Are you at a dead end? Are you tied to the mundane? Do you miss God in your life? Jesus said, “You’re tied down to the mundane; I’m in touch with what is beyond your horizons. You live in terms of what you see and touch. I’m living on other terms. I told you that you were missing God in all this. You’re at a dead end. If you won’t believe I am who I say I am, you’re at…
Are you in need of grace? Good for you, the most difficult step is to recognize your need of grace. Because God has plenty of grace to give you and he loves to pour more and more grace on you. Over and over again. There’s grace for every need and every situation. However, we can’t store up grace. We need to ask and receive grace every single day of our lives. But there’s plenty of it. God will -with gladness-…
Whose side are you on? You know, there’s no middle ground. Even if we’d like it to be so. Jesus said: “Whoever isn’t with me is against me, and whoever doesn’t gather with me scatters.” (Matthew 12:30, CEB) This verse stopped me this morning. I’m either with Jesus or I am against him. I either gather with Jesus or I scatter. No other alternatives. Jesus or no Jesus. Whose side are you on? God wants it all. God wants obedience….
The Bible is full of stories of obedient and faithful men and women of God. I truly appreciate that we have these saints gone before us. We can learn from them what it is to live out our faith in the midst of challenging life events. Today I want to talk about Joseph, a central character in the Christmas story. This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. When Mary his mother was engaged to Joseph, before they…
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…
You have a place in God’s plans. Yes, God is calling you to enter deeper into his grace. God is calling you into a full partnership with him. How do I know this? Just by reading the Bible. Every follower of Christ is called to make disciples and serve the body of Christ. Not just pastors! Every single follower is called to partner with God. Malcolm Smith has said “We have one function in life: to be the manifestors of…
You might ask what money and spiritual fruitfulness have in common. I used to question that myself. I’ve always thought that giving is good and we need to take care of each other. But I did not see what it had to do with spiritual fruitfulness. Martin Luther has said “There are three conversions necessary: the conversion of the heart, mind, and the purse.” For a long time I did not particularly like this quote. But now I see its…
It’s great that we trust God. But we are also called to follow Christ. We can’t omit the cross and Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer states “Christianity without discipleship is Christianity without Christ.” As followers of Jesus we can’t dictate our own terms or decide what we are willing to do. We can’t write our own program to suit our whims and wants. We can’t limit our following to our comprehension. In the Cost of Discipleship Dietrich Bonhoeffer shares the timeless advice…
Spiritual amnesia is one of the great dangers on our faith journeys. Forgetfulness of God’s goodness pushes us easily into a downward spiral towards spiritual emptiness. This happened time and time again for the Israelites on the wilderness. And it happens to us if we forget God’s graceful ways, either in biblical history or in our personal history. How could we avoid this spiritual amnesia? Spiritual disciplines have always been ways of keeping spiritual amnesia away. The most common ones…
Is your soul satisfied? How do you feed your own soul? What does shape your soul? It does make a huge difference what we let enter into our souls. We can harm our souls with wrong choices. “We work to feed our appetites; Meanwhile our souls go hungry. (Ecclesiastes 6:7, MSG) “Don’t dabble in the occult or traffic with mediums; you’ll pollute your souls. I am God, your God. (Leviticus 19: 31, MSG) “Look at that man, bloated by self-importance—…
