I experienced grace this morning. I go to a group gym every Monday and Friday. This time I had forgotten to reserve my place. There I was ready to exercise and my name was not on the list. Somehow I had not even realized I had forgotten it. Needless to say I felt frustrated and stupid. But the trainer extended me grace and allowed me in without reservation. It felt very, very good. It was undeserved grace, pure and simple….
Do you think the blood of Christ is too precious for you? That you think so highly of the blood of Christ that you don’t dare to apply it to you and your sins? That you and yours problems are too small to bother Jesus? Slow down for a minute. Let’s think this through. [Therefore, I do not treat God’s gracious gift as something of minor importance and defeat its very purpose]; I do not set aside and invalidate and…
Sometimes we think God or faith is out of our reach but they aren’t. God wants to be found. God wants to pour out grace upon grace on us. God gives us as much faith as we want, he just leaves the choice to us. We can either receive or reject his gifts. Faith is not out of our reach. Faith is for everyone who loves God with heart and soul. But only if you listen obediently to God, your…
Lately God has been waking me up (literally) to see my sinfulness. God has reminded me of some choices I have made in my life and led me to repent for them. Even though during that time of my life I did not even think they had been questionable. I did not know any better then. Selfishness does not produce good fruit. Selfishness paves the way to destruction whether we realize it or not. Go home and wash up. Clean…
Is your faith an abstract collection of doctrines or do you have a resurrection faith? That kind of faith that drives any trace of fear out? That kind of faith that laughs in the front of death? That kind of faith that boldly declares like Paul: If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s (Romans 14:8, NRSV,*? When…
Do you have Jesus in your heart? Good for you. But do you have inside out faith? Does your faith get an outside expression too? Does the workings of Jesus in your heart get you also work out your faith? These are fundamental questions. When our faith becomes an inside out faith, we are truly experiencing the joy of salvation. Sure, we are saved only by grace through faith in Jesus. But that is not the end of it. We…
Over and over again the Bible proclaims that if we repent, God will forgive us. This grace feels too good to be true. Yet it is true. Love, grace, and forgiveness form together the very essence of God. Because we are not able to become holy on our own, God sent his only son to redeem us. Because Jesus died on the cross for our sins, we can be forgiven by grace through faith in Jesus. But if we confess…
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…
It is important to say ‘I love you’ yet those three words are not ones that change everything. They might change your marital status or bring otherwise happiness into your life. But the three words that I am talking about can change the eternal status of every single person ever lived. Talk about life-changing words. One of the most powerful Bible verses reveals these words that change everything: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is…
What do you think? Is there such a thing as one-size fits-all faith? Yes and no. Yes because Jesus died for all of our sins and his blood covers everyone’s sins. Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences. Christ’s death was also a one-time event, but it was a sacrifice that took care of sins forever. And so, when he next appears, the outcome for those eager to greet him is, precisely, salvation. (Hebrews 9:27-28, MSG,*) There’s nothing…
