Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these will be yours as well. -Matthew 6:33 Thanks to countless church services and Bible studies (and my personal study), I have a lot of really great ideas about God, but my own functional thoughts about Him, how I relate to Read more…
My verse for 2019 is familiar “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.” (Matthew 6:33 ) Easy to quote. Hard to practice. As I explore this verse, I discover places in my life that are still my territory, rather than the Read more…
When the inevitable round of new-year-new-you articles and advertisements come out, my inbox fills with guilt-inducing, wishful-thinking, low-monthly-payment plans for transformation. Jesus has His own plan for change. He started His earthly ministry with the message: “change your thinking.” This is much more slippery to grasp than a five-step plan Read more…
I do not write because I myself have something to offer, but because all I have is the One who is always Who we need. I have nothing but Jesus. Following Him today, in a time of pain and loss, means I hold on to the only thing that does Read more…
On the eleventh day of Christmas my True Love gave to me… eleven risen meetings! Our True Love who rose from the dead after dying as a pure, willing sacrifice for our sins expected skepticism regarding this resurrection, and provided ample evidence for it. Among the compelling body of reasons Read more…
On the twelfth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me… twelve gates of heaven! This twelfth gift is one that bears more consideration that we tend to give it, unless someone dear to us is at the brink of death. Heaven! The place where no one cries or Read more…
Following Jesus in the everyday means living a life characterized by faith. Guys like Abraham demonstrated their confidence in what God says by packing up and leaving their homeland. I haven’t been asked to do that…at least not yet, but I have been invited to declare my citizenship in a Read more…
On the tenth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me… ten filled commandments. The Ten Commandments, the foundation of every just system of law, represents how God wants to be treated and how that treatment works itself out in our flesh-and-blood relationships. Jesus taught that God’s intent for Read more…
On the ninth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…nine fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control: the nine-flavored fruit is fragrant evidence of the presence and work of the God’s own Spirit in our lives. It describes a living still-life Read more…
On the fifth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…five healing wounds! The wounds in His hands are to cure all the wounds we receive at the hands of others, and all those our own hands cause. The wounds in His feet are medicine for the wounds we Read more…