The Wake-Up Call

Jesus, given his divine nature, as affirmed in the first chapter of John’s gospel, is marked by nothing less than eternity.

Precisely because God is one, and no other, devotion to the Most High requires all that we are, whatever faculties, capacities, or talents that we possess.

Jesus came to call those who were mindful of their own sin, who were well aware of falling short of the glory of God, and who were, therefore, painfully conscious of their genuine need for redemption.

The truth is that we are all in God’s debt and that debt is undoubtedly broad and wide—once we begin to understand just who God is.

It is at his baptism that Jesus publicly accepted a mission and a journey which would lead to all the great redemptive acts which we later commemorate.

Heavenly Father, thank you that your Son has both the authority to forgive sins as well as the desire to heal us of sickness.

Help us to celebrate truth wherever we find it, promote goodness in every opportunity, and behold beauty as you designed it.

Jesus’s actions through the Spirit of God brought about the kingdom of God, not as some imagining, but in reality.

God of Israel, in whom there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female—thank you for welcoming me into your family and claiming me as your own.

Holy God, I trade mere familiarity with you for intimacy with you.

Neither power nor riches, neither kingdoms nor splendor, can ever take the place of the enormous good, beyond imagining, that is God.

The voice and expression of the Psalms is so much more varied than what we typically experience during worship in church.

Baptizing with the Holy Spirit, communicating the very presence of the Most High to the hearts and minds of those who are baptized, now that’s something only God can do.

The Almighty is an evocative God, the one who calls forth, who addresses those in relation to him to follow in obedience the divine will and design.

Wherever Jesus is, there is light, revelation, and unveiling.

[Jesus], and [Jesus] alone, is the true light that illuminates all of humanity whether he is celebrated or not or even recognized or not.

Might Jesus be saying he will take care of expanding his kingdom in the world if we will focus on seeking his kingdom within our relationships in the body of Christ?

The impulse of false holiness is to protect oneself from the world. The instincts of true holiness is to trust God for protection in the world.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

We need to make the shift from the whole idea of a better prayer life to the consuming reality of a life of prayer.

Though you are tired, weak, and utterly incapable of facing the looming crosses ahead, you are a champion by the grace of God and the cross of Jesus.

Forsakenness is a real experience and it can be occasioned by very real conditions. To be forsaken by God, however, is not possible.

Unforgiveness creates a barrier not only in our relationships with other people, but in our relationship with God. In fact, according to Jesus, our peace with God depends on our peace with other people.

It is more common to hear people lift up their hopes in their prayers. Jesus begins by lifting up his faith.

Our crosses come to us in those places where the ways of the kingdom clash with the ways of the world and call on us to make difficult decisions.