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Constantly in motion, ever-aware, always alert both night and day, an unseen force is shaping your life in ways you can’t imagine.
Ever-learning.
Ever-revealing.
The algorithms behind this crawler make Google look, in comparison, like a nearsighted man searching for a haystack in a needle factory.
He sees you when you’re sleeping and knows when you’re awake. But I’m not referring to the jolly old elf. I’m talking about the Ultimate Search Engine. But it’s not an “it” – it’s a Person. [click to continue…]
…the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.
Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me (Song of Solomon 2:12)
Be like the dove, He said… [click to continue…]
An audio drama with four characters:
A Narrator,
The Imagined Voice of the Holy Spirit,
King David,
and Bob Dylan
(Note: If you’re reading this via email or RSS feed, this post is best read from the site by clicking on the title above. And now… on with the drama…) [click to continue…]
It all started with that 55-mph speed limit. In the mid-1970s, Americans traded in their muscle cars for Toyotas and slowed down.
But a certain segment of the population balked. These people were paid to transport goods to their destinations in a timely manner, and felt that the new speed limits were doing considerable harm to their livelihood. So they started working together to cover each other’s back.
This created a fad that spawned a counterculture, complete with its own lingo, music, and personal identities. Everybody, it seemed, rushed out to get a CB radio.
Once the stuff of rescue workers, hobbyists, and the like, citizens-band radios became standard equipment in many vehicles. Gone were the official call-letters used by the “legal eagles” who actually paid for a license to use the things (KFN 0508, if you even remotely care what ours was). Everybody used a “handle.”
A handle was a nickname you gave yourself so that people could “grab hold” of you by saying something along the lines of, “Break, one-nine. How ‘bout that Blue Goose? You got your ears on”? And you, assuming that was your handle, would reply something like, “Ten-four, good buddy.”
No, children, I’m not making this up.
CBs, for the most part, have gone the way of the 55-mph speed limit, though our trucker friends still use them. But you still have a handle – a unique identity by which you can be “grabbed.” [click to continue…]
What are you going to do with the resurrection of Jesus?
Let’s assume for a minute that you actually believe it. That three days after He was crucified, He actually rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.
Now what?
I guess you and I have to decide where to file that. We can be part of the 380. Or we can be part of the 120. [click to continue…]
Dear Foggy Little Brain,
As you start your day, I want to remind you of some very important truth to shape your thinking…
- You are no longer under condemnation (Romans 8:1).
- You are free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).
- Your flesh has been dealt with (Romans 8:3).
- The Holy Spirit will enable you to fulfill the requirements of God’s Law (Romans 8:4).
- The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:6).
- Those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:8).
- You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit (Romans 8:9).
- Your body may be dying, your spirit is alive because of His righteousness (Romans 8:10).
- The Holy Spirit will also give life to your mortal body (Romans 8:11).
- You have no obligation to the flesh (Romans 8:12).
- You must put to death the deeds of the body (Romans 8:13).
- You are a child of God (Romans 8:14 16).
- You are no longer a slave to the world, the devil, and the flesh (Romans 8:15).
- You have received the spirit of adoption, so that you can go into God’s presence and say, “Daddy!” (Romans 8:15).
- You are an heir of God, and a joint heir of Christ (Romans 8:17).
- The present suffering you may be experiencing is not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to you (Romans 8:18).
- Your body will be redeemed one day (Romans 8:23).
- You don’t pray alone. The Holy Spirit will is helping you (Romans 8:26).
- The Holy Spirit is interceding to the Father for you (Romans 8:27).
- God causes all things work together for good to those who love Him (Romans 8:28).
- You are predestined to be conformed into the image of Jesus (Romans 8:29).
- You have been called, justified, and glorified (Romans 8:30).
- God is for you – who can be against you (Romans 8:31)?
- No one can bring a charge against you, because you are God’s elect (Romans 8:33).
- In all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37).
- Nothing – nothing – can separate you from God’s love (Romans 8:35 39).
As you go about your day, remember the banner under which you live, and the grace on which you stand. I’ve read to the end of the Book… You win!
I’ve been noticing something in me that I don’t like. It’s been around ever since somebody first said “no” to me and I ignored her or him. But lately it’s been strutting around with a vengeance, so I thought I’d expose the big puke for the world to see. So take that, flesh.
I first noticed it in particular when I started reading Watchman Nee’s classic, The Spiritual Man. While I read some really good stuff, I find my mind racing with a torrent of thoughts. Crazy thoughts. Rebellious thoughts. Ugly, fleshly thoughts.
I find it raging sometimes in church when I’m supposed to be the spiritual leader pointing toward Christ and instead I feel this compelling urge to point to me.
I notice it, strangely enough, when I’m with the people I love the most and I’m feeling a flood of emotions that are anything but loving. [click to continue…]
Tense Truth: God gives you desires you can never satisfy and makes demands you can never fulfill. He then goes about bridging the gap, doing for you what you can never do for yourself. Your primary responsibility is to trust Him to be Himself – to rest in His faithfulness.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Have you ever felt like God was somehow playing a joke on you? You hear people talking about being forgiven, and you feel guilty for, well, feeling guilty. You read the stories about miracle-working power, and wonder why you got left at the station. You learn more and are less happy; work harder, but feel weaker. You’ve learned to speak “Christianese” and go through the motions, but sometimes you just feel like a fraud.
What if I were to tell you that God has a glorious answer? Something more liberating than a self-improvement project or yet another string of self-disappointments?
David’s Truth Discovery
For nearly a year, David had played the role. The psalmist of Israel, the beloved king, had gone through the motions, mouthed the words, and tipped his hat to the man he once was. Very few knew people the real story: David was just a shell of the man he once had been. [click to continue…]
If you believe that God never speaks to individuals any more because He has given us the Bible, you’re a practical atheist. If you’re waiting on the Holy Spirit to tell you whether to order fish or chicken (He’d never lead you to red meat, of course), then you have just elevated lunch to a cosmic event. But if you can learn to turn and tune your heart and allow the Holy Spirit to apply the truth of God’s word to your specific situation, you can experience God in life- and world-changing ways.
I tell men all the time, “Dude, when it comes to marriage, you out-punted your coverage.” Another way of saying, most guys I know anything about out-married themselves. I am certainly no exception. My wife is an amazing partner and discerner. I call her “Elijah” sometimes because of how she can shred proud, lazy, or disrespectful people. All in Christian love, of course. I also envy the way she can tune in to the voice of God at times.
That said, we have this recurring argument. Well, it’s not really an argument because all I do is laugh, and all she does is get exasperated. So far all the sharp knives are still in the drawer and my bruised ribs are healing nicely, thank you.
The argument (I’m laughing even as I say this) is over the Holy Spirit salad. [click to continue…]
Constantly in motion, ever-aware, always alert both night and day, an unseen force is shaping your life in ways you can’t imagine.
