Mourn
What was it like for Jesus, the Righteous One, to walk in a fallen world where sin infected everything and everyone? What was it like for Jesus, the Lamb of God, to see the hearts of fallen Man and our ability to commit the worst sins against God and each other? What was it like for Jesus, the Bread of Life, to watch those he loves run after broken cisterns?
Looking in the Mirror
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing (James 1:22-25, ESV)
God Thinks About You …Very Much & Very Deeply
Do you realize how much and how deeply God thinks about his children? Do you know that he watches you carefully every day with the purpose of doing good to you, to protect you and to lead you in the way of life? Sometimes I unconsciously think that God is too busy running the universe to care about why I am crying on my couch or that he has ‘holier’ people to pay attention to. The inspired David shows us in Psalm 139 that this could not be further from the truth. But what even David could not fathom, ‘things into which angels long to look’ (1 Peter 1:10), is a God who put on human flesh, dwelt among us and gave his life for us so that we might have eternal life in him.
Why We Struggle to Pray
For many of us, having a consistent prayer life is challenging. Why is that? Why is prayer not always our first response to sin, doubt, fear, pain, and even joy? Is there a spiritual battle to prevent us from praying? Is it because of false beliefs or unbelief about prayer?
The God Who Answers the Questions You Didn’t Ask
Have you noticed how Jesus interacts with certain individuals in the Gospels? He seems not to answer the question(s) asked or he seems to address a completely different topic. It’s almost like something was lost in translation, but it is not so. Jesus is intentional in how he interacts with individuals. Not only does he know how, but he also knows what to answer each one of us. He knows how to get us to understand God better, ourselves better, and our utter need for him….
4 Pillars of Wisdom
Do you want to be wiser? Do you want biblical, simple-to-remember principles to walk in wisdom? Are there certain things that always characterize wisdom?
When The ‘Christian Things’ Starve Us
Are you constantly weary, fearful of what tomorrow holds (or doesn’t hold) for you? Are you unmotivated? Are you questioning whether God even sees or hears you? Are you wondering if there will be an end to this season? Do you feel ‘shakable’, spiritually destabilized, and starved?
When God's Kindness Feels Painful
We tend to think that good things feel good and bad things feel bad. If something feels painful, it must be bad; if it feels good, it must be good. Well, the reality is, God's kindness, protection, and love often feel painful as a necessity and a consequence of our fallenness….
Jesus “Emptied” Himself?
There is a great deal of debate about the phrase 'Jesus emptied himself'. What is it exactly that Jesus emptied himself of? Did he somehow become 'less God'?