It’s really inspiring to hear how my texts and teachings have touched hearts (thank you for all your feedback). However, I have to admit that I feel immense emptiness and powerlessness as I get back to teaching, especially after a break. I was sharing this with God this morning and I understood that especially as empty and inadequate I was exactly the right kind of sharer of the Good News. Because it’s not about my message but about God’s Word….
As we rush into the New year, let’s not forget the blessings what God has bestowed upon on us. Faith is not just something for holidays. It’s meant to be lived every day. Only then we really receive those blessings. Faith is not an abstract notion or a theological argument, it’s a belief in God’s love and care. And then living as we believe. Live by faith. Consistently. For we walk by faith, not by sight [living our lives in…
Starting a new year is exciting. Getting a fresh start is even more so. But doing them both at the same time is exhilarating. And that’s available for all of us when we start the New Year with God. Because God specializes in giving fresh starts for his children. And what’s a better time to get a fresh start than the beginning of a New Year, right? So join me in starting fresh in the New Year. Right here, right…
Christmas is gone and we’re left in awe of God’s love. The question we need to answer now is: what are we going to do about it? How does God’s love change our lives? Or do we leave the joy of Christmas untouched until the next Christmas? That would be sad…and stupid, don’t you think? I do anyway. And that’s why I do not want to leave all the goodness of Christmas behind. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling…
Prayer is a dialog with God. Or that’s how it is meant to be. But in reality, too often we just spill out what’s on our heart and then run off before God has a chance to respond. So prayer becomes a monologue instead. But even just as a monologue prayer is important and powerful but as a dialogue, it becomes life-changing and empowering. How can we then dialogue with God? Having a dialogue with God is simple but prayer…
Don’t you just love those days when you feel light-hearted and happy? Seize those days. Enjoy them and don’t worry then about darker days. When life is easy, give thanks. And when life sometimes shows darker shades, do not despair. As Christians, we know how to handle them. Our God is bigger than our burdens and nothing is strange to him. We can trust and lean on him on our good days and our bad days, until the end of…
Do you know how to live your faith out? This is not a trick question but it is a very basic question. If you believe in God, live it out. But how to do it? That is the question. How do we live out faith in the middle of rush hour or at work? Or when we are frightened or completely exhausted? How do you do it? Jesus guides us this way: ‘Do not let your heart be troubled (afraid, cowardly)….
Pain is inevitable in life. There’s just no way around it. So we have to deal with it. How do you do it? What’s your coping mechanism? Some people become bitter when life throws a hardball at them. That is one way to go. But there’s another option, a much better one. I highly recommend it: cast your pain on Jesus. This is why he came into the world: to save us and carry our burdens. Cast your burden on the Lord [release…
Do you believe that God loves you? Sometimes we believe it in our head but not in our heart. Yet truly believing this deep down is essential for our spiritual well-being. Only then we want to hang out with God. And that’s how we grow in faith. That’s how we can experience God’s smile upon us. So let’s learn to soak up every moment with God. God told them, “I’ve never quit loving you and never will. Expect love, love, and more love!…
Yesterday, one of my all-time favorite theologians Eugene Peterson died. As Christianity Today wrote, he completed ‘his long obedience into the same direction’ just as one of his most popular books was titled. Most people know him as the author of the Message Bible. I fell in love with the paraphrase of the Bible as well as his other books. But what I loved him most about was his authentic love of Jesus and how he lived that love out. He was…
