How to build our lives on God? That’s the question. By following the example of Christ is the quick answer. But let’s try to find some blueprints for building our lives on God. The sixth chapter of the letter to Romans give us some advice. For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it] once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him]. (Romans…
Are you broken? What do you think? Could there be any beauty in brokenness? Yes, there can be. Especially if we surrender all the pieces to God. He is ready to create something new out of the messes of our lives. We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan. (Romans 8:28, VOICE) Kurt Bubna in his new…
Are you trying to be holier than Jesus? A shocking question, isn’t it? But – Lord, have mercy – unfortunately a valid one. With the words of Brennan Manning “Christians have an unfortunate tendency to be preoccupied with the trivial”. When we occupy our time with being just right with every little trivial thing, we are trying to be holier than Jesus. But that is never possible. And Jesus did not have a condemning attitude. He oozed love and grace….
Living out faith seems fun and easy when things go well. But what are we supposed to do when things don’t go so well? Still keep going strong? But how is it possible? The trick here is….we are not to lean on our own strength…but on God’s strength. We are not to thrive on our own…but to let God empower us. Then it’s not about good times or tough times. It’s about kingdom living. It’s about Christ living in us….
Do you know how grace in action looks like? It’s when someone who feels unworthy gets a glimpse of God’s love through a random spiritual act of kindness. It’s when someone for the first time, or for the 100th time, feels the grace of God because someone practiced what they believed. Grace is in action when someone forgives, loves, serves or offers grace. Grace is in action when our heart opens to receive God’s love and grace. Grace is in…
Did you know that the color red is in the core of Christianity? I was checking out verses including the word red. When I was going through those verses I realized red was indeed in the heart of the Gospel. Let me explain. As Oswald Chambers has said “Sin is not weakness, it is a disease; it is red-handed rebellion against God and the magnitude of that rebellion is expressed by Calvary’s cross”. We all are rebels against God and…
What kind of excuses have you given to God? How do you rationalize your refusal to obey? This week I learned there is something Kurt Bubna, Moses and I have in common when it comes to choosing either the route of obedience or excuses. How about you? Kurt Bubna writes in his new book Epic Grace, Chronicles of Recovering Idiot that he did not want to become a pastor because he was terrified of public speaking, had no desire to…
There’s never too much grace. I love grace and I breath grace. It’s what sustains me and keeps me going. We should never take God’s grace granted and get too used to it. That’s why we need reminders of God’s abundant and amazing grace along the way. That’s why I was thrilled by the title of Kurt Bubna‘s book Epic Grace. Isn’t that true? Grace is not just amazing; it is truly epic. I’ve been waiting to get my hands…
Spiritual blindness seems quite an extreme idea. Somehow we are quick to toss away that idea. If we know God, we are not spiritually blind, right? Not so fast. Look again. This is not an either/or matter. We are not either spiritually blind or have a 20/20 vision. We can also be spiritually shortsighted. What to do then? How can we ensure that we are not spiritually shortsighted? First of all we need to remember that it’s not about us…
Do you resist self-examination? Are you afraid of what you will find? And are you not ready to take the trouble or pay the price to fix it? So you continue to ignore the signs because you are somewhat functioning. I don’t need to tell you that the trouble is increasing and the price you need to pay is getting bigger and bigger. Especially if this is happening in your spiritual life. You are supposed to be alive but in…
