They are God’s liturgy, prepared for you in advance. How
With this? Do you live as if this is true? Let’s keep going. The Bible isn’t just about heaven and only for the by-and-by. It is gritty and real. It is about messed-up people and the way God pursues t...
Yes, genuine pain and loss coexisted with the deliverance, but it did not have the last word. Its power to hurt him was weakened because he could see the bigger things God was doing in, for, and throu...
This is the last word. Jesus always has the last word, and it is always a good last word. It is always about him and it always takes you by surprise with his love and acceptance. What is your response...
This was Paul’s joy in suffering and shame: that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain...
Though the cross and everything leading up to it violate our sensibilities and we are rightly aghast, the reality is that human beings have never liked God very much. At the cross, the nature of God w...
Through our struggles and pain, we are being offered perseverance, the character of God. Hardships are intended to give us a spiritual makeover, that we may share in his holiness (Heb. 12:10). Therefo...
To deeply understand fear we must also look at ourselves and the way we interpret our situations. Those scary objects can reveal what we cherish. They point out our insatiable quest for control, our s...
To look to Christ to meet our perceived psychological needs is to Christianize our lusts. We are asking God to give us what we want, or so we can have more happiness, not holiness, in our lives.
To look to Christ to meet our perceived psychological needs is to Christianize our lusts. We are asking God to give us what we want, so we can feel better about ourselves, or so we can have more happi...
To paraphrase Augustine, if you want to know your God-given gifts, first know that the purpose of spiritual gifts is to bring unity to the church. Then love God and do what you feel like doing. But th...
Try changing the subject so it is more about God than about your shame. The basic idea is to focus on the matchless worth of the Lord God and then get connected to him. For you are a people holy to th...
Watch them as they sit in the filth of their daily lives. Watch them as they hear rumors of someone who cares and has power. Watch them stand up when they receive news that Jesus is approaching. Watch...
Knew something about prayer, asked Jesus how to pray (Luke 11:1). Here is where prayer really
We can think that God is good, and we are pleased with him, though we might be pleased less with him than we are with the ease of our lives. Then, when life is hard—especially when life remains hard—t...
When you have to manage the world, please everyone, earn more than you did last year, and work off five pounds, you will be driven. If not, you run the risk of being un-American or even un-Christian b...
We loathe worthlessness, and for good reason. We have a primal sense that we exist for something better and, indeed, we do. We are created in the King’s image and created to be with him. But there is...
We must hate the evil and ungodly assumptions of the world, we must hate our own sinful nature, and we must hate Satan. To accomplish these tasks demands the most powerful resources we have: the Word,...
When you are in the grips of low self-esteem, it’s painful, and it certainly doesn’t feel like pride. But I believe that this is the dark, quieter side of pride — thwarted pride.
What is most important is that you look away from yourself to the true God. No matter who you are or where you are from, you will be able to know him and worship him. And when you worship him, it mean...
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