Hi Beth, Wouldn’t it have been great if God would have put a button in the middle of our forehead that we could push whenever we want sin to stop in our lives? We could push it and everything would be okay. But he didn’t give us a button. Instead, he says simply, change your mind. Lay […]

We Know God

It was Canon Holmes, of India, who more than twenty-five years ago called attention to the inferential character of the average man’s faith in God. To most people God is an inference, not a reality. He is a deduction from evidence which they consider adequate; but He remains personally unknown to the individual. ‘He must […]

helping them connect to Christ

“Paul, even with the Corinthians with whom he experienced excruciating conflict, began his second letter to them by identifying with them. Ten times in five verses he repeated a form of the Greek word for “comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3-7). Think about that. When you are in conflict with people, is your first thought (and your […]

We belong to one another

Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this. Whether it be a brief, single encounter or the daily fellowship of years, Christian community is only this. We belong to one another only through and in  Jesus Christ. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, p. 21)

This eternal world

“A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it. God Himself is here waiting our response to His Presence. This eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon its reality” (A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit […]

Encouragement

“Encouragement gives struggling people the eyes to see an unseen Christ” (Paul Tripp and Tim Lane, Relationships a Mess Worth Making, p 113)

the bodily presence of a brother

“The believer therefore lauds the Creator, the Redeemer, God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for the bodily presence of a brother. The prisoner, the sick person, the Christian in exile sees in the companionship of a fellow Christian a physical sign of the gracious presence of the triune God. Visitor and visited in loneliness recognize […]

Didn’t Give Up

“There is no other way to grow in anything apart from constant practice and risking. The only good athlete you will ever see is a bad one who didn’t give up. The only good disciple you will ever see is a bad one who didn’t give up…If we don’t risk, our gift will not grow, and if our gift […]

We would draw near

”Lord, how excellent are Thy ways, and how devious and dark are the ways of man. Show us how to die, that we may rise again to newness of life. Rend the veil of our self-life from the top down as Thou didst rend the veil of the Temple. We would draw near in full […]