The way to life – to God! – has been given to us in Jesus. The empty cross is a sign of victory over death and sin and brokenness. We are saved and guided to the way of Life by grace through faith in Jesus. We are not to look for shortcuts to God. There sure are plenty of empty promises floating around: quick answers, easygoing formulas for success and happiness. But those are not directing us to the way…
Over the weekend some of the quotes I tweeted got very enthusiastic responses from the tweeting community. I realized they have a common theme and thought I’d explore this a bit further. Especially when my daily Bible reading seemed to answer the yearnings of these quotes. “Life is too short not to spend it doing what God wants us to do.” (Jack Hyles) Life seems to fly by. The biggest threat seems to be that we don’t get anything done…
Don’t let the world define you. You are a child of God. Your value derives directly from God. As a heir of Almighty God your value is beyond measure. It doesn’t matter whether you’re single or divorced. It doesn’t matter if you’re jobless or homeless. it doesn’t matter if you’re sick or handicapped. Don’t let those things define you. Let God take over your life and step into freedom in Christ! And don’t be wishing you were someplace else or…
If you feel your life is too full, too chaotic, too messy to find time to pray. Think again. You can not get anything meaningful done before praying. Actually you can simplify your life with prayer. When we leave our burdens to God we can get on with our life. Prayer will intensify our joy of living. If you feel you have too many things to pray about that there is no point to even start praying because it’s all…
You never know when an Aha moment arrives. I was reading a Christian chick-lit book “Queen Esther & the Second Graders of Doom” by Allie Pleiter (Steeple Hill, 2006) for entertainment purposes only and unexpectedly came across with a thought-provoking analysis. Pastor Mark in the story said after a church disagreement: “I am just happy to get them to care at all. Opinion is not my enemy, apathy is.” Indeed!! Opinion is not my enemy, apathy is! I’ve…
I was running some errands the other day when a couple of questions popped up in my mind. Who would have thought that God would become a man? Who would have thought the whole salvation history? Who would have thought all of it? I laughed out loud when I came across this C.S. Lewis quote: “Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion you…
Do you live in fraudulent freedom? Or are you truly free? Some people insists they can do whatever they want and call that freedom. Yet they are miserable. Fraudulent freedom produces just that: pure misery. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it’s your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All…
We all want to learn to live in grace, to embrace the unforced rhythms of grace and to live freely and lightly in Jesus. (Matt.11: 28-30, MSG) Why then we so often run ourselves out of breath? Why then we so often allow ourselves to go without adequate rest? Why then we so often try to live on our own without consulting the Breath of Life? If God really became a man and died on the cross and rose on…
Some people think that living your life through faith would be boring. They could not be further from truth. Faith is not for the faint of heart! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” (Romans 8:15, MSG) God has called you out of death into resurrection life. When Christ becomes your Savior your own self is crucified and we are resurrected into new…
Grace is free but not cheap. We can’t earn grace but still it is not cheap. Because cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate, states Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Grace is free but costly. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:44, NRSV) “Costly grace is…
