It seems to be a pitiful shame that today we have a hundred English versions of the Hebrew Scriptures, with the added value of the New Testament, and two thousand years of church history to tranquilize us from listening to the Holy Spirit. He is all the first century believers had, so they weren’t distracted from turning their world upside […]
Being filled with the Spirit is not optional if we expect to serve Jesus. It is neither a one-time experience that doesn’t need to be repeated frequently. The difference between the first time and the subsequent times of being filled is that after being filled from without the first time, we are filled from within, as the Spirit becomes in […]
The warfare over your life is bigger than you think. The attacks on your health, your property, your relationships, your rest, and all the rest, are allowed in your life so that you have opportunities to have increase in the process of Christ being formed in you. That important purpose needs to have faith applied to it so that it […]
Jesus offered the greatest threats and the least mercy to the scholars He encountered. He chose a very different sort of people to continue His work when He left the earth – fishermen, a tax collector, a revolutionary, and a couple of strays. Under the influences of Roman mythology, the only leaders we respect are scholars. Perhaps we need more […]
William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was convinced that a random talk was far more effective in the process of changing lives than a well-prepared sermon. If we spend time on purpose among other believers discussing the things of the Spirit and the Kingdom, we will become more mature and more effective in our lives. If we are afraid […]
When Yahweh judges a matter or a person or a nation or an organization, He is pronouncing what is righteous, and informing the judged regarding their alignment with that righteousness. If the judged has had their sins paid for by the blood of Jesus and are in Christ, there is no condemnation, even though there was guilt. The matters related […]
We don’t have to wait until the battles in life are over to have victory. Jesus already won a victory that overcame the world. He embarrassed His enemies at the cross and the grave. The place where we fight is maintaining our position of victory. The first evidence we may see of it most days is that we have peace […]
Here are a few quotes from Karl Marx, written as parts of a critique of “Philosophy of Right,” written in 1820 by Georg Hegel: • Man makes religion, religion does not make man. • Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the […]
My hero E. Stanley Jones was encouraged by the thought that any time a spiritual enemy appeared in order to attack him, if he leaned in and looked at the enemy’s neck, he could see there the footprint of Jesus, from the day when He overcame that enemy. Having been buried with Him in baptism, you were also raised with […]
The next time you see someone (especially a believer) doing something that makes you angry or annoyed, consider that it is possible you are writing the script for how things will go in response to your next mistake as you respond to their mistake, because the measure you deal out to them is likely to be what comes to you, […]