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Center Every Day Around the Cross

March 29, 2013

We humans are creatures of habit, aren’t we? And our habits reflect our true selves – we all build our daily lives around our priorities and passions…I’m sure you have your own daily rituals. Reading the sports page of the Washington Post each day became one of mine. To this very moment, I count it a good day when I can sit down, read my favorite columns, and get the latest scores and stats.

Add eating chocolate to the routine and it becomes a very good day!

We make time for what we truly value. We build habits and routines around the things that really matter to us. This is an important principle to understand as we seek to build our lives around the gospel. Do you want a cross centered life?

A cross centered life is made up [ … ]

Be love crazy

March 28, 2013

You see, the prescription for your Craving will not be found in white-knuckling your way out of boy-craziness. It won’t be found in legalistically “fasting from guys” without feeding your true need for love. It’s not going to work for you to deny your deep and genuine desire. The best place for you to begin is to stand on your bed and shout at the top of your lungs: I need love!

Go ahead. Give it a try. Be love crazy!

The next step—and I’m here to help—would be to redirect your heart to the right source. As Beth pointed out, “Interestingly, the Word of God uses the phrase ‘unfailing love” thirty-two other times, and not one of them refers to any source other than God, Himself.”4 …God alone holds the answer to the Craving for love. He is our [ … ]

Grace Over Fairness

March 27, 2013

In order to untangle us from the web we had spun for ourselves, [God] had to do something very unfair. He had to send his son to this earth to die for sins he didn’t commit.

Is Christianity fair? It is certainly not fair to God. Christians believe that God sent his son to die for your sins and mine. Fairness would demand that we die for our own sins. But the good news is that God opted for grace and mercy over fairness.

Excerpted from How Good is Good Enough? by Andy Stanley

Daily Reflection: How is your life different because God shows you grace instead of fairness?

Sick of Secrets

March 26, 2013

“Living as a slave to a lie will set you up for an endless cycle of shame and guilt. When you feel worthless and ashamed most of the time, getting close to God—or even wanting to—is hard. Really hard. It’s easier just to go through the motions. Settle for secondhand religion.  Maybe move away from God and church altogether…

Unfortunately, it happens all the time.

But it doesn’t have to. Think  about what amazing things you could  do if you could  break free from those feelings of worthlessness and  shame. Imagine feeling like you could get close to God without fear of condemnation.  Imagine what  it would feel like to break free from the cycle of secrets-of beating yourself up with all that shame and guilt.

Your spirit would come alive. Your life would change. You would walk into [ … ]

Having More Than You Need

March 25, 2013

Why does God give some of His children more than they need and others less than they need? So that He may use His children to help one another. He doesn’t want us to have too little or too much (Proverbs 30:8–9). When those with too much give to those with too little, two problems
are solved. When they don’t, two problems are perpetuated.

God distributes wealth unevenly not because He loves some of His children more than others, but so His children can distribute it to their brothers and sisters on His behalf. Paul said that the God who supplies seed to the sower will increase our store of seed.

Why? So we can stockpile seed or eat it? No, so we can scatter it and spread it out that it might bear fruit. Abundance isn’t [ … ]

A Personal Relationship with Jesus

March 22, 2013

God’s gifts to us are as timeless as He is. Just because we’re living two thousand years after Jesus walked this earth doesn’t mean we have missed out on having a personal relationship with Him. Does Jesus still transcend time and space? You bet. He is both omniscient (knowing all things throughout time) and omnipresent (everywhere at once). Not only that, the gospel accounts of His life teach us how to intimately know Him. Can Jesus still heal the sick, encourage the poor, and love the unlovely? Yes, He can, and He does so countless times per day. Is He still our light in a dark world? Does He overcome evil still to this day? Does He gladly bear the weight of every sin we commit? Yes, yes, and yes.

God didn’t just send a postcard from heaven or a [ … ]

A Childlike Heart

March 21, 2013

The simple metaphor of a childlike heart plumbs profound spiritual truth. Jesus invites you to more than a stroll down memory lane. He offers you complete transformation—from the inside out. It’s not about changing a few behaviors or mimicking a child’s demeanor. It’s about becoming like a child, through and through. Just as surely as your body has no life without the robust beat of a healthy heart, so the soul lives abundantly only with a free, joyous interior.

Here’s hope. Don’t miss it. Please believe it. Jesus is offering you a whole new heart—the heart of a little child.

Excerpted from A Childlike Heart by Alan D. Wright

Daily Reflection: Why is it so hard for adults to adopt a childlike heart?

He Will Be Enough

March 20, 2013

“Every time we start to feel empty, it reminds us to keep coming back to our primal relationship with Christ.

Emptiness and desperation are the greatest reminders that our faith is not simply an aspect of our lives or a cultural inheritance. They point to a God who wants us to experience Him every moment of every day. They are a constant reminder that we were made for (and promised) a greater world free of pain and emptiness.

Maybe that’s what being filled with new life is all about. We come to realize that we can depend on Him for everything-no matter what we feel or what comes next-and He will be enough.”

Excerpted from Firsthand by Ryan and Josh Shook

Daily Reflection: Pray that today God will fill you up with His grace.

Empty

March 19, 2013

When we forget that Christianity is all about a relationship with Christ and we start to settle for the kind of Christianity where we check off our to-do lists for God, then we inevitably experience the emptiness of religion. Religion is all about humankind trying to work its way into God’s approval, and that always leaves an emptiness and ache in the soul.

Empty religion shows up when someone tries to follow rules and rituals to earn salvation, but it also shows up when a Christ follower starts trying to be a “good Christian” so God will love him or her more.
Most of us can’t keep that up for very long.

Two things are certain when you turn faith into religion and try to do all the right things to get God’s approval. Number one: you feel [ … ]

The War is Over

March 18, 2013

The resurrection is proof of Christ’s victory over sin and our hope of salvation.

The resurrection, however, is not a doctrine to be pondered but an invitation to experience the living Christ in your life. …For the resurrection is not just an event that occurred in the first century. It continues to impact lives to this day. In reality, not only was Christ resurrected— you too are raised to new life when you’re in Him. This is the gift of God to all who put their faith in His Son.

…Listen carefully: the battle is won! Don’t believe Satan’s lie that we have to do battle with him. Simply tell him, “You’ve already been defeated! And the same power that defeated you is the same power that now resides in my life.” Don’t get caught up in the fad [ … ]