Co-Workers with God
God is active in us doing His saving work. We are called to cooperate with God’s inner work by working out what He works within us. Our deliverance is not independent of our choices. Our choices are not predestined, they are real choices. We can resist His grace within us or we can work
Being Jesus’ Apprentice
Being a disciple is really about being an apprentice of Jesus, as Dallas Willard reminded us. He trains His apprentices to love their enemies and demonstrate this by doing good to them. He wants His apprentices to practice righteousness because it is right, for the approval of the Father and not to be seen
Make a Difference
Live to make a difference. Little or big, it does not matter. You probably will not be able to gauge the impact of those good deeds; you cannot know the long term effects that they will make. Little can be much. To live to make a difference you must train yourself to think about
Two Golden Rules
1) Treat others as you would like to be treated. 2) Treat others as you would like for God to treat you. Dear Lord, that second one makes me really uncomfortable. I know it’s true, but I want there to be lots of exceptions. I get what you said about forgiving trespasses in the
It’s All Connected
“Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7) My obtaining mercy is connected to my giving mercy. My forgiveness is connected to forgiving (Matthew 6:9-15). Loving God is connected to loving others. “Those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have
Citizens of Heaven
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself” (Philippians 3:20–21
Gain and Loss
Your greatest loss may be your greatest gain. Your greatest gain may be your greatest loss. We can gain the world and lose our soul. We can gain wealth and lose our families. We can bask in circles of influence; we can become movers and shakers and be as lost as can be. We
Reminders
“To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you” (Philippians 3:1 NASB). We need to hear the stories again and again; we need to listen to the instructions of our Lord regularly. We repeat the Apostle’s Creed and the Lord’s Prayer for good reason. Hymns
Spices
Look in your cabinet at your assortment of spices. They certainly do enhance our foods as we appropriately use them. Some are right for some foods and others for other foods; good cooks learn that. If we dumped all of these into a recipe, it would produce a concoction that would be inedible, and
Thankful Heart
To say, “Thank You” is just words that may come from the heart, or they may just be a polite response. We are creatures of habit, some good and some not so good. One way to develop the habit of true gratitude is to stop, see, and reflect. Learn to have eyes that see
Tend Your Garden
I love to grow things in my garden. Sometimes I look back on a growing season to see things I did wrong that failed to produce the desired crop. I have learned that growth is not automatic; it is a byproduct of doing the right things. The soil may need to be amended and
No Grumbling Please
As we go about our daily lives with its tasks, it is sometimes easy to fall into a habit of grumbling under our breath. This becomes a self-imposed hinderance to truly “doing all things as to the Lord” (Ephesians 6:7). It is contrary to the spirit of Christ who even went to the slaughter,
Exile and Redemption
Deuteronomy 28 promised exile for idolatry. You would think that judgement for idolatry would be banishment forever. However, God is merciful and full of grace. Consequences were meant to be restorative and not retributive. This tells us so much about the nature of God. He is not interested in being punitive. This can be
Bowing to Idols
“You shall have no other gods before Me,” means that you are to have no gods “beside Me”, or “in addition to Me”. The literal Hebrew is, “You shall have no other gods in my face.” (Deuteronomy 5:7). Failure to follow this command leads to exile; when we allow idols to intrude on our
At the Name of Jesus Bow
When we see who Jesus is, and what He has done, how can we not bow? He is equal to God, yet He emptied Himself of divine prerogatives. He revealed the humility of God who would come as a human, as a slave, and on a cross. How can we not bow? Bow now!
The Point of Scripture
Reading scripture is not for the perfection of our belief systems. It is more than a moral compass; more than principles on which to live. Reading the Bible is to move us toward Jesus. Paul tells us that “Christ is the end of the law” (Romans 10:4). The word “end” is the Greek “telos”
Becoming and the Divine Image
We are made in the divine image, yet, we have to pursue the divine image. Even after we are born of the Spirit we must pursue it; without the Spirit we will fall short of it. Without the pursuit of it our growth is stymied. Jesus “is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians
The Love That Grips Us
God’s love is tenacious. It is the Oh-love-that-will-not-let-me-go kind of love. It does not let me go when I walk away from it. It loves when it is not given back. It loves when it is hurt. Our love is to be God’s kind of love; our love is meant to be as tenacious
The Non-Prideful God
Would you serve God if no one ever noticed, recognized or praised it? Would you be happy to serve God in an unknown place, in some forgotten Nazareth? Would you be happy to never be celebrated or acclaimed? It is easy, even in the work of the Lord, to labor with a subtle pride.
Longing For Worship
The Great Commandment is that we love God with our whole being. This is worship that includes the whole person: body, soul and spirit. We were meant to worship God, to honor Him and live our lives in gratitude to Him. It gives meaning to our lives because it orients us to our Creator.
Redeeming Your Story
Redemption involves the redemption of our stories. When we try to live our lives, doing it our way, our stories become self-destructive. We were meant to live our story inside of God’s story; it is the story of His people who live in loving trust of their Heavenly Father. God’s love calls us back
Our Battles
Some of our battles are not over in a day, a week or a year. Oh, how we wish they were! They require courage, resistance, determination, perseverance and pleas for God’s help day after day. Yes, we remember some battles God fought for us to a decisive victory. There are others that He stands
Saved From A Failure To Love
"You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). This is declared to be salvation FROM our sins. Jesus taught us that sin is at its core a failure to love. His salvation then involves saving us FROM our failure to love. This is what
Get The Hang of It
We are both objects of grace and channels of grace. What flows to us from God is to flow out of us toward others. Character begins to mature when we start giving grace spontaneously. Remember when you learned to ride a bicycle. You had to think about every little thing to keep from falling,
Not Easy
Most of us can give quick and easy advice to our sisters and brothers in their tough times. What is much harder is to take our own easy advice in our most difficult struggles. What this all means is simply this: struggling in life is real; it comes with the territory. Pain is no