The Spirit of Sonship

Galatians 4:6-7 (NIV) Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

When I was a teenager living with my parents, they would allow me to invite my friends over to our home. While my parents did everything to make my friends feel at home, there was an obvious difference between me and them. As comfort

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Seeing Jesus

Luke 24:30-31 (NIV) When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.

When Jesus resurrected on the third day just as He said He would, it shook and confused a lot of people. The women who went to the tomb to put the spices on the body as was the custom were alarmed when they found the empty tomb. When they ran to tell the disciples,

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Keep Up With the Spirit

Galatians 5:25 (NIV) Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

When I was a young boy, I loved going on walks with my dad. He was obviously taller than I was and his walking strides were longer than mine. I remember trying to match his steps and in order to do so, I had to include a hop, skip and a jump to keep up. I even tried to match the order of his steps....left, right, left, right. It wasn’t easy to do, but I was determined and enjoyed the chal

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The God Who Counters Instinct

1 Samuel 6:7-9 (NIV) “Now then, get a new cart ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up. Take the ark of the Lord and put it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to him as a guilt offering. Send it on its way, but keep watching it. If it goes up to its own territory, toward Beth Shemesh, then the Lord has brought this great disaster on u

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Blessed to Bless

2 Corinthians 9:10-11 (NLT) For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God.

Many people wonder why Christians emphasize giving so much. We emphasize giving because God emphasizes it. Ther

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Providing for Others Through Jesus

Luke 9:16 (NIV) Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people.

The disciples were about to learn some new things from Jesus when they were faced with a large crowd that was listening to Jesus teach. When He finished teaching them, they suggested that Jesus send the people away to find food for themselves, but Jesus shocked them by telling them to give all of tho

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A Goal With Great Results

2 Corinthians 5:9 (NIV) So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

The vast majority of people in the world today do not live in a way that pleases God. This is also true of the vast majority of people who have ever existed. This makes me marvel at the great mercy and patience of God. It wasn’t long after Adam and Eve sinned that the world experienced its first murder. Cain murdered his brother Abel out of jealousy and bitterne

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Learning How to Clothe Yourself

Romans 13:13-14 (NIV) Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

There are things that as believers, should not have to be mentioned among us. The things mentioned in the first part of the scripture passage above are things that may have been part of wh

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From Lowest to the Greatest

Matthew 21:10-11 (NIV) When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

On the day that we know as Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey while a crowd of people waved palm branches and laid their cloaks on the road as He passed by. They shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” among other things. It was a huge happening but when he arrived in Jerusalem,

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He Hears You

Mark 10:46-49 (NIV) Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they ca

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When You Just Don't Get It

Mark 6:49-52 (NIV) But when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.

This in the story of when the disciples went ahead on the lake to Bethesda at

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Perfect Before Perfection

Hebrews 10:14 (NIV) For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

As most of us have learned in life, there is no such thing as perfection. We can create incredible things with our God-given intelligence and abilities, but everything we do and everything that we create is imperfect. We may come close on some things, such as the great works of art from the famous painters and sculptors who have created masterpieces over the centuries but if

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Teach the Children

Judges 2:10 (NIV) After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.

The Book of Judges is a very sad book of the Bible as it wasn’t long that the people of God that had finally entered and taken possession of the promised land wound up going astray and worshipping other gods. From there, they would be conquered by other people that were still living in the land. Then the Lo

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Say No to Camel-Swallowing

Matthew 23:24 (NIV) “You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”

The Pharisees were one messed-up group of teachers. They had everything backwards. They taught and emphasized things that they thought were important that at the same time were in violation of the very scriptures that they taught. For example, they gave their tithes, but they neglected justice, mercy and faithfulness (Matthew 23:23). They majored on the minors. Jesus also called them “whitewa

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Only One Altar

Joshua 22:10-12 (NIV) When they came to Geliloth near the Jordan in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an imposing altar there by the Jordan. And when the Israelites heard that they had built the altar on the border of Canaan at Geliloth near the Jordan on the Israelite side, the whole assembly of Israel gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them.

When the Israelites had finally finished conquering all the people of the la

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