One Sunday in a small town church families are worshiping God together with children playing and dancing happily. The next Sunday a madman shoots half those people, killing 26. That was the scene at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas two days ago. November 5, 2017 marks the deadliest church shooting in US history.…
In the press of a day you may forget that it only takes a moment to satisfy your soul in your Savior. In the temptations of our life we may turn to what we can accomplish or how ideal we can appear in order to find happiness. But our joy is in Jesus right now! This…
Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled… My Father’s house has many rooms… I am going there to prepare a place for you… I will come back and take you to be with me.” ( John 14:1-3) This is a wonderful promise! As Christ-followers we don’t need to despair over death; we can…
Praying the lament psalms with Jesus teaches us to reorient ourselves in God’s kingdom where we’re blessed, even if our circumstances remain bad.
This paraphrase of Chapter 1 in “The Imitation of Christ” by Thomas à Kempis will help you live today from the spiritual reality of God’s heavenly kingdom.
It takes just seven minutes to read or listen to Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain — even less to read this Bible study summary on Luke 6. Wow! When was the last time you heard a seven minute sermon? You’ve never heard such a masterpiece as this one! If we give seven minutes to listen…
Recently I read a line from Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love that so warmed my heart with longing to be close to Jesus in the sweet embrace of his Father that I prayed it over and over. I’ve returned to it many times in the last two weeks… When I caught myself trying to…
Jesus promised that those who follow him, “Will not see death.” They will not taste it. They won’t even experience it! (John 8:51-52) Is Jesus crazy? Everybody knows that eventually people die. No. Dallas Willard (pictured on the left) explains that Jesus was standing in another world, the reality of the Kingdom of God. He…
My heart is heavy. I just got the news that Dallas Willard died today at 5:55 am. He had been battling pancreatic cancer for a number of months. He was 77 years old. He was born on September 4, 1935 and died on May 8, 2013. Dallas’ passing was peaceful and gentle. He told his…
We’d like to share with you an eye-opening exercise that we’ve done with groups of pastors and ministry leaders. We pass out a two-sided sheet of paper to everyone with all the Scripture references from Matthew’s Gospel of Jesus’ “Gospel of the Kingdom.” Fifty-one times the Good News that Matthew presents is that the “Kingdom…