What does John the Baptist have to do with Christmas? First of all, his life was fully intertwined with Jesus. He was only few months older than Jesus and he was called to clear the way for Jesus. John knew his place in God’s salvation plan. He had dedicated his whole life for serving God. His message for us this advent season is: prepare your hearts for Jesus. What needs to go that we’d be able to fully concentrate in…
God has promised to bless his children richly. But these blessings are not material things. Nonetheless these blessings bring forth all the good things in life: God’s kingdom isn’t about eating food and drinking but about righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14: 17, CEB) We can’t produce spiritual fruit on our own. And artificial fruit just does not do it. The only way to bear spiritual fruit is by abiding in Christ. Even then it’s never…
Why do we year after year fall into the same trap of consumerism and busyness? Why do we let the lies of the world consume our thinking and feeling so much that there’s not much space left for anything real? Why do we stress about performing a perfect Christmas? Don’t ruin everything and make an idol for yourself: a form of any image, any likeness—male or female— or any likeness whatsoever, whether of a land animal, a bird that flies…
The Bible is a treasure. The more I read it, the more I marvel God’s perfect plan. Just take the prophecies of Jesus. Every single one of them came through. Therefore, the Lord will give you a sign. The young woman is pregnant and is about to give birth to a son, and she will name him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14, CEB) Also there are so many parallels between the Old testament and the New testament. Just think of Abraham and…
“Gratitude follows grace like thunder lightning”, writes Karl Barth. I think so, too. There is nothing bigger or better in life than receiving grace through faith in Jesus Christ! G.K. Charleston has said “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.“ If we take time to wonder God’s mysteries in our lives we start to see God’s handiwork all around us. We need to cultivate wonder because wonder leads…
These tough economic times provide an ample playground for coveting. It is easy to see what we would like to have instead of looking at (and being grateful of) what we have. Are you a hostage of ingratitude?We’d like to think that coveting or craving what others have is not a sin. But the Bible is very clear about this. Just read what these two modern translations of the 10th commandment proclaims: Do not desire and try to take your…
You might ask what money and spiritual fruitfulness have in common. I used to question that myself. I’ve always thought that giving is good and we need to take care of each other. But I did not see what it had to do with spiritual fruitfulness. Martin Luther has said “There are three conversions necessary: the conversion of the heart, mind, and the purse.” For a long time I did not particularly like this quote. But now I see its…
Don’t you just love how strongly God can speak to you through his Word? Just this morning – like pretty much any morning – I was reading my Bible and suddenly Numbers 11 reflected back my own attitude. The riffraff among the people had a craving and soon they had the People of Israel whining, “Why can’t we have meat? We ate fish in Egypt—and got it free!—to say nothing of the cucumbers and melons, the leeks and onions and…
Do you feel God is distant and not interested in you? In that case don’t trust your feelings. God is near and very interested in you. But let’s see why we could feel that way. First of all we need to know that God is not hiding. God is waiting to be found. So if we are spiritually unsatisfied it has something to do with us. Do we rush through life so stressed out and busy that we don’t have…
It is very important in life to get the right perspective. Only then can we gain the right perception. Just think of the story of David and Goliath. The Isralites all thought “Goliath is so big we can never kill him.” But David thought “The giant is so big I can’t miss.” We also need to discern whose perception we trust. The world tries to convince us that only the knowledge that can be perceived through five senses – and…
