Blessings Heal The Soul
Blessings given become blessings returned. You cannot give a blessing from your heart without receiving it back. Jesus even commanded that we give blessing in return for the curses that might be hurled at us, even in that case a blessing comes back to us. The world says, if someone hits you hard then
A God Breathed Life
God is love. God is Spirit. To have the Spirit is to be inhabited with love. To be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with the principle that drives the universe, love! To live in the Spirit is to live a life of love for neighbor. Sin is a failure to love.
You Are Beloved!
How did Jesus get through rejection, mockery, betrayal, and all manner of suffering? He knew He was loved by His Father! He knew Himself to be beloved. “And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased’” (Mark 1:11 ESV). No matter what happened to Him, He
Standing On The Promises
We can stand “on the promises of Christ our King”. He has promised to give us His Holy Spirit. He has promised never to leave us nor forsake us; He has promised to be with us unto the end of the age. He has promised us that His yoke is easy and His burden
The Inescapable Cross
Life always has a cross in it. I believe in a God who came to the cross; He came to all of the suffering of His creation via incarnation. Jesus said, “Take up your cross and come follow me.” We may try to escape it, but at a price. Soul sickness comes when we
God Draws Us to Himself
God draws us so that we might come near to Him; God draws us so that we may know Him. To know Him is to know our great need. To know Him is to find satisfaction that can be found nowhere else. There is a sense in which we cannot even know ourselves until
Change Your Thinking (5)
Building community is an activity of the Kingdom of God and the Spirit of King Jesus. It involves hard work. It requires love for all individuals in the community and hospitality for all who are becoming a part of it (churches can’t be closed communities and be NT). It requires forgiveness and reconciliation. It
Change Your Thinking (4)
We still live and die for the kingdoms of men. We fight to sustain or defeat rulers. We get caught up in it. Jesus kingdom supporters did not take up arms in defense of their Messiah. The sort of kingdoms that originate with men are often built and sustained by carnal means. Jesus was
Change Your Thinking (3)
We like talking about walking with our friend Jesus; He is that, just as Abraham was God’s friend. But think for a moment about WALKING WITH KING JESUS; this means He is my Lord and Master. He is not just Savior; He is King, Lord of all. Don’t think you can choose Him as
Change Your Thinking (2)
What would my life look like if I lived every moment and made every decision in the light of Jesus being King? How would it affect my reactions when man’s rule goes awry? Would it change what I let upset me? Should Christ as King give me a calm peaceful center? Would
Change Your Thinking (1)
Jesus began His ministry with a radical announcement, as did John the Baptizer, “Repent for the Kingdom of God has arrived.” Perhaps a couple of paraphrases would help a little to hear this message. “Turn your life around, the Government of God has come.” or “Change your thinking, God is King and He has
Seeing Jesus Now
We have been called to see Jesus, not only someday, but today. Our vision of Him is to be daily. We are to see Him in all the ways He has been revealed to us in the NT; we are to see Him in all the ways the Spirit reveals Him. Not someday, but
One Teacher, Our Rabbi
Jesus steered His disciples away from the coveted titles of the day, “Rabbi”, “Father”, “Teacher”. He taught that preferring exalted titles could end in humiliation (Matthew 23:7-12). He was teaching humility, besides, He reminded them that they were all equals as students/brothers, with no hierarchy (v. 8). “And don’t let anyone call you ‘Teacher,’
Not Of Natural Descent
“Children of God” was understood by many in ancient Israel to refer to the human bloodline of a chosen people. A true child of God is not about any national, ethnic or family bloodline. It is not even about belonging to the right religion. When John said the children of God are born “not
Negative Nurture
We live in a world where children have experienced a life of dysfunction and negative nurture; these are now the adults that are our neighbors and friends. Civil ways of reacting they never learned; healthy relationships are foreign to them. They carry scars that we can’t imagine; they hurt in ways we may never
Life Is In Jesus
“You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40 NIV). They thought they had eternal life in their Bibles, but according to Jesus, they were wrong. The Bible
Unseeing Readers
“But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains un-lifted, because it is removed in Christ” (2 Corinthians 3:14 NASB). The collected books of the old covenant, with their odd laws and codes, rituals, sacrifices, and wars, can be very confusing without
Our Sovereign God
Which is greater? (1) The God who predetermines/foreordains all things (all of our choices, all of our actions, and all consequences). OR (2) The God who gives us real choices, and still makes ALL THINGS, (All of my good and bad choices, all of everyone else’s good and bad choices that impact my life,
Suffering And Love
We know that Jesus’ love was manifested to us by entering into human suffering by way of incarnation. When He came in human flesh, it meant that He would experience all the things that humans experience down to suffering and death. The human condition in its present state is full of suffering. As Christians
A Healthy Person
The law saw sin as something that needed to be punished. Jesus saw it as a disease that needed to be healed. For the woman caught in adultery, He rejected the law’s remedy of stoning. It takes a healthy soul to live righteously (i.e., compassionately, mercifully, justly, etc.). He came to heal sinners and
Full of Grace
“The Word…came from the Father, full of grace and truth… the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:14, 17). The law contains truth, but law is not focused on grace. It is focused on condemnation and judgment. Jesus came on a mission of rescue armed with grace
Love Your Master
The creedal statement “Jesus is Lord!’ means that Jesus is to be Lord of our lives; it means we are the servants and He alone the Master. But it must not stop there; it is much more than doing what He says. It must also involve loving the One who commands us, even loving
The Cosmic Christ
Christ is bigger than we imagine in our small ways of thinking. He is with God and He is God. He is the Energy of God that created everything that is. He is the Love of God flowing to us from the Cross. He is the One who poured out His own Spirit at
Working Together With God
We would like to have a pushbutton religious experience to fix our lack of self-discipline. Some of us grew up in traditions where we thought that some special encounter with the divine would fix any problem. We found later that hard work, self-discipline, and thoughtful preparation were necessary to face so many things that
The Light will Tell
When I am looking for a brown sock, I will often think I have found it until I hold it up to the light. Some of our thoughts, opinions and actions seem right and good, that is, until we hold them up to God’s word. More importantly, there is the light of the One