Is it wrong to have fun and enjoy life? Is it okay to love life? Is joyful living a sin? These are questions that used to haunt me as a teenager. I was on the verge of independence, eager to start out my own life. I had grown to love the Lord more than anything but I didn’t know if it was okay to have fun, enjoy life. I have a bubbly personality so this was indeed an important question…
Is the call for simple living a chore or a privilege? Something you have to pretend or something you embrace wholeheartedly? Simple living is not the easiest task to accomplish in our hectic world. Our attention as consumers is constantly wanted. It takes a lot of practice to successfully navigate between needs and wants. It takes a lot of prayer to maintain a lifestyle that is focused on God and not on stuff. A God-loyal life keeps you on track;…
How do you imagine God? No matter how much energy we put into imagining, studying, and defining God, we will always fall short. God is more than we can imagine. God is always MORE! Just as you don’t understand what the life-breath does in the fetus inside a pregnant woman’s womb, so you can’t understand the work of God, who makes everything happen. (Ecclesiastes 11:5, CEB) God is indeed more than we can imagine. God is more than we can…
Do you ever wonder how on earth you ended up messing up things once again? Especially when you thought you had asked God’s blessings on your projects? How did everything go wrong when you thought God was in your team? These questions used to haunt me, too. Until I laid them to the Lord and asked him to explain me where I had gone wrong. How could I have avoided these pitfalls? How could I have made wiser decisions? The…
It is in the field of prayer that life’s critical battles are lost or won. We must conquer all our circumstances there. We must first of all bring them there. We must survey them there. We must master them there. In prayer we bring our spiritual enemies into the Presence of God and we fight them there. Have you tried that? Or have you been satisfied to meet and fight your foes in the open spaces of the world?~ J….
Does your Christian faith influence your take on Friday the 13th? Or do you still feel skirmish? It might be Friday the 13th but “This is the day the LORD acted; we will rejoice and celebrate in it!”. (Ps.118:24, CEB) Yes, let’s rejoice! It might be Friday the 13th but all the promises of the Bible are in effect also today. Earlier, before you knew God personally, you were enslaved to so-called gods that had nothing of the divine about…
Do you know how to overcome temptations? Because it is not about growing your moral muscle! The main thing to remember is this: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:13, NKJV) The Amplified Bible says the same verse this way: “I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me.” We have strength for all things if we are in Christ who empowers us. Okay, you say. But how to do it? How to…
Have you tried to change your habits or get back into gear? Isn’t it hard? After our 2-week vacation I have had really hard time of getting back to routine of going for my meditative prayer walks at 6am. I managed to get up yesterday but missed this morning. Sigh. Larry Lea has said “Everyone wants to change, but change demands desire and discipline before it becomes delightful. There is always the agony of choice before the promise of change.”…
Do you feel that you are at the end of your rope? Don’t worry. As Woodrow Kroll points out “our quitting point is God’s beginning point”. When we are finished trying to manage on our own, God can step in. We can’t summon up strength on our own, but God is our strength. We can’t use yesterday’s manna, but there will always be new manna in the morning. We can’t store grace, but there will always be enough if we…
How are you doing? Do you need a little TLC? Once in awhile we all need a little TLC. Fortunately, God specializes in giving us tender loving care. So, we are in good hands. God has promised to take care of us until the end of the world: Jesus came near and spoke to them, “I’ve received all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father…
