When things in your life shut down, open up to the risen Jesus. It’s always a great time to connect with the risen Jesus and to learn to hear and obey His voice. If there’s no outpouring of Christ from your heart, perhaps there has yet to be an inpouring.

Your life is a gift of grace–undeserved and unearned. You’re free to use it well or mess it up–to improve it or to abuse it. Talking to yourself (directing your thoughts) is a key to inner health. Continually coach yourself to joy and peace, not to misery.

The living Jesus seldom seems real to those who have spiritually self-quarantined themselves. When you let intimacy with the risen Jesus take over your inner life, you’ll never be content with just outward religion. Historically, biblical Christianity has often grown the most when institutional churches have been shut down. Jesus told His disciples, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel.” He didn’t say, “Go to church and listen to preaching.”

Jesus builds His body (ekklesia) on the rock of revelatory heart-connection, not on the rift of religion. Jesus is my inner engine, not my outward religion

Dear Jesus, give courage and hope to all who are worried, and comfort and strength to all who are suffering or grieving.

Jesus says that the Holy Spirit flows “out of your innermost being,” not out of the teaching of religious leaders or institutions.