If we’ve not been as alert to God as we should be, it’s urgent that we wake up. And the biblical injunction to wake up presumes that we can do so. The Light necessary for our spiritual enlightenment is already shining (John 8:12; 1 John 2:8).
We long for a perfect relationship with our Creator. This deep yearning that refuses to go away, even when we’re most completely enjoying this world, should not be denied. What we’re needing is something much more than anything that is in this world.
When we stay so long in one place that it feels like “home,” we may forget that our lease on this life is temporary. We quit dreaming about heaven, and we get to the point where we don’t want to let go of the things we’ve grown so accustomed to.
“Father, hear the prayer we offer: not for ease that prayer shall be, but for strength, that we may ever live our lives courageously.” While others pray to be excused from hardship, the wise pray for whatever strength faith’s journey may require.
Our hearts need an inside-out transformation. This is the goal God has in mind for us, and there is no shortcut to it. We should make sure that any impatience we have with our present imperfection does not turn into impatience with God Himself.
As we acknowledge our failures and our sorrows, various forms of self-righteousness can creep into our thinking. Secretly, we may come to look upon those whose lives appear more trouble-free as being somehow less spiritually mature than we are.
Mankind never would have sinned if it had not believed the devil’s lie; so the only path out of sin is the one that leads back toward truth. The problem ...
John wrote about Jesus’ miracles “so that you may believe.” The miracles authenticated the truth of what Jesus claimed about Himself. Called “signs” by the gospel writers, they “signified” the ...
May we never underestimate the seriousness of what must happen to us in Christ. “Crucifixion” not too strong a word for it. It was distrust that drove us to sin. ...
In the world, obedience is often based on personal feelings or legal obligation, but in the gospel, it’s based on trust in God. Confident that His way is always the ...
Forgiven of past sins, the Christian can rejoice in the present grace and future hope of the gospel. The relationship we can now have with God is rich — and ...
When we obey the gospel and are justified with God, the result is that “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is not the subjective FEELING ...
The term “Christian” was first used in Antioch in Syria. Here, for the first time, a congregation was made up of both Jews and Gentiles, and it was clear that ...
Apart from Jesus Christ, there is no way back to God, no certainty of truth about God, and no life other than the desperate yearning of our earthly existence. Jesus ...
On Pentecost following Jesus’ resurrection, a large crowd in Jerusalem heard Peter preach the gospel of Christ. Many were “cut to the heart,” and no one in the history of ...
What is the meaning of the titles associated with the name of Jesus in the New Testament? Over sixty times He is called the “Lord Jesus Christ”? To see fully ...
God is at the center of both our problem and its solution. The gospel is not primarily about our broken social relationships. These are but symptoms of the real problem: ...
We were created for perfect joy with God, a joy not subject to change and decay. By our sin, the human race broke that perfection, but we still yearn for ...