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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
Does the world no longer need to be turned upside down (Acts 17:1-7)? If it does, what are we missing about the strategy or the structure or the power that caused the first believers in Jesus to be accused of having done that? What could we change about our individual lives or our corporate intentions that would improve our abilities […]
We humans think that we only need two things to be noble: the knowledge of how to master the mysteries of life and make them obey us; the knowledge of how to master our identities and make them produce purpose in life. The one thing we need above both of those pursuits is knowing the One Who wrote the mysteries […]
An unjust man is detestable to the righteous, and one whose way is upright is detestable to the wicked. (Proverbs 29:27 Holman Christian Standard Bible ©®) It is God Who works in you both to want to do and to be able to do what pleases Jesus (Philippians 2:12-13). You are going to be annoying to somebody. Get it right.
In Matthew’s account of good news (Matthew 20:20-28), Zebedee’s wife approached Jesus to ask on behalf of her sons that they would be given prestige in His Kingdom. She was not talking about church, and His response was not referring to church. His response could have used Joseph, son of Jacob, as the example. Joseph became slave of each person […]