Let Go of Your Past Failures
God is not preoccupied with your past sins or failures. He desires to see you put all that behind you by confession and through repentance living a new way. So let your past failures go. He is your Heavenly Parent and He rejoices in your growth and character development. He cheers from the side
Hearers Only
Sometimes it appears that persons who most need to hear a word do not hear it, though they appear to be listening. Anything contrary to the grain of their well- chosen ways is filtered out. They transfer the word to others who need it more. This makes them feel more righteous. Truly hearing
The Bible Reads You
When we read the Word of God, it reads us. The Word of God is living, alive by the Spirit and the Living Word Himself. When I am reading it, He is reading me. It is like a sword that is as precise as a surgeon’s scalpel. It reveals, judges and corrects heart intent.
Build Solid
Jesus is life’s foundation stone. He is a foundation on which you can build your life. “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 3:11). In Christ we can build solid on what is solid. Satan would have you build on unstable
The Discipline of Remembering
Deuteronomy 8 is a call to remember God as the source of our blessings. Worship is the disciplined act of remembering. Without it, God is out of sight and out of mind. He brought us out of the house of slavery. He gives us power to earn a living. Abundance can lull us into
Soul Health
Spiritual healing comes through a relationship in which we live. Soul health is about soul nourishment, truly connected to the Vine. It includes letting go of unhealthy attitudes that poison the relationship and accepting soul cures through confession and repentance. It is tasting the goodness of the Lord, feeding on His Word, being filled
After Conversion
Jesus calls us in order to cure us. He chose us to make us holy. He forgives us so He can cleanse us. He calls His Bride but then makes her ready for Himself by sanctification and cleansing (Ephesians 5:26). He justifies us that He might sanctify us. He brings us out of
You and the Carpenter
He is the Carpenter who is always building. He builds community. He builds families. He builds His church, and “the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.” He makes Christian gentleman out of crude men. He makes Christian ladies out of loose women. He makes saints out of sinners. He makes victims into victors.
Worship In Your Pain
We have sadly come to expect that if it is not high and exuberant, it is not worship. This perversion has left hurting folks strewn along the roadside feeling even more despair. Ancient Israel had great laments where they expressed pain as a part of worship. It is not a sin to feel your
Walking in the Light
Jesus is the Light of the world (John chapters 1 & 9). Paul was converted in the presence of that blinding Light. Jesus is a light path that the righteous walk from night to full day (Proverbs 4:18). For the Christian, the path of light is not an abstract spiritual enlightenment. It is simply
Your Test
You know that you are having a test, don’t you? We observed how Job handled his test in the Book. We watched Jesus come out like a hero. Heaven is watching how you are going to handle this one. Make heaven proud! Don’t know how you are going to do make it? Revisit the
Spirit Prompted Praying
When we pray, we include prayer requests friends have shared with us. There are countless other needs which are never mentioned that Spirit prompted eyes will see. Let your spirit be tuned to the Holy Spirit. Travel around with the Spirit seeking to pray for a person or situation at His promptings. We may
Beyond Feelings
If our Christian life is driven by our emotions and how we feel, we will despair when we are faced with difficulty. When we don’t feel like we should feel, we will think that God has let us down. This makes our subjective feelings the barometer of our walk with God. God does bless
The New Joshua
The word Jesus in the New Testament Greek is the translation of the Old Testament Hebrew word Joshua (deliverer/savior). Jesus is the new Joshua whose conquest is to “deliver His people from their sins”. He enters the heart for emancipation purposes. We have sadly reduced the word saved to being forgiven. We need the
The Divided House
Humans are broken and need to be made whole. By sin we have turned on ourselves, choosing to be our own god. We have joined the ranks of our enemy and created an alliance which is against us. We are the house divided against itself when we have a divided heart. We need to
Stumbling and the Race
Christians can stumble through temptations in unguarded moments due to pride, arrogance, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, laxness or laziness. When you fall down, turn over on your knees. Confess, taking full responsibility for your actions. Be totally honest. From your knees, cry out to your Lord and Master. From that position you can grasp the hand
God is for Us
Life unfolds for us the way it is, not the way we want it to be. Life interrupts our plans. Unexpected events! Shocking surprises! Hurtful disappointments! Expect the day to have unplanned content. You can face problems from your spiritual center and overcome! Taught by the Teacher and coached by the Spirit, you can.
Clean Up Your Road
“Make straight paths for your feet”. You can have actions in your life that are stumbling blocks, not just to others but to yourself. It is hard enough to walk the narrow way without all the stuff with which we have cluttered our own road. Clean up your road. Put away bad thoughts, words
You are the Offering
We are to “present our bodies as a living sacrifice,” which is our “spiritual service of worship”. (Romans 12:1-2) Yes, our bodies, representing our total being are to be given to Him. This is the same language as Romans 6. Our whole being “presented” (NASB), “offered” (NIV), “yielded” (KJV) to God. Nothing held back!
Draw Nearer
God loves and desires closeness and nearness from all, but all do not come near nor live near. A few walked near to God in the Old Testament: Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, etc. In the New Testament: Peter, James and John were close to Him. John was even closer. We were made
Power to Choose
The sovereignty of God does not mean the He predetermines a person’s freely chosen actions. Besides that, He put us in a garden and planted all the trees of the garden and told us to leave one of them alone. He gave us the power to choose. God does not always get His way
Time to Think
We live lives too busy for our own good health. Our culture and our devices keep us in their grip. We are driven from one thing to another. We don’t lay one thing down until we have already picked up something else. Quietness and silence are hard to come by. We are too busy
Our Perfectionism
We want to be perceived as having it all together in some kind of perfect way. We can beat ourselves up when we don’t. We can blame others for doing things that make us react in imperfect ways. Perfectionism can be frustrating, debilitating, and depressing. No matter how good we did, it is never
Collective Maturity
“Until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13 NRSV). God designs that we come to maturity along with our brothers and sisters in the church. The gifts are for
For Your Good
Joseph said to his brothers, “You meant it to me for evil, but God meant it to me for good” (Genesis 50:20). What others design for your destruction, God can redesign for your salvation, and in the case of Joseph, salvation for the whole family. It is easy to become angry and frustrated when