Are you alert to the ways of God and ready for Jesus? Are you heeding the gospel and living it out every way you can? Are you helping others along the way? Good for you. Then you are right where God wants you to be. But if you are not satisfied where you are spiritually, now it’s time to make a change. You don’t want to abandon the living God. You do not want to become spiritually dull and not…
Are you expecting divine fireworks to experience God in your life? Just like Moses on Sinai got to experience God in exciting ways? Sometimes it happens that way. But most often it does not. I am not saying that God does not move mightily in today’s world (because he does). I am saying God did not move always that way thousands of years ago either. Let’s see, for example, how Elijah experienced God’s presence. “Go out and stand before me…
Sometimes we think God or faith is out of our reach but they aren’t. God wants to be found. God wants to pour out grace upon grace on us. God gives us as much faith as we want, he just leaves the choice to us. We can either receive or reject his gifts. Faith is not out of our reach. Faith is for everyone who loves God with heart and soul. But only if you listen obediently to God, your…
Why should we remember Jesus? Because he brought us life upon life. Because he frees us from (unvisible) chains. Because he has the words of eternal life. Why should we read the word of God? Because it brings us the good news. Because it frees us from the chains of the merely visible world. Because it testifies and reminds us of eternal life. The saying is sure and worthy of confidence: If we have died with Him, we shall also live…
Are you tired, weary, exhausted? Are you asking what’s the point of all this? Are you feeling just terrible? The psalmist is right with you. Here’s a scripture prayer – a mighty energy drink – for all the weary pilgrims: I’m feeling terrible—I couldn’t feel worse! Get me on my feet again. You promised, remember? When I told my story, you responded; train me well in your deep wisdom. Help me understand these things inside and out so I…
Did you know that some schools start already on Monday? Our kids won’t start until the 11th but it’s still almost here. Are you ready to get back to the grid? How are you approaching this new beginning? How could we being in such a way that would be life-giving and not just the same old, same old all over again? Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play…
Is your faith an abstract collection of doctrines or do you have a resurrection faith? That kind of faith that drives any trace of fear out? That kind of faith that laughs in the front of death? That kind of faith that boldly declares like Paul: If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s (Romans 14:8, NRSV,*? When…
Too often we take life granted. We forget how fragile we are. We forget that we can’t control everything. We forget that there are not guarantees in life. And most of all we focus on the earthly things and forget God. We flirt with the destructive things and wonder why we don’t feel close to God. We are in danger of becoming enemies of the cross. As I have told you many times and now say with deep sadness, many…
Some people assume that God tries to take our freedom and restrict our joy. But they’ve bought the lies of the devil and they could not be further from the truth. Because God made us free. But we have been abusing the freedom by making bad choices from the start. Like Philip Yancey has said “God’s terrible insistence on human freedom is so absolute that he granted us the power to live as though He did not exist, to spit…
Do you know that you were created in Christ Jesus to do good works? We tend to forget that our sole purpose is not to please ourselves and have fun while here on earth. Even as Christians we label any talk about doing good works as legalistic or pious. But the Bible is pretty clear about this. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way…
