How is it possible that something so simple as waiting and resting can become so complicated? Is it just me, or a Type-A American phenomenon? Or maybe it’s human nature to complicate something as easy as rest? Jesus sets things simple and straight. He’s Lord of the Sabbath Mark 2: 23 One Sabbath Jesus was […]
All this thinking about drifting and stillness and considering it with the requirement to have a Sabbath made me process my thoughts via analogy. I’m in a sailboat. My sail is up but the wind is so light, it’s almost imperceptible. “Becalmed” is the term sailors use for this. Don’t you love that? Becalmed. Be […]
The pastor at the church I attend on holiday stated emphatically that no one ever drifts toward God, but we can find ourselves having drifted far away from Him. Doesn’t the letter to the Hebrews warn us time and again against drifting away? (Hebrews 2:1, Hebrews 3:7-19, Hebrews 5:2-6:6, Hebrews 10:19-31.) We must pay more […]
Back to the subject of drifting versus stillness: I don’t want to drift, that’s for sure! I’m not sure that drifting is my bigger problem. My problem is that I fear drifting so much that I am addicted to busyness (which in turn becomes my operating definition of success: how much I accomplish for the […]
What is the difference between stillness and drifting? I was thinking about that when the pastor at the church I visit when I’m on holiday was preaching about making one’s life “drift-proof.” He spoke of reliable anchors of the family of God, the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the powerful written Word of God. Mentally, I […]
Rule Number 1: Don’t test Jesus. You’ll look like a dope, get an answer you don’t want, and it’ll be something you can’t achieve apart from Him. Expert is … as expert does … as one expert finds out when he decides to test Jesus. Luke 10:25 On one occasion an expert in the law […]
On this Easter 2018, let’s acknowledge this Simple Truth of Scripture: Jesus is Risen. Luke 24:1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they […]
It’s Holy Saturday and Jesus is dead and buried. Have you ever wondered why Jesus had to die to conquer death? After all, He’s God and nothing is impossible for Him. I don’t really have an answer, nor do I feel like many words will do it justice. I have to simply trust that God–all […]
Good Friday is hard to explain. To those outside the family of faith, it just doesn’t compute that a God of love would have His Son die at the hands of those He was dying to save. Add on top of that the sheer bloody nature of the whole Crucifixion event and frankly, it’s easy […]
Things we don’t make a point to remember … become things we easily forget. They move to the back recesses of our mind, have little influence on our lives, little power to inform our daily decisions, and little impact upon our behavior. Jesus didn’t want His ministry to be relegated to the dust heap of […]
