When God’s people were in Egypt, he promised to send them back to the land of Jacob, that is, the Promised Land. God would give them the land because they deserved it, right? Surely God would bless them with freedom and a place to call home because they earned it. Their endurance while enslaved in […]
Last week in “What are your priorities?” I wondered if God is a part of our lives. Does he have first place, given lessor attention, squeezed in, or an afterthought? Next is the contrast between our intention and our reality—which seldom match. A follow-up consideration is “How is he a part of our lives?” Again, […]
A year or so ago I made a bold statement to some close friends. As a group, we enjoy the freedom to ask pointed questions and the expectation to give honest answers; being transparent is our norm. Yet, I surprised myself by proclaiming, “I’m more in love with God today than ever before.” Yeah, it […]
Yesterday I posted in my Byline blog, “The Risk of Comparing Ourselves to Others.” Although my words focused on writers, the unwise practice of comparison is universal, applying to all people in all professions or pursuits. Succinctly, when we compare ourselves to other people, we either elevate ourselves by degrading them or lessen ourselves by […]
Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God By Frank Viola (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)The dedication page in Frank Viola’s book, From Eternity to Here provides a gripping preview of what to expect; it reads, “to every follower of Jesus who knows with their deepest parts that there must be more to the Christian faith.” His goal, […]
When it comes to praising God, I like to praise him for who he is and thank him for what he does—most of the time. Sometimes, though, I just don’t feel like it. Intellectually, nothing’s changed; spiritually, he’s the same, but emotionally, I don’t want to. What do I do in those cases? I praise […]
When Solomon dedicated the temple, the people praised God with much fanfare and then something strange happened. A cloud formed—inside the building. But there’s more. “The Glory of the Lord filled the temple.” It became so intense that the priests couldn’t even work; God’s presence was that strong. It was extreme. They became overwhelmed with […]
Today is Sunday and many who love God will worship him today. But why? These are all secondary reasons. Worshiping God is not about us, it’s about him. The primary reason we worship God is to affirm him. He doesn’t need our affirmation, but we need to offer it. That’s what worship is.
For the past two weeks, I’ve been sharing a progression of thought about God as it relates to love and fear. Consider: We are to fear God, which begins to produce understanding and wisdom. We grow to understand that God is love and ultimately that perfect love—as embodied by Jesus—removes our fear. Though we may […]
The Bible says we are to fear God. But what does that really mean? I don’t think it implies God is malevolent or waiting for us to mess up so he can zap us, which would be legitimate reasons to fear him. Instead, God is benevolent and wants good things for us; there is no […]