Crosslines

How can God use people who are so arrogant? The religious in the church often judge Samson but fail to see how God used him. The church works to disciple the lower levels of society, but we fail with the influential and strong. Be careful who you judge and stand against, many times God uses the "arrogant" more than the religious who refuse to take up any fight for the kingdom of God. 

What does the Bible say about drinking? Interestingly, the Bible tells us when not to drink and when to drink. But it's not a rule to follow, but a decision God is looking for us to make with our heart. 

The more you serve the Lord, the more surprises God has in store. God doesn't reveal everything the moment we start trusting Him, otherwise, it wouldn't be trust. He always seems to do something better than what we could think up. He likes to surprise us. Like a dear friend setting up a surprise birthday party or a man planning a date, God is setting you up for something good. When you figure out...

God established the family structure to keep us from being rejected. He wants us to have the strength of love, yet people or circumstances can leave us wounded and feeling rejected. Understanding that God never intended that for us helps eliminate the spirit of rejection. Rejection is both a healing of the heart and a deliverance issue. The truth is we are beloved of the Lord, and no spirit of rej...

Some people believe in a historical Jesus, others believe in an educational Jesus, but a very few believe in a Jesus who still raises the dead. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection." Are you letting God raise the dead areas of your life? For our lives to truly be used by God, they must go through the death, burial, and resurrection process. Don't hold onto your small ways, give them to God so He can...

What made Judas betray Jesus and the other disciples? He made himself look one way when his motive was entirely different. Judas was around the best ministry in the world, he saw all the miracles and probably did some himself. He was around extreme amounts of blessings but still chose to betray Jesus. Everything can look right in your life but if your motive is off it can spoil a whole thing. The...

We all have an inner voice and an outer voice we fight with. It is important that we don't receive or identify with words that teachers or even parents may unknowingly speak over us. This is an interview with Caeleigh and Dylan on how they overcame dyslexia and words spoken over them at a young age. 

Do you have unsatisfied longings?  Creatures are not born with desires unless those desires exist...if I find myself with a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is I was made for another world ... Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone because you were made for it, made for it stitch by stitch, as a glove is made for a hand. A...

"If you rule out the supernatural, you will perceive no miracles." -C. S. Lewis.  When we work to disprove miracles, we are actually working to disprove our own faith. In recent history, mankind has decided to put God on trial instead of it being mankind being on trial. Could it be that this judgment we have towards the Almighty is the cause of the lack of miracles in our lives?  When we find God...

A summary of C.S. Lewis' book Screwtape Letters. Have you ever thought, "There might be demons assigned to me?" In the same way, God has angels assigned to help us; the devil has demons assigned to us to pull us away from the Lord and what we are called to do. Screwtape Letters is the conversation between two demons working to draw a new believer away from God, and it's not exactly what you think....

If you put what is second before what is first, you lose both first and second. Second things do not have the strength to hold up things in life as first things do. Second things are temporal; they are what we can see. First things are what is unseen and what holds everything together. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. -Matthew 6:33

Are you giving Jesus what He truly desires? Simon, the Pharisee, gave Jesus a meal and a seat at his table—an honor probably not given to most. But a sinful woman interrupted Simon's dinner to kiss Jesus' feet. She wept as she kissed His feet and poured out perfume. She gave Jesus all of her love in front of everyone. She laid her heart bare, hoping Jesus would not turn her away. The woman with th...

Are you the one whom Jesus loves? Do you believe that Jesus loves you more than everyone else? It sounds arrogant even to think that way but God is love. You can look for love and miss it. You can try to do things to get God to love you, but what does the Word say to do? In 1 John 4:16, it says, "to BELIEVE the love that God has for us." Even if you don't yet feel the love, believe the love and ab...

What is the art of deferring? It is one of the highest forms of love. Have you ever tried to out-love God, yielding to Him in such a way because you know He will give you more back in return? It is the volley of love; the back and forth is never meant to end. It is only meant to grow. Happy Valentine's Day!

It is okay to experience a period in your life where you are blinded by love. Love has passion, and God intended it to be that way. Love is not logical but full of emotion. Don't let things get too serious; find good love. 

Does Jesus treat critics and spectators differently than participants? To a novice casting out demons, Jesus says, "For whoever is not against us is for us." - Mark 9:40. But to the Pharisees being critical of Him delivering a man who was blind and mute, He says, "Whoever is not with me is against me" - Matthew 12:30. Don't run or pick sides between Biblical truth that seems to contradict each oth...

We live in deceptive times, but the LOVE of TRUTH keeps us out of deception. So, the truth of God's Word sets us free, but what do you do when there are two conflicting truths in the Word? Jesus said, "For whoever is not against us is for us." - Mark 9:40 and "Whoever is not with me is against me" - Matthew 12:30. Which statement is true? Or if they are both true, how do you follow both principles...

Should you evaluate your prayer life by the answers you receive? In almost every other area of life, we measure our effectiveness by the results. Why don't we do the same in our prayer life? Is God just the god of no? Or are we missing something on our end? When our prayers aren't answered, something is wrong. We must go to God until we receive a clear answer. We must come to believe that God hear...

Even the scientific community has evidence of the differing results between people who pray and people who don't. Have you ever thought about what you choose to cover in prayer and the things you don't? Our fixes to the situation never work as well as praying through the situation. The Almighty is more mighty than us in our own strength. For 2025, do a prayer experiment. See what changes when you...

Group discussion on the ability to turn something in prayer.  Prayer is not wishful thinking, and neither should it be random. There are not times it works, and times it doesn't. Prayer is meant to take a situation that would have gone down bad and with God's warning ahead of time, turn it for good. In short, prayer is meant to change things. We have the authority to bring God's Will into situatio...

This year, a human craft traveled closer to the sun than ever before in history. Certain precautions were taken to ensure the craft's survival, much like Moses and the children of Israel experienced God’s glory at Mount Sinai. There is a certain awesomeness to God's presence and voice that we should not take lightly. Just as many engineers and scientists dedicated their lives to a closer glimpse o...

What is peace? The cross is the place where Jesus brought peace to the earth. Believers should have a foundational internal peace. Not having peace is a warning sign there are areas you need to work out with God. Jesus blessed the peacemakers. We should have enough internal peace that it brings external peace to other people. The devil markets a false peace,  a peace among people without God's Lor...

Blessings are meant to overtake you. When from the Lord, they come from behind and overtake you.  If you chase the blessings instead of God, they will forever be like a carrot on a stick. God truly wants to satisfy in a way things and people cannot. True satisfaction is in the world we can't see. What we can see—the temporal world—can never satisfy the way God can. True contentment moves you from...

Do you have satisfaction and security in life? If not, don't worry; contentment is learned. Life is not meant to always be striving but never arriving. God wants us to find contentment in every season of life. He has joy for us in every area if we don't allow frustration. A truly satisfied Christian is free to be who God called them to be.

Cloy, the test of indulgence. The one test that has yet to be passed. The Solomon test. God lives in the land of indulgence...but He can't let us go there because of what we would do with it. Surprisingly, more people pass the Job test than pass the Solomon test. But God wants to be able to trust us with goodness, not control us with punishment. His heart is to give us the desires of our heart, bu...