Waiting for God’s guidance can be frustrating. God’s timing is not ours and sometimes God is silent when we’d like to have some concrete tips on how to proceed. But just in times like this it is important to NOT to take matters on our own hands. This does not mean to be lazy. But it means we should not turn away from God and disobey him like Saul. Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord and hadn’t…
It is fun to see how children learn Bible stories and act them out in their play, like our son yelling “I am strong like Samson!” in the triumphant superman pose. Samson’s life story is indeed colorful but, all in all, rather sad, don’t you think? He was wasting his gifts! Lord, have mercy! Samson had everything going for him. He had godly parents and he knew he was specially chosen and gifted. But he ended up misusing his gifts…
C.T.Studd has said “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him”. I agree wholeheartedly. But I also agree with Dr. David Livingstone asking “If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?…People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. It is emphatically no…
Are you afraid of the future? Do the predictions of the end of the world make you squirm? Have you lost your way? Don’t worry, finding the safe way to the future is easier than you think. “Don’t be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. My Father’s house has room to spare. If that weren’t the case, would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you? When I go to prepare a place…
Spiritual amnesia is one of the great dangers on our faith journeys. Forgetfulness of God’s goodness pushes us easily into a downward spiral towards spiritual emptiness. This happened time and time again for the Israelites on the wilderness. And it happens to us if we forget God’s graceful ways, either in biblical history or in our personal history. How could we avoid this spiritual amnesia? Spiritual disciplines have always been ways of keeping spiritual amnesia away. The most common ones…
We all think Abraham is a great hero of faith. But even he did some stupid things. He bought the thought that he needs to help God to give him and Sarah a child! How often we do something for God because we think that’s a great idea instead of waiting for God? We would like to prove ourselves for God but that’s not the way it goes. Human connivance never achieve things God’s way. Tell me now, you who…
Spiritual hunger is a very unpleasant traveling companion. As pilgrims we have a long way to go and our path will not always be easy. So we need to make sure we are as spiritually healthy as we can. In order to prevent spiritual starvation we need to stay close to God and bask in his presence. When we are spiritually well fed it is so much easier to take any rough patch on the road. If we include God…
Do you have weird dreams? What do you do with them? God has been speaking to his children through dreams from the beginning (the Genesis). What should we know about dreams today? I am not an expert dream interpreter but I want to share a practical way to deal with bad dreams. It’s not magic, it’s not a secret but unfortunately in today’s world fewer and fewer Christians know about/use it. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So…
The secret of starting your day right is not about getting the right hot drink just as you prefer it. The secret of starting your day right is in practicing surrender in slippers. What? The most important act in the morning is to surrender your whole life to God. If we try to carry all the burdens on our own shoulders, the day will not get the right start and will not get any better either. But if we lay…
I always feel awkward when someone says “You can be anything you want to”, because that’s not true. We do have limitations. We are not gifted in all areas of life. We don’t have equal opportunities. But thank God that’s not the end of it. As MaxLucado has said: “You cannot be anything you want to be. But you can be everything God wants you to be”. That is SO true! We can be everything God wants us to be!…
