Restored in Him

“The sorrows of our lives are in great part his weaning process. We give our hearts over to so many things other than God. We look to so many other things for life. I know I do. Especially the very gifts that he himself gives to us — they become more important to us than he is. That’s not the way it is supposed to be. As long as our happiness is tied to the things we can lose, we are vulnerable.” This truth is core to the human condition and to…

Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man. (1 Corinthians 15:49 NLT) You’ll be made perfect. Finally, the totality of your being will be saturated only with goodness. Think of all that you’re not going to have to wrestle with anymore. The fear that has been your lifelong battle, the anger, the compulsions. No more internal civil wars; no doubt, no lust, no regret; no shame. What has plagued you these last many years? What…

“This morning I thought I was worth a great deal of money; now I don’t know that I have a dollar.” Former US president Ulysses S. Grant said those words the day he was swindled out of his life’s savings by a business partner. Months later, Grant was diagnosed with incurable cancer. Concerned about providing for his family, he accepted an offer from author Mark Twain to publish his memoirs, which he completed a week before he died. The Bible tells us…

The first chapter of Matthew’s gospel records the lineage of Jesus. Starting with Isaac, the miracle child born to Abraham, there are 42 generations until the universe-altering event of the Savior’s birth. Among the names listed, there are schemers, prostitutes, murderers, kings, and idol worshippers. Many of these men and women had their lives transformed by God and, by His miraculous workings, were given a place of honor in the ancestry of Christ. The same God…

There’s something I’d want to encourage you to consider. Drum roll, please! Invest the first 15 minutes of your day in the presence of the Lord. In silence, in prayer, and in God’s Word. Ask Him to open your heart to what He has for you in those opening moments of your day. If you get bold, you’ll gradually creep up to an hour. That’s what I did today. You’ll be shocked as to how well the rest of the day will materialize, even if it turns…

As reported in the news recently, four Nigerian men were discovered and rescued in Brazil after crossing the Atlantic from Africa as stowaways on a cargo ship.  The four exhausted men spent fourteen harrowing days perched inside the shallow opening above the ship’s rudder, under the stern.  They ran out of food and water ten days into the journey and had barely slept nor made a sound for fear of falling into the water or being discovered by the ship’s crew.;…

“True faith means holding nothing back. It means putting every hope in God’s fidelity to His Promises.”—Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God.

https://youtu.be/lV9sKi9Re4E Tree of Life It began sometime after day 6. We’re not sure exactly how long it took, but apparently, Satan got busy tempting Adam and Eve soon after he was relegated to planet Earth when leading his great rebellion. One that would take about a third of the angels with him and out of God’s presence. Then came the blame game. God is holding out on you, he told Adam and Eve. It’s his fault, you too can know the difference between…

I wondered early in my walk with God - was there a wedding in the Garden of Eden? Then it occurred to me, of course there was. After all Eve came from Adam. They were one before they weren’t. That sounds like a Yogi Berra quote. But it’s true. Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Gen 2:18 (ESV) 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took…