“Is your default mode toward others judgment or grace?” asked Rick Warren on Twitter a few years ago. It got me thinking. This is crucial. Have I fully embraced grace, been changed inside out and now truly reflecting and extending God’s love and grace? And not hate, doom, and judgment? Because God is love and he wants us to live and move in grace. “I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so…
How can Jesus be our everything? That’s the key question in Mary DeMuth‘s book Everything. Mary’s answer is simple yet life-changing: “Jesus is the pathway to the Everything life. That’s why an Everything life has more to do with surrender than personal triumph.” We can’t achieve the everything life. It’s all grace. We only need Jesus for abundant life. And Jesus is God’s gracious gift to us. God gave his only son to die for our sins that we could…
Faith is a gift from God. When God reveals to us that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, sent to save us, our eyes are opened. When we believe this and receive God’s grace for ourselves, our whole existence gets a new meaning. The seed of faith starts growing in us and our faith journey begins. But it is only a beginning. Faith journey takes a lifetime.
Do you try hard to be perfect in every way? Are you afraid of letting your hear down? Do you wonder if you are good enough? Are you tired of trying to succeed? Watchman Nee has said “Many Christians endeavor to drive themselves by will-power, and then think the Christian life a most exhausting and bitter one.” But will-power or self-help does not work. It’s not about us making ourselves perfect or useful. It’s not about us producing fruit. It’s…
“Don’t just do something, sit there”. A very wise piece of advice. But so is this one: “Don’t just sit there, do something!” What? Yes, we need them both. There is time to sit still and there’s time to work. The tricky part is to find the right balance between these two. Every time I write a blog post about grace, I feel I’ve left out that we are also called to do something. And every time I blog about…
Are you in need of a cup of kindness? Congratulations! It’s available! Come and taste God’s goodness and kindness. It lasts from everlasting to everlasting. For the LORD is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations. (Psalm 100:5, NASB) God has been working behind the scenes for long time to get us out of dead-end, empty-headed lives. Now everything is ready in Jesus. By grace through faith in Jesus we are transformed into new life, real…
You do matter. You are wanted, loved, and cherished by God. You exist because God wanted you to exist. You exist because of God’s special love just for you. Like Thomas Kempis has said “To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love.” Thank God! He deserves your thanks. His love never quits. Thank the God of all gods, His love never quits….
Has God rescued you out of deep waters? Has God pulled you out of chaos? Has Jesus saved your life? Do you still remember the awesome feeling of being pulled out of darkness? Or have you forgotten all the good God has done to you? Forgetfulness is one of the dangers in our relationship with God. Too often we are thankful for all the good when we are just out of deep waters. But then we go on with our…
Rest assured, God really knows you inside out. He knows what you need before you do. Are you open to God’s care? Or do you insist on going all the way alone? Today I’ve been reading about Elijah (1 Kings 17-21) and I am in awe of God’s gentle care of him. After Elijah delivered a message to King Ahab God sends him to rest in solitude. God knew Elijah needed the time away. God made sure that all his…
Some people assume that God tries to take our freedom and restrict our joy. But they’ve bought the lies of the devil and they could not be further from the truth. Because God made us free. But we have been abusing the freedom by making bad choices from the start. Like Philip Yancey has said “God’s terrible insistence on human freedom is so absolute that he granted us the power to live as though He did not exist, to spit…
