What do you think? Does it really matter what you choose today? The world is big, you are small…does it really matter what you choose today? I dare to say yes. It does matter what we do each day. It does matter what we choose. Why? Because each choice we make changes us into one direction or another. Yes, you can’t see or feel the difference today but in five years time you can already see or feel it. It…
Way too often we struggle alone. Way too often we forget to turn on the Holy Spirit GPS. God gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit and we are meant to abide in him and him abide in us. It doesn’t happen if we forget its existence. It doesn’t happen if we forget to turn it on. But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at…
I’ve always wondered why it is a human tendency to try to fit God in a box. What purpose would a-god-small-enough-to-fit-in-a-box serve? Why on earth would we like to want to tame God? I guess, we would like to use God for our own purposes. We would like to say how things should be run in our own lives. We would like to be God. That’s our human sinful nature right there. Our God is wild and holy. There is…
“Is your default mode toward others judgment or grace?” asked Rick Warren on Twitter on the 28th of August, 2010. I’ve been contemplating it ever since. Have I fully embraced grace, been changed inside out and now truly reflecting God’s love and grace? That’s what I want. But it’s not always so easy. I wonder how I can truly love the people but hate the sin. Can I really love so completely that my disagreement won’t sneak in as a…
I’ve always loved the stories in Exodus. What a powerful God we have! Each time I read them or hear them I am in awe of God’s miraculous and mysterious ways to get his people out of slavery into a life of freedom. Just like the people in Exodus so are we in deep trouble. Blessedly God’s story of salvation did not end at Exodus. Salvation is something God did (especially in Jesus) and is doing for us because we…
You’re addicted to thrills? What an empty life! The pursuit of pleasure is never satisfied. (Proverbs 21:17, MSG) “There is a God-shaped vacuum in every heart” says Blaise Pascal. Viktor Frankl talks about “existential vacuum”. According to him meaninglessness in our lives is a hole, an emptiness, in our lives. Whenever there is a vacuum we rush to fill it with things. We keep on trying one thing after another -shopping, money, work, sex, drugs, entertainment, relationships, hobbies- but nothing fills…
I posted this Eugene H. Peterson quote yesterday on the Flowing Faith Facebook page and have not been able to forget it ever since: “What a waste it would be to take these short, precious, eternity-charged years that we are given and squander them in cocktail chatter when we can be, like Jeremiah, vehemently human and passionate with God.” I think all human beings are afraid of wasting their lives. We crave for meaning and purpose for our lives. It’d…
Christianity is not about being good & doing good like too many people, even Christians, think. How did this happen? How did we end up to this? What has happened in churches if young Christians don’t know what Christianity is all about. Do you know? This CNN article talks about how more teens are embracing “moralistic therapeutic deism” meaning it’s watered-down faith that portrays God as a “divine therapist” whose chief goal is to boost people’s self-esteem. I’d say that…
“Remove Christ from the Scriptures and there is nothing left”, states Martin Luther. That is so true. Without Christ there would not be a way back to God. Without Christ there would not be life and more life to come. Without Christ we would be lost. That’s why I agree wholeheartedly with Paul writing: For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified…
We all know times when we have felt like being in a cold, moldy, dark tunnel. It feels that in that place in time there is no way out. But “hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don’t give up.” (Anne Lamott) You don’t give up and you cling to the promises of the Bible….
