Whom the Son sets free

Several years ago, I was invited to lead a Bible study in the house of a local drug dealer. One of the guys who lived there had recently given his life to the Lord after being miraculously healed (after watching the Darren Wilson documentary movie, “Holy Ghost” with a Christian friend) and he had started coming to our church. 

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Do you love yourself?

Do you have a healthy self-love? Because if you don’t, it will be very hard for you not to judge others and live on a life-sucking performance treadmill. Let me be clear. When I speak of self-love, I’m not talking about being selfish and boastful and living an unexamined life before the Lord. I’m talking about true humility and seeing ourselves the way God sees us.

Your greatest enemy is…

Believe it or not, our greatest enemy is probably not the devil. At least, not directly. We already know about him and his evil intent. We watch and pray and take authority over his actions as believers. But something much more insidious and dangerous lurks within us…and that’s our comfort zone. You probably already know this but it’s a good reminder as we begin a new year. 

Open up let the light in

The word is…it’s time to shine. Beloved sought out one, all you need to know is…

Open up, let the light in!

“Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
² See, darkness covers the earth
    and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
    and his glory appears over you.
³ Nations will come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your dawn. (Isa.60:1-4 NIV) 

Your time is now

Your time is now. Your life is made up of millions and millions of…one moment at a time. As Einstein once said, “The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” In reality, all we have is now. The past is simply the collection of moments of your life up to now. And your future will be shaped by how you use your moments in the “now.” 

Joy to the world!

We’ve already seen that joy is encountered in relationship, so when the angels announced that a Savior was born in Bethlehem what they were heralding was that Joy Himself had come into their world! It was the announcement that humankind would never be alone ever again. God Himself has come to dwell with us forever and ultimate joy is found in His presence (Psalm 16:11).

Joy restores our vision

How we see ourselves has a lot to do with how we see others and how we see God. We were made in God’s image, but making God in our image is a deeply ingrained human habit. Why is this so? As I’ve said before, when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit something terrible happened. They hid from God because fear was now painting God’s face with the serpent’s brush.