Faith is a weird thing. You can’t see it. You can’t taste it or touch it. But you can sense it. You can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. You can see with the eyes of faith and you can know the truth. Yet it is very hard to describe to others. Without having seen Him, you love Him; though you do not [even] now see Him, you believe in Him and exult and thrill with inexpressible and glorious…
Is November getting you? It is incredibly gray and foggy over here today. So some uplifting and hope-filled thoughts seem to be appropriate today, don’t you think? It always helps when we remember who is our hope. Our hope is not a sunny weather, no matter how nice that would be. Our hope is not money or a new job. Those things are just temporary things, here today – gone tomorrow. But our hope is Jesus. And that hope is…
We are told to be generous, right? How do you feel about it? How would you feel if someone told you to not to try to be more generous than God? I was puzzled for sure. Especially when it was Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 – August 20, 1153). Read it yourself! What could it mean? “The man who is wise, therefore, will see his life as more like a reservoir than a canal. The canal simultaneously pours out what it…
I experienced grace this morning. I go to a group gym every Monday and Friday. This time I had forgotten to reserve my place. There I was ready to exercise and my name was not on the list. Somehow I had not even realized I had forgotten it. Needless to say I felt frustrated and stupid. But the trainer extended me grace and allowed me in without reservation. It felt very, very good. It was undeserved grace, pure and simple….
I know many of us are in great need of physical healing (Right now I have several people on my prayer list). But let’s not forget the even greater need for spiritual healing. Because through spiritual healing we are not given just life in this world but also life after death. If we don’t have spiritual cleansing from inside out, it does not matter how healthy we otherwise are. Because then we are walking in the land of death. We…
I didn’t realize the word ‘hold’ is such a hope-filled and faith-saturated one. I was doing a search at Biblegateway.com and found an abundance of faith-affirming and uplifting verses that had the word ‘hold’ in them. Here are my favorites: Don’t be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands. (Matthew 10:28, MSG, emphasis added*) We…
Do you think the blood of Christ is too precious for you? That you think so highly of the blood of Christ that you don’t dare to apply it to you and your sins? That you and yours problems are too small to bother Jesus? Slow down for a minute. Let’s think this through. [Therefore, I do not treat God’s gracious gift as something of minor importance and defeat its very purpose]; I do not set aside and invalidate and…
The first letter to Thessalonians starts the way I would like to be described and remembered. Every time we think of you, we thank God for you. Day and night you’re in our prayers as we call to mind your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope in following our Master, Jesus Christ, before God our Father. (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3, MSG’*) I would like to be a person recalled by my work of faith, my…
How knowledgeable are you about grace? Grace is not complicated. Grace is simple yet powerful. There are four essential things you need to know about grace. Here’s grace 101 for you. First of all, we are saved by grace through faith. God’s grace is a free gift to us. All we need to do is to turn to God in repentance and ask to receive grace upon grace. Everything is ready for us. There’s nothing for us to do but…
Lately God has been waking me up (literally) to see my sinfulness. God has reminded me of some choices I have made in my life and led me to repent for them. Even though during that time of my life I did not even think they had been questionable. I did not know any better then. Selfishness does not produce good fruit. Selfishness paves the way to destruction whether we realize it or not. Go home and wash up. Clean…
