power
Imagine Jesus being too busy to Pray
Very early the next morning, long before daylight, Jesus got up and left the house. He went out of town to a lonely place, where he prayed. Mark 1:35 TEV Can you imagine Jesus being too busy to pray in the morning, gulping down a cup of coffee and thinking, “I’ve got so much to do today. When is there time to talk to the Father?” If we are learning to be like Christ, then we have to learn that our intimacy with the Father always takes priority. God says it is foolish to succumb to the tyranny of the urgent in the morning:“It is useless to work so hard for a living, getting up early and going to bed late. For the LORD provides for those he loves, while they are asleep”. (Psalm 127:2 TEV) Spending time with God in the morning should be a normal part of life. Dietrich Bonhoeffer notes: “With ...
Choices
Colleen Reece had a career choice to make! She’d been offered the position as personal assistant to a bank president. Definitely a step up the ladder for Colleen. And to add icing to the cake – the salary she was offered was twice what she was making as a school secretary. Colleen had given her life to the Lord many years before. And a big part of her life since, was counseling at Christian youth camps. It was something she loved to do. This new bank job would change all of that! Her summers would no longer be free. In Revelation 2:4 God reminds His church: “Do not forsake your first love.” Do the things you did at first. Colleen stayed where she felt God was using her. And she has never regretted it. Follow God’s leading for your life....
Forgiving is Not Excusing
Forgiveness is not excusing! Nor is it pretending. To forgive is to move on, not to think about the offense anymore. You don’t excuse him, endorse her, or embrace them. You just route thoughts about them through heaven. Revenge is God’s job. By the way, how can we grace-recipients do anything less? Dare we ask God for grace when we refuse to give it? It’s a huge issue in the Bible. Jesus was tough on sinners who refused to forgive other sinners. In the final sum, we give grace because we’ve been given grace. In the story Jesus tells in Matthew 18:32, the master calls the servant in. “You wicked servant, he said, “I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” It’s a good question. We’ve been...
You have the Power! (Ephesians 1:20-23)
Do you feel exhausted and overwhelmed by life? Is sin and temptation beating you at every turn? Do you feel defeated and ineffective in your attempts to follow Jesus in discipleship? If so, then the truths of Ephesians 1:20-23 are for you! These verses reveal that you have all the power of God at your disposal. Therefore, you can be victorious in your Christian life! This podcast study on Ephesians 1:20-23 also includes a discussion about crusade evangelism like those put on by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Greg Laurie. Are Evangelism Crusades Effective? Here is a question from a listener: What do you think of crusade revivals like Billy Graham or Greg Laurie outreaches? Don’t you think there are many ways to evangelize? Yes, there are many, many ways to evangelize. Evangel...
