I have always wondered why people insist that Christianity is about being good. That all decent, good people are going heaven. Hence our salvation would be based on works or our behavior. But the Bible is telling us the polar opposite: You are saved by God’s grace because of your faith.This salvation is God’s gift. It’s not something you possessed. It’s not something you did that you can be proud of. Instead, we are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus…
“The New Testament word for repentance means changing one’s mind so that one’s views, values, goals, and ways are changed and one’s whole life is lived differently”, J.I. Packer states. “The change is radical, both inwardly and outwardly; mind and judgment, will and affections, behavior and lifestyle, motives and purposes, are all involved. Repenting means starting a new life.” Lent is a blessed time: we can slow down and actively reflect on our spiritual journey. We can chance the course…
Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? Do you have hard time believing that you are truly forgiven? We proclaim -often without thinking- in the Apostolic Creed “I believe in the forgiveness of sins”. But do we really, really believe? Do we live in the joy of forgiveness? Because being free is what Christian living is all about. If we are still carrying the burdens ourselves, we are not truly trusting God’s grace to do its job. We have…
God loves you more than you can ever know. Like Augustine has said “God loves each of us as if there were only one of us”. You are the apple of God’s eye! How wonderful is that!? Embrace it! Celebrate it! Share it! Here’s God’s love letter just for you! My Child,You may not know me, but I know everything about you. Psalm 139:1 I know when you sit down and when you rise up. Psalm 139:2 I am familiar…
One of the most important questions in life is: Who is Jesus to you? The answer to that question shapes our life and destiny like no other. Christians believe that Jesus is the son of God, our Lord and Savior. There is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, the human Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a payment to set all people free. (1 Tim. 2: 5-6, CEB) We find freedom in Jesus. There’s nothing better in…
Do you ever wonder how on earth you ended up messing up things once again? Especially when you thought you had asked God’s blessings on your projects? How did everything go wrong when you thought God was in your team? These questions used to haunt me, too. Until I laid them to the Lord and asked him to explain me where I had gone wrong. How could I have avoided these pitfalls? How could I have made wiser decisions? The…
When prayer is a struggle, do not worry about the prayers that you cannot pray. You yourself are a prayer to God at that moment. All that is within you cries out to Him. And he hears all the pleas that your suffering soul and body are making to Him with groanings which cannot be uttered. ~Ole Hallesby Intercessory prayer is the sweetest prayer God ever hears…. The more your prayer is like Christ’s, the sweeter it will be…. Intercessory…
Some people wish that God were like Santa. He’d give us what we want. But the problem is: we don’t know what is best for us. Some people do think God is like Santa. And when they don’t get what they want, they throw God over board. But God is not like Santa. Or, like Harry Emerson Fosdick has stated, “God is not a cosmic bellboy for whom we can press a button to get things”. But if you think…
Mary had already everything-that-is-needed-for-Christmas on her way to Bethlehem. Do you have everything-that-is-needed-for-Christmas in your heart? Do you have Jesus? Are you a God-bearer?God-bearers are people who have surrendered their lives to Jesus. Then it’s not us anymore who directs our lives. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in my body, I live by faith, indeed, by the faithfulness of God’s Son, who…
Faced with a pile of problems, we may say with our lips that only prayer can solve them, yet we talk more than pray, worry more than pray, and scheme more than pray. In sum, we put everything before prayer; other things are placed in prominent positions while prayer is relegated to last place; it is the only thing which is not so important. ~Watchman Nee “You can do more than pray after you have prayed; but you can never…
