Knowing & Being Known

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters ... Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. (Isa. 55:1– 2) You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace ... You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon. (Song of Song 4:9, 15) Beauty is what the world longs to experience from a woman. We…

Does everything happen for a reason? The short answer is “yes”; because God is sovereign, there are no random, out-of-control happenings. God’s purposes may be hidden from us, but we can be assured that every event has a reason behind it. There was a reason for the blindness of the man in John 9, although the disciples misidentified the reason (John 9:1–3). There was a reason for Joseph’s mistreatment, although his brothers’ purpose in…

Would you describe yourself as totally in love with Jesus Christ? Or do the words halfhearted, lukewarm, and partially committed fit better? The Bible says to test ourselves, so I am going to offer you a description of what lukewarm people can look like. As you read these examples, I encourage you to take a searching, honest look at who you are now, and how you are living today. Lukewarm people: Attend church fairly regularly. It is what is expected of them, what they…

We have a saying around here. “The Tree is Me”. Kind of a strange way to introduce the topic of brokenness and restoration, but we love the imagery. Studying the charcoal that we commissioned will reveal a host of realities that each person on the planet must cope with; from the day we’re born. As we journey through this life and the reality of the world we live in, there’s a crisis of identity that needs to be sorted out. Yet, so many of us avoid…

I don’t think we’ve admitted to ourselves just how much belief is a choice. Some mornings you wake and feel God is near; the day looks hopeful. Next morning God seems far; the day has no color to it. For years I wrote this experience off to the ins and outs of the spiritual life, clouded by the weather of my emotions. Then Jesus began to show me something. Innumerable times in the past several years, I’d be in a time of prayer, asking God’s help or…

As we grow in our Christian faith, we move from the milk of elementary truths to the meatier issues of Scripture that challenge our heart and our thinking. One of those deeper concepts is the question of whether God is involved in every circumstance. Spiritually, it gives us a lot to “chew on” because the answer goes against our natural reasoning. For example, Joseph was treated cruelly by his brothers, suffering enslavement and imprisonment in Egypt because of…

Your heavenly Father is perfectly wise. Everything he does is perfect. Every thought and idea he has is filled with complete wisdom. What's more, through the Holy Spirit you have access to that wisdom. James 1:5 says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." Your God loves you so much that he's just waiting to bestow on you his vast wisdom. He never wants you to suffer from a…

We may not relate to the idols people worshipped long ago. But in modern life, potential idols are everywhere—and on the surface, they sometimes appear good and praiseworthy. Take health, for example. Is regular exercise an effort to be a good steward of the body God has provided, or do we turn to it for a sense of identity or worth? And what about finances—do we save money to wisely prepare for the future and fund kingdom work, or do we cling to financial…

Think about the most famous person you’ve ever met. How did this happen? How did you react to this person? Now reflect on the scene described in verses 2–3 of James 2. If this were to happen in your church, what do you think would happen? How would you treat the two people differently? We can figure out from this letter what the problems were with the people James wrote to. Those people gossiped sometimes. They got angry with one another. And when a rich person…