Identity In Christ
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20 NIV) God spoke you into your mother’s womb at just the right time for you to be here now. It wasn’t by accident, nor was it a pleasant surprise to God; he designed you on purpose to be on mission with him for such a time as this. Your faith will grow stronger as you focus on your …
God’s Great Idea
“My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:15-16 NIV) God spoke my son, Jeremy, into my wife’s womb, just as God spoke you into your mother’s womb. Jeremy was “fearfully and wonderfully made,” and God ordained his days, just as he’s ordained yours. (Psalm 139:14, 16 NIV) Jeremy was one of God’s great ideas. Like you, …
His Hair Grew Back Again
Tonight while I was telling the kids the story of Samson before bed my mind came to rest on this verse, “22 But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.” I didn’t know exactly what the verse said but the thought occurred to me that there must have been some amount of time that passed between when Samson was captured by the Philistines and when he gave his live to destroy the house he was shackled in. I wondered what that time was like. We read in Judges 16 that when Samson was …
Jesus Stopped
“Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions.” (1 John 3:18 NLT) Jesus stopped. He stopped when people needed his help, when they needed his comfort, when they needed his protection, when they needed an answer to a perplexing problem. Jesus saw the interruptions in his life as divine opportunities to show God’s love to people in desperate need. Jesus approached love from a show first, then tell perspective. He defined love as meeting needs, and when he touched people they realized “… they were in a place of …
Send Picture First
“So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now!” (2 Corinthians 5:16 NLT) “Send picture first, then I’ll reply” – It’s a pretty common message in the personal ads, and in this age of alienation and e-community, it makes a lot of sense to exercise care and caution in any relationship with a new person. But let me ask this question: When it comes to real love – real as opposed to some …
what counts, substance or style ?
Annoying, trash talking professional athletes seem to get a lot of attention. Unfortunately our kids often mimic what these super stars say, what they wear, and how they act. As a young boy in the 50′s and a teenager in the 60′s … I believe this may have started with big mouth Mohammad Ali and Joe Namath. It seemed all of a sudden young people wanted to talk big and live big. Style became a greater value than substance. Many times Jesus encountered a similar attitude. He often exchanged thoughts with “religious super stars” and found that the core of …
Believing Your Uniqueness
“The most important thing is that I complete my mission, the work that the Lord Jesus gave me – to tell people the Good News about God’s grace.” (Acts 20:24 NCV) God gave you a unique role to play in his Kingdom. You’re the only person in the world who can live your particular life for the glory of God. There is no one else in the world with your unique mix of spiritual gifts, passions, abilities, personality, and experiences. God shaped you for a very specific ministry, and no one else can fulfill your mission. Paul writes: “The most …
teach children to hate … ?
While Jesus was delivering words of encouragement and correction to the church in Ephesus He made, what appeared to me, as a rather “unJesus” like statement. He said … “But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” Revelation 2:6 Wow … I never thought Jesus hated anyone ! However, a closer look and I discovered that Jesus did not say He hated the Nicolaitans … He said He hated their sinful practices. Big difference. As parents we are called according to scripture to bring up our kids to present the …
your church, my church … blah-blah-blah
I have encountered people who love to complain about the church … any church. It seems they are quick to see church failures and yet refuse to be part of fixing the issues. So I decided to search the Bible for the perfect church. But I couldn’t seem to find one … at least not while Satan is around. Jesus evaluated seven churches in Revelation chapter 2 and … although He had some good things to say … each of them hand problems. Jesus gave this advice to all seven churches … advice that is still vital to your church …
Life Is At Work In You
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. (2 Corinthians 4:8-12, NIV) ======= ===== ==== We are jars of …
