Are you marked by joy? Is it evident in your life that Christ lives in you? If he lives in you, your life should be brimming with joy. Because God is joy. God is indeed the source of joy. All joy comes from him. When we stick close to God, joy is present in our lives no matter how dark the world around is. When we dare to embrace the cross of Christ, we are filled with overflowing joy. And…
We can’t force holiness on people. No matter how we would like to do it. There’s no way we can dictate how people should act. That’s not how grace works. That’s law all over again. That’s living like Christ had not died for our sins. That’s like saying Christ died in vain. When we force outwardly changes on ourselves or others, we have not truly understood grace. If we could create a living relationship with God by good behavior, then…
Are you so busy that you don’t have time to fit God in your life? We tend to get so crazy-buzy sometimes that it feels that we barely have time to breath. It might feel an added burden to find time for God. But guess what? There’s no way you can ever fit God in your life. God is way too big for that. God can never fit in your life. If we want to experience God, we need to…
Do you remember the Bible story of Jesus coming back to separate people from each other like a shepherd separates his sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:31-)? At the first glimpse it looks like the reason why some are saved is based on their works when Jesus reveals ‘I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you…
Blaise Pascal’s famous quote “Not only do we not know God except through Jesus Christ; We do not even know ourselves except through Jesus Christ” gives us a lot to ponder. It states that Christ is the only way to God. But that’s not so surprising. It is one of the fundamental beliefs of Christianity. But the second part -that states that we can’t even know ourselves without Christ- can sound a bit odd for many. How could our identity…
This week we’ve been pondering on what it means to “Live well, Live wisely, live humbly” (James 3:13, MSG) as we search for God’s will for our lives. Today we concentrate on how ‘living wisely’ can help us on our quest for God’s will. What could living wisely be? Maybe it’s recognizing what in life has eternal value and embracing it with everything we’ve got. Don’t love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world,…
It seems that no matter where I turn to this week or no matter what I read it comes with this message: Apply your faith! So I pass it on to you: Apply your faith! Don’t just believe on Sundays but also every single day of the week. Also, don’t just call yourself Christian but act like it! Don’t just say ‘Lord, Lord’ but obey him! “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and don’t do what I say? I’ll…
Would you like to dance in grace? Or is that too wild? Would you rather sit out? Or is that too tame? “To what will I compare this generation? It is like a child sitting in the marketplaces calling out to others, ‘We played the flute for you and you didn’t dance. We sang a funeral song and you didn’t mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ Yet the Human One came…
Getting to know God takes a lifetime. But the journey is wonderful. How to go about it? By knocking, asking, and seeking. They are ways to get to know God. How do we then knock, ask, and seek? Let’s find out. The important thing to know is that we all do fail in our pursuit of God once in a while. But the secret is persistence. When we consistently keep on knocking (entering into the presence of God), seeking (cultivating…
Grace is an amazing gift from God. We can’t save ourselves or make us worthy of God. But God. He arranged everything so that we can just receive his grace by faith in Jesus and be made right with him. Grace truly is God’s unmerited favor for all who are ready to receive it. You are saved by God’s grace because of your faith. This salvation is God’s gift. It’s not something you possessed. It’s not something you did that…
