Do you hinder God’s work for you, in you, through you? I was confronted with this question when I read this Bible story yesterday: Now there is in Jerusalem a pool near the Sheep Gate. This pool in the Hebrew is called Bethesda, having five porches (alcoves, colonnades, doorways). In these lay a great number of sick folk—some blind, some crippled, and some paralyzed (shriveled up)—waiting for the bubbling up of the water. For an angel of the Lord went…
Do you (sometimes) feel inadequate? Do you wish you could have managed things differently? Do you struggle with your shortcomings? Do you start your sentences with “if only…if only…if only”? We desire to be but we are not perfect. We fail. We are weak. Most often we can somehow deal with our inadequacies and shortcomings when they don’t affect our loved ones. But when we feel that we have failed as parents or spouses or children it is incredibly hard….
Sheep are mentioned in the Bible more than five hundred times. Also Jesus talked about sheep many times: Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were troubled and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36, CEB). “My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me” (John 10:27, CEB). These verses show us that Jesus was familiar with this passage from Ezekiel: “‘God, the Master, says: From now on, I…
Past few days I have had an image of God shining upon his people persistently popping in my head. So I started to explore what this image could mean. Our efforts to understand God will always fall short but we need to keep trying…because if we just get a glimpse of God’s awesomeness, we are truly blessed. God wants to shine on us. God wants to bless us. God wants to dwell in us. We are called to become children…
We need to eat to live, grow, and get stronger. For this very same reason we also need Jesus. If we want to live, we need Jesus. If we want to grow, we need Jesus. If we want to get stronger, we need Jesus. Jesus told them, “I assure you, it wasn’t Moses who gave the bread from heaven to you, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.The bread of God is the one who comes down…
I’ve always thought that life with God is life in colors and life without God is life in black and white. Many people insist that life in black and white is cool. And it might appear so but once you’ve experience life in color you would never go back into living God-colorless life. If you ever have watched TV in black and white, you have an idea how huge the difference is. I have tried to find ways how to…
I love Easter for so many reasons. My husband and I were engaged on Easter and our first-born son was baptized on Easter. I also love ending the Lenten season and celebrating Life. And who wouldn’t love chocolate eggs? They’re not only delicious but beautifully symbolize the new life we’ve been given. These reasons are all very nice – even blessed – but there are even far better reasons. They were saying to each other, “The Lord really has risen!…
It’s Good Friday, the day we commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? What’s the meaning of Good Friday anyway? Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no…
Lent is a wonderful time to really examine where we are in our walk with God. Not to condemn ourselves but to help ourselves to be where we could be. Because it is our own loss if we are not enjoying a truly intimate relationship with God. It is our loss if we are not close to Jesus. It is our loss if we are not filled with the Holy Spirit. On the road someone asked if he could go…
Impatience seems to be the beginning of anxiety, right? Waiting for God’s guidance and timing is not easy, especially when we have all kinds of wild thoughts racing through our mind. What are the next steps God wants me to take? Should I wait or proceed? How can I be sure I am not missing God’s guidance? This morning I stumbled upon this Dietrich Bonhoeffer quote: “Waiting is an art that our impatient age has forgotten. It wants to break…
