Today, I was contemplating on the text on Pilate washing his hands for responsibility of Jesus’ death. I understand his dilemma: the crowd wanting Jesus dead and Pilate wanting to keep his job while (he and) his wife not finding Jesus guilty. What to do? Whom to serve? And did the hand washing work? Did he get rid of his guilt or not? How about you? Do you wash your hands like Pilate? How does that work? I’m afraid washing our hands…
Do you have hard time believing that God does not remember the things he has forgiven you? I hear you. I’ve written a lot about our need of forgiveness, the importance of forgiveness, even what living forgiveness means. I’ve done it because I believe forgiveness is one of the most life-changing things because it brings freedom. It leads us from brokenness to wholeness. But this does not happen if we don’t truly believe forgiven means forgiven and that God forgives…
Have you been hurt badly? Do you think the offence should not be pardoned? Do you think God should not extend grace to your offender? I hear you. It is hard to understand why God would offer grace for all sinners. But he does. Because he loves us. TheBible tells us: And He [that same Jesus] is the propitiation for our sins [the atoning sacrifice that holds back the wrath of God that would otherwise be directed at us because…
Isn’t it so easy to see the wrong in others? Since Adam and Eve, we’ve tried to blame anyone and everyone but ourselves. Sometimes we even blame God in order to make ourselves feel a bit better. But it does not work in the long run. We don’t get any cleaner by taking mud baths. Maybe it is time to exchange blame for grace? Look! Listen! God’s arm is not amputated—he can still save. God’s ears are not stopped up—he…
Are you planning to do some spring cleaning? How about some spiritual spring cleaning too? Before you start, I have a spiritual cleaning tip for you that will hopefully save you some time and effort. Wash me completely clean of my guilt; purify me from my sin! (Psalm 51:2, CEB) First of all, forget about any quick-fix cleaning. That does not fix the real problem, it just hides it for awhile. Instead, put the best spiritual cleaning tip into practice:…
Are you a sinner? Do you need Jesus? I am a sinner and I most certainly do need Jesus. Often we’d like to skip the reality of being sinners. We’d like to escape from all the ugly stuff in life and live in a la-la land. But it doesn’t work. No matter how much we try to forget our sinfulness, it does not go away on its own. There really is no way around it: we are all sinners and…
Do you adjust your life to God? Or do you expect God to serve you? Your answers to these questions reveal who is the center of your life. People whose lives are based on selfishness think about selfish things, but people whose lives are based on the Spirit think about things that are related to the Spirit. 6 The attitude that comes from selfishness leads to death, but the attitude that comes from the Spirit leads to life and peace. 7 So…
How do you feel about repentance? Should we call each other to repent? Or do you think everything is forgiven anyway so why bother with repentance? The latter type of thinking seems to become more common these days even within church. We might ask for forgiveness but we don’t repent. But the Bible is pretty clear about our need of repentance in order to be saved. For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from…
Last week I started blogging through Mary DeMuth‘s and Frank Viola‘s brand new book The Day I Met Jesus: The reavealing diaries of five women in the gospels. The woman of the second diary is found in Luke 7:36-50. I’ve always been in awe of the woman who wet the feet of Jesus with her tears and wiped them with her hair and soothed his feet with perfume. Would I dare? Do I love Jesus as much as she did?…
Lately God has been waking me up (literally) to see my sinfulness. God has reminded me of some choices I have made in my life and led me to repent for them. Even though during that time of my life I did not even think they had been questionable. I did not know any better then. Selfishness does not produce good fruit. Selfishness paves the way to destruction whether we realize it or not. Go home and wash up. Clean…
