Always BELIEVE

We’ve Figured it Out

Ironic isn’t it? The more we know, the less we believe! Strange, don’t you think?

We understand how storms are created. We map solar systems and transplant hearts. We measure the depths of the ocean and send signals to distant planets. We’re learning how it all works! And for some, the loss of mystery has led to the loss of majesty! The more we know, the less we believe.

But knowledge of the workings should not negate wonder. It should stir wonder! Who has more reason to worship than the astronomer who has seen the stars? Why then should we worship less? We’re more impressed with our discovery of the light switch than with the one who invented electricity. And rather than worship the Creator, we worship the creation!

No wonder there is no wonder! We think we have figured it all out!

From Grace for the Moment

LOVE

A Love That Never Fails

A love that never fails! Hard to imagine, isn’t it? Has human love ever failed you? I’m guessing your answer may be, “Yes it has—more times than I like to admit!” I Corinthians 13:8 promises that “love never fails!” Not God’s kind of love anyway.

I sense you may be so thirsty for this type of love. Those who should have loved you, did not. Those who could have loved you, didn’t. You were left at the hospital. Left at the altar. Left with an empty bed. Left with a broken heart. Left with your question, “Does anybody love me?”

Listen to heaven’s answer: God loves you—with a love that never fails. Personally. Powerfully. Passionately. God loves you with unfailing love!

And His love, if you’ll let it, can fill you! Come thirsty, my friend, and drink deeply!

From Come Thirsty

JUST BE NICE

Just Be Normal

You don’t have to lower your standards. Or saddle a high horse. Just be nice. Normal and nice. Discipleship is sometimes defined by being normal! You don’t have to be weird to follow Jesus. You don’t have to stop liking your friends to follow Him. Just the opposite. A few introductions would be nice. Do you know how to grill a steak?

A woman in a small Arkansas community was a single mom with a frail baby. Her neighbor would stop by every few days and keep the child so she could do her shopping. After some weeks her neighbor shared more than time; she shared her faith, and the woman followed Christ. The friends of the young mother objected. “Do you know what those people teach?” they contested. “Here is what I know,” she told them. “They held my baby.”

I think Jesus likes that kind of answer, don’t you?

YES

Untying Knots

Most of us had a hard time learning to tie our shoes. And, oh the advice. Everyone had a different approach. Can’t anyone agree? On only one thing. You need to know how!

My friend Roy used to sit on a park bench each morning. One day he noticed a little fellow struggling to board the bus. He was leaning down, frantically trying to disentangle a knotted shoestring. He grew more anxious by the moment—eyes darting back and forth between the shoe and the ride. All of a sudden the door closed. The boy fell back and sighed. That’s when he saw Roy. With tear-filled eyes he asked, “Do you untie knots?”

Jesus loves that request. Life gets tangled. People mess up. You never outgrow the urge to look up and say, “Help!” Look who shows up. Jesus, our next door Savior.

“Do you untie knots?” He answers emphatically, “Yes!”

from Next Door Savior

What do YOU desire?

The Fort Knox of Faith

The Fort Knox of faith—is Christ! Fellowship with Christ. Walking with Him. Pondering Him. Exploring Him. The heart-stopping realization that in Him you are part of something ancient, endless, unstoppable and unfathomable. And the fact that He who can dig the Grand Canyon with His pinkie, thinks you’re worth His death on Roman timber.

Christ is the reward of Christianity. Why else would Paul make Jesus his supreme desire? He said, “I want to know Christ.” (Philippians 3:10).

Scripture says, “We all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another.” (2 Corinthians 3:18) As we behold Him, we become like Him.

Do you desire the same? The cache of Christianity is Christ. Not money in the bank or a car in the garage or a healthy body or a better self-image.

The Fort Knox of faith—is Christ!

from Next Door Savior

God Adopts US

When we come to Christ, God not only forgives us, he also adopts us! It would be enough if God just cleansed your name, but he does more. He gives you his name. It would be enough if God just set you free, but he does more. He takes you home.

Adoptive parents understand this more than anyone. We biological parents know well the earnest longing to have a child. But in many cases our cribs were filled easily. We decided to have a child and a child came. In fact sometimes the child came with no decision. I’ve heard of unplanned pregnancies, but I’ve never heard of an unplanned adoption.

If anybody understands God’s ardor for his children, it’s someone who has rescued an orphan from despair, for that is what God has done for us. God sought you, found you, signed the papers and took you home!

from The Great House of God

He Never Leaves Us

His Perpetual Presence

When God led the children of Israel through the wilderness, he didn’t just appear once a day and then abandon them. The pillar of fire was present all night; the cloud was present all day. Our God never leaves us!

Matthew 28:20 holds the promise of Jesus, “I will be with you always.” Our faith takes a quantum leap when we understand the perpetual presence of the Father. Our Jehovah is the fire of our night and the cloud of our day. He never leaves us!

Heaven knows no difference between Sunday morning and Wednesday afternoon. God longs to speak as clearly in the workplace as he does in the sanctuary. He longs to be worshiped when we sit at the dinner table, not just when we come to his communion table.

You may go days without thinking of him, but there’s never a moment he’s not thinking of you!

From The Great House of God

The Right Thing

Running the Race

You know as well as I do, it’s one thing to start something. It’s something else entirely to complete it. Relax! “Don’t start what you can’t finish” is not my point!

To be honest, I don’t believe you should finish everything you start. Every student with homework just perked up. There are certain quests better left undone, some projects wisely abandoned. Though I wouldn’t list homework as one of them! We can become so obsessed with completion that we become blind to effectiveness. No, my desire is not to convince you to finish everything. My desire is to encourage you to finish the right thing.

Certain races are optional. Other races are essential—like the race of faith. Consider this admonition from the author of Hebrews in chapter 12:1, “Let us run the race that is before us and never give up!”

Finish strong, my friend.

From Just Like Jesus

What is YOUR view?

Celebrate!

At the sinking of the RMS Titanic, over twenty-two hundred people were cast into the frigid waters of the Atlantic. On shore the names of the passengers were posted in two simple columns—saved and lost. God’s list is equally simple.

Our ledger, however, is cluttered with unnecessary columns. Is he rich? Is she pretty? What work does he do? What color is her skin? Does she have a college degree? These matters are irrelevant to God. As he shapes us more and more to be like Jesus, they become irrelevant to us as well.

Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 5:16, “Our knowledge of men can no longer be based on their outward lives.” And so my challenge to you is simple. Ask God to help you have His eternal view of the world. Every person you meet has been given an invitation! When one says yes, celebrate! When one says no, pray!

from Just Like Jesus

VISION

A Clear Vision

The apostle Paul dedicates a paragraph to listing troubles, problems, sufferings, hunger, danger—the very difficulties we hope to escape. Paul, however, states their value in Romans 8:35-37. “In all these things we have full victory through God.”

We’d prefer another preposition. We’d opt for “apart from all these things,” or “away from all these things,” or even “without all these things. But Paul says, “in” all these things.

The solution is not to avoid trouble but to change the way we see our troubles. God can correct your vision. He asks, “Who gives a person sight?” then answers, It is I, the Lord.” (Exodus 4:11) More than one have made the request of the blind man, “Teacher I want to see.” (Mark 10:51) And more than one have walked away with clear vision.

Who is to say God won’t do the same for you?

from Just Like Jesus

What do YOU see?

A Hope-filled Heart

Wouldn’t you love to have a hope-filled heart? Wouldn’t you love to see the world through the eyes of Jesus? Where we see unanswered prayer, Jesus saw answered prayer. Where we see the absence of God, Jesus saw the plan of God.

Jesus said in Matthew 26:53: “Surely you know I could ask my Father, and he would give me more than twelve armies of angels.”

Jesus saw His Father’s presence in every problem. Twelve armies of angels were in His sight. Sure Max, but Jesus was God. He could see the unseen. He had eyes for heaven and a vision for the supernatural. I can’t see the way he saw. Not yet maybe, but don’t underestimate God’s power.

He can change the way you look at life! God never promises to remove us from our struggles. He does promise, however, to change the way we look at them!

from Just Like Jesus

How do YOU look at life?

Trash Talk
The Garbage Project was conducted by a researcher convinced we can learn a lot from the trash dumps of the world. He was called a garbologist! What’s it like to be a “garbologist?” When he gives a speech, is it referred to as “trash talk?” Are his business trips called “junkets?” Though I prefer to leave the dirty work to the garbologist, his attitude toward trash intrigues me.

Suppose we changed the way we view the garbage that comes our way? The days that a dumpster couldn’t hold all the garbage we face: hospital bills, divorce papers, pay cuts. What do you do when an entire truck of sorrow is dumped on you? Jesus said, “If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar.” (Matthew 6:22-23 MSG).

How we look at life–even the garbage of life– determines how we live life!

from Just Like Jesus

YOU aren't average

Kick the Bully in the Pants

With all the cockiness of a neighborhood bully, the thought swaggers up to the door and says. . .“You’re a loser. All your life you’ve been a loser. You might as well write the word bum on your resume, for that’s what you are.” The average person would throw open the door and let the thought in. “You’re right. I’m a bum. Come on in.”

But as a Christian, you aren’t your average person. You’re led by the Spirit of God. So rather than let the thought in, you take it captive; you present the thought before the judgment seat of Christ. How do you know if Jesus agrees or disagrees? You open your Bible. Romans 8:1 is a good place to check. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

So, give the bully a firm kick in the pants—and watch him run!

from Just Like Jesus

You ARE what you think....

Managing Our Thoughts

You’ve got to admit—anger shows up, and we let him in. Revenge needs a place to stay, so we have him pull up a chair. Pity wants a party, we show him the kitchen.

Don’t we know how to say no? For most of us, thought management is, well, un-thought of. Shouldn’t we be as concerned about managing our thoughts as we are managing anything else?

Jesus stubbornly guarded the gateway of his heart. On one occasion the people determined to make Jesus their king. Most of us would delight in the notion. Not Jesus. When He saw they were about to grab him and make him king, John 6:15 tells us, “Jesus slipped off and went back up the mountain to be by himself.”

Proverbs says, be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life! (Proverbs 4:23). Jesus did, shouldn’t we do the same? Most certainly!

from Just Like Jesus

You Harvest What You Plant

Pretend you’ve come to visit me. I’m working in my greenhouse. (Neither my house nor my thumb is green, but let’s pretend.) It’s the perfect spot for flowers and fruit. You’ve always thought I was a bit crazy, but what I do next removes all doubt. I strip seeds off weeds—crab grass, grass burrs. You can’t believe what you’ve just seen.

“I thought you wanted a greenhouse full of flowers and fruit!” you say.

“I do,” I answer.

You ask, “Then don’t you think you ought to plant flower seeds and fruit seeds?”

My foolish response, “Do you have any idea how much those seeds cost? No thanks, I’m taking the cheap and easy route.”

Think for a moment of your heart as a greenhouse. Consider your thoughts as seed. Some become flowers. Others weeds. Sow seeds of hope and enjoy optimism. Sow seeds of doubt and expect insecurity.

Galatians 6:7 says, “People harvest only what they plant.”

from Just Like Jesus

What notes are you playing?

Face the Music

 Today's MP3

Many years ago a man conned his way into an orchestra although he could not play a note.  He would hold his flute against his lips, pretend to play but not make a sound.  Then one day the leader requested a solo from each musician. The man was panic stricken. On the day of his solo performance, he took poison and killed himself. The explanation of his suicide led to a phrase that found its way into the English language:  “He refused to face the music.”

Face the music! Some of us have buried a marriage, parts of a conscience, and even parts of our faith—all because we won’t face the music…we won’t tell the truth. Ask yourself, am I honest in my dealings? Am I a trustworthy student?  An honest taxpayer? Do you tell the truth—always?

Proverbs says, “The Lord hates a lying tongue.” (12:19)

Just tell the truth.

from Just Like Jesus

What does your RIPPLE look like?

Tell the Truth

Some of us could state our credo as, “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you squirm.”

Our dislike for the truth began at age three when mom walked in our rooms and asked, “Did you hit your little brother?” We knew then and there that honesty had its consequences. “Did I hit baby brother? Well, that all depends on how you interpret the word hit.”

We want our bosses to like us, so we flatter. God calls it a lie. We want people to admire us, so we exaggerate. God calls it a lie. We want people to respect us, so we live in houses we can’t afford and charge bills we can’t pay. God calls it living a lie.

The cure for deceit is simply this: face the music. The ripple of today’s lie is tomorrow’s wave and next year’s flood.

Be just like Jesus. Tell the truth!

from Just Like Jesus

THE TRUTH. PERIOD.

Nothing But the Truth

A woman stands before judge and jury, places one hand on the Bible and the other in the air, and makes a pledge.

For the next few minutes, with God as her helper, she will “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” She is a witness. Her job is to tell the truth. Leave it to legal counsel to interpret. Leave it to the jury to resolve. Leave it to the judge to apply. But the witness? The witness speaks the truth.

The Christian, too, is a witness. We are called to tell the truth. The Bible is present, the watching world is the jury, and we are the primary witnesses. We are called to testify; to tell what we have seen and heard. Our task is not to whitewash or bloat the truth. Our task is to tell the truth. Period.

From Just Like Jesus