Great blessing carries with it tremendous responsibility, and we are blessed. May you genuinely feel compassion for people you encounter. May you continue serving as God’s agent out in the world spreading His love, light and life, allowing Him to flow through you. May you know God’s will and endeavor to carry it out today and always. Amen.
Read MoreAt times we feel distant from God. The psalmist who penned Psalm 42 felt distant from God and through his writing we see a recipe of sorts emerge on how we might respond when we feel that way – he pours out his soul to God and he talks to himself, reminding himself of his hope and trust in God. The psalmist begins by beautifully, poetically describing his distance from God by revealing his longing and thirsting for God. He writes.
Read MoreWriting to the church in Thessalonica, Paul says the gospel of Jesus Christ, when delivered to them, came upon them “in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” The words of the gospel are not mere words, they are God’s holy word filled with power, conveying Him. God’s holy word is powerful beyond our ability to imagine, and it is living and active.
Read MoreOur lives are enhanced through connection. When we connect with one another in honest, transparent, loving relationships, our lives are better, and our relationships are enhanced when we connect with God through Jesus Christ and allow His indwelling to transform our spirits and souls. We flourish through connection, and when people involved in relationship are also in relationship with Jesus Christ, and they allow His love to flow through them, it becomes the highest form of relationship.
Read MoreBut we must stop and ask, is that possible? Is it possible to receive His holy gift of grace, to receive salvation, redemption, reconciliation with God without exalting Him, surrendering to Him and submitting to His Lordship? Is it possible to have a Savior who is not our Lord?
Read MoreBless the Lord, O my soul! Bless the Lord indeed. Crying out to God in praise, worship, thanksgiving and awe is the only possible response to being confronted with the majesty of His creation, the creation He spoke into existence, and through it all, Him.
Read MoreWhen you cry out to God, what is your prayer? Please take time to meditate on the passage above, pray for God to open your eyes to see with clarity, and make the prayer recorded in the passage your own prayer. May God continue to fill you, sustain you, transform you and reveal His glory through you. Amen.
Read MoreGod’s holy word presents some people who are capable of hearing and understanding God’s word, and others who lack that capacity. Some hear and understand while others do not, and the quality separating the two is God. God touches some to hear and understand and not others. So we pray for God to enlighten the eyes of our spirits to see, and our ears to hear, and our minds to understand. We ask God to reach into our realm and touch us so that we might gain faith and through Christ Jesus gain Him, and we repeat our prayer for those whom God is placing in our path to hear His gospel through us.
Read MoreGod showers us with His holy grace and He loves everyone and His salvation is available to everyone through Christ Jesus (see John 3:16), but each person is capable of rejecting Christ Jesus, rejecting God, refusing to receive His holy gift of grace. So we must be out in the world proclaiming the truth to everyone because, “faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
Read MoreAs you approach Jesus, what do you seek?
Read MoreThis morning I started reading the Gospel According to John once again and could not get past the first paragraph. John begins poetically revealing Jesus as God, the Creator of all things, who brought life into being. And His life is the “light of all people” (John 1:4). So Jesus is life; life comes into being through Him; and His life is the light of all people. But conflict exists. While Christ Jesus is the light of all people – everyone – darkness also exists. Darkness does not overcome the light, but darkness still exists, meaning the light does not yet shine everywhere. This is where we come in. Through the Holy Spirit, His life dwells within each follower of Christ, and His light should shine and His love should be revealed through us.
Read MoreJesus urges us to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to the churches, and He promises that those who conquer receive the amazing attributes of communion with Him. I pray we each grow in our relationship with Him and gain with increasing clarity ears to hear His holy voice. Amen.
Read MoreGod’s holy word presents humanity’s repeated pattern of rebellion. God is merciful, loving, compassionate and patient, and we are at risk of misinterpreting His patience as approval. But His holy word is true. It is the standard, revealing who God is and who we ought to be in and through Christ Jesus. We must each consider whether our lives are consistent with our claim of association with Him, or whether we are living in active rebellion to Him. Are we healthy, living lives consistent with our purpose or have we become corrupted, and in our corrupted state, do we threaten the very life we are intended to support? I pray I am not a cancerous cell slated for surgical removal.
Read MoreThe multitude in heaven sings, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9). Who is invited to the marriage supper? Individuals making up the bride. Individuals whose righteous deeds adorn the bride. Individuals making a marriage vow to Christ Jesus, saying “I do” and truly meaning it forever.
Read MoreTime and time again, Jesus promises that the world hates His followers. He promises His followers will be persecuted; nonetheless, He sends us out into the world as His agents of love. He sends us out into the darkness so that His love might flow through us, transforming the world one heart at a time. As He sends us, He grants us a portion of His authority over evil and He promises the power of the Holy Spirit fills us. While Jesus promises mission, love, hatred, and persecution, we know He conquers, His love wins, and we have His power and authority over evil.
Read MoreEach Easter we celebrate the most important event in human history. Through Adam and Eve, humanity was separated from God. At the perfect time, God came to earth as a man and surrendered Himself to die on a cross so that we might gain life. Through His death and resurrection, Christ Jesus constructs a bridge spanning the chasm separating us from God. Through Christ Jesus we are cleansed, reconciled with God, released from captivity, given new life.
Read MoreThrough Christ Jesus, through God’s holy word, through His holy grace, He offers the keys to the kingdom of heaven to each of us, but not all will see, and our decisions made while on earth have eternal impact. Will you choose Christ Jesus? Will you confess your faith to others? Will you explain to others the good news of Christ Jesus? May God’s glory continue to be revealed through you. Amen.
Read MoreAfter everything, after all our striving, after all our pursuits and efforts to succeed, after it all, “faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” Love is the greatest characteristic of human existence and experience, and Christ Jesus, who is love, should be the foundational cornerstone of everything we do and all that we strive to do.
Read More“Where are you?” From the moment of physical birth until we receive new life through Christ Jesus, we are lost. God knows exactly where we are, yet we are lost. We need communion with God and without Him, we seek to fill the void with something, anything, and invariably worldly choices exacerbate our lostness, confusion, loneliness, hollowness. So, God showers us with His holy grace, begging us to consider spiritual questions, encouraging us to ask about Him, sending people in our path ready to engage with us about Him, and enabling us to gain eyes to see and ears to hear. And we continue in our state of lostness, searching for answers, seeking to fill the void in our hearts until we meet God through Christ Jesus.
Read MoreLiving water, the water of life, gushes up within people who drink it. It grows, becomes deeper, wider and more powerful as its stream flows, and it transforms death to life. We are separated from God and in that state of separation, spiritually dead, until we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. He offers spiritual life, abundant life, eternal life. Jesus offers His love, light and life to everyone, but we must receive His holy gift of grace, we must believe, we must have faith, we must ask for living water.
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