Somehow we humans want to be better than we are. We’d like to be perfect. But we are not. There’s no one without fault. “There’s not one totally good person on earth, Not one who is truly pure and sinless.” (Ecc. 7:20, MSG) God knows this. That’s why he sent Christ to the world. So we would have a way back to him. Because we could never make it on our own. Why is then that we’d like to fake…
Are you a sinner? Do you need grace? I am and I most certainly do. We’d like to skip the reality that we are 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. There is no way around it: we are all sinners! And only the blood of Jesus can save us! So, yes, we do need Jesus. Our lives depend on God’s grace! Lord, have mercy!…
If we are free in Christ….why do we need to bother with holy living? If we are not under law….why should we be holy? It is true that we are set free by grace through faith in God. And that we can’t do anything to earn our salvation. But holy living is not about trying to save ourselves. Holiness is our way to love God back. Holy living is about acting out our love for God. It cost God plenty…
Grace invites us to try on a new kind of wardrobe. One that God has chosen for us: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Did you just audibly sigh? Don’t worry, I know. The godly wardrobe doesn’t quite fit! But I know a Master Taylor who can help us: The Holy Spirit. When we invite Jesus to live in our heart the Holy Spirit starts working on our new kind of wardrobe. Gently he keeps on working on us and…
Have you met some extra radiant people who just glow and shine God’s love and grace? Have you wondered and marveled the way Moses glowed when he came down from Mount Sinai after spending 40 days and 40 nights with God? When Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying the two Tablets of The Testimony, he didn’t know that the skin of his face glowed because he had been speaking with God. Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, saw…
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…
This blog post is dedicated to my soul sister, sweet friend Candice. This post is based on her favorite Bible verse Galatians 2:20. Abundant blessings to you, sis! What a blessing it is to know you! “We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it—and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no…
Throughout this season of Lent I’ve been trying to ready myself for Easter joy by praying, fasting, and listening to God. Today I will share the biggest repentance trigger of my Bible readings this Lent. Does this speak to you as loud as it did for me? Then Jesus went with them to a garden called Gethsemane and told his disciples, “Stay here while I go over there and pray.” Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he…
When we live in grace God does not treat us as sinners anymore. We are his saints. But it does not mean that we would not be sinners anymore. We are not practicing sinners, that’s true. But we are recovering sinners. This does not mean that we could do whatever we want to and then ask for pardon. God forbid! A saint can’t willfully and actively continue to sin because we have been washed clean and died to sin. But…
Did you know there are beach pebbles that need water to stay white? If you take them away from beach they turn boring grey and they lose their whiteness? It is the same way with Christians. If we stay away from baptismal water and daily renewal we become grey, we lose our whiteness. I got an email yesterday from a new friend asking about “how does one saint not be also a sinner”. We all have experienced how difficult it…
