WHEN YOU WANT TO SET YOUR MIND ON THE THINGS OF GOD AND YOUR BRAIN SAYS NO.
Colossians 3:2 is a well-known verse: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” That has been my daily resolution for decades. But I have to admit that it has been increasingly difficult. Not because I can’t control worldly thoughts. Not because I am uninterested in the things […]
THE STATUS AND STATE OF OUR HOLINESS
As previously forewarned, I am on a holiness “streak” in my blog posts. It’s a subject I have been studying of late, feeling prompted to do so by the Holy Spirit. Not so much because I feel I’m not holy enough, but rather because I expressed my desire to know God better. God is holy, […]
HOLINESS AND THE ARMOR OF GOD
Holiness is a word you don’t hear much in today’s church culture. After all, the trends of our day have focused on making it fun to go to church and that means avoiding any talk of things that do not sound like fun. Things like sin, repentance, surrender. And holiness. That word has an otherworldly […]
DO NOT LOSE HEART
Have you ever prayed and prayed, perhaps even fasted, shed tears, and cried out to the Lord every day for a particular need and felt that there seemed no visible evidence of an answer? Did you wonder if there was anything in your life or in the spiritual realm that was blocking or delaying the […]
AN EASTER PRAYER: OPEN MY EYES, LORD!
Holy Week 2022. As the world around us turns more violent and devoid of love by the day, the beauty of God’s love made manifest in the events we commemorate this week shines brighter. It was His love – stronger than His disgust and anger over our rebellion – that drove Him to complete the […]
THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISION OF THE DAY
It is early in the morning, still. My body begs me to stay in bed, but my hyperactive brain has begun to stir and keeps me from falling back to sleep. Groggy and tired, I swing my legs over the edge of the bed and sit for a minute. A new day lies before me. […]
DEEP THOUGHT OF THE WEEK: GOD DESIRES SEEKERS
God has created human beings with the innate capacity to seek and communicate with their unseen Creator, who presents Himself not only as Creator, Lord, and King but also as Father and Friend. Prophecies like Isaiah chapter 5 show His grief and anger over the people He loves seeking fulfillment in things like wealth and […]
DEEP THOUGHT OF THE WEEK: UNITED PRAYER REFLECTS THE UNITY OF GOD.
I was thinking about unity this week as I prepared to lead our online study group through Chapter 8 of my book Prayer Matters. God Himself consists of relationships. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all perfectly one. Our Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as being one god existing in […]
DEEP THOUGHT OF THE WEEK: PRAYER IS A FUNNEL FOR GOD’S KINGDOM BLESSINGS
God has chosen to work mightily through the prayers of His people! And He can do that because Christ died for us on the cross so that the answers to our prayers are no longer dependent on our own merit. Good thing. Otherwise, we would never see a prayer answered! Because He died for us […]
RESTING IN PRAYER
My wife and I like to kick off the New Year with some extended prayer during which we ask God to lead us to Bible texts that can serve as our theme for the year. We usually come up with different texts for each of us and for me, it was Hebrews 4:11 this year: […]