Preparation is a big part of any celebration. The bigger the celebration, the larger-scale preparations are needed. As human beings we need time to get ready. But also God carefully prepared the creation of the world and the way of salvation long before they happened: In the beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1, AMP,*) How wonderful to know that God took time to prepare everything in the world, including you and me….
Are you ready for 2013? Or do you know how to become ready for a new year? The web is bursting all kinds of self-help articles of how to make the best of 2013. But they leave me empty and unsatisfied. No matter how much planning I’d do for the new year, it does not solve the problems. If I have not ended this year well, the new year will be same old, same old. So the best preparation for…
The commercial adds try to tell us what is essential for Easter. But only one thing is essential for Easter: a ready heart. Has your lenten journey readied your heart for Jesus? There’s still time to do it. We are not to rush ahead to Easter. Rather, we need to work on readying our heart. Have we surrendered our selfish hopes and false expectations? Have we confessed our sins and repented them? Are we ready to die with Jesus? Search…
Did you know that there are more biblical prophecies on the second coming of Christ than prophecies on the first coming? The central theme in Christianity is to wait for the second coming of Jesus Christ to complete his saving work. Come, Lord Jesus! Therefore, stay alert! You don’t know what day the Lord is coming. But you understand that if the head of the house knew at what time the thief would come, he would keep alert and wouldn’t…
Happy Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday! Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday that marks the beginning of Lent. The season of Lent is a special time when we are called to prepare our hearts and minds to Easter. Some people give up something (meat, sweets, TV etc) for Lent and some take something on (f.e. a certain spiritual discipline) for this period of 40 days before Easter. The main idea is to seek God and let him show what areas of our lives need…
All these self-help articles of how to prepare for 2012 have left me empty. No matter how much planning I’d do for the new year, it does not solve the problems. If I have not ended this year well, the new year will be same old, same old. So the best preparation for the future is to deal with the past. When we have a clean slate we are ready to move on. But how can we get past the…
What does John the Baptist have to do with Christmas? First of all, his life was fully intertwined with Jesus. He was only few months older than Jesus and he was called to clear the way for Jesus. John knew his place in God’s salvation plan. He had dedicated his whole life for serving God. His message for us this advent season is: prepare your hearts for Jesus. What needs to go that we’d be able to fully concentrate in…
Why do we year after year fall into the same trap of consumerism and busyness? Why do we let the lies of the world consume our thinking and feeling so much that there’s not much space left for anything real? Why do we stress about performing a perfect Christmas? Don’t ruin everything and make an idol for yourself: a form of any image, any likeness—male or female— or any likeness whatsoever, whether of a land animal, a bird that flies…
The Bible is a treasure. The more I read it, the more I marvel God’s perfect plan. Just take the prophecies of Jesus. Every single one of them came through. Therefore, the Lord will give you a sign. The young woman is pregnant and is about to give birth to a son, and she will name him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14, CEB) Also there are so many parallels between the Old testament and the New testament. Just think of Abraham and…
We have entered the Advent season. It is time to make sure there is room in our Inn for Jesus. Join me this December to prepare our hearts and minds for Jesus. Let’s see what Mary can show us about being ready for God. Gabriel brings Mary a promise, an order, and a prophecy: When Elizabeth was six months pregnant, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a city in Galilee, to a virgin who was engaged to a man…
