Have you heard the story of a little child trying to fall asleep in a dark room? The child began to cry and her mother came to assure her that God was with her and she didn’t need to be afraid. But soon the child began to cry again. She told to her mother “Oh, Mommy, I want someone with skin on!” She stated something essential to life and faith. God is real but we also need the body of…
Have you erected barriers against God in your life? Maybe not knowingly. But sometimes we act out of fear without thinking. We might think we are not good enough for blessings and turn away. We might look at our own resources and shy away from service. Hence we don’t dare to dream God-size dreams. Instead we bar God further away from our lives. That’s why we need this quote from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis to wake us up from…
It is great to live in a free country. It is great to be independent. But even that is nothing if we have not been set free by God’s grace. People don’t think they are slaves in a free country. But if you just have to have that new gadget or you can’t live out without the new cute outfit in the mall, you are a slave. If you just have to watch the latest Hollywood production or you just…
I know the title gives a tall order for this post. But that know-how is necessary for spiritual growth. In order to bear fruit we need to be pruned. But we don’t like it. We don’t like to get hurt. So we resist it. But that leaves us in spiritual limbo. And that is not a desired state of being. Not from our point of view and not from God’s point of you. What to do then? Any branch in…
Do you hinder God’s work for you, in you, through you? I was confronted with this question when I read this Bible story yesterday: Now there is in Jerusalem a pool near the Sheep Gate. This pool in the Hebrew is called Bethesda, having five porches (alcoves, colonnades, doorways). In these lay a great number of sick folk—some blind, some crippled, and some paralyzed (shriveled up)—waiting for the bubbling up of the water. For an angel of the Lord went…
“Is your default mode toward others judgment or grace?” asked Rick Warren on Twitter a few years ago. It got me thinking. This is crucial. Have I fully embraced grace, been changed inside out and now truly reflecting and extending God’s love and grace? And not hate, doom, and judgment? Because God is love and he wants us to live and move in grace. “I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so…
Sometimes we think that God calls only impressive, competent people into his service. But I think we could not be more wrong. God is looking for willing people whom God would like to bless and equip for his service. Moses is a great example of this. Moses objected, “They won’t trust me. They won’t listen to a word I say. They’re going to say, ‘God? Appear to him? Hardly!’”(Exodus 4:1, MSG) Moses could not believe that he would be able…
Too often we downgrade the importance of prayer. “We can’t do anything but pray”, you hear people saying. What? When we pray, we invite God to step into our problems, into our lives. When God gets into the equation, anything is possible. Like Oswald Chambers has said “Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.” Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you…
If you’ve ever needed proof that God’s thinking is not the way the world thinks, here it is. Just read the story of the great commission and be amazed: Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Jesus came near and spoke to them, “I’ve received all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing…
This week we’ve been searching for God’s will. We can be certain that God wants to be found and he will personally teach us how to live in his will. Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do my work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the…
