It’s easy to blame and be disgruntled with the insanity around me. It’s difficult not to constantly deny my discontent with the incongruity within me.

We need to continually live in the community of Christ (not just “attend” it on Sunday morning). Until the community of Christ in us and Christ in others becomes the community that shapes our thoughts, opinions, emotions, desires, and behaviors, the physical city that we live in will seduce, brainwash, and hold us in bondage to its values.

Information about Jesus that doesn’t produce the fruit of the Spirit is mere head knowledge. It is analysis instead of spiritual transformation.

Unless we allow Jesus to transfer us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God, the strength that comes from His glorious power will seem mythical to us. Even when we profess to believe it, we won’t experience it as reality in daily life.

Unless we behold the living Jesus, Christians are like sports fans seated behind the goal post. We can hear the words coming from the PA (Pastor Address), but we don’t have a very good view of the game.

When people are united in love, they become encouraged in heart. Discouragement finds its home in prideful isolation, stubborn independence, and self-imposed loneliness. Hope doesn’t just happen!

When we sin, we execute (as in “carry out”) the ungodly desires of our human nature. When we repent, we execute (as in “put to death”) our sinful desires.

When Paul says: “Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience,” he’s talking about our inner self, not just our outer self.” It’s not enough to drape those characteristics over our behaviors, we must also cultivate them in our heart.

Insights without the power to do right are short sighted. We can carry good intentions forward, but intentions rarely carry us forward. Intentions are like buying a fancy treadmill to lose weight. Unless we “pound the pavement,” the pounds won’t go away. Intentions frequently reveal that no matter how much we want to change, we lack the power to permanently change ourselves–that we are sinners who need to be redeemed by a Savior.

Jesus can’t be kept
Stored away
In the dust bin of history,
The tomb of religion,
Or the someday of Heaven.
He’s knocking now
On your heart.