live2bless

Whenever my heart is not at rest, full of peace, and joy, I am allowing something other than the love, promises, or purposes of God to dominate my thinking. I’m allowing myself to believe that if this or that situation were “resolved” I’d be just fine. But that’s a lie. Our hearts can find rest only in God — in his love, promises, and purposes. Like one guy put it, “Trying to fill the God-sized ho...

A Bible teacher named Ray Comfort had this two say about his dad: He writes, “Let me tell you about my father. When I was young, he regularly left my mother and us three kids to fend for ourselves. I was there when he killed a helpless animal with his bare hands. Not only that, but he hit me (often). Based on this information, you could be justified in believing that my father was a tyrant. Howeve...

You can determine how much you value something by what you give up to protect it and keep it in your life.  The biblical word for that is sacrifice . Sacrifice was one way God’s people demonstrated to God the value they placed on their relationship to him. It also functioned as a proxy death whereby the worshiper identified himself with the animal sacrificed and said to God, in effect, “I tot...

1 John 1:5 could arguably be the most important verse in the Bible. With reference to Jesus, it reads, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” Why could that be so all important? Because the apostle John is summarizing the whole of Jesus’ life and ministry in one sentence. He was born, taught, performed miracles, cast out d...

I rarely listen to the radio, so it was years ago that I turned it on just to hear what folks were singing about. Sure enough, there were several songs within about a 20 minute span that were love songs or that mentioned the word love. However, not surprisingly, not one of them included any definition of the word love. I would guess that what they had in mind is a common conception of love defined...

Isaiah 55:6 reads, “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” What is it to be seeking God? Here are four actions that come to mind: (1) To seek God is to humble ourselves before Him by routinely confessing our sins to Him; (2) To seek God is to practice trusting Him to help us in all that concerns us; (3) It is to practice sharing all our thoughts with Him (4) and it is...

In Matthew 16:21-23 (NIV) we read that “…Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said...

In 1 Peter 1:18-19 (NIV) we read, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” Those who would have us believe that God can just simply suspend the consequence of sin, which is death, if someone just repen...

In 1 John 3:2-3 the apostle John writes, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” There is way more of me that has yet to love God than what is loving Him, and there is way more of me yet...

In 2 Corinthians 12 (NIV), the Apostle Pauls tells of some fantastic revelations that the Lord gave him. They were so amazing and Paul was evidently so vulnerable to becoming proud that the Lord had to protect him from this danger. Listen to what he writes: 7 “…because of these surpassingly great revelations…. in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenge...

In Galatians 6:9-10 (NIV) 9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Instead of regretting what you’ve been, damaging choices you’ve made, your self-centeredness, and so on, ask yourself, “ what am I doing...

No doubt you are familiar with Issac Watts’ great hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” In it he writes, “Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.” Let’s ask the question: Why does God’s love demand our soul, our life, and our all?  I’m persuaded that it is so that every cell, every particle of wh...

I’m persuaded that to worship God is not primarily something we do by prayers, songs, or ritual. It has more to do with how we live and whether or not our lifestyle fulfills God’s highest intentions for us. In Romans 12:1 the Apostle Paul writes, “…offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” To offer our bodies to God as a living sacrifi...

A famous brain surgeon and his good friend had grown up in the same city and over the years spent as much spare time as possible doing things together. But their ways began to grow apart when the surgeon’s friend started making some poor decisions. The surgeon warned him. “You have no idea how many mind-warping, brain tumors I’ve had to operate on because of that drug you want to mess with. Once o...

Ephesians 2:4-7 (NIV) reads, 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions —it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in...

1 Thessalonians 5:17 reads simply, “ pray continually ”. It’s not what you’re doing that is making the biggest difference in your life or through your life, it’s what you’re praying. What matters most in this world is what God is doing and prayer is all about opening ourselves and our circumstances to his influence.

Here’s one way of looking at God’s glory: it is his nature of self-sacrificial love. God glorifying himself is him revealing his self-sacrificial love. We glorify him by revealing his love. We worship him by revealing his love. When he does things for his glory it means that his self-sacrificial love might be revealed and experienced. We praise him for being like this and for all the ways we exper...

I have a question for you to consider. For that matter, I would encourage you to write it down and take time to pencil out your answer. Here it is: If God said to you today that — in regard to the person you aspire to be — you could make one request with the assurance that — whatever it is — he would grant it to you before you die, what would you ask for? After you have an answer, then ask yoursel...

In Galatians 6:7-8 (NIV) we read, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” I’m convinced that our desires grow by being fed thoughts . If that is so, then we have an amazing proposition in front of us: we can decide what k...

When it comes to our Christian faith and practice, it seems to me that one of the most troubling and distracting of all presuppositions is this: only when things look just so, are prayed just so or said just so, are done just so, does the grace or power of God flow. Such assertions seem to fly in the face of the fact that when Jesus helped people, his help was tailor made to meet the need each per...

Someone raised the following question: “Suppose you are in a certain place and you need to find the way to a distant destination over country that you have never traveled. God gives you two options. You can have a map (his law), or you can have a personal guide (his grace).” -D Prince A good definition of “grace” may be this: the guiding presence and power of the Holy Spirit . If we choose the gui...

In Ephesians 4:2-6 we read, “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all...

In 2 Corinthians 13:5 — we are exhorted to, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” What does the apostle Paul mean by this call to examine and test ourselves? How do we make sure we are, what he calls, “in the faith” and that if we are Christ Jesus lives in us? I like to interpr...

In James 1:2-4 (NIV) we read, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” “ Live in a manner that justifies your own suffering.” — Jordan Peterson See to it that everything you are experien...

In 1 Corinthians 9:25 (NRSV) the apostle Paul calls for us to train ourselves like athletes do. He writes,  “Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one.” What might that “self-control in all things” look like for us as Christians? I want to suggest that it is to bring yourself back each morning and throughout the day to...