Sometimes we overlook things that we are familiar with. We are more excited about things that seem to be exotic. Like Christianity might feel boring to you if you’ve grown up with it. You look into mindfulness to look for peace and you forget that the prince of peace is Jesus himself. You forget that he gave his all that we could have all. That’s the best bargain of all. You are familiar with the generosity of our Master, Jesus Christ. Rich…
Life is complicated, isn’t it? When you feel you’re getting hang of it, something happens and everything changes and you’re once again trying to cope. You don’t know how long you will live either. Life sure is unpredictable. When you’re young, life seems endless but the older you get, the shorter life seems to become. What to do then? How do you handle aging? Is death something that will take away all your fun or could it be something more…
Today it has been exactly 500 years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg church. He did not know his actions would change history but they did. Luther just wanted to remind people of what faith was all about and what it was not. He wanted to get people back to the basics: we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Luther nailed it. There’s still nothing else that saves us. The power…
It seems we all have something to overcome. Sometimes I feel life is about overcoming. If you try to do it on your own, you don’t have much luck. If you do it with some others, you might succeed. Like Vesta Kelly has said ‘Snowflakes are one of nature’s most fragile things, but just look what they can do when they stick together.’ But even that approach is lacking at the end. The only thing that enables us to truly…
Did you know that you have a standing invitation to Jesus? How wonderful is that? We are always welcome to Jesus. No matter what time is it or how badly we have messed up. Neither does it matter how long it has been since we’ve visited with Jesus. We are always welcome. Jesus keeps on inviting and is always delighted to see us. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28,…
Is it easy for you to keep calm in every situation you face? There have been a lot of fun “keep calm” posters, keep calm and do this or that. They are fun to look at. But the thing is: there is no way anyone can truly keep calm without inner peace. And that’s not a thing you can force upon yourself. Or anyone else for that matter. What to do then? How can we find that peace and claim the…
When things go south who or what does support you? Having a support system is one of those things in life that make a huge difference. There are times when we need support. When we are down or weary, we need someone to lift us up. Who does support you? What kind of support system do you have? Does it work? Human support systems fail My experience is that any human support system – no matter how good and dedicated it…
Do you have a special place on earth that you call your own? I’ve always admired people who are established and happy about it. I’m more a sojourner in spirit. For my kids, I am planning on staying at one place as long as God is not specifically calling us elsewhere. I think, until I get to heaven, I will always be eager to move on. How about you? But [we are different, because] our citizenship is in heaven. And…
When you’re exhausted you don’t want to be pushed and told to try even harder. Especially when we are down we need grace. Jesus is calling to him all who are weary. He will not urge us to try harder, instead, he gives us rest. And when we have rested, he will empower us with his grace to do what we can’t do on our own. I see Christianity as grace and that’s why it’s difficult for me to understand…
I reserve Sundays for play and worship only. I try to avoid doing anything useful (like doing laundry or mowing the lawn). When you first start doing this, it might feel a bit annoying that you can’t deal with the everyday stuff whenever you want. But when you truly embrace the idea of play and worship only, you start celebrating the fact that you have a whole day set aside for worship and play only. You can plan ahead of…
