Facing the truth is sometimes very hard. Accepting the blame is not fun or easy. But it is necessary in order to live authentically. How about you? Do you accept the reality of your sinfulness? Sure, it’s one of the hardest things to do. But it is also one of the things that bless us the most. Because when we come to terms with our sinfulness, we are ready to receive the only effective remedy for sin known to humankind:…
How do you feel about God’s grace? I am in love with God’s grace. Because it’s everything I ever need. And it’s new every morning. Also, it is more than I can even imagine. I’ve written many posts about God’s grace but it does never get boring or old-fashioned. First of all, God’s grace saves us through our faith in Jesus Christ. Second, grace is ability, energy, and power. What does that mean? Grace is ability, power, and energy But…
Today, I want to encourage you deeper into God’s grace. You see, we are all invited to live and move around in God’s grace. We don’t have to tiptoe around or stay around the entrance in God’s kingdom. Because of Jesus, we are all welcome right into the center of God’s sweet presence. God loves to save sinners but, folks, that’s not the end. He has beautiful things in store for all his children. You see, grace activates you to…
Do you have a lot of “shoulds” in your life? You should this and that and every other thing. The first step of letting go of shoulds is to change your vocabulary. Replace all the “shoulds” with “it’d be great if”. It’d be great if all things worked out. But if not it’s not the end of the world. This is all great and has helped me to put less pressure on me but I have even better news for…
Resurrection makes all the difference, folks. Without the resurrection, we’d be without hope. Life would be just life, no hope for broken hearted. No hope for sick and unhappy. And, certainly, no hope for sinners. Blessedly, God knew better. He knew we needed him even when we did not know we needed him. Hence, he sent Jesus to die for us. Jesus came to friend us, teach us, and save us. Because Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected,…
Today, I was contemplating on the text on Pilate washing his hands for responsibility of Jesus’ death. I understand his dilemma: the crowd wanting Jesus dead and Pilate wanting to keep his job while (he and) his wife not finding Jesus guilty. What to do? Whom to serve? And did the hand washing work? Did he get rid of his guilt or not? How about you? Do you wash your hands like Pilate? How does that work? I’m afraid washing our hands…
Some encounters have left me a bit dumbfounded lately. I’ve met some friends and acquaintances who are Christians and they told me they’ve been looking for answers for their problems from New Age or mindfulness or something else but not from Jesus. I find it very sad that Christians don’t know Jesus and his power. They haven’t learned to embrace Jesus for all who he is. Somehow, they don’t know Jesus is all they ever need. Jesus is always enough….
Have you ever wondered what it means to live for Christ? It is very contradictory to what we hear otherwise. The world wants us to find ourselves and live for ourselves and go after what we want. Yet, the Bible tells us to live for Christ. Nothing less, nothing more, nothing else! What does it mean though? For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that…
This week I have not been enthusiastic at the gym. Somehow, I’ve been dragging my feet to get there and while there I’ve not done my best. There hasn’t been any spring in my steps for sure. While exercising today, I was wondering what was going on and what I could do to lift the veil of cheerlessness. And then I remembered. The antidote to anything trying to drag us down is praise. Whatever it is, we need to embrace…
Because of Jesus we can walk right up to God. Without Jesus we do not have an access to God. But because Jesus died on the cross and was raised on the third day, we can approach God without hesitation. Quite a gift, isn’t it? Now we can draw near to God and we are more than welcome in his presence. And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of…
