Acts 16:34 describes he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God.
What’s the difference between being happy and having joy?
I would suggest happiness is a result of circumstances and joy is the result of attitude. Feelings tell me whether I am happy or not but conviction tells me I have joy.
Interestingly, God promises joy but not happiness. (more…)
Matthew 5:3 proclaims blessed are the…
Most likely there is no one on the planet who doesn’t want to be blessed by God. There is an entire Christian industry claiming wealth and health to all those who know God and have faith in Him (and give generously to His messengers).
The thinking we associate with blessing is always around money, influence and power, not the things God identifies as blessing when He lived among us in the Man, Jesus. God has told us what it means to be blessed by Him.. (more…)
2 Chronicles 36:13 records Zedekiah was a hard and stubborn man so far as obeying the Lord God of Israel was concerned, for he refused to follow Him.
The Bible does a lot of recording of how people finished their lives.
Any of us can run a ten yard sprint. Some of us can run a 100 yard dash but very few of us could run a marathon. What’s the difference? Focus, commitment, training.
Living on earth is a marathon and not a sprint. (more…)
Luke 16.11 observes if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?
What are the true riches of heaven? Knowing God deeply and enjoying Him forever is certainly first. God is about relationship not about stuff making the true riches deep joyful relationships.
After we have accumulated a bunch of stuff and put money into our bank accounts we too realize that life is not about what we possess but about the people we love and who love us. (more…)
Luke 12:15 warns, “Beware! Don’t always be wishing for what you don’t have. For real life and real living are not related to how 
rich we are.”
Its black Friday, the day we justify spending hundreds of dollars in order to save hundreds of dollars to give people gifts they want but don’t need. I know, Christmas is about giving. That’s the point though, focusing on giving rather than upon getting. Easy for a few, difficult for most of us.
This annual event called Christmas is the celebration of God coming to earth to live among us as one of us in order to die for us so that He could spend eternity with us. (more…)
Luke 9:23 God in Jesus told us, “Anyone who wants to follow Me must put aside his own desires and conveniences and carry
his cross with him every day and keep close to Me!”
What does God want from us? He has told us plainly when He made His personal appearance to us and had recorded for us so that all generations could know the will of God for humanity.
How seriously do we take God’s command that we put aside our own desires and conveniences and carry our cross with Him every day? What does this mean anyway? No fun and no pleasure? (more…)
1 Chronicles 4:10 records he prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that You would wonderfully bless me and help me in my work; please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all evil and disaster!” And God granted him his request.
A few years ago a book was written about making this prayer a normal part of the Christian life because it affirms the notion that God wants us blessed and successful as long as He receives the glory. We have often been deceived with this idea that our success leads to God’s greater glory.
If He just gives us all that we want we will make sure to tell others about Him so they can get what they want too because God wants people to want Him and He wants to bless them.
Interestingly, when God lived among us and had His very best opportunity to demonstrate such a life He chose the very opposite of such a successful life. (more…)
Hosea 11:9 declares I am the Holy One living among you, and I did not come to destroy.
God is good but we don’t always think so. We like the freedom to make our own decisions, to do what we want but we don’t always like the consequences of those decisions or the choices others make which impact our lives.
We blame God for the bad things that happen without considering that most of those bad things are the result of our own or other human choices. We want a god who will intervene in our lives to keep us from injury but not to command us to do good.
When bad things happen not as a result of human choice we still blame God for it feeling that He is disinterested in our affairs. This is not the picture the Bible paints of Who the One True God Who is love in character, nature and ways.
The God in the Bible is the God Who is full of compassion, abounding in mercy and unlimited in love. (more…)
Philippians 1:29 promises you have been given the privilege not only of trusting Him but also of suffering for Him. The problem with the current 'end times' ideology is its…
2 Corinthians 8:8 states this is one way to prove that your love is real, that it goes beyond mere words. How do you prove your love for God and…
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