What if fasting is a blessing? The early church put fasting and prayer together as ways of seeking God’s guidance. Why don’t we? So they commissioned them. In that circle of intensity and obedience, of fasting and praying, they laid hands on their heads and sent them off. (Acts 13:3, MSG) Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his famous book Cost of Discipleship reminds us of the importance of fasting as a part of discipleship ” If there is no element of asceticism in our…
Do you need constant renewal? I certainly do. Yesterday’s grace and peace won’t work today. I need my daily refill in order to live out of love and not out of fear. If you don’t trust my word on it, follow Jesus’ example. With the words of Andrew Murray: “While others still slept, He [Jesus] went away to pray and to renew His strength in communion with His Father. He had need of this, otherwise He would not have been…
We all know times when we have felt like being in a cold, moldy, dark tunnel. It feels that in that place in time there is no way out. But with the words of Anne Lammott “hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don’t give up.” You don’t give up and you cling to the…
Too often we keep dabbling in sin because we think there’s no harm in a dab of something. But this dabbling in sin keeps us from becoming Christ-like. One dab at a time we become what we worship, either lovers or enemies of God. We don’t drift towards holiness (it’s always a choice) but, yes, we gravitate towards worldiness one dab at a time. Like D. A. Carlson has so powerfully said “We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance;…
Time spent alone with God is not wasted. It changes us; it changes our surroundings; and every Christian who would live the life that counts, and who would have power for service must take time to pray.~ M.E. Andross There is no other activity in life so important as that of prayer. Every other activity depends upon prayer for its best efficiency. ~ M.E. Andross It is not enough to begin to pray, nor to pray aright; nor is it…
“Gratitude follows grace like thunder lightning”, writes Karl Barth. I think so, too. There is nothing bigger or better in life than receiving grace through faith in Jesus Christ! G.K. Charleston has said “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.“ If we take time to wonder God’s mysteries in our lives we start to see God’s handiwork all around us. We need to cultivate wonder because wonder leads…
We are entering into the Holy Week by celebrating Palm Sunday by remembering the day Jesus rode to Jerusalem to fulfill his destiny. While doing so Jesus fulfilled also the prophecies of the Old Testament. “Shout and cheer, Daughter Zion! Raise the roof, Daughter Jerusalem! Your king is coming! a good king who makes all things right, a humble king riding a donkey, a mere colt of a donkey. I’ve had it with war—no more chariots in Ephraim, no more…
