Happy Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday! Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday that marks the beginning of Lent. The season of Lent is a special time when we are called to prepare our hearts and minds to Easter. Some people give up something (meat, sweets, TV etc) for Lent and some take something on (f.e. a certain spiritual discipline) for this period of 40 days before Easter. The main idea is to seek God and let him show what areas of our lives need…
Somehow we humans want to be better than we are. We’d like to be perfect. But we are not. There’s no one without fault. “There’s not one totally good person on earth, Not one who is truly pure and sinless.” (Ecc. 7:20, MSG) God knows this. That’s why he sent Christ to the world. So we would have a way back to him. Because we could never make it on our own. Why is then that we’d like to fake…
Recently I’ve been wondering how Spirit-filled life of a follower of Christ should really look like. I am certain that being a Christian does not just mean being nice. Yet, so many of us live their lives according to our own fancies and the expectations of the society. We might do some good deeds here and there to feel good. But we are not radically altering our lives. Life as we know it is easy, comfortable, and safe. And we…
How do you feel about holiness? Is it something on your ‘ought to do’ list or is it something you embrace wholeheartedly? Why is it that holiness sometimes has a bad reputation? Nancy Leigh DeMoss asks us an excellent question: “Why do we make holiness out to be some austere obligation or burden to be borne, when the fact is that to be holy is to be clean, to be free from the weight and the burden of sin?” Let’s…
Is glass half full or half empty? They say your answer depends on your outlook on life. But as Christians our life does not depend on us or on our outlook on life. Our cup is always full. Because our life depends on God and the Holy Spirit fills the portion that is empty. John the Baptist leads the way: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30, AMP) The less we are, the more prominent place God has…
How are the matters of your heart? Spiritually speaking, that is. When was the last time you let God examine your heart and cut away the thick calluses of your heart? This Bible verse got me examining my own heart this morning: God, your God, will cut away the thick calluses on your heart and your children’s hearts, freeing you to love God, your God, with your whole heart and soul and live, really live. (Deut. 30:6, MSG) Again we…
Are you in need of grace? Good for you, the most difficult step is to recognize your need of grace. Because God has plenty of grace to give you and he loves to pour more and more grace on you. Over and over again. There’s grace for every need and every situation. However, we can’t store up grace. We need to ask and receive grace every single day of our lives. But there’s plenty of it. God will -with gladness-…
It is fun to see how children learn Bible stories and act them out in their play, like our son yelling “I am strong like Samson!” in the triumphant superman pose. Samson’s life story is indeed colorful but, all in all, rather sad, don’t you think? He was wasting his gifts! Lord, have mercy! Samson had everything going for him. He had godly parents and he knew he was specially chosen and gifted. But he ended up misusing his gifts…
All my Bible readings today spoke about the importance of having a humble heart. The words of Jesus in Matthew 11:29 captured my attention right away: “I’m gentle and humble in heart.” We are called to be like Jesus. “Lord, how can I live this in my life? How can I be gentle and humble in heart”, I pray. I currently reading through Judges. Today’s passage happened to be about Gideon whose faith was even admired in Hebrews (11:32-34). Gideon…
C.T.Studd has said “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him”. I agree wholeheartedly. But I also agree with Dr. David Livingstone asking “If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?…People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. It is emphatically no…
