Understanding Love

Who among us has not suffered betrayal at the hands of a trusted friend? Who among us has not shrunk away in response to being hurt? Which one of us has not been responsible for wounding another? We all have. We all have. We need Jesus. We need mercy. We need healing. We are not meant to live this life alone, and we won’t get very far along on our journey if we try. We don’t have the luxury of insisting we never be hurt again. We don’t get to insist on,…

I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. (John 16:12-13) There's more that Jesus wants to say to you, much more, and now that his Spirit resides in your heart, the conversation can continue. Many good people never hear God speak to them personally for the simple fact that they've never been told that he does. But he does—generously, intimately. "He who belongs…

Scripture presents Jesus of Nazareth as both fully God and fully human and says that Jesus avoided sin entirely. He never misses the goal of loving every human being in the ways of God.He teaches his followers that the most important instruction from God, the one that sums up the whole law and the prophets, is to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:35-40). He’s restating the essential nature and original goal of real human life. The Apostle…

In times of pain and adversity, we might feel as if God has abandoned us. If He were here, we think, He would have done something by now. However, today’s passage says that nothing can separate us from Christ’s love: • Not events. There isn’t any circumstance—no matter how bad—that can remove us from divine love. In fact, we can “conquer through Him who love[s] us” (Romans 8:35-37), and our hardships will only help to transform…

Many of us hope to become better people as we journey through life, but we often get stuck and wonder if we’re getting anywhere. We might want to be better at showing patience to others, but we also get exhausted from day-to-day work, and then irritable, and then impatient. We forget Jesus’ ways and often feel like we’re caught in a trap. And yet, the Holy Spirit is actively inviting us to be more like Jesus every moment. Our hope is to learn how to hear…

In the aftermath of the Marshall Fire, the most destructive fire in Colorado history, one ministry offered to help families search through the ashes for valuable items. Family members mentioned precious objects they hoped were still preserved. Very little was. One man spoke tenderly of his wedding ring. He’d placed it on his dresser in the upstairs bedroom. The house now gone, its contents had charred or melted into a single layer of debris at the basement level.…

Remember, the purpose of this thing called the Christian life is that our hearts might be restored and set free. That's the deal. That's what Jesus came to do, by his own announcement. Jesus wants Life for us, Life with a capital L, and that Life comes to us through our hearts. But restoring and releasing the heart is no easy project. God doesn't just throw a switch and poof—it's done. He sends his Counselor to walk with us instead. That tells us it'…

We were created to share a relationship with God—that’s why He has made His existence clear to everyone. Sometimes His revelation is miraculous, like the burning bush that Moses discovered. But more often than not, we encounter our Father’s presence in everyday surroundings. Paul wrote to the church in Rome that “[God’s] invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has…

Having the “image” or “likeness” of God means, in the simplest terms, that we were made to resemble God. Adam did not resemble God in the sense of God’s having flesh and blood. Scripture says that “God is spirit” (John 4:24) and therefore exists without a body. However, Adam’s body did mirror the life of God insofar as it was created in perfect health and was not subject to death.The image of God (Latin, imago dei) refers to…