Do you ever wish you had more faith? I have good news for you. Your faith is beautiful. It is a gift from God. You don’t need more faith. What? That’s what Jesus said. The apostles came up and said to the Master, “Give us more faith.” But the Master said, “You don’t need more faith. There is no ‘more’ or ‘less’ in faith. If you have a bare kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could…
The Bible is very clear that we are all called to be holy like God is holy. It does not happen without effort but by God’s grace it is possible. To be holy is to be transformed into the image of Christ. What bothers me is the fact that people think that holy people are boring, repressed, stiff-necked,and self-righteous. But Jesus was not at all that kind of person! What’s gone wrong here? We are called to be like Jesus,…
“We have learned to live with unholiness and have come to look upon it as the natural and expected thing.” wrote A.W. Tozer. I find this to be too true these days. Anyone who tries to lead a holy lifestyle seems to be ridiculed. But Tozer died almost 50 years ago! We tend to think this unholy living is recent history. But no. Tozer talked about this and the Bible talked about it all the time. Just think of King…
Today – being Friday the 13th and all – I want to remind you to take up the shield of faith. Above all, carry the shield of faith so that you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. (Eph. 6:16, CEB) We are saved by grace through faith. But so often we forget that through faith we also receive God’s protection. God’s your Guardian, right at your side to protect you— Shielding you from sunstroke, sheltering you from…
Rest assured, God really knows you inside out. He knows what you need before you do. Are you open to God’s care? Or do you insist on going all the way alone? Today I’ve been reading about Elijah (1 Kings 17-21) and I am in awe of God’s gentle care of him. After Elijah delivered a message to King Ahab God sends him to rest in solitude. God knew Elijah needed the time away. God made sure that all his…
Do you take God seriously? Do you trust God to fulfill his promises? If you do….then be jubilant! Be exuberant! Our God is an awesome God! Why do we then drag along without joy? We forget to remember the good deeds God has done in our lives. We forget to praise God and worship him. But if we do not worship we are “swept into a vast restlessness, epidemic in the world, with no steady direction and no sustaining purpose“,…
This is a wonderful time of year in Finland. Our summers are not that hot but we really do have light in abundance. You’ve probably heard of the Midnight sun when the sun remains visible at the local midnight. Those of us who love light have a hard time understanding why some people don’t share our enthusiasm for light. There are people who prefer darkness. Like Jesus said 2000 years ago: “This is the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into…
Do you choose your own comfort over following Christ? What’s your excuse to not to surrender everything to God? Tough questions. But these were the questions that the Holy Spirit asked me while reading these verses from Luke: On the road someone asked if he could go along. “I’ll go with you, wherever,” he said. Jesus was curt: “Are you ready to rough it? We’re not staying in the best inns, you know.” Jesus said to another, “Follow me.” He said,…
We all know the the story of Jonah. We chuckle, we might find Jonah even endearing. We might marvel how God caught this runaway and especially how Jonah moved from being prayerless to praise-filled in the belly of the whale. Jonah experienced first-hand God’s mercy right then and there, probably for the first time in his life. Jonah knew God, we might even say that he had a relationship with God. But yet he was a stranger to grace. Suddenly…
One of the biggest reasons why people keep from truly following Christ is the belief that then life would be boring and, at least, all the fun would be cancelled. People are not ready to bury their dreams. It might seem that is what God wants us to do. But when you dig a bit deeper you find out that God wants to give us life and more life. God wants to bring our dreams into his service. That doesn’t…
