When I moved to Minnesota to teach at Concordia College, Moorhead I purchased a shiny white car that I dubbed Grace. I felt it would be wonderful to drive around with Grace because grace was the best thing I knew. I heartily agreed with John the Baptist testifying “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.“(John 1:16-17, NIV). Grace enabled…
In the first part of the series I presented a formula for spiritual health. We need to have a healthy diet and a good balance of exercise and rest. All that together equals as the best spiritual immune system. God (the Spiritual Immune System) : Father (Nutrition) + Son (Rest)+ Holy Spirit(Exercise) The second part of the series was about the Father/Nutrition and the third part of the series was about the Son/Rest. This fourth part of the series is…
In the first part of the series I presented a formula for spiritual health. We need to have a healthy diet and a good balance of exercise and rest. All that together equals as the spiritual immune system. God (the Spiritual Immune System) : Father(Nutrition) + Son(Rest)+ Holy Spirit(Exercise) The second part of the series was about the Father/Rest in the equation. This third part of the series is about the Son/Nutrition. The fourth part of the series is going…
In the first part of the series I presented a formula for spiritual health. We need to have a healthy diet and a good balance of exercise and rest. All that together equals as the spiritual immune system. God (the Spiritual Immune System) : Father (Rest) + Son (Nutrition)+ Holy Spirit(Exercise) This second part of the series will be about the Father/Rest in the equation. The third part will be about the Son/Nutrition and the fourth part will be about…
Why do we need to have a spiritual immune system? That’s easy. Life is hard, life is rough, life is difficult, even if we don’t talk about spiritual battles. Our faith is on line every day. In order to be able to feel spiritually well and live our lives according to God’s will we need to have the best spiritual immune system possible! But make no mistake: God is our source of health and healing. Praise the LORD, O my…
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” (Rev. 3:20 NIV) Jesus is knocking. Can you hear him? Or is your life too noisy? Jesus is knocking. Will you open the door? Or are you too busy? Lent is a perfect time to get an annual spiritual check-up. How is your hearing? How is your vision? How…
What happened to Jesus after he triumphed over the temptations? In my previous post To Give in or Not to Give in I reflected on Luke 4: 1-13. If we continue to read Luke chapter 4 we find out that after dealing with the Devil Jesus returned to Nazareth and went to synagogue. “When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written, God’s…
How are you doing with you Lent resolutions? How is your fasting going? Are you experiencing any hardship yet? Have you been tempted? That’s part of the process. What do you do when temptations rise? To give in or not to give in, that’s the question. Jesus was tempted by the Devil right after he was baptised. Read Luke 4:1-13 (the Message). Jesus did not give in. Instead, he quoted Scripture back to the Devil: ‘Man does not live on…
(Carl Spitzweg (1808-1885),”Ash Wednesday“) Lent is a blessed time: we can slow down and actively reflect on our spiritual journey. But there’s also this, it’s not too late— God’s personal Message!— “Come back to me and really mean it! Come fasting and weeping, sorry for your sins!” (Joel 2:12, MSG) Lent is a blessed opportunity: we are called to turn back to God and intertwine faith into our lives. Change your life, not just your clothes. Come back to God,…
Impossible is nothing to God! Impossible is nothing. Nothing. It is a question of our perspective once again. Do we choose to focus on our problems or lift our gaze up to God? Do we try to fix things on our own or do we invite God Almighty into the middle of our messful lives? We don’t need to fix our lives before we can approach him. God accepts us as we are and delights in helping us out. God…
