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.
Lies deflect The light of truth. Have the courage To honestly reflect Reality.
Repentance is to “Walk in the light” And no longer disguise Or hide your lies.
Liar, liar Twists the truth To hide the evil fire Of corrupt desire.
Don’t leave your soul Laying around In the sin Of lying.
The lies you tell Have a stronger hold On your life Than the lies you’re told.
Even a small lie lies outside the realm of truth. Lies are misleading attempts to distort or cover up the truth. Distorting the truth is dishonesty — the sin of deception.
Lies are out of touch with the real world. Liars promote their Lalaland fantasies and deny reality.
Lying isn’t a trivial thing. It’s an attempt to blatantly and intentionally deceive and mislead people. Lies run from truth and hide like Adam and Eve in the garden.
The more lies that you allow to lie around in your heart and in your mind, the further you are from God.To repent is to walk in the light — to honestly testify against yourself.
Until we’re honest and let go of the darkness of deception we’ll never be aligned with God. “In Him there is no darkness at all.”The living Jesus is the door to grace! Lord, have mercy on me.
Dishonesty’s a major sin because unless you honestly admit your need for God’s grace (repent) you falsely believe you deserve it.Grace is unmerited favor. It’s God’s free gift to those who don’t deserve it. Believing that you deserve grace causes you to reject it.
Repentance (admitting the evil of your sin) doesn’t earn God’s grace. It makes you realize that you desperately need it.
Self-love says, “I’m amazing and worthy to be honored.” The reality within me says, “What amazing grace that God can love me!”
Self-love isn’t the way to joy or hope. Love for Jesus is. When we try to prove our worthiness, we go amiss and mislead ourselves into believing that we are something that we aren’t.
Need hope? Too much drinking Will give you a hangover, But full surrender To the ever-living Jesus Will give you a glorious Inner makeover!
The best way Out of a funk Isn’t to get drunk. It’s better to chunk The alcohol And let Jesus plunk Your pain Down the drain.
If you think You need a drink To help unwind Your mind, You should try Soaking in The presence Of the risen Jesus!
If people at restaurants, sporting events, parties, and bars sought to be influenced by the risen Jesus as much as they do by alcohol what a wonderful world it would be.Alcohol is a poor substitute for the new wine of God’s Spirit overflowing from within.The Bible offers being filled with God’s Spirit as a glorious alternative to getting drunk. (Ephesians 5:18.)
The Jesus cycle spirals upwards “from glory to glory.” The drinking cycle can take you down the drain.Let Spirit-led prayer flow as freely and spontaneously as alcohol at a bar. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.”If you really want to relax and loosen up, open up and take in the presence of the living Jesus.
The best way to drown your sorrows is to let yourself be captivated by the living Jesus.I’m a Christaholic. I can’t get enough of the risen Jesus! My heart continually drinks the new wine of the Holy Spirit. Jesus keeps me so filled with joy that I have no desire for alcohol.
Under the influence of the living Jesus life is beautiful. I never want to be away from His influence.
There’s never a hangover from being intoxicated with Jesus. When you let Him lift your spirit there’s no need to come down.
You can’t permanently burry your anxiety in a bottle, but Jesus can carry your burdens and bless you with bountiful inner peace.The more you absorb the new wine of God’s Spirit, the more alcohol will seem like drinking the Kool-Aid.
When Christians gather to worship, we should drink in the actual presence of the Lord more than we trust a in program or a pastor.The Bible says that there should be no divisions among Christ-followers. Anything that divides the body of Christ isn’t biblical.
Addiction to alcohol Is devastating. Addiction to Jesus Is liberating.
As alcohol fills your body It drains your brain Til you act insane. Then it sets you up For hangover pain.
True Christianity is more Than religious information. It’s glorious proclamation, Powerful demonstration, Life transformation, And joyous celebration. (For more delight, google: The Joy Of Early Christianity.)
God wants to build With living stones And construct more than Church or chapel domes.
Christians are called To gather To worship and interact with The living Jesus Together.
The churches scattered about are religious buildings. Following Jesus involves so much more than a short weekly visit to one of them. A church on the corner doesn’t pray. People do!
Hearing a good talk about something exciting is nothing like personally experiencing it. Interacting with Jesus is thrilling and healing!
A plumber can service a church’s plumbing, but if Jesus’ living water isn’t freely flowing, it just a building repair. If a church can be demolished, it’s nothing but a building.
No matter how beautifully your church may be decorated, Jesus still wants to be the King who reigns on the throne in your heart.Church windows may be colorful, but if you don’t see the living Jesus through the windows of your soul, what does it matter?
When worship is focused on God’s Spirit people will find a place to meet, but when it’s focused on the place to meet, they may not find God’s Spirit.Jesus said that God wants worship to be “in Spirit and in truth,” not to be in any special building or location. True worship flows from the heart. It doesn’t depend on the availability of a church or any other house of worship.
A church on the corner is only a building but Jesus in your heart is joy unspeakable. Getting you into a church is not God’s primary objective. He wants to get and keep Christ alive in you.
True story: Three men were in an empty church. One said: “This is a marvelous edifice.” Another said: “It’s a glorious structure.” The third (me) said: “Not only that it’s a real nice building.”
As long as Our thoughts Are a mess And our inner life Is full of stress We know far less About our identity Than we think we do.
When you think Other people Are very different than you, It’s just not true. We all have The same identity– Human.
Our pride Tends to hide The commonality Of all humanity– Our shared struggles, Heartbreaks, And insecurities.
Too many people are living with a fake ID, not in their pocket, but in their mind. You can never discover your true identity as long as you choose to live in darkness.When we don’t like something in our character, too often we hide it behind ego instead of turning away from it with humility.
Feelings and desires don’t define who we are. We are humans who have the power to embrace them or to resist them.Our feelings and thoughts are easily subject to deception; we often aren’t who we feel like and think that we are.
The truth about who you are isn’t what you call yourself. It’s revealed in how you choose to live your daily life.No matter what words you use to identify yourself, your true identity is much deeper than that. Self-labeling is usually more self-deceiving than it is self-identifying.
We can’t accurately self-identify because our subconscious mind represses much of who we are and our conscious mind often deceives us.Too often we try to find a self-identity that justifies our desires instead of telling the truth about who we really are.
The first step to finding our true identity is to identify the sin in our life that is hiding it. (That’s called repentance.) As long as there is darkness in your heart, your self-identity will be off base.
When we choose to define the most innocent form of human life as noting but disposable tissue, we destroy our identity. You were once a fetus who someone refused to kill.
What can decode me and my identity? Because we’re made in God’s image, connecting with Him is the key to finding our identity. I’m not what I think or what I feel. I am what “I AM” says I am.
Lost identity Is a sign Of self-deception. It can’t be restored By self-perception. Only reception Of God’s Light Can reveal it.
To self-identify is to misidentify And to deny Who you really are, A being who is created In the image of God.
The Bible is the Jesus-book. Open up its cover To take an honest look And you’ll soon discover His presence at work In you. (1 Thessalonians 1:13.)
I want to be A fruit stand Of God’s Spirit Giving free samples Of His produce To all who pass by.
Before you express your feelings, align them with reality. “Is this feeling based on truth or is it just my emotional reaction?”
The closer I stay to the risen Jesus, the less my feelings dominate me and the more I freely soar on the wind of God’s Spirit.When we have no direct connection with and awareness of the ever-living Jesus we’re spiritually offline.
Jesus is a fully charged battery of hope and power. If Christ is in you, make sure you stay connected to His unlimited energy flow.
When people have Christ living inside of them, they have a deep, inner connection with each other, even if they don’t recognize it.When Christ in me connects with Christ in you we experience a beautiful sense of kinship.
Reading the Bible with an open, honest heart connects me to the living Jesus. I sense Him working strongly in me as I read.People who are surrendered to the presence and power of the risen Jesus experience a supernatural connection when they open their heart to each other.
The best protection Against feelings of rejection Is ongoing connection With Jesus.
The friction In your life, Doesn’t need To be restriction. Let it be The inner ignition That sets you ablaze With ever-growing hunger For greater connection With God.
I was a church attending cultural Chirstian. One day it was revealed to me that what I thought was belief in Christ was nothing more than my passive acknowledgement of church doctrine. Then I realized that I was a Christian in name only, so to be honest with myself, I rejected Christianity.
Here’s how I became a cultural Christian. I grew up in an unchurched, non-religious home. For some reason, as a small child I had a love for God. I would talk to my parents about Him and ask them to take me to church but they resisted. Then when I was about 10 years old, they started attending a stuffy Presbyterian church.
The pastor wanted me to be a member, so he enrolled me in a new member class with a few other kids my age. It focused on Presbyterian history and doctrine, but I don’t remember anything being taught about a personal relationship with Jesus. Then the pastor sprinkled me in front of the church and proclaimed me a member. I quite naturally assumed that made me a Christian.
A few years later as a high school student, I was sitting in church one morning properly listening to the sermon when all of a sudden, a question came to my mind: “If you were born a Hindu what would be today?” That got my attention, so I tuned out the sermon and began to ponder the question.
What if I had been born in a part of the world where Hinduism was the focal religion? What if when I had asked about God as a child, my parents had taken me to a Hindu temple? What if a Hindu priest had enrolled me in his class on Hindu history and beliefs and then brought me to the front for a religious ceremony and proclaimed me a Hindu? After thinking about that I said to myself that I’d be a Hindu.
Immediately the question came to my mind: “Why do you think you’re a Christian?” I instantly realized that my belief that I was a Christian was based solely on outward culture and circumstances, not on personal conviction. I spent most of the rest of the day asking myself what I personally believed independently of what I been taught to believe.
I began to realize that my supposed belief in the Bible, in Jesus, and in Christianity was only cultural so I rejected it all except for one thing. I realized that I did personally believe in some sort of Creator, so I closed my eyes and said something like: “I don’t believe in the Bible, in Jesus, or in Christianity, but whoever or whatever you are, will you show me the truth?”
About two years later I went to an informal Christian gathering of 60 or so students in the lobby of my college dorm (so that a classmate would stop inviting me). There I heard two people briefly tell how they had experienced the living Jesus Christ. I could sense something in them that I didn’t have, and in a moment, Jesus became real and present to me. I’ve never been the same. (It still moves me to tears when I talk about it.)
Then someone asked everybody to go behind the dorm and join in a prayer circle. I found myself going along with the crowd and holding hands in a big circle under the stars. People began to talk to God like He is real. (I’d never heard anybody do that in my Presbyterian church.) I felt something moving through me. Although I was shy and had never prayed out loud, I found myself saying with a strong voice: “Lord, thank You for leading me here tonight and thank You for showing me that You’re real.”
Then the risen Jesus working inside of me prompted me to go to my dorm room and to begin to read the Bible. The words jumped off the pages and thrilled my heart. Reading the written Word flooded my soul with the living Word (Jesus) and began the gradual process of becoming flesh in me by transforming my thoughts, feelings, and desires and changing the way I live from the inside out. That process has never stopped! I still delight in the words of the Bible. Ever since I first began to read it, I’ve only missed a handful of days exploring it. The words echo in my mind and heart throughout the day and help keep me connected with the risen Jesus.
Open your heart and surrender your life to the ever-living Jesus. Then He will lead you to His Book and empower the words to convict, delight, heal, and transform you from within. Regularly read the Jesus-book with an open, tender heart — red or black the words will impact you deeply!
One day something happened Deep inside of me That made me see Everything differently. I didn’t understand What was going on So I picked up a Bible And it was like a phone. As I read The words it said Went beyond my head And spoke thrillingly To my heart Planting seeds Of hope And meeting needs I didn’t know I had. I’ve found nothing That compares To the living words That the Bible shares And plants within me. They empower me Everyday To taste and see That the Lord is good! If you daily read With an open heart The Bible will plant Life-giving seed In you, too!
Don’t mumble Or grumble When your Self-steps stumble. Trade them in For Jesus-steps.
Christianity is about replacing self-steps with Jesus-steps — exchanging me-power for Jesus-power. (Jesus-steps are steps that are led and empowered by the living Jesus.) Self-steps based on our own desires, feelings, and opinions lead to bondage and deception. Jesus-steps lead to freedom in Christ. The more Jesus-steps I take, the more I find my heart dancing.
Discouraged people Need to see you do The Jesus-step. So they can be amazed At God’s choreography In your life.
Jesus-steps have walked on water. They can aways keep me afloat! My steps toward Jesus are never as powerful as the steps I let Him take in and through me.
Jesus-steps Follow His lead. They don’t Step on His feet.
Every Jesus-step you don’t take quenches His spirit in your life. When was your last Jesus-step? What is your next one? The first step from self-steps to Jesus-steps is repentance.
Jesus-steps Don’t linger And lounge In comfort zones.
When you self-step into failure and pain, Jesus-steps are the way out. When you quick step in the wrong direction you get there much faster. Slow down then turn around.When the Bible says, “Walk in the Spirit,” it’s telling us to replace self-steps with Jesus-steps.
Self-steps roam In a dome Of deception. Jesus-steps Lead home.
Baby steps might not be your answer. The source of a step is much more important than the size. An occasional Jesus-step doesn’t make a Christ-follower. The first step in taking Jesus-steps is to surrender your will to His. Many Jesus-steps are easy, but our pride makes them seem difficult.
Too many Christians Are hobbling And wobbling With baby steps Instead of striding And gliding With Jesus-steps.
If it’s a Jesus-step take it. Avoid the self-step-strut. God has a next Jesus-step for you. Take it now! When you begin to consistently take Jesus-steps your life will turn around.
Self-steps climb The mountain of pride Jesus-steps glide On the grace Of humility.
A church that doesn’t train people to take Jesus-steps winds up with a room full of spectators. A Christ-follower is someone who has been trained to take ongoing Jesus-steps. Self-steps can take you to church, but only Jesus-steps can make you a disciple. Gathering as a Sunday morning audience isn’t an effective way to learn to take Jesus-steps.
The more Jesus-steps That you take The more sense Your life will make.
Many people who go to church have never taken their first Jesus-step. If you’ve never taken Jesus-steps, you’ve never really walked! The smallest Jesus-step can do infinitely more than your greatest giant leap.
Jesus-steps go beyond The tree of knowledge To partake of The tree of life.
Self-steps often lead to regret. Jesus-steps never do. Take the Jesus-step that you’ve been avoiding.
Decide To let Christ Be your inner guide And make your every stride A Jesus-step.
Jesus-steps are worth the walk! Pursue them. If you see a spring in my steps, it’s the ever-living Jesus abounding in my heart. When I take Jesus-steps and let Him lead me, my heart leaps with joy!
Self-steps, Though full of pride, Slip and slide And often collide With reality.
Grace freely empowers human beings to take Jesus-steps, but freewill often rejects them.People who take Jesus-steps frequently find themselves at His feet pouring out gratitude and adoration.
Grace isn’t An elevator to Heaven. It’s the free gift Of supernatural power To take the Jesus-steps That will get you there.
Self-steps grow weary, but Jesus-steps stay ever strong. I choose the goal for my self-steps, but God determines the goal for Jesus-steps.
It’s hard to Move your feet And take Jesus-steps If your religion Is nothing more Than Sunday sitting In a cold church seat.
Every step you take is either a self-step or a Jesus-step. Even the smallest Jesus-step will bring you closer to Him. The journey to eternal life follows the narrow way of Jesus-steps. Every step taken in Heaven is a Jesus-step, but earth suffers from a famine of Jesus-steps
Self-steps often mold Us into familiar patterns That make us cold And continually hold Us in the same old Habits that keep us From being bold Inner-freedom fighters.
Stack up the Jesus-steps and you will step over the stack of life’s obstacles. If people can’t see you boldly taking Jesus-steps, you won’t be able to convince them to take them.
When you ask, “What’s the matter With my life,” You’ve lost sight Of the fact That Jesus-steps Matter.
A great “service” a church service could offer would be to consistently demonstrate people Jesus-stepping with Christ’s infectious love and contagious joy.When Christians meet, they aren’t called to follow procedures or programs. They’re called to take Jesus-steps.When you experience a gathering of Jesus-stepping Christ-followers who are connected heart-to-heart with Jesus and with each other it’s life-changing.
Self-steps Lead to missteps But Jesus-steps Lead to life.
Snaky thinking says: “If it looks tasty, try it,” And asks us the question, “Did God really say not to eat it?” But choice without conscience (God’s truth in our heart), And self-steps without obedience (Based solely on own Desires, feelings, and knowledge) Open our free will To the deceptive appeal Of the evil influence Of the slivering snake That prowls around In the garden of our mind To paint ball God’s inner image With the despairing colors Of death and distortion That separate us From the Source real life.
Does God ask questions? Yes. Too often we dodge His questions instead of answering them. Before God answers your questions, He may be waiting on you to answer His.
When God asked, “Adam, where are you?” He wasn’t trying to locate Adam. He was trying to help Adam realize that he was separated from God. Where are you?
Once God questioned me like He did Adam. I was a high school student sitting bored in church when this came to my mind: If you were born a Hindu what would you be today?” Intrigued by the question I pondered it and suddenly realized that I would be a Hindu. Another question quickly followed: “Why do you think you’re a Christian?” Like Adam I realized that I was separated from God. I falsely thought I believed but it was only because of the influence of the religion of my birth.
I accepted my unbelief and rejected Jesus, Christianity, and the Bible, but I realized that my belief in some sort of Creator, an intelligence or a force, was still in tack. I would have believed that regardless of my birthplace. After two years as thoughtful agnostic, I encountered a group of passionate Christ-followers thrilled about the living Jesus. I saw Him in them and have never been the same. I love God’s questions! Do you?
Here are some other questions that God asks people in the Bible. Just maybe He’s asking them to you.
“What is this you have done?” –Genesis 3:13.
“Where have you come from and where are you going?” –Genesis 16:6-10.
“What is that in your hand?” –Exodus 4:1-5.
“What are you doing here?” –1 Kings 19:1-10.
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?” Job 38:1-4.
“Whom shall I send?” Isaiah 6:1-8.
“Do you have a reason to be angry?” Jonah 4:1-4.
“Can these bones live?” Ezekiel 37:1-4.
“Examine yourself to see Whether you are in the faith.” Are you spiritually alive? Were you born again So that new life could begin? Are you daily trusting God To keep you from sin? Do you strive To seek Jesus first? Does your heart thrive In the ongoing presence of The ever-living Jesus?
When you take the time To honestly answer God’s questionnaire, You’ll begin to breathe His spiritual air.
Be Spirit-led, Make Christ your Head. Listen to Jesus And do what He said. Then you won’t be Spiritually dead.
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 