People who don’t know better think believing in God is just about rules, regulations, and religious behavior. If this was true, I’d be the first to quit. I am not drawn to religiousness. I am drawn to God. And not to a statue somewhere. But to the Living God: personal, relational, active. Christian faith is not about keeping alive a bunch of rituals and commemorating a fairy tale. Christian faith is celebrating the freedom we receive by grace through faith…
What does help you to stay strong and steady on your Christian walk? Are you aware of the enemy’s sneaky ways to steal your joy and peace? How do you deal with joy-stealers, doubt-raisers and hope-snatchers? I’ve found that I need to turn to God as soon as I wake up in the morning. Like John Piper says in his recent sermon “every morning there is a war in the Piper household”. Well said. I think there is a battle…
Isn’t it utterly amazing that in the midst of truly hard circumstances people still praise the Lord? How on earth do they do that? Why doesn’t everyone just quit believing in God when things get rough?
How can Jesus be our everything? That’s the key question in Mary DeMuth‘s book Everything. Mary’s answer is simple yet life-changing: “Jesus is the pathway to the Everything life. That’s why an Everything life has more to do with surrender than personal triumph.” We can’t achieve the everything life. It’s all grace. We only need Jesus for abundant life. And Jesus is God’s gracious gift to us. God gave his only son to die for our sins that we could…
Faith is a gift from God. When God reveals to us that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, sent to save us, our eyes are opened. When we believe this and receive God’s grace for ourselves, our whole existence gets a new meaning. The seed of faith starts growing in us and our faith journey begins. But it is only a beginning. Faith journey takes a lifetime.
Are you tired of waiting for God’s answers? I know how you’re feeling. But our feelings of desolation does not mean God has abandoned us. When we are devastated, God is nearer than we can imagine. These silent seasons of the soul are part of our journey. We don’t need to understand. We can just trust that God is at work even when we feel he doesn’t care.
Last Friday I shared about my lowest point in my life and how God has wondrously healed me. But for a long time I carried around regrets. If I only could have seen it coming. If I only had not married him in the first place. If I only…. you get the picture. But then God taught me that he can use everything for his glory. Like Mary DeMuth writes in her Everything book “Jesus wastes none of our stories,…
Do you try make yourself a better person? Or do you trust God work in you to make you a person of grace? There’s a world of difference between those two ways of life. Self-strength stages an illusion. God creates life. Self-effort causes stress. Jesus provides salvation. Self-help brings exhaustion. The Holy Spirit brings peace. Why is it that stopping self-improvement projects and waiting for God to perform change in us is out of our radar? Why is is that…
Do you try hard to be perfect in every way? Are you afraid of letting your hear down? Do you wonder if you are good enough? Are you tired of trying to succeed? Watchman Nee has said “Many Christians endeavor to drive themselves by will-power, and then think the Christian life a most exhausting and bitter one.” But will-power or self-help does not work. It’s not about us making ourselves perfect or useful. It’s not about us producing fruit. It’s…
Are you well equipped for your faith journey? Do you have enough tools to tend your faith along the way? Is your spiritual arsenal big enough to fight the good fight of faith? Believe or not these are important questions. If you don’t have adequate faith skills, you are in great danger to wander away when storms rage. We need to build a spiritual arsenal in order to have a healthy spiritual life and stand firm no matter what happens…
