The Simplicity of Following Jesus

January 6, 2012
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We tend to make Christianity so complicated. Between church, quiet times, acts of service, Bible studies, accountability, special events, missions, etc,. it gets to be a pretty huge load – both in terms of time and energy. In reality, all that matters is falling in love with Jesus. That’s it. Nothing else needed. “How can that be?” you ask. Simple. Everything in the Christian life is meant to be an outflow of having fallen in love. So, if we make our focus falling in love with Christ, then everything else falls naturally into place. I will love my neighbor, because I love Jesus. I will exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. I will serve others and think less of myself. I will not fall into the sins that used to catch me all the time. All of this is possible once we fall in love with Christ. In fact, our failure in any of these areas is a clear sign of our real failure – we are not in love. How do we enter into this depth of love for the Lord that it so completely transforms us? It is only possible to love the Lord to the extent...

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Spiritual Maturity

April 14, 2011
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One aspect of spiritual maturity is learning to live our lives from God’s perspective and not our own. For example, there are two views of salvation presented in Scripture. In Romans 10:9-10, salvation is presented as the result of a choice we make. On the other hand, in Romans 8:33, our salvation is seen as God’s choice, not ours. Now, we can take these verses and get caught up in all kinds of theological debates on the merits of Calvinism, Arminianism and the like. Usually, those discussions generate more heat than light, so I’m not going to go there. Instead, let’s just accept both Scripture passages as completely valid just as they are and consider them from the point of view of spiritual maturity. The one perspective, that we choose God in salvation, is a human one. You see, when we are saved, we are not mature. So we...

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The Reason for Hardships

January 25, 2011
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2Cor 1:8-9 (NIV) We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. Difficult times come into each of our lives. There may be logical, human reasons for them, but regardless of their source, God is at work in our hardships. One key goal of God’s work is to teach us to no longer rely on ourselves, but on Him – even in those things in which we could handle on our own. Why is self-reliance such an enemy to God? Because self-reliance breeds independence. You and I were never intended to be independent creatures....

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Praying in Jesus’ Name

December 3, 2010
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Jesus says some pretty outlandish things about prayer. For example, in John 14:14, He says: You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. In fact, Jesus repeats basically the same thing again in John 15:16 and John 16:23. So, we have three times in Scripture where we given an amazing promise of answered prayer. Of course, the problem we encounter is that most of us (maybe all of us) do not see the 100% answer to our prayers that these verses say is possible. Sadly, most of the time when we read explanations...

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My Troubled Thoughts

October 12, 2010
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I have been spending a good chunk of time struggling lately. Here is the issue: John 14:12-14 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. Now, I will readily admit that these verses are a problem for most people. We...

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The Starting Place

September 23, 2010
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If you read through any number of discipleship materials these days, you will find that the focus tends to be on doing things – reading the Bible, praying, memorizing Scripture, attending church, and other such Christian stuff. Now, there is nothing wrong with any of those activities. On the other hand, we must remember that none of those activities are the goal of discipleship. They are simply the means to the goal. What is our goal? To make people into lovers of Jesus. If that is our central task, then we must recognize that the focus of discipleship must...

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