The celebration of Christmas can feel formulaic, especially in the United States. Stores start advertising Christmas in October. Radio stations play Christmas music in November. People start pulling out the decorations and recipes they cook every Christmas. It is easy to simply fall into the formula of Christmas. But a quick look at the story…
While many associate Thanksgiving Day with family, overeating and over-shopping, it should propel us toward a heart of gratitude. It is a time to consider God’s goodness, grace, and provision for us. He is the Author of encouragement, help, and hope. I like to think of Thanksgiving as trust-giving and thanks-living. Thanksgiving should not be…
Praise is adoration of God for who He is, His person, His character, His names. It is loving God because He is God. The Bible gives more exhortations to praise than to pray, because God is altogether lovely, holy, and completely worthy of our worship. Reasons to praise Praise is the atmosphere of the throne…
Jesus came to give us abundant life, to fill us to overflowing with every ounce of His living water. And yet when we go about life in our day-to-day world, we seem to come up short. We grow weary and exhausted. We are not as patient as we need to be. We do not feel…
The Bible was written in and to a culture that was steeped in blessing-a father blessed his child in giving him his name, passed on the patriarchal blessing to children’s children, gave the priestly blessing over his household. “You have been called, loved by God your Father and kept by Jesus Christ: mercy, peace, and…
Receive God’s Word in John 17:23 NLT. “I in them and you in me… Then the world will know…and will understand that you love them as much as you love me.” At His baptism and transfiguration, God affirmed His love and pleasure in His Son. He said to Jesus, “You are the Son I love….
Listen to God’s Word for you in Psalm 139:16. “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” And in Luke 2:49. (Jesus speaking) He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Listen…
David knew what it was like to be treated unjustly. In Psalm 35 he describes his condition. People he had once befriended now fought against him (v. 1), sought his life and plotted his ruin (v. 4), built a trap for him to fall into (v. 7), ruthlessly made false accusations (v. 11,20), jeered and…
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23). The fruit of the spirit is not an emotional response. It is God in you. Be blessed to keep in step with His Spirit and draw on who He is. Be blessed with God’s love that gives…
God often speaks to me early in the mornings in a word, a phrase, or at most one sentence. One morning my impression was simply “Psalm 30.” These promptings are always jewels to pursue. The first time I read the psalm, what jumped out at me is who God is in the verbs telling what…
For every need, there is a name of God that meets the need. Our lack is perfectly engineered to magnify His perfect sufficiency. The great I AM stands ready with His supply from His eternal riches. His infinite supply magnifies in bold relief our complete dependence on Him. It is not I, but Christ. Celebrate…
We are selfish by nature. Nobody had to teach us to want things our way. When someone doesn’t do things our way, we try to change them, to make them conform to what we believe is right and best. We may feel that someone is heading in the wrong direction, and we want to get…
