You have influence over someone. That influence may be great or small. It may be greater than anyone else’s over a certain person or group, and still be small. Whatever the size or the expectation of its strength, stay alert for any opportunity the Spirit of God gives you to invite someone to life in Jesus. You can prophesy even if you are not a prophet. You can teach somebody […]
Monthly Archives: September 2018
Proper Government
I have, since being a teenager, had the perhaps arrogant idea that if something is popular there must be something wrong with it. It influenced my choices of music, of religion, clothing, art, and everything else, I suppose. Democracy is touted as the best government ever on the earth. Some have said of it, though, that if good people lead the government, it will be good government, even if it […]
Living Like Mr. Murray
One of my heroes, E. Stanley Jones, shared a story about some villagers in India who were going to be baptized. A visiting bishop, who was present to oversee the baptisms, was very pompous. He asked some of the villagers, “What is it to be a Christian?” He was expecting the correct theological answer. The answer he received was, “To live like Mr. Murray.” Mr. Murray was the missionary who […]
Calling on the Lord
Abraham didn’t need to have Yahweh’s phone number – God usually called him. Much of our lives should be the same way – contact is made with Yahweh because we are answering Him. Our worship is rightly a response to Him. Our lives are rightly obedience to His call regarding our true identities and our true purposes. He is almost always the One Who spoke last. Lord, make our lives […]
Testimonies
When you get a blessing, make noise about it. Especially if it is particularly supernatural. When the woman who had the never-ending menstrual cycle got healed by touching Jesus’ clothes, it apparently made the local papers: when Jesus appeared in Gennesaret after Peter walked on water, everybody wanted to touch Jesus’ clothes. Anybody who did got healed! Make His praises known. Open doors for others’ faith when yours grows. Immediately […]
Being a Sweet Aroma
But thanks be to God, who always puts us on display in Christ, and spreads through us in every place the scent of knowing Him. (2 Corinthians 2:14-15 from Holman Christian Standard Bible ©®) The scent of an organic item can be good or bad. Bacteria stink. Some flowers even stink. Most fruit, when mature, smells sweet and invites us to eat it. When we are bearing the fruit of […]
Talking to Your Daddy
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:6-7 from Holman Christian Standard Bible ©®) Anyone who is still captive to the laws Yahweh gave Israel, or the natural, conscience-related laws written in the hearts of gentile unbelievers, will […]
Seeing and Hearing
Every time I consider the life of Helen Keller, I am struck by the difficulties that had to be overcome by Anne Sullivan, her teacher. Helen became deaf and blind at the age of 19 months. When Anne was brought into her life to train her, Helen could not grasp for a while that every thing had a name, much less that Anne was trying to teach her the names […]
Reserves or Resources
Are we living on what we have stored up, or on what our Father has stored up? Then He told them a parable: “A rich man’s land was very productive. He thought to himself, ‘What should I do, since I don’t have anywhere to store my crops? I will do this,’ he said. ‘I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and store all my grain and my goods […]
Holy Husbandry
It is very liberating to reach a place of faith and trust in which we become able to say to the One Who exhaled a few words once and breathed the stars: “Dearest Lover of my soul, I commit myself and my property and my future and my relationships to You: for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, in health, to love You, to cherish You, to […]