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.
Throughout my adult life my favorite book has imparted amazing attitudes, skills, and lessons to me. It continues to do so day after day! Give the Bible much more than a passing glance now and then and it will do the same for you!
The Bible is the lense that God has given you to help you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus — to keep you focused on “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Because the writers of the Bible “spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit,” (2 Peter 1:22) if you use it, it will help you stir up the gift of the Holy Spirit inside of you. (2 Timothy 1:6)
Get more from the Bible! The Bible’s not just a textbook to be studied and analyzed. It’s a love letter from God to be continually absorbed, cherished, and treasured. It’s alive and active. (Hebrews 4:12)
To study the Bible is popular and good. However, there are other, often ignored, approaches to the Bible that are vital.
Don’t just have Bible studies. Have Bible searches. Have Bible discussions. Have Bible seekings. Have Bible stir ups. Have Bible doings. Have Bible experiences. Continually search the Bible to verify what you believe about God and what you have been taught and preached about Him. (Acts 17:11)
Discuss the Bible. Talk about it with other people. (Joshua 1:8)
Seek the Bible for revelation, inspiration, and the kingdom (inner government) of God in your life. (Matthew 6:33). Meditate and ponder it day and night. (Joshua 1:8)
Stir up (2 Timothy 1:6) the Bible in your mind and memory. Keep it burning in your heart. (Luke 24:32) so that its words are flowing with the Holy Spirit within you. (John 7:38-39)
Do the Bible. Follow and obey what it clearly states for you to do. Be doers of the word, not hearers only. (James 1:22).
Personally, and directly experience the Bible. As you read it savor it. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8)
The glory and splendor of the Lord is all around you. Take the time to notice it. Let your physical eyes observe some of the Creator’s amazing and majestic beauty and engineering in nature and its 2.2 billion species of life that scientist have catalogued so far. (Romans 1:20)
Look up and notice how spectacular the sky and the stars are. (Psalm 19:1-2) Climb a mount and sense God’s glory. Walk a beach and hear the waves praise Him. This incredible world is but His shadow declaring His greatness and magnificence to all who will recognize it.
Open your heart to awe and astonishment. Cultivate ever increasing appreciation for the creative miracles that surround you and the ones that are you — the multitudes of physical marvels that make up your material body and the wondrous mysteries of your consciousness, your conscience, moral compass, your compassion, your mind, your sense of fairness, your desire for justice, your desire for meaning and purpose, your longing to be genuinely loved, your sense of guilt, your disappointment in yourself, your desire for approval, and so many more curious things about you.
A lifetime of “Wows!!!” from a heart dazzled by nonstop amazement cannot do justice to the abounding splendor and creativity of the infinite intricate (visible and invisible) designs of nature! Focusing on the grandeur of all that incredible physical and nonmaterial stuff baffles the brightest minds and will stir the hardest hearts with overwhelming wonderment.
Recently someone pointed out to my wife and me that we both say “Wow!” a lot. I was so encouraged by that. Our goal has been to recognize, celebrate, appreciate, follow, and demonstrate the love and glory of God. Wow! That’s still the burning desire of our heart. We love being wowed by the beautiful things that we see, hear, hear about, and experience, God doing throughout each day.
I try to always keep my heart open to God’s mysteries and to let Him lead me outside of my comfort zone. Doing that fills me with awe and wonder and keeps me astounded by His presence, love, and power. You can do it too!
Open wide your heart to vision and insight. Let it be deeply touched, moved, and led by God the Holy Spirit. Always carry God the Son inside of you; let Him lead you day and night. Worship and glorify God the Father in all you say and do.
There’s a mountain outside my window, but I can’t see it now. It’s covered with clouds, but I know it is there. I’ve seen it many times before. It is one mountain with three peaks. The first time I saw it I was reminded of the mystery of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. When it’s covered by a cloud, I am reminded of the glory cloud that covered Mt. Sinai when God appeared to Moses. There is so much that we humans don’t see that we don’t understand. There is so much more to life than our physical eyes can see.
Keep your heart open to vision and insight. Instead of monitoring the Holy Spirit let God the Holy Spirit monitor and lead you.
Cessationists say it has stopped. Sensationists try to add to it by human feelings, ideas, and effort. Facinationists live in awe of it and surrender to it. What is it? It is the power and presence of Jesus Christ living and working in today’s world.
The psalmist in the Bible said: “I will keep my eyes always on the Lord.” (Psalm 16:8 NIV) If the psalmist could do that hundreds of years before the first Christmas, how much more can we 2000 years after Christ has been born, laid down His life for us, risen from the dead, and now is present to live and work inside of His followers! (Colossians 1:27)
There are at least three ways Christians today present Christianity. Cessationists present the Gospel while denying or ignoring its present-day life-changing and supernatural power. (2 Timothy 3:5) Sensationists mix the Gospel with lots of human programming, ritual, or hype. (Galatians 3:3) Fascinationists live in continual awe of Jesus and continually experience Him as living and working in the world today in, though, and around ordinary people like themselves. — “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
I am a Christian facinationist! The risen Jesus keeps me passionately in awe of Him and amazed at what I see Him doing in, though, and around me. I say to Jesus: “You are my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing.” (Psalm 16:2) Thank You, Jesus!!!
Is your Christmas focused on the North Pole or the Middle East? Your answer matters.
When the main character in Christmas is from the North Pole instead of the Middle East, the supporting characters are elves instead of wise men, and the main props are reindeer and a sleigh instead of a manger and a star, there has been a major plot change. One main Christmas character has shoved aside the other and stolen Christmas, and his name isn’t the Grinch.
Which Christmas do you prefer — a sincere, heart-felt celebration and rejoicing in Christ’s birth, life, death for our sins, resurrection from the dead, and active presence in the world today? Or a capitalistic commercialization and consumerization of the holiday?
Prophetic boldness, faith, action and adoration flow from wholehearted love for Jesus! If we loved Jesus more, we would experience much more of that in our churches and in our daily life.
You can love Jesus more than you do. He wants you to. (If you’re not passionately in love with Jesus, you’re missing out on life’s greatest romance.)
Jesus calls halfhearted, halfway Christianity lukewarm. (Revelation 3:15-17) He sees it like lukewarm coffee. If you love Jesus less passionately today than you have in the past, your heart has gone in the wrong direction.
Offer Jesus better than that! Stir up your heart to blaze with wholehearted, all-out, ever-increasing love for Him. (2 Timouthy 1:6) Settle for nothing less!
Mother Teresa said: “I serve Jesus because I love Jesus.” Do you? Loving Jesus isn’t passive religion. It’s divine romance. It’s vibrant adoration for Him that passionately overflows from deep within a human heart. (John 7:38-39)
You’ve probably been told at least once that “Jesus loves you.” Have you ever told Jesus that you love Him?
Can a person love Jesus too much? Absolutely not! When love for Jesus enters your heart, never let it go! Keep it ablaze with passion and adoration for Him. Never allow your first love for Jesus to die down or drift away. (Revelation 2:4)
It’s impossible to overdo love for Jesus. Our problem as Christians is not enough love for Jesus, never too much. Jesus said: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me. *Luke 9:23) You can’t overdo that!
I wholeheartedly adore Jesus because He first loved me. (1 John 4:9) How can I not return such amazing love?
JESUS Talks are much better than TED Talks or any other kind of talks that you can ever hear! He says: “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27) Christ’s words are pain healers and chain breakers! Tune in now.
Listen to JESUS Talks. Hear Him speak To your heart. Just one word That’s been heard Will break chains And heal pains. What Christ says Within you Has the power To shower You with peace. Hear Him now. Wow! Wow! Wow!
If you’re still breathing Jesus wants you to be more and more aware of His presence. (Matthew 11:28-29) He wants you to continually listen to and obey Him so that you can be closer to Him heart-to-heart. That’s why the Bible tells Christians to, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8) Refuse to settle into the religious routine of comfortable Christianity. In every situation make it your first priority to fully surrender your life and your will to the inner Kingship of Jesus and the internal government of God. (Matthew 6:33)
Jesus through God the Holy Spirit wants to be the functioning Head of His body. Let Christ be the literal ruling and reigning King, the Lord, the absolute Master in your life and in every church! Don’t treat Him like a mere figurehead! When a program and a time frame control the worship agenda, there’s not much room for Jesus as God the Holy Spirit to take the lead.
When Christians humbly open their heart to one another they discover amazing unity! There’s a supernatural heart-to-heart unity of the Spirit among Christ-followers that can be lost if not carefully maintained. Our natural desires that the Bible calls “the flesh” (Galatians 5:19-21) can easily disrupt, interrupt, and destruct that Spirit-given unity.
The Bible tells us to make every effort to preserve the beautiful inner unity of the Spirit. (Ephesians 4:3) We Christians haven’t obeyed that Scripture very well. Instead, we have shattered our unity into hundreds of thousands of fully independent churches and denominations worldwide. How can we begin to remedy that colossal divisiveness in Christianity?
If Christ is in you, (Colossians 1:27) He wants you to recognize and live out your Spirit-produced unity with all other Christ-carriers. To do so, keep His living water (John 7:38-39) stirred up within you. (2 Timothy 1:6) Be careful not to stop His inner flowing. (1 Thessalonians 5:19) Be humble, gentle, and lovingly patient with people. (Ephesians 4:2) Listen to and obey (John 14:15) Christ’s voice. (John 10:27) Always let Him lead you (Romans 8:14) and teach you (1 John 2:27) from within. Walk in love just as Christ loved us (Ephesians 5:1-2) and even love your enemies. (Matthew 5:44)
God doesn’t want His Holy Spirit to be moved aside. (Romans 8:14) The divisiveness of institutional churches has done just that. When a church doesn’t freely welcome the Holy Spirit’s direct leadership in a Christian gathering, the Spirit is quenched. (1 Thessalonians 5:19)
Having begun a church service in the Spirit with “worship in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24)) churches too often shift into the flesh (Galatians 3:3) — leaning on a preacher’s own understanding (Proverbs 3:5) to prepare a programmed talk about a religious topic. Having begun in the Spirit they seek to go forward by the flesh.
I believe that there are things that churches can do to be more united and more effective disciple makers. (Ephesians 3:20) We are far from our maximum potential! But when I make suggestions based on my studies of Scripture many Christians don’t want to hear them.
I don’t see the one man over a church type of leadership in the New Testament. I see it in the Old Testament but not the new. In the New Testament leadership is plural — elders, bishops (which literally means overseers like football officials), apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. They are all plural. The risen Jesus is the only person that Scripture says can be the Head of a church or gathering of the body of Christ. However, toward the end of the first century, one man headship of churches and groups of churches began to replace the NT model of plural leadership that oversaw church meetings as the Spirit led them.
Let me ask you a question. If Jesus is really risen from the dead and present and active in the world today as the Holy Spirit, why isn’t He capable of being the literal Head of a church and not just a figurehead shoved to the side by human leadership? Christians can disagree about what the Bible is saying in 1 Corinthians 14:26, but if they let a congregation all consistently listen to the Spirit and then say or do what He tells them to, they will be amazed by the spiritual fruit they see in peoples’ lives.
Too many churches treat the Bible like a formal textbook when it is really a love letter from God to you. Let the Bible speak for itself! Don’t just hear about it through a preacher. Open your heart to the Bible and read it like a love letter, not like a textbook!
Jesus didn’t Need a screen For His message To be heard And be seen By the hearts Of large crowds Of people Because He spoke Spirit-prompted words That awoke Spiritual life And unity. Let Christ in you Prompt you to speak Words directly From His Spirit Not from your own Understanding.
True joy comes from more than food, drink, entertainment, and self-medication. Life is more than food and the body more than clothes. (Matthew 6:25) Christians are supposed to break the human cycle of looking at and depending on the things that are seen. Instead, we are called to look at and rely on the things that are unseen. (2 Corinthians 4:18) Worry is worthless. Jesus wants us to cast it aside and depend on Him throughout each day. (Matthew 6:31-34)
Let King Jesus wipeout your worry! Continually surrender your life and your will to the moment-by-moment inner government of Christ and His Kingdom. (Colossians 1:27) Train yourself to deny yourself (Luke 9:23) and to always be led by God the Holy Spirit. (Romans 814) Build your life on the everlasting Rock of King Jesus, not on the temporary shifting sand of human kingdoms, governments, or nations. (Matthew 7:24)
Let Jesus touch your heart every day. Stay consciously connected to His presence. Let Jesus be your interior decorator. Be still and get to know the wonderful presence of God the Son living and working within you. (Psalm 35:10 and Colossians 1:27)
Walk about step by step with Jesus as you live your daily life. It’s not enough just to hear a talk about Jesus once a week. Don’t neglect to frequently meet with and open your heart to the gathered body of Christ. (Hebrews 10:25 and 1 Corinthians 14:26)
Jesus Christ! His name remains in Christmas and Christianity, but He is mostly ignored. Too bad . . . Jesus is alive, present, amazing, and available to live in you and lead you to great joy! To experience that joy open your heart more and more to Jesus and to the gathered body of Christ. Google: The Joy of Early Christianity.
Dominating, controlling, and monopolizing leadership has tended to bore Christians with lazy lectures. (Church leaders even joke about people sleeping in church.) Pastors far too often turn church members into a passive audience and refuse to actively train, empower, and release them in hands-on discipleship and in hearing and obeying God the Holy Spirit throughout each day. (Ephesians 4:11-13) Too many pastors have turned churches into “a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.” Paul says, “from such turn away.” (2 Timothy 3:5) Paul says that when Christians come together, they all should be free to speak up in the meeting. (1 Corinthians 14:26) Let’s get back to what the Bible says.
When churches are in such a sad state of condition that they trust the state and its politics to make the culture Christian that is a bad state of affairs. There’s no such thing as cruel Christianity. When religion becomes cruel, it’s no longer Christianity.
Sermon-hearing is a very poor substitute for God’s presence. No one can preach you into inner peace. It only comes from surrendering to God’s presence. Accept no substitute for the actual presence of the living God.
Peace is the fruit God’s presence. (Galatians 5:22-23) Jesus put it this way: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
Moses knew something that most Christians today don’t know — God’s presence is essential! Moses said to God: “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that You are pleased with me and with Your people unless You go with us? What else will distinguish me and Your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” (Exodus 33:15-16) God didn’t just give Moses and the children of Israel the Ten Commandments. He gave them His presence — cloud by day and fire by night. (Exodus 13:21)
Moses said to God: “Show me Your glory,” (Exodus 33:18) and God did! Paul declared that “the ministry of the Spirit” is even more glorious than the glory that Moses experienced! He said that Christ-followers can now behold the Lord’s glory and be “transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:7-18)
Jesus demonstrates His presence (Matthew 28:20) in the world today in and through the Person of God the Holy Spirit. When we ignore the direct inner leading of the Spirit, (Romans 8:14) we humans tend to hide behind religion while our hearts and actions wander far from God’s presence (Titus 1:16) and our lives fill with anxiety. (Philippians 4:6-7)
God never intended for preaching to replace His presence! Preaching is supposed to announce and demonstrate the presence of God, not to replace it. (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)
Church attendance without ongoing heart-to-heart interaction and intimacy with Jesus is like being married but your only contact with your mate is to hear a Sunday morning lecture about your spouse. That wouldn’t be much of a marriage.
Can a person be a Christian and not be a Spirit-led disciple of Jesus? The Bible doesn’t present that as an option.
Where there’s little or no heart-to-heart sharing and interaction people aren’t truly “assembled together.” (Hebrews 10:25) No amount of sermon hearing can make a Spirit-led disciple. That requires moment by moment surrender and obedience to the presence of the risen Jesus.
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