I love to express what I feel called to say. Writing helps me to open up my heart and do that. I hope that what I write helps you in some way. I hope it makes you think, encourages you, or inspires you. If it challenges you or if you disagree, I hope you know that I respect your right to have a different point of view.
Jesus calls His followers to humbly serve people. If you feel like you have to put people down in order to lift up and defend your opinions, perhaps you are insecure about what you say you believe.
Be polite. People are more important than your opinions. People are made in God’s perfect and eternal image. Your opinions are made from your flawed, self-focused, and short-term perspective.
True Christianity causes Christ-followers to radically love others. It motivates them to speak the truth in love, to bless those who curse them, and even to love their enemies. You will recognize genuine Christians by the fruits of their compassionate lifestyle.
Sometimes we all need to say no. Life requires that we all set boundaries. If we stay open to everyone and everything, we will be swept into inner and outer chaos. However, true Christians are called to say no with kindness and humility — to set boundaries that are saturated with compassion and mercy.
A man and woman argue intensely over a garden fence between their homes.
Jesus lived a lifestyle of obedience. He lived the way that the Scriptures instructed Him to and He obeyed the voice of the Heavenly Father. We can too. To do the Word is to build your life on the rock. To merely examine, analyze, and investigate the Bible is to build on sand. (Matthew 7:24-27)
The lure of religious knowledge is often deceptive and can easily puff us up with pride (1 Corinthians 8:1) and cause us to think that we understand God and have no need to experience Him. No matter how high you climb in the tree of knowledge, mere information about God can never heal or satisfy a human heart the way that personal surrender to and obedient interaction with God does. (Psalm 46:10)
Faith without a firm foundation in life-changing experience and obedience to God, is only theory. (James 2:26) It is informative yet not transformative. (2 Corinthians 5:17) It is hearing about God yet seldom hearing and doing (James 1:22) what the Spirit says within you. (John 16:13)
People can, and frequently do, forget what they hear or read about God, but when they humbly do the Word, Divine revelation flows (John 7:37-39) directly from God to them and causes them to hunger and thirst for God. (Matthew 5:6) They begin to seek Him and His righteousness with all their heart. (Matthew 6:33) The only way to truly learn the Bible is by training yourself to do what it says throughout each day. (Luke 11:28)
Speculating about God and analyzing Scripture to make it fit your speculations (2 Peter 3:14-16) is subjective. Although God is beyond our human ability to measure, truly experiencing His presence, power, and reality is the most objective part of my life. An intimate, heart-to-heart relationship with the Creator (Genesis 1:1) is my firm foundation. (John 3:16)
Learn to let God empower you to speak, “not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.” (1 Corinthian 2:13) Let the Holy Spirit “guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come.” (John 16:13) Set aside your will and your own interpretation of things so that you will be able to allow God the Holy Spirit to carry you along. (2 Peter 1:20-21)
Lean not to your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5-6) Ask God to give you wisdom (James 1:5) and revelation. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10) Be directly led God’s Spirit. (Romans 8:28)
Jesus lived a lifestyle of obedience. He lived the way that the Scriptures instructed Him to and obeyed He the voice of the Heavenly Father. We can too. To do the Word is to build your life on the rock. To merely examine, analyze, and investigate the Bible is to build on sand. (Matthew 7:24-27)
The lure of religious knowledge is often deceptive and can easily puff us up with pride (1 Corinthians 8:1) and cause us to think that we understand God and have no need to experience Him. No matter how high you climb in the tree of knowledge, mere information about God can never heal or satisfy a human heart the way that personal surrender to and obedient interaction with God does. (Psalm 46:10)
Faith without a firm foundation in life-changing experience and obedience to God, is only theory. (James 2:26) It is informative yet not transformative. (2 Corinthians 5:17) It is hearing about God yet seldom hearing and doing (James 1:22) what the Spirit says within you. (John 16:13)
People can, and frequently do, forget what they hear or read about God, but when they humbly do the Word, Divine revelation flows (John 7:37-39) directly from God to them and causes them to hunger and thirst for God. (Matthew 5:6) They begin to seek Him and His righteousness with all their heart. (Matthew 6:33) The only way to truly learn the Bible is by training yourself to do what it says throughout each day. (Luke 11:28)
Speculating about God and analyzing Scripture to make it fit your speculations (2 Peter 3:14-16) is subjective. Although God is beyond our human ability to measure, truly experiencing His presence, power, and reality is the most objective part of my life. An intimate, heart-to-heart relationship with the Creator (Genesis 1:1) is my firm foundation. (John 3:16)
Learn to let God empower you to speak, “not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.” (1 Corinthian 2:13) Let the Holy Spirit “guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come.” (John 16:13) Set aside your will and your own interpretation of things so that you will be able to allow God the Holy Spirit to carry you along. (2 Peter 1:20-21)
Lean not to your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5-6) Ask God to give you wisdom (James 1:5) and revelation. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10) Be directly led God’s Spirit. (Romans 8:28)
A man in traditional robes reads an ancient scroll in a rocky desert setting
Jesus made forgiveness a requirement for discipleship. He said: “If you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14)
Jesus made disciples. Then He told His disciples to make disciples by training people to obey everything that He had originally trained them to do. This was supposed to be an ongoing process that repeated itself throughout history. (Matthew 28:19-20)
Then somehow along the way the process of training people to be disciples halted and Christians evolved from being self-denying, daily cross bearing, obedient followers of the risen Jesus, (Luke 9:23) into being mostly lukewarm in their faith. (Revelation 3:14-17) Perhaps it is time for Christians to rediscover and begin to wholeheartedly apply the lost art of disciple making throughout each day.
Before a Christian can make disciples he or she must become a disciple. But how can we become one? Jesus gave three requirements for being His disciple. You must do three things: 1) deny yourself, 2) take up your personal cross daily, and 3) follow and Him.
Self-denial is extremely painful. It requires that you lay down your own desires for Christ’s desires — that you give up your will for His will. To deny yourself is to completely set aside self-focus.
Deny yourself, but don’t deny your cross — don’t deny or run from the situations in life that cause you trouble, pain, heartbreak, and great difficulty. Those situations are your cross. Allow them to humble you and train you to continually and desperately cry out to, draw near to, and stay near to the risen Jesus.
Follow Jesus. To follow Christ is to listen to Him speak within you (John 10:27) and to faithfully say and do what he tells you to. It is to keep His commandments. (John 14:15) It is to be a doer of His word, not merely a passive hearer. (James 1:22-25)
So, what is discipleship? Discipleship is to follow and obey the risen Jesus throughout each day as you let Him lead and guide you from within by the Holy Spirit, moment-by-moment.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.” Refuse to settle for less than genuine faith.
A depiction of anxiety as a heavy cross carried through a crowd
I’ve found a culture of light, openness, and compassion. It’s a rare culture that’s not easy to find because it is scattered among various groups of people in different countries all across the globe. I long to see that culture expand to more and more people.
True compassion for people comes from letting God freely shine His light within us. The more we allow Him to show us our own sins and the deep corruption of our own fallen nature, the more compassion we will have for other people.
The Bible says that the Holy Spirit testifies and bears witness with our Spirit. (Romans 8:16) He shines the light of Christ in our heart. (2 Corinthians 4:6) God wants to give more and more of His light to everyone. (John 1:9)
I think that God gives internal light to Christians much more often than they think He does. I believe that as long as people are alive, God never stops shinning His light within them.
Hard hearts see but they refuse to receive God’s inner light. They hear but they don’t recognize God’s internal voice. (Matthew 13:13-15)
Many of your thoughts, inner leadings, inspirations, and insights are God’s Spirit witnessing to your spirit and shinning His light within you. However, it’s easy to overlook God’s illuminating inner shinning because we choose to falsely believe that His light is only our own thoughts and feelings. The worse blindness is neglecting or refusing to allow God to reveal (1 Corinthians 2:9-10) the light of His presence, power, and leading within you.
Ask God to give you His light the way that King David asked for it. Frequently pray this prayer: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24)
Today notice a thought that tries to lead you closer to God, to humility, and to the teachings of Scripture. Let it give you light. Honor and obey that thought because it is a witness and a leading from God the Holy Spirit to you. (Romans 8:14)
God is light. (1 John 1:5) Never dim Him. Always let Him brightly shine within you. The world needs to see the culture of God’s light demonstrated in and through real human beings!
My country is the kingdom of God. God has freely rescued me from the kingdom of darkness and brought me into His Kingdom with the risen Jesus as my King and Lord. (Colossians 1:13) The biggest mistakes people make about the kingdom of God are: 1) They believe that they can earn their way into it by good works; 2) They believe that they can bring it about through political power; and 3) Many Christians believe the kingdom of God can only be experienced by going to Heaven.
However, Jesus taught that “the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21) The Bible says, “Christ in you, is the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27) The kingdom of God happens every time someone allows King Jesus to lead and direct them from deep within.
Kingdom of God Ministry
There’s no way to earn God’s spiritual gifts. People want to learn Details about God. But they need to learn To let their heart yearn To be closer to God. That’s why Jesus said To hunger and thirst For God’s righteousness, Which is a free gift That no one can earn. With all your heart turn And ask God to burn Within you like fire. Let Christ overturn Your pride’s self-concern. Begin to seek first The kingdom of God And actively learn To let Him rule and Reign deep within you And to demonstrate His presence through What you say and do.
A man holds his chest with a glowing king seated in a heart illustration.
“The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17 NKJV) The more I listen to and focus on being aware of God’s music in my heart, the better I feel.
God’s inner music is the joy and peace that I experience when I pay attention to and surrender my will to His presence around me and within me. The Bible describes it as “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,” (Philippians 4:7) and “inexpressible and glorious joy.” (1 Peter 1:8) Those statements aren’t just words. I can personally testify that they are accurate descriptions of what it is like to truly be aware of God’s presence and love.
There are two primary ways that I become aware of God’s presence and hear Him “rejoicing over” me with singing. One is opening my heart to Him in quiet contemplation. The other is seeing Him working in amazing ways around me.
Here’s an example of the second way and how I experienced it yesterday. In the morning I wrote a blog post called: “Fear of Deception Can Be a Good Fear.” In the afternoon I received a book that I had ordered from Amazon called “The Harvest” which was written by Ignatius Brianchaninov, a Russian Orthodox monk and bishop who lived in the early 1800s.
When I randomly flipped it open it was on page 305. The chapter heading at the top of the page read, “How Deceptive Earthly Life Is!” I was amazed and was aware that that occurrence was too strange to be a coincidence. I realized that God was singing one of His songss over me and wanted me to read the book.
Then I opened it up at the beginning and almost everything I read was deeply touching my heart with God’s inner music. When I got to page 12 I read the phrases “What terrible deception!” and “Let no one deceive you,” and I heard an uplifting God song deep within in my heart.
Deception is dangerous. The fear of deception is often a good fear. Believing something or someone too quickly often leads to sincerely believing something that isn’t true.
Be not deceived. Deception is to believe a lie. No human being can completely avoid deception. Let fear of deception motivate you to unceasingly and wholeheartedly seek for honesty, truth, and reality.
Truth is frequently clouded and twisted within us by our feelings, our opinions, our desires, our pride, and our beliefs. It is distorted and destroyed all around us by our culture’s continual barrage of falsehoods and misrepresentations.
The mission of capitalism is to convince people to spend as much money as they can so that they can consume as many resources as possible. To do that requires deceiving people into believing that purchasing more stuff will eventually make them happy.
The mission of socialism is to convince people to trust that the government can and will provide their needs and make them happy. To do that it’s necessary to deceive people into believing that it’s okay for the government to take away their freedom.
Thus, multitudes of lies and distortions of truth are grounded in the desire to make money, to be happy, and to trust in and support political power. Daily interactions, from simple conversations to social media, are awash in untruth.
Lies are frequently repeated with boldness, confidence, persuasion, promises, and even with intimidation and bullying. Without fear of deception lies will rule your life.
So how can we minimize our deceptions. Here are a few practical ways:
* Since our world is full of falsehood, it’s important to be cautious about what you hear and see. Don’t believe people’s opinions or credentials (even if you want to) without solid evidence. * Be honest with yourself and with others by admitting that your opinion might be mistaken. If you always think you are right, you aren’t. (No one is always right!) * Don’t believe someone just because you like what they are saying. * Don’t believe people who have a track record of lying. Serial adulterers are an example of that. They have lied to spouses, friends, family, coworkers, and on and on. Before you believe someone with a history of lying, demand solid evidence! * Many liars are intentionally deceptive; however, some liars have convinced themselves that they are being truthful when they are lying. Don’t believe someone just because they seem sincere. * Liars want you to believe them without any evidence. For example, if someone wants you to believe that they are honest with their taxes but refuse to disclose them, don’t believe them. * Refuse to believe something just because it is a popular or commonly held belief. If a billion people believe a lie, it is still a lie. * Don’t believe people who make fun of the phrase “fact checking.” They are hiding something that they don’t want you to know. An honest person will want you to check out what they are telling you. * It’s dangerous to trust someone who gets irritated or angry when you question what they are saying. People who are telling the truth are rarely offended if you disagree with them. * Care more about the truth than you care about your own, desires, feelings, and opinions. * Humbly admit when you discover that you said or believe something that isn’t true. * Avoid pride. Pride frequently leads to deception. * If someone never admits he or she is wrong, they are lying. Everybody gets things wrong sometimes. * A habit of lying makes people unkind. If someone is frequently being mean to people, beware, there is a good chance that person doesn’t mind lying to you.
When deception becomes more popular than truth chaos won’t be far behind. The world is drowning in deception. Don’t let it pull you under its waves and drown your conscience in its depth.
Christians don’t need self-confidence or political power. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world. (John 18:36) Political power tends to make Christians proud, self-righteous, and authoritarian. Instead, Christians need confidence in and reliance on the presence and power of the risen Jesus.
Moses and Jesus didn’t rely on pride, self-confidence, or political power. They relied on the humility that surrenders to the will and the power of God.
Moses didn’t use political power or self-confidence to set God’s people free from the influence and control of Egypt. Although he was raised as Pharoah’s son and had access to some of the strongest political power in history, Moses didn’t start appointing Hebrew slaves to high offices. He didn’t remind the Egyptians about how one of his Hebrew forefathers, Joseph, had brought glory to Egypt. Moses didn’t try to make Egypt great again. (MEGA)
Still, Moses longed to set the Hebrews free. One day Moses was so self-confident when he saw an Egyptian abusing a Hebrew slave that he killed the Egyptian. His self-confidence and pride in his political position caused him to lose everything.
Moses had to flee for his life to the desert. After his self-confidence was humbled for decades, God sent Moses back to Egypt to set His people free without having any political power. Instead, Moses had to depend on God’s supernatural power alone.
What happened after that became one of the most famous stories in the history of the world — The Exodus. Instead of giving the Hebrew people political power in Egypt, God set them free from bondage and led them into the wilderness to teach them humility, obedience, and brokenness so that they would begin to hunger and thirst for His presence
When Jesus was tempted to use political power, He boldly turned it down. (Matthew 4:8-10) He told people: “My kingdom is not of this world.” (Matthew 18:36) Despite the clear examples of Moses and Jesus, Christians throughout history have partnered with, trusted in, and relied on political power to impose their will on individuals and on nations.
The results have been ugly. Politicized Christians have used government power to manipulate people into converting. They have used government endorsed violence to torture people who resisted conversion. They have persuaded governments to persecute (and sometimes kill) Jews, Muslims, and “heretics.” They have used government to drive people they don’t like out of their country. Christians have used political power to set up a horrendous government protected system of cruel, lifelong, human trafficking called chattel slavery. They have relied on government to enforce segregation and apartheid on people they look down on. They have often won government favor by blessing the merciless concept of empire building through the cruel violence of war.
And now, after 2,000 years, Christians are still trying to impose faith on people by using the same political techniques. However, true faith requires the supernatural change of a human heart. Only the living God can do that!
Break free from the temptation to use political power for religious purposes. Consistently listen to, follow, and obey the risen Jesus. Love people (even your enemies) with God’s supernatural love. Refuse to try to impose your views on people through political power. “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)
When Roman Emperor Constintine politicized Christianity, people who wanted to wholeheartedly follow and obey the living Jesus (including Christ’s command to love your enemies) were seen as obstacles to church growth and were ostracized. Those who continued to meet together were often persecuted by the politized church. A great number of them fled to the Egyptian desert. Ironically, after centuries the politicized church that drove them away and refused to listen to them, began to call them the “Desert Fathers.” For an alternative view of Christian history, read their writings.
Church could be a support group that facilitates testimonies, healing, and repentance. When Christians gather on Sunday to merely sit and listen, they miss out on the mutual encouragement that the Bible commands them to do. (Hebrews 10:24-25 & 1 Corinthians 14:26) They miss out on the healing that the Holy Spirit wants to bring them through one another. (James 5:16) Instead:
* Miracles are hidden in church services. The room is full of people who have seen God do amazing things in and through their life — healings, supernatural transformations, protection from accidents, financial provision, astonishing rescues, and on and on. But everyone is required to be quiet, so all those wonderful miracles are hidden.
* Hurts are hidden in church services. People all around the sanctuary are hiding broken hearts, depression, discouragement, guilt, and physical pain. But they aren’t invited to open up and let others see and share their pain so they can heal.
* Sins are hidden in church services. The Bible tells Christians to confess their sins to one another, but church trains them to hide their sins. On Sunday morning lies and hatred are hidden. Pornography, adultery, and other sexual sins are hidden. Cheating and theft are hidden and just about every other sin that you can think of. But walking in the light of true repentance brings healing.
The Bible tells Christians to meet together to encourage one another and to spur one another on to love and good works — not to sit passively and hide things from one another. (Hebrews 10:24-25) Christians were never meant to hide what’s in their heart behind the religious structure of a Sunday morning service.
Healing lies beyond passive sermon hearing. It occurs when people open up their heart to the risen Jesus and to one another in Spirit-led community. I try to make my blog a place where people feel free to open up their heart to Jesus and allow Him to heal them.
If you are ready to stop hiding your heart from people, come and try a meeting based on 1 Corinthians 14:26 where everyone is free to share as God’s Spirit leads them. It’s at Chile Burrito, 330 Franklin Road, Brentwood, TN 37211 every Saturday morning at 8:30. It’s in the Nashville area.
A man holding a sign encouraging listening to Jesus’ inner voice.
Jesus can train you to undo the devil’s works. (1 John 3:8) Here’s my case:
When thoughts in your mind accuse and abuse you, refuse to passively suffer their torment. Refuse to let the devil’s thoughts misuse and confuse you. Use your spiritual weapons to cast down thoughts from the devil and bring them captive to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)
Open up to God’s spiritual gift of the discerning of spirits. Learn to recognize and use it as a key weapon against the devil. (1 Corinthians 12:10)
Devour the Bible and let it train you to recognize the difference between your thoughts, the devil’s thoughts, and God’s thoughts. (Hebrews 4:12)
Resist the devil’s thoughts and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)
Repent, draw near to God, and fully submit and surrender your will to the Lord and He will draw near to help and empower you. (James 4:8)
Quickly confess your sins to God and receive His forgiveness.” (1 John 1:9)
Recognize the difference between sin and temptation. (1 Corinthians 10:13) A thought from the devil that passes through your mind is a temptation. A thought from the devil that you allow to linger in your mind is a sin. Ask God to show you how you can escape from sinful thoughts and actions.
Walk in the light. (1 John 1:5-7) Confess sinful thought to another Christ-follower and ask him or her to pray for you and hold you accountable to resist the devil’s thoughts. (James 5:16)
Continually ask God to search your heart (Psalm 139:23) and purify it. (Matthew 5:8)
Rely on the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5-6) In all your ways acknowledge the presence of the risen Lord Jesus and let His Spirit live you and continually direct your paths. (Romans 8:14)
Pray for one another that you may be healed. (James 5:16) Focus on helping other people fight the devil. Ask people if you can pray for them. When they say yes, let God the Holy Spirit give you the words to set them free from the devil’s thoughts, sins, and inner torments. When you do that you, yourself, will receive some healing and inner freedom.
Christ can be counted on. Put and keep your confidence in Him. Continually rely on His presence and power! (Acts 1:8)
Train other people how to practically, daily, and faithfully hear, follow, and obey the risen Jesus by helping them learn to do the things Jesus has taught you to do. (Matthew 28:20)
A devilish character attacks a neuron on a realistic human brain model.
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 