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Month: September 2013

Kingdom Living

Kingdom Living

Living out faith seems fun and easy when things go well. But what are we supposed to do when things don’t go so well? Still keep going strong? But how is it possible? The trick here is….we are not to lean on our own strength…but on God’s strength. We are not to  thrive on our own…but to let God empower us.  Then it’s not about good times or tough times. It’s about kingdom living. It’s about Christ living in us….

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Authentic Living and True Worship

Authentic Living and True Worship

I think we all grave authentic living, being true to ourselves. We want to forget faking and hiding behind masks. But do we dare to do so? Do we dare to bare our souls to others? Are we finally ready to admit that we are not perfect? Not only to ourselves and people around us but also to God? Like he would not know everything already, right? Like God would want us to be anything else but our true selves….

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The Comparison Trap

The Comparison Trap

I’ve always thought that comparison is from the devil. So I smiled wide when I reached the chapter five of Kurt Bubna‘s new book  Epic Grace, Chronicles of Recovering Idiot . The chapter is titled “The Curse of Comparison”. My thoughts exactly. “Comparison is a trap because it feeds either the beast of pride or the monster of insecurity”, Kurt writes “Either way, we lose”. We really do lose by comparing ourselves to others or to an unreachable standard. That’s…

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From Angst to Alleluia

From Angst to Alleluia

Lately I’ve been thinking how our faith could be expressed in love. You know, even the Bible tells us that our faith should be activated through love. How can we do it? Because it’s not so easy. Life is messy and relationships complicated. Our initial response in life, unfortunately, is not often love. So. What to do? How to get from war to love, from angst to alleluia? For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion…

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Spiritual Reading Glasses, Anyone?

Spiritual Reading Glasses, Anyone?

Do you wear glasses regularly or do you need reading glasses? What a blessing it is to have a way to see clearly, isn’t it? Otherwise everything is a bit blurry. Hard to focus, hard to see. That’s exactly the way it is in our spiritual life too. It’s hard to focus, hard to understand what’s what. We need spiritual reading glasses to see clearly. Especially when we read the Bible. Otherwise we miss the wonderful things in it. Let…

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Grace in Action

Grace in Action

Do you know how grace in action looks like? It’s when someone who feels unworthy gets a glimpse of God’s love through a random spiritual act of kindness. It’s when someone for the first time, or for the 100th time, feels the grace of God because someone practiced what they believed. Grace is in action when someone forgives, loves, serves or offers grace. Grace is in action when our heart opens to receive God’s love and grace. Grace is in…

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Our Father in Heaven

Our Father in Heaven

Jesus taught us to pray “Our father in heaven”. As Mary DeMuth points out there are no singular pronouns in the entire Lord’s prayer. Jesus did not say MY father, he said OUR father. We are all included in the prayer. We are all God’s children. We are a community of God’s beloveds. And that’s how we should pray too. Communally. For each other. For those difficult people. Because that’s what being a family is meant to be. And we…

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Perfect Is Boring

Perfect Is Boring

Sometimes I wonder why we try so hard to be perfect and blend in. Because perfect is boring. It would be very bland if we all looked alike. It would be very boring if there were not any variety. And not just that. We would also know so much less of God. You will notice that the variety of bodies is stunning. Just as there are different kinds of seeds, there are different kinds of bodies—humans, animals, birds, fish—each unprecedented…

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Sin versus Grace

Sin versus Grace

Do you ever choose in the battle within what’s wrong even when you know what’s right? That’s way too familiar for all of us. Even Paul wrote: I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. (Romans 7:19-20, NLT) Do…

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How to Handle Hardships

How to Handle Hardships

What do you do when you are crushed? How do you react to devastating news? How do you cope in the midst of uncertainties?  Your answer defines your way of living. What we do when a catastrophe strikes makes us or breaks us. One of the most important life skills is to know how to handle hardships. Mary DeMuth points us into the right direction in her new book The Wall Around Your Heart “So in whatever circumstance we walk,…

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