I pray this: that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment, so that you can determine what really matters and can be pure and blameless in the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11)
Category Archives: Discipleship
Love’s Value
I think that Jesus places more value on love than on obedience or faith. • I can only love Him after I have experienced His love: anything good in my life is a response to something that came from Him. • If I love Him, I will take pleasure in first learning what He wants of me, then obeying Him. • My faith increases in proportion to the revelation I […]
Your Critics
Unless the criticism you receive is for being lazy, being criticized is likely to be a good thing. People who don’t do anything of significance usually don’t take much flak. But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear or be disturbed, but set apart the Messiah as Lord in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to anyone […]
Study and Devotion
One of the greatest weaknesses of the institution we call the church is that it compels us to a greater allegiance to its doctrines than to its Head. More time is spent in some circles teaching adherents how to defend themselves from Baptists and Methodists and Pentecostals and Roman Catholics than is spent teaching how to become more profitable servants of the King. Continually increase your devotion to Jesus and […]
Burn!
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 down. Blessed, apparently, are believers in the earth who are […]
Refills
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 us a fountain. Refilling becomes necessary because we fill ourselves […]
Big Fight
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 becomes more effective. The enemies who are aligned against you […]
Arise and Shine
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 to consequences are more complex. Even they may not be […]
Stand
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 even in the midst of the battles. King David prophesied […]
Opium
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 people. • Man, who has found only the reflection of […]