“Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live ...
After having some difficulties with my computer once, my husband suggested I get a software program to run systematic scans that would find and fix any problems or files that simply needed to be securely trashed. I found one that was in fact called Find & Fix. The first time I ran it, the scan found over 1,700 junk or ...
When you think about it, emotions are an interesting attribute of our human make-up. God saw it fit to equip us with these feelings that influence our behavior. Emotions cause us to laugh, cry, yell, and sigh. They produce giggles, sobs, joy, and peace. And as I’m sure you know, some emotions are attached to sin, and yet God uses ...
This article first appeared on The Christian Broadcasting Network | We’re all guilty (some more than others). We post something to Facebook or Instagram and then we watch … will anyone like this? How many people will like? Will they comment? Or share it? Twitter is no different – only the question we ask ourselves – did anyone retweet it? Tag ...
How many of us have been afraid of the dark before? Either as a child, or as an adult walking across a parking lot late at night feeling a bit eeby-jeeby because you can’t see beyond the shadows? I’m going to guess it’s all of us at one point or another. But let’s flip it around… how many of us ...
Trust isn’t earned by showing off only your Sunday best. “You see, God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” This was the final explanation Jesus gave to the woman at the well (John 4:1-26). She was already fascinated that a Jewish man would speak to a woman, much less one from Samaria. But He ...
Until recently I had never given much thought to the word echo. I knew what it meant –basically an echo is a sound heard again (a repetition if you would) of an original sound. In a large room or a canyon, you can shout and hear the echo of your voice bounce back to you. This was always fun to ...
This was a question I received recently. Without knowing anything else, the question alone broke my heart because I was reminded how I once felt when I believed the same thing. I was young in my faith (but old enough to have extreme guilt) when God rescued me from the heavy weight that daily rested upon my heart. I didn’t ...
Why is it that no matter how much we learn about God’s love for us, we struggle with our identity? Because who we are in Christ is the very target the enemy wants to muffle, disable, take-out, or at the least, wound. Every time I think about our enemy, the devil, I can’t help but picture an army at war. ...
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 We’ve been addressing the troublesome question: Is God in control of everything? Let’s be clear what we’re talking about… Everything is a BIG word. It describes the total of all things. Yet when we look at our world, and compare what we see with scripture and our understanding of our Good God, ...
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 I asked this question in last week’s post, and came to the conclusion that no, God is not in control of everything that happens. Jesus Himself helps substantiate this in His teachings. For example, let’s look at the Parable of the Wedding: And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables ...
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 You hear this sometimes… when a tragedy has happened, or something is unexplainable: “Well, you know God has a reason… He’s in control of everything that happens…” Is He? If this is true, then why did Jesus tell His disciples how to pray? If God is in control of everything, why do ...
How do people live without God? I recently encountered this on two very different levels. My husband and I were asked to minister to a family going through a crisis. When we arrived, it was quickly apparent that most of these were (for a lack of better words) empty. They had no desire for God and therefore the very air ...
I was recently visiting with a respected minister friend of mine and the subject of righteousness came up. He said, “I think Malachi 4:2 is the best righteousness scripture in the whole Bible. You know what it says, right?” Well, at the moment, no. I drew a blank. Then he said, “But to you who fear My name the Sun ...
If you’re even a little bit of a Bible-studier than you’re familiar with the example James uses in describing the power of our tongue. He said, “A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest ...
There’s always a lot of discussion about our monetary system, and those who have invested in gold have seemingly made a wise decision because its value continues to increase. But there is one commodity apparently far superior in value– our faith. Hesitant believers will argue that “faith” isn’t going to pay the mortgage or save our country from a fiscal disaster, ...
In his letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul made an interesting statement: “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself” (1 Corinthians 4:3). How many of us make it “a very BIG thing” to be judged? Whether by ...
Interesting question: Is God for us or against us? I’m assuming you immediately answered that in your heart (or maybe even out loud) with a big YES, of course He’s for us! Isn’t this the core behind John 3:16? “For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so ...