Living out faith seems fun and easy when things go well. But what are we supposed to do when things don’t go so well? Still keep going strong? But how is it possible? The trick here is….we are not to lean on our own strength…but on God’s strength. We are not to thrive on our own…but to let God empower us. Then it’s not about good times or tough times. It’s about kingdom living. It’s about Christ living in us….
I think we all grave authentic living, being true to ourselves. We want to forget faking and hiding behind masks. But do we dare to do so? Do we dare to bare our souls to others? Are we finally ready to admit that we are not perfect? Not only to ourselves and people around us but also to God? Like he would not know everything already, right? Like God would want us to be anything else but our true selves….
Do you wear glasses regularly or do you need reading glasses? What a blessing it is to have a way to see clearly, isn’t it? Otherwise everything is a bit blurry. Hard to focus, hard to see. That’s exactly the way it is in our spiritual life too. It’s hard to focus, hard to understand what’s what. We need spiritual reading glasses to see clearly. Especially when we read the Bible. Otherwise we miss the wonderful things in it. Let…
Did you know that the color red is in the core of Christianity? I was checking out verses including the word red. When I was going through those verses I realized red was indeed in the heart of the Gospel. Let me explain. As Oswald Chambers has said “Sin is not weakness, it is a disease; it is red-handed rebellion against God and the magnitude of that rebellion is expressed by Calvary’s cross”. We all are rebels against God and…
What kind of excuses have you given to God? How do you rationalize your refusal to obey? This week I learned there is something Kurt Bubna, Moses and I have in common when it comes to choosing either the route of obedience or excuses. How about you? Kurt Bubna writes in his new book Epic Grace, Chronicles of Recovering Idiot that he did not want to become a pastor because he was terrified of public speaking, had no desire to…
There’s never too much grace. I love grace and I breath grace. It’s what sustains me and keeps me going. We should never take God’s grace granted and get too used to it. That’s why we need reminders of God’s abundant and amazing grace along the way. That’s why I was thrilled by the title of Kurt Bubna‘s book Epic Grace. Isn’t that true? Grace is not just amazing; it is truly epic. I’ve been waiting to get my hands…
Life is sometimes really yucky. Sometimes it really feels that all we do is shoveling dirt. How could we conquer the mount of dirt in our lives? How should we respond to all the dirt thrown our way? One thing is certain. If we store inside of us all the accusations or wrong doings we’ve experienced, we will burst or, at least, feel yucky. We need to learn to deal with the dirt in our lives. Otherwise we will drown…
Do you always want to have the last word in arguments? Why is it so difficult to not to be the one who knows best? Why does it seem to be so harmful to be weak and lowly? Probably because we think it is about us. Because we think we could solve the problems, that we should have power. But it is not about us. And we can’t solve the problems. And we don’t have anything lasting. If we don’t…
Spiritual blindness seems quite an extreme idea. Somehow we are quick to toss away that idea. If we know God, we are not spiritually blind, right? Not so fast. Look again. This is not an either/or matter. We are not either spiritually blind or have a 20/20 vision. We can also be spiritually shortsighted. What to do then? How can we ensure that we are not spiritually shortsighted? First of all we need to remember that it’s not about us…
Are you feeling the effects of Monday? Are you in need of a fresh supply of hope and encouragement? If yes, let’s turn our eyes on God. That’s where our help comes, day after day. God will never let us down. I’m homesick—longing for your salvation; I’m waiting for your word of hope. My eyes grow heavy watching for some sign of your promise; how long must I wait for your comfort? There’s smoke in my eyes—they burn and water,…
