Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

I love that God is AT WORK.  I love that God is ON PURPOSE. Today, we are to KNOW a few things. All things are working together. This is heading towards our good and even ultimate goodness. God is concerned with conforming us to His image.  He's been at it a long time foreknowing and predestining.  He has been ON-PURPOSE. He is ON-PURPOSE. He will be ON-PURPOSE. So how do I best respond? I lo...

The Lord loves us enough to groan for us.  In this moment of not-quite-being-home, He joins our groaning with groaning of His own.   We ought to pray.  We ought to be understood.  He understands our moment and meets us there. We are known. We are indwell.  So let's groan.  There is lots to groan about .  Let's bring it to the Lord.  That is prayer.  And let us be GROANED FOR. bewithme.us

Creation groans with us as we stand between the revealed glory to come and the received world of temptation, evil, and fallenness. Every person you meet groans with the challenges of sin; every blade of grass, every asteroid and every microbe groans with fallenness. If you are frustrated while we are in this waiting world, you are in good company.  Every star waits with you for God's saving w...

We have much to learn from our AA brothers and sisters in our "battle with sober living."  We too were once slaves to the addiction and power of sin.  We too were rescued by a process above our pay grade and re-familied into a body of rescued people.  We too should be living as grateful, indebted people. Be aware. It is a battle to the death Be full of appreciation. We are adopted in Be...

If you came down for breakfast and found the Holy Spirit in the kitchen making eggs, the Spirit of God in the living room reading the paper, and the Spirit of Jesus out in the yard enjoying the sunrise, it would change a few things.  What if I don't have to seek a home in this world, but the world of the Trinity has already sought ME as a home. Likely, I'd have a conversation (prayer), d...

The Christian walk is in many ways not very glamorous.  Much of it is lived between the ears of one's head, deciding for God, and deciding what to do next.  Scripture calls that SETTING the MIND. Every Christian you know is doing this very regularly.  It should be an invisible, regular, repeated, faculty of thoughtful planning, outlook and way of thinking.  Because of its regularity, it is no...

"Being found IN Christ" on day 1 is called SALVATION. "Being found in Christ" on the next days is called SANCTIFICATION.  I know it is trite, but positionally, I think of Jesus with this large dome of protection surrounding Him.  People run into this force field to be "found in Christ".   It is a good place to be, as there are these great positional benefits found now...

Man, do we need a Savior! Join me for a 7 minute thought about how we best arrive at Christmas. Walk with me with Paul as he approaches the need for a Baby. When the angels show up to the shepherds they find a world in frustration, conviction, and desperation.  They find us without self-remedy, disheartened and exasperated.  They find us at war with God, just like always.  It is out of this path o...

The world awaits a baby; a savior; a celestial rescue operation. You could squander it if you don't agree that it is necessary.   In doing so you could waste this Christmas.  Worse, you may be wasting Christ. The rescue doesn't come without a reason.  Let's first agree with God about His standards, and the universality of sin, and the particularity of sin, and that it has affected m...

A rainy day at the zoo was saved by a group of people setting their minds, over and over, with the idea that no matter what happens: "That's OK, we're ON AN ADVENTURE." Similarly, Paul reminds the Romans that they BELONG TO ANOTHER, that is Jesus.  This changes everything: Serving is inconvenient, "that's OK, I Belong to another!" Temptations are very tempting, &...

The "Roman's Road to Salvation" is a conceptual path, a series of thoughts, and a process of the heart, that a not-yet-believer often goes through on their way to salvation.  It is a series of waypoints that many pass through, or sometimes even get stuck on, as they head towards being saved. Rm3:23 All have sinned and fall short. no kidding. Rm6:23 the wages of sin is death. there i...

We have been endowed as humans with the liberty to chose who we belong to spiritually.  It is also stated as "who do we PRESENT MYSELF" to.  The choices are pretty clear, black and white, sin or obedience. Similarly, bondservants in Biblical days had the liberty to chose who they served.  After their  choice of who they "belonged to", t hey then were marked with a sign, a pierc...

This is where the rubber meets the road of temptation.  Now temptation is still, notably,  tempting. Of course.  The question is whether I am dominated by it.  God asks us to treat temptation differently because of the power that Jesus unleashes for believers. We will make an effort today to activate the power of God by considering ourselves in a new way.  Part of it is being ALIVE TO GOD afresh,...

Perhaps you are frustrated with your inability to stop sinning.  Perhaps you are convicted about your sinfulness.  Scripture talks about being enslaved to sin.  If so, then today's listen is for you. Ironically, we are asked to "JOIN death while we are living (Christ's death) to demonstrate we have LIFE after we are DEAD." The big power today is the power that is FOR TODAY.  It...

Join me today as we storyboard the most epic action movie of all time. Here are the scenes: Starts in idyllic, harmonious land 1 man makes epic mistake releasing a contagion upon himself of death Contagion spreads to all who are of his frame: all mankind. 100% affected Death reigns for generations ruining the idyllic situation Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, A code is revealed th...

My experience with Christianity is one of suffering, endurance, and character building.  It has been a factory for building and then living upon HOPE.  In other words, my Christianity has been  real .  Gotta love the Bible, it tells you it is going to be like this. Today we look to the  series of moments of Jesus, that is HIS LIFE, that helps us with our  series of moments, our life.  It is a life...

Today's passage is so wonderful, even a knuckle headed podcaster couldn't mess it up.  "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Are you thinking, "God could never love me if He knew the horrible things I have done?" If so, today's message is for you because that is exactly WHAT God does and it is exactly WHEN God does i...

There is something  very unique in today's passage.  It basically BEGS us to name and claim a passage from Genesis.  It says the passage was not written just for a bunch of dead people long ago. It says the passage and the truth of it is FOR ME RIGHT NOW. The context is about the unexplainably strong, unwavering, growing faith of Abraham.   He(Abram) BELIEVES the Lord, and the Lord  CREDITS ...

"The Promise" is code for God's special covenant with Abram.  He wasn't even called Abraham yet. The former means "exhalted father", the later "father of a multitude." Before we get into sharing this with many, what exactly is this PROMISE TO ABRAM? In my view, there are three components to this promise. They are  the PERSON of God. He promises  Himself . Yo...

What are your mornings  known for ? Likely, it is the same things your  life is known for. For most people, we will be known for the aggregate of their (morning) habits. So we ask as we look back over the landscape of 1000 days, "Where might you want your soul to be 1000 days from now?" Many people have encouraged this podcast over these 1000 mornings. I am eternally grateful.  I am grat...

Abraham gets to big moment with God and "His faith was counted as righteousness." We are admiring these "1st steps" of faith. Romans refers to this frequently. But there is a bit of a back story that goes back 25 YEARS. During that 25 years, there are many "steps before the 1st steps".  These are events that demonstrate obedience/right actions worship/attention to the...

We are counting on a God who miscounts.  That is, we are relying on the reality that He isn't going to be giving us what we deserve.  Rather than wrath for lawless deeds we get forgiveness.  Rather than wrath for sins we find them covered.  We want a God who miscounts in our favor like this. We are banking on a God "who isn't very good at sin-math."   Of course He is, but we ha...

"One small step for man.  One giant leap for mankind." This is Neil Armstrong's famous quote, but it is essentially what ABRAHAM said/did way way back.  Abraham's "first steps" were EFFECTIVE, so we should take particular note of them.  God says He COUNTED what Abraham did as the way to have a relationship with Him. So what were Abraham's famous "first steps...

The curious question is: What is my relationship to the law, now that a better way has been established? How do I "uphold", honor or even  love a law that I cannot do? Don't feel bad, it was  designed for you not to be able to do it . The law repeats for 1000's of years, " You cannot make it this way." "You cannot uphold all the requirements of the Law".  Th...

Here is a great PARADOX with no easy answer: God is Just. It's His DNA. We all want Him to continue to be perfectly JUST. Somehow, He wishes fellowship and relationship with people.  But He looks at us with HOLY eyes. All of mankind's is not so holy.  All fall short.  All have sinned. So how does God "solve" this paradox? Romans 3 tells us: He's gonna have to do this.  He&...