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Your Will or His?

September 18, 2012

When I ask SWC’s [strong-willed children] who are dedicated Christians what motivated them to surrender their lives to God, I get one consistent answer: We are motivated by the relationship God offers us, not by the punishment we can avoid. In other words, it doesn’t
work to tell us that unless we surrender to God, we will face eternal damnation or hell.

[. . .] God wants each of us to come to Him and to serve Him in a way that enhances the very personality He created within us.

Excerpted from You Can’t Make Me (But I Can Be Persuaded) by Cynthia Tobias

Daily Reflection:
In what ways has your own strong will prevented you from surrendering to God’s will?

Christ’s Love and Romantic Love

September 17, 2012

This is what “love” meant for me: I was on the lookout for a person from whom I would find fulfillment. And I thought fulfillment would arrive in terms of attraction, emotional connection, and long-term compatibility, among other criteria, including but not limited to: green eyes, a shapely face, talent, and a sparkling personality. She would need to like music, but not the wrong type; be smart, but not the wrong type of smart, and so forth. Love meant finding someone with the right attributes and ticking off the ol’ checklist.

This was not the same as Christ’s love. Christ’s love had little to do with my checklist and seemed to focus more on the poor, the weak, and the people least likely to be wanted. Christ didn’t say spouse checklists were wrong, but He did love a lot [ … ]

The Power of Connection

September 14, 2012

In a world torn apart by divorce and emotional detachment, we need heaven-breathed friendships and strategic relationships in order to train and protect each other’s children. To realize the rescue of the lost and at-risk children of our world, heaven-breathed strategies and answers will need to be implemented. No one is an island. We are in this together. Because of this dynamic, what you do has the power to affect me, and what I do has the power to affect you. With coordinated efforts we have a chance to turn the tide in our homes, churches, and communities. We live in a time when there is great opportunity for social networking. It is up to us to decide if we will use these connections for good.

Excerpted from Lioness Arising by Lisa Bevere

Daily Reflection:
How [ … ]

Your Child’s Doubts

September 13, 2012

When your SWC [Strong Willed Child] has doubts about what you believe and taught him all his life, it’s usually best to meet the issues head-on and face the questions honestly. You don’t need to provide all the answers, but your relationship will be strengthened if you empathize with his need to find them. He doesn’t want to feel he’s doing something horribly wrong if he expresses doubts about what he believes. You can be an understanding guide, provide the Bible as a guidebook, and help your SWC enjoy the journey of discovering who he will be and what he will stand for.

Excerpted from You Can’t Make Me (But I Can Be Persuaded) by Cynthia Tobias

Daily Reflection:
How else can you encourage your Strong Willed Child to come to you with doubts and grow in [ … ]

Childlike Faith

September 12, 2012

I once served as a counselor for third-grade campers at a Christian camp in the North Carolina mountains. It was an especially hot, dry, Carolina July. On the way to arts and crafts, I overheard one of my campers say thoughtfully to another, “I sure hope it rains soon. My grandmother’s garden needs water.”

Immediately his friend let out a confident war cry and began a primitive rain dance. A third child then chimed in, “Don’t be so silly. God’s not going to make it rain just because of your stupid dance.”

Now defiant, the original “rain wisher” made a grand theological statement: “God can do anything He wants to!”

The first step to a childlike heart is the most important one. You must admit that God can do whatever He wants—and that you can’t. It means [ … ]

Answering the Call

September 11, 2012

For you, the call is literally within your grasp. It’s the place you show up each day and the problems you encounter in the process. Possibly for you, it’s putting a dent in the never- ending cycle of poverty that destroys so many lives, neighborhoods, and nations. Or creatively addressing the malnutrition, poor health, and disease that’s wrecking so many families. Or tutoring, mentoring, and fostering fatherless children. Perhaps the addiction to drugs, alcohol, career advancement, affluence, or pornography is what enslaves and torments your friends the most. What ever it is that’s broken, whatever you see wrong, remember— God’s intention and method of restoration is to use you to bring his redeeming love to the world.
This is the “power of the ought” at work— the way restoration living begins to flood and transform our entire cosmos. [ … ]

The Lover of Our Souls

September 10, 2012

Sometimes I fear we are like Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind. Throughout the entire story, Rhett Butler tried to win her heart, but Scarlett was smitten by the milquetoast Ashley Wilkes. Finally, as the story comes to a close, Rhett walks away in frustration. “I feel sorry for you, Scarlett,” he declares. “You are throwing away love with both hands and grabbing for that which will never love you.” As I watched the movie, I kept thinking, Doesn’t she see how much Rhett really loves her? He’d move heaven and earth to please her, if she would but let him. Why is she going after someone who would never make her truly happy? And we are Scarlett, ignoring the only one who can make us truly happy and chasing after figments of our imagination…things that will never make [ … ]

The Reality of Grace

September 7, 2012

Grace is a reality, a fact of life. It is by grace that one becomes a Christian, and it is by grace that one lives the Christian life.

Because prior to his conversion Paul persecuted and murdered Christians, he did not consider himself fit to be called an apostle. Yet, grace conquered his feelings. If anyone understood that grace covers our past and equips us for God’s future, it was Paul! Listen to his words: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Corinthians 5:10).

In Paul’s writing of those God-breathed words, we see that the whole of life is to be lived in the understanding and [ … ]

Grace

September 5, 2012

Now, if it is true that we’re saved by grace, then it’s important to ask ourselves: Can we define it? And if it is true, as I suppose, that no unconverted person can tell me what it is, I think it would be important to you to make sure you can define it.

Think for a moment. Grace is _______. What? Your answer to that question may reveal where you really stand with God.

Did you answer it? Do you know what this marvelous term means?

We may be able to define it some way, but one thing is certain: We can never comprehend it, because it plumbs the profoundest depths of human thought. It scales the dizziest heights of divine revelation. And though we may get a hold of a little corner of it, we can never fully comprehend [ … ]

Greater with Jesus

September 4, 2012

By leaving and then sending His Spirit to dwell inside His followers—ordinary people like you and me—Jesus released a greater power for us to do extraordinary things on an extraordinary scale. The kinds of things the early church saw and did. The kinds of things He still wants to do today through us.

Jesus isn’t calling us to be greater than He is.

He’s calling us to be greater with Him through His Spirit within us.

Excerpted from Greater by Steven Furtick

Daily Reflection:
What is Jesus calling you to do with Him?