PrayerLife

"For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light" (Eph. 5:8). To be in darkness, in the Bible, is to be unsaved or lost. Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah (Matt. 4:16) at the beginning of his ministry and identifies himself as the light of the world. Let's thank God for our "Great light."

Jesus is truly the Prince of Peace because he has reconciled the most infinitely broken relationship imaginable ... our relationship with God. Because Jesus is the Prince of Peace we have hope for every other relationship in our life.

The prophet Isaiah boldly reveals the promised deliverer would be so much more that a mere man. "His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father." The wonder and mystery of the oneness, yet distinct personhood of the Triune God are woven together in these verses in a way that inspire our faith and our worship.

According to Isaiah, the baby born in the manger was in fact the Mighty God. The word carries the idea of a Valiant Warrior God. Our cares and concerns shrink in comparison to the reality that our Savior is the Mighty God of heaven. It is He whom we worship, serve, and celebrate at Christmas.

There are so many amazing realities we can celebrate at Christmas. Today, however, you may be walking through a season where you are especially grateful that our Lord is a Wonderful Counselor. Join me in prayer today as we celebrate Jesus, the Wonderful Counselor.

In Matthew 28 Jesus tells his disciples that "all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him" (vs. 18). The baby born in the manger is indeed the King of Kings!

It's the Christmas season! What better way to celebrate the holiday than by developing a personal rhythm of prayer. Join with me today as we remember that God is not distant. He is God with us.

We live in a materialistic culture that constantly reinforces the lie that fulfillment and happiness are just one more purchase away. As we enter the Christmas season, we must intentionally choose to focus on God's priceless gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. All true, meaningful, ansd lasting contentment and joy come through Him.

This is Resurrection Day! Sin has been paid for! Death has been conquered! Eternal life has been made available through faith in the risen Christ! He is Risen! Read this stirring account from the gospel of Luke: But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in t...

On this day of Passion Week Jesus' lifeless body was in the tomb. For the disciples it was a day of sadness, discouragement, fear, and shattered dreams. We know, from our historical perspective, that something is about to happen that will radically change everything. Jesus will rise victoriously from the dead! The next time you experience a season of sadness, discouragement, fear, and shattered dr...

On this day of Passion Week ... Jesus was crucified. 800 years prior to Jesus birth the prophet Isaiah wrote, "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we...

Just hours before His trial and crucifixion Jesus washed His disciple's feet in the upper room. Afterwards Jesus said, "Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have don...

Have you ever said one thing but done another? We all have. On this day of Passion Week Judas, one of the twelve, began making plans on how he would betray Jesus. Luke writes, "Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. And they were glad, and agreed to give him...

On this day of Passion week Jesus was teaching his disciples on the Mount of Olives. Their questions centered around Christ's return. He told them, "stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. There...

On this day of Passion week Jesus cursed a fig tree and cleansed the temple. Why? He was addressing two issues: the lack of bearing genuine fruit and the absence of real worship. As we come into God's presence let's humbly allow him to examine the motives and hidden places of our heart. Express your desire to him to be a fruitful follower and a worshipper who worships in spirit and in truth.

Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. What you may not know is that 600 years before Jesus' entry, the prophet Daniel prophesied the date that Messiah would enter into Jerusalem. Bible scholars have identified the date of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem as the exact date prophesied by Daniel (Daniel 9:25). Palm Sunday, therefore, is a remarkable fulfillment of Bible prophecy an...

To those who desire to draw near to God, Peter exhorts, "Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord" (Acts 3:19-20). You may need to embrace Jesus for the first time or you desire to refresh your relationship with Him. "Times of refreshing" come when we repent, turn away from our sin, and place our trust in th...

There is no greater guarantee of the reliability of the Bible than the promise, the oath, of almighty God himself. We can stand confidently on the principles and truths of God's word because He personally guarantees it and He cannot lie (Titus 1:2). Our hope is secure because God's trust-worthiness is beyond question.

We learn wisdom from our parents. The Old Testament book of Proverbs says, "Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching; for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck (Proverbs 1:8-9). All our lives we will be responding to authority. Whether it is a teacher, a coach, a supervisor, or a police officer, we all need to respond to authori...

"And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony" (Col. 3:14). When God calls us to love one another, He doesn't call us to feel a feeling but rather engage a commitment. We are to take the love of Christ and apply it to our marriage relationship.

Your marriage can be raised from the dead because as believers in Jesus, we have been spiritually raised from the dead. The Apostle Paul writes, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth ... Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved,...

Jesus said that the primary reason for divorce is the hardness of our hearts (Matt. 19:8). Our hearts become hardened toward one another when we allow sins to go unconfessed. James writes, "confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed" (James 5:16). Join with me as we pray about confessing sin.

The greatest relational separation imaginable has already been reconciled. The Apostle Paul writes, "remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ" (Eph. 2:12...

The moment we placed our faith in Jesus Christ, we were given eternal life through the Holy Spirit. Jesus says the Spirit "gives life" (John 6:63). The Apostle Paul says "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25). Since we received eternal life through the Spirit, let's live each day by the empowering presence of the Spirit of God.

"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you intoall the truth" (John 16:13). One of the primary roles of the Holy Spirit is to take God's living word and reveal it to us in a way that produces living fruit in our lives.