Included, Accepted, and Welcomed
He who gives bread to mankind became the “Bread of Heaven”. He who thirsted on the cross was the Water of Life that quenches the thirst of the soul. He who was naked on the cross clothes us with His righteousness. He who was wounded heals us. He who went through death to life
He Does Not Abhor Us
We have heard it said, “She can’t stand me.” or “He does not like me.” We can never say that about our God. Oh yes, we often project our self-rejection onto God and think that He does not love us or even that He just does not even like us. But even in our
Another Touch
Jesus touched a blind man twice. After the first touch people looked like trees walking. After the second touch he saw clearly. This was not about the limitation of Jesus’ touch. This story, within its context, is about the partial sight of the disciples. They had come to see people as problems, mouths to
Fresh Mercy
We need mercy more than one time in our lives. We still need it for our mistakes and our sins. “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1 John 2:1 NKJV).
Vetoing Mercy
Who am I to veto God’s mercy for myself? Who am I to question God’s forgiveness of me? Do I dare put my self in a position of negating His mercy? Shall I set myself above Him by doubting what He has declared? Can I not humbly receive it? Do I dare put myself
Christ Back in Christian
We need to put Christ back into Christian. We have divorced being a Christian from following the actual teachings of Jesus. We think that the Sermon on the Mount is not relevant for today. We have excused ourselves from His very plain teaching. Be a real apprentice (disciple) of the Lord. Do not avoid
Reading for Correction
Our lack of reading the Bible has created a vacuum that is filled by cultural nonsense, mammon’s lure, empty secularism, and skeptical agnosticism. It has left us with no standards for living, no compass for life, in the quicksand of moral relativism. We need the Bible to correct our thinking and our behavior; we
Reading for Christ
The ultimate meaning of the Bible is Jesus Christ. He is the fulfillment of all the prophetic words, symbols and types. He is the Seed of Abraham; He is the Son and Lord of David. He is the promised Messiah who came to set up David’s unending Kingdom. He is the sacrificial Lamb, the
As You Go
The tense “Go” of “Go therefore and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19) is literally “As you are going” into all the world make disciples. This anticipates the dispersion caused by persecution that would send the apostles around the world. The idea is “as you are going” and “wherever you go” make disciples. We hear the
Loved Much — Love Much
In the end we will be judged by how much we loved (Matthew 25:37-40). To get there we will have to discover how much we are loved. Jesus did not come to love His friends only, but His enemies. He came to the outsiders, the rejected, the outcast, the sinners, the lost, the undone,
Some Blessed Ones
Blessed are the beautiful who do not trust in their beauty. Blessed are the strong who know how to be gentle. Blessed are the wise who do not boast in their wisdom. Blessed are the weak who find their real strength in the Lord. Blessed are the lonely who have found companionship in Christ.
Your Father is Devoted to You
We have heard and said, “God loves us”; I fear it has become trite. Maybe we need new ways to think about this truth to keep it fresh. It is not just love; in love, He is truly committed to us. That love expresses itself in tenacious faithfulness to us, covenant faithfulness declared by
What We Embody
We embody what we believe; we live our core values — regardless of our denials. What we attend to declares us; how we spend our time reveals us. What is in our heart comes out; we replay our thoughts by our actions. Some need a major shift in their inner core to a new
Gathering at the Cross
Why we gather around the cross! It is the place where God met us; it was there that God revealed Himself distinct from lofty gods that do not suffer. It was there that we heard Him declare our forgiveness. It is the place where our King was revealed; not ours only, but the true
A Present Cross
We keep trying to follow the Christ of a distant and past cross. Maybe we have not been taught properly how the cross can form us. Maybe we just don’t like the suffering associated with crosses. We cannot avoid sufferings in a fallen world; we must take all of this to our cross, and
Glory in the Cross
“God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14 KJV). Christians are called to allow the cross to form their lives; it is the cross of Jesus Christ. It cannot form me
A Jesus Relationship
In a relationship! Really? Yes! In a relationship with Jesus Christ. This relationship puts all other relationships in place. It will mess up your old ways; but your life will no longer be the mess that it was. It will untangle your thinking, change your morals and ethics, it will reorder your values. Since
When the Fog Rolls in
It is very foggy over here on the Chattahoochee River this morning. I know there are times in all of our lives when the fog rolls in. Vision is limited; l know in my heart that there are houses out there, but l cannot see them at all. Look as l may there are
Supreme Lord
When God is first, the gifts He gives flow back to Him in worship and draw us nearer. When He is not first the gifts become idols that take us away from His centrality. We cannot be trusted with anything when He is not Lord of everything. We have become unwitting slaves to accumulation;
The Un-shapeable Christ
We have shaped Christ like we want Him so that He serves our causes instead of us serving His cause. That makes us "lord", putting us in the driver's seat. It is easy to bow to this “lord” because it is us; it is easy to serve this “lord” because it is serving all
The Irreducible One
No other gods, and no graven images. Idols are the things we chisel out with our minds to serve us; we want the ones that make no demands on us. The first concern of the first two commandments is that we serve the God who is, not the one we make up. We must
People of the Resurrection
The One who prayed, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me” came forth from the cross and tomb in victorious resurrection glory. We are people of the resurrection. The cross does not have the final word; the tomb in not our final prison. We may feel forsaken, but the reality is —
His Weakness is Strong
God has rejected power for conquering the world. His chosen method, the cross, is what all others deem as weakness. We want to argue with that, but remember, God knows way more about power than we do. He knows that power does not convert or change the heart; besides coercion is against His Nature.
Pushing Harder
We push ourselves to be better, to get closer to God, to witness more, to work harder, to repent more thoroughly, to surrender more fully, to die deeper to self, etc. All of this needs to be done, but we must know that at the end of the road if there is not generous
The Counsel of the Devil
Watch out for the counsel of Satan. He counseled Eve in the garden. He counseled Jesus in the wilderness. He comes to you in both your garden and wilderness. His voice raises questions about what God has clearly said. He offers you another way. He appears to bring new light. He hides His dark