You know, happiness is so fickle. It comes and goes depending on the circumstances, but joy is lasting. It’s an intentional choice, regardless of your circumstances. Sorrow and suffering will pass but joy can remain forever. Our joy is found in the Lord…who He is, what He’s done, and the promise of what He’ll continue…
The Bible has no record of anyone asking Jesus to heal him on a Sabbath. They knew better. Jesus took the initiative in all his Sabbath healings, and always chose situations where the person had been infirmed for a long time. He could have postponed these healings until after sundown or to a following day;…
It’s during such seasons that we have to exhibit, as Brennan Manning suggests, a “ruthless trust.” When we’ve prayed and cried to God for deliverance and still find ourselves no better off, God’s character and commitment must sustain us.While I certainly don’t want to appear glib or offer shallow explanations about life’s complex issues, ruthless…
When people complain that they don’t understand someone, I sometimes respond with, “That’s nothing. I don’t understand myself.” If love is based on understanding, it is going to be almost non-existent. We all cry out for unconditional love; if it is conditional, it isn’t love, it is based on something we do to merit that…
Ever present in John’s mind is the challenge posed by the secessionists. The secessionists have been suggesting that faith alone is necessary for salvation, without any corresponding deeds. The issue, as Raymond Brown notes, isn’t hypocrisy. The issue is the secessionists “taught that actions or deeds were not salvifically important since one already possessed eternal…
November 7 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matthew 5:4 God doesn’t leave me when times are tough. I may move away because I am hurt that HE allowed the circumstances. I may move away because my focus becomes me and my pain…
But how should these points work themselves out into the lives of followers of Jesus? Let me suggest some ideas: Henry Neufeld, Not Ashamed of the Gospel, p. 32-33
According to John, as noted in a previous meditation, maybe more than any other New Testament document, breathes the atmosphere of the Old Testament. Even though a dualism between the flesh and the Spirit is pervasive in it, and it utilizes the Greek vocabulary with evident nuance and a broad understanding of its philosophical connotations,…
Significantly, Mark announces the beginning of the Good News (gospel) of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This proclamation stands against any other declaration of good news. For example, Caesar claimed himself to be a “savior” who brought prosperity and peace to the world.Good news, transliterated later into the word “gospel”, comes from the Greek…
While it’s difficult to let go of the old, the new beckons us. What is the old? It is what theologian Walter Wink called the Domination System — it’s the system of violence and oppression that enslaves the world.12 But in the death and resurrection of Jesus, that system — that world — has been…
