Whatever you are excited about is probably an arrow aimed at your future. If it happens to be the burden that Jesus is offering you, it will draw you to the yoke that can affect it. For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to will and to act for His good purpose. Do everything without […]
Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So we must not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the […]
Generosity in the Kingdom of Heaven is not looking at a budget. It is fixed on the horizon. It is not asking “How much seed does it take to produce a harvest?” It is asking, “How much seed do we have?” It is more concerned that we are investing in the next generation’s success than in our own. It is […]
Most of what I write to you has a blessing prophesied in it somewhere: “Be strong; be courageous; be awesome.” What are you saying to yourself? If it sounds like, “I’m tired; none of my friends really care about me; I can’t stand ____ anymore; I’ll never get this paid off; the next thing to break will probably be ____;” […]
Something about our lives and our work, at least every other now and then, should look to someone else like a bush filled with flames but not being consumed. Something we say or do, or that we refuse to say or do, should seem new or different enough to make someone stop and pull over to look closer at what […]
The followers of Jesus who saw Him rise from the earth one day into the clouds were told by Him to wait in Jerusalem so they would receive power, and then to bear witness to Him to the ends of the earth. They were already His followers. They received further blessing by His Spirit to receive power to follow. While […]
If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t He do much more for you—you of little faith?Matthew 6:30 But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, you of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great […]
Consider some exaggerated extremes of description: Some believers have been convinced that Jesus is coming to pick them up this afternoon and relieve them of their fear and lack of preparation and take them on an eternal vacation. They are hiding from the ever-increasing darkness and evil and listening through the locked front door for the horn of the gospel […]
My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I […]
Religious people are always upset when Jesus uses unqualified people. Systems of religion are built on passing tests to prove qualifications. Catechisms and memorized theological answers do not prove conversion, though. Changed lives prove conversion. When we are transformed by having our minds renewed by the Spirit of Truth, we become capable of discerning why Yahweh’s desires are perfect (Romans […]