Is There Life Flowing From You?
I used to have a poster on the wall of my office that was captioned, “Dead Sea Fishing Club.” If you are familiar with the Dead Sea, you know this is a crazy statement. The Dead Sea has no fish in it. If is the saltiest lake in the world, saturated with minerals and full of all kinds of chloride and bromide. My poster, however, was a kind of faith statement based upon a vision that the prophet Ezekiel had. (Ezekiel 47:1-12)
In Ezekiel’s visionary encounter with an angel, he saw and experienced a river that flows from the temple in Jerusalem for 21 miles and into the Dead Sea, bringing life and healing with wherever it goes. The river even brings life to the Dead Sea. All kinds of fish appear and are sustained, in the Dead Sea, by the river coming from the temple.
This river of life is symbolic of the life and power of the Holy Spirit moving in and through believers in Jesus Christ. Ezekiel 47:9 reads, “… where the river flows everything will...
Are You Aware?
Why do people become friends or get married? Usually they want to be with each other and enjoy one another’s company. When I was courting my wife, I wanted to be with her all the time – nothing else compared. This is a shadow of God’s created order.
God created you, and He likes you, and He wants to be with you. That is why He formed and fashioned you. (You may want to take some time and let this sink into your soul – it is bedrock understanding for deep, experiential identity.)
If God created you in order to enjoy you, it follows that you will enjoy life and be most satisfied when you are aware of and are enjoying His presence, too. Unfortunately, our attention is prone to wander! We may go long periods of time without even thinking of God, let alone experiencing His presence. We can easily become distracted by others, worries, concerns, or our own obsessions.
What do we do when we realize that we have, for all practical purposes, been living apart from God?...
Living Well In Turbulent Times
It seems there is new and ongoing upheaval and violence across many areas of the world. There are unsettled feelings and anxieties almost everywhere. How should we live in such times?
Let’s remember some key truths from Scripture:
- We are receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken. The end of Hebrews 12 indicates that God will allow/cause shaking in the world so that only the eternal things that cannot be shaken will remain. In other words, God will shake the hell out of the earth, so the things of heaven are what remain. This is good news, not bad. “Since we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”” (Hebrews 12 28-28) The Kingdom of God is within and among believers – heaven is in our midst. (Luke 17:21)
- The primary battles of this life are in the spiritual realm, not against people. “Our struggle is not...
God's Ways Are Redemptive
One thing we can learn from political campaigns is that whatever skeletons a candidate may have in his/her closet will be brought into the public sphere. Things that person has done and things that have been done to the person will be exposed. Mistakes and bad decisions made will become fair game for media and water cooler discussion. It can be a very scary thing to be promoted in the public sphere.
Thankfully the Kingdom of God is different. It is redemptive at its core. The very things that have brought us shame and/or bondage, when meaningfully touched by God, become places of freedom, testimony and God’s glory. When God redeems an area of our lives, we are given fresh authority to stand and to impart to others, hope, courage and overcoming power in that very area . If you have been set free from an addiction, if you have received forgiveness and grace to change a sinful practice, if you have been healed in your soul or body – you have a new...
Adventure With God
Do you like to be alone? Some have difficulty knowing what to do with themselves without others around – or without some form of input or entertainment. We know this is an increasing problem in our culture. If this is a significant problem for you also, I have good news for you today. You don’t need to ever be completely alone!
After God created Adam, God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” (Genesis 2:18) It seems that the image of God in human beings involves community. We were created to flourish in good and healthy relationships with others and with God, just as God enjoys community within the Godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).
“In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” (John 1:1-2)
“No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made Him known.”...
Are You Anxious?
We have been created by God. He fashioned our personhood and our personalities. He knows what makes us tick. He not only knows how we think, He knows what we think before we do. His presence is always around us and, if we know Him, we experience the Holy Spirit’s presence within us. (Psalm 139)
God knows our future, and He has prepared paths, encounters, provisions and purposes for us. (Ephesians 2:10) There is no need to worry – it adds nothing but distress to your life. (Matthew 6:25-34) There is no value is anxiety; it wars against our faith and our sense of trust in God. Unfortunately, the enemy somehow convinces many people that worry and anxiety are forms of taking responsibility – that they demonstrate trustworthiness by being worried and obsessively concerned about what might go wrong in the future.
Let’s take a moment and let God’s salvation from faithless living sink deeply into our souls, affecting our feelings...
Don't Be Fearful ... Be Free!
“It is for freedom that Christ has set you free!” (Galatians 5:1)
The apostle Paul was convinced that Jesus came to set people free from the bondage of religion. Religion – in this sense – refers to the constant concern about doing things rightly, and the guilt that accompanies falling short on a regular basis.
In Romans Paul wrote, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) “Falling short” is the human condition. And, the consequence/wages of that sinful condition is death – death of our souls, and eternal death.
Unaddressed sin dulls our souls and makes our spirits lifeless. However, we must be reminded again and again and again that “the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
Religion tempts us to try to justify ourselves by our actions or intentions. Freedom in Christ releases us from self-justification, so we can be honest. We don’t need to dig...
Does Your World Feel Wobbly?
What do you do when the world around you – or the world as you know it or like it – starts shaking and feels unstable or threatening? What do you do when there seems to be nowhere to rest or feel safe? What do you do when change is in the air, but you are too tired to rise up and make changes?
We must remind ourselves, and each other, that we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot ever be shaken. (Hebrews 12:28) We are receiving the Kingdom of God; a Kingdom ruled by the Prince of Peace. This Kingdom is beyond tangible. It is not always easy to discern, though it is in our midst, because it is within us! (Luke 17:21) The Kingdom that we are receiving is an awakened awareness of God’s presence and sovereign rule. It’s an awareness of His omnipotence and His lordship over all time and all situations and all outcomes.
When our lives are threatening to fall apart under the seismic pressures and forces around us, we can stop, turn and worship the Lord. In times...
Is God Really "For" Us?
Our intentions and motives don’t always align with our actions. Sometimes our intentions are better than our actions. Many people intend to pray more than they actually do, or maybe they intend to study more hours than they actually log, or they intend to be nicer to their spouse than they actually are. In these cases people hope to be judged according to their intentions rather than their actions.
On the other hand, sometimes our intentions are worse than our actions. We may make judgments against others in our heart, but not ever communicate those judgments or do anything about them. We may judge or condemn or try to manipulate people, but hide our true intentions so that they may go undetected. In these situations we hope to only be judged by our actions, not our sinister intentions.
What about God’s intentions – can we clearly discern them? Not always. God’s intentions are to advance His Kingdom so that more and more people will know Him and experience...
Are You Thirsty?
How alive are you?
How abundant is your life experience in God?
The New Testament starts with the book of Matthew, but the first Gospel written was most likely the book of Mark. It reads, “The beginning of the Good News about Jesus …” It then starts with the ministry of the John the Baptist – the one who Isaiah prophesied would prepare people to receive Jesus, the Messiah.
John called everyone to repentance – to turn from their sinfulness – their self-referenced, self-promoting, self-protecting and self-justifying lives. John the Baptist proclaimed a new spiritual season in the Messiah that had two powerful stages:
1. Turn from sin and receive fresh forgiveness from God.
Baptism (emersion) in water would be the sign of this spiritually cleansing reality.
2. Look for and be alert to the Promised One – Jesus, the Son of God.
Baptism (emersion) in the Holy Spirit will be the reality of this new life.
As we consider...
