Living Bread
Before seed can become bread it must be crushed and baked. Bread then becomes “the staff of life”. Jesus was the grain of wheat Who died, and was crushed to give us life. He arose from the grave, not just as the Bread of Heaven but as Living Bread. To eat this Living bread
Living Word
Words on paper are one thing and Living words are another. Words on paper are what has been said. Living word is what is being said. The goal of the Bible is to connect us to the Living Word, Jesus Himself. He is the full and final word of the Father. Bible reading that
Living Water
The early church recommended using “living water” when possible for baptism. Living water is flowing water. Standing water could not adequately symbolize the work of the Spirit. Jesus said that “living water” is about the Spirit. When we are baptized into Christ we are baptized into the Spirit’s flowing stream; He becomes in us
The Beauty of Jesus (3)
The beauty of Jesus in us is a part of Christlikeness. Christlikeness is the beauty of holiness. It is what makes disciples winsome. Our short tempers, harsh words and sarcasm deny its presence in us; all of these leave wounded souls in their wake. Christlikeness has a trail of healing in its wake; its
The Beauty of Jesus (2)
In the KJV of Psalm 29:2 and 96:9 we are told to worship the Lord in “the beauty of holiness”. Other translations say to worship Him in the splendor of holiness or some say “holy attire”. This may well refer to the beauty of priestly robes. Jesus embodies the splendor and beauty of holiness! His
The Beauty of Jesus (1)
The beauty of Jesus was more than being physically attractive; as a matter of fact, the Scriptures tell us that He did not have that kind of face. “When we shall see Him there is no beauty the we should desire Him” (Isaiah 53:2). He did not stand out from other men as a
The Note
A tuning fork sounds the right note. If you tune to it, the music can begin. Jesus is the Note which God has sounded for the human race. We are to tune our lives and our Christian communities to that Note, or as E. Stanley Jones reminds us, “Be a part of the chaos”.
Hidden Faults
We do not know ourselves nearly as well as we think we do. Who we are and what we have become is always unfolding to us, like the turning of the pages of a book. We have faults rooted in our DNA. We have faults that were engrained in us by imperfect families and
In Good Hands
The Psalmist describes the Lord as a Keeper who protects and guards. When we give our lives over to our Father, we are in Good Hands! He will do us no harm. He will work His will in circumstances that seem totally against us. We wonder if we will survive, and all the time
The Reaching-Out God
God has a thousand ways to get to the open heart. He even makes constant overtures to the closed heart. He reaches out through the grace of the Spirit. He comes in prosperity and adversity, sunshine and rain, joy and pain, grief and happiness, worship and communion, loneliness and companionship, etc. Be attentively aware
The Wisdom Of Christ
A truly wise person knows the answers to questions that they do not even know that they know. To know Jesus is to know the One who has been made unto us Wisdom (I Corinthians 1:30). We find in Him the answers to: What is God like? What is the way to the Father?
Desire For Power
Sadly, the desire for power and control rears its ugly head in the church from time to time. Jesus clearly taught that the presence of “lording it over” had no place among His followers. Yet, it continues. Some, in the name of “protecting the church,” change the essence of what the church is meant
Forgive Anyway
It would be nice if all the people who have trespassed against us would have come running to our feet and, bowing before us, asked for forgiveness. Most of the time, that does not happen. Sometimes a person does not know they have offended us, though maybe they should have known. Jesus forgave from
Truth Sources
The Lord often speaks to us through the words of family and friends. Our pride would prefer that He speak to us, as important as we are, with an audible voice. That is exceedingly rare. He speaks His wisdom to us from unlikely sources and through unlikely persons. We must not despise the message
You Have Followers
We do not like to say, “Follow me as I follow Jesus,” but that should be our goal. We are always being followed by someone. We are always influencing other people’s decisions and actions. We are stewards of our own influence. It is not to be taken lightly. We are “our brother’s keeper”. We
Revived By Words
“This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your word has revived me” Psalm 119:50 (NASB). How do we get through the tough times in our lives? It must be more that grit and stoic determination. There is a better way. We get through it with the words of God. When life goes out
Moving Mountains
Context is everything. The context of a faith and prayer that moves mountains (Mark 11:22-25) is about prayer offered from a forgiving heart. "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25). It is impossible to move
God Is Altogether Good
God is Light and not darkness. God is good and not evil. He can do no evil and promote no evil, because He is good. God is the giver of grace. It is freely given to all who will receive it. The Father is the giver of the Spirit and freely gives to those
He Claims Us
“So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. For he said to God ‘I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among your assembled people’” (Hebrews 2:11–12 NLT). The
Counter-Kingdom Ism’s
We do not like it when the gospel of the Kingdom makes us confront our tendencies toward, consumerism, materialism, hedonism, elitism, cronyism, racism, sexism, and nationalism. We pick scriptural interpretations and theologies that let us avoid them. Only a Spirit-inspired shakeup can get us out of these Kingdom-killing ways. Only a protracted time of
Knowing the Will of God
Do not think you can know the will of God apart from a willingness to do it. A surrender to the will of the Father becomes a way of knowing. To become a living sacrifice is the path to discerning the mind of God. Full consecration may end your confusion and uncertainty. A mind
Humans Need God
It is not possible to be fully human without connection to the Creator God. We were made in the divine image and for fellowship with God. To try to achieve this without Jesus is an exercise in futility. Jesus models what it is to be human and offers redemption and atonement to get us
God Has Conspired
To love those who hate Him, To do good to those who abuse Him, To serve those who fight against Him, To embrace those who shun Him, To accept those who reject Him, To extend peace to His enemies, To find those who are willfully lost, To lift those who have chosen the mire,
Being Like Our Rabbi
We have reduced the word disciple to student or learner. What we do not know is, a disciple who followed a Jewish rabbi had one goal in mind, that he might be exactly like his rabbi, not just in his teachings, but in the way he lived. They memorized his words and were always
Jesus is Enough
The disciples are constantly worried about not having enough resources. Jesus has just fed 4,000 people, and the disciples are fretting over no bread in the boat. The whole point they were missing, the thing that they could not see nor understand, was that Jesus was the one who could meet their need for