The Christian life is simple, but it is not easy. God’s directions to us are not complicated or unclear, but we often encounter hard things. Following Christ is not like floating on an inner tube down a lazy river. In fact, drifting can be  dangerous. The Christian life requires attentiveness and diligence, perseverance and faith. It is challenging and rewarding in the very best and truest sense.

We sometimes forget that we are the ones responsible for “how we are doing” in the Lord.  Consider these verses (20-21) in Jude:

“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

Notice our responsibility here. We are to build ourselves up in our faith. We are to keep ourselves in the love of God. Read More

We all are taken up with our own work, as we should be. But think about what makes our work meaningful: God Himself has prepared our own specific work just for us. It has His autograph on it. Work is good. God invented it. In fact, He works harder than all of us.

Consider these few verses in Psalm 111 that refer to God’s works. But before we look at them, look at the opening to this psalm: “Praise the Lord! I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.” And the psalm ends with more praise: “His praise endures forever.” So what is sandwiched in between that praise? In this particular psalm, it’s a whole lot about God’s work.

Verse 2: The works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them.

Verse 3: His work is honorable and glorious, and his righteousness endures forever. Read More

I’d like to look at the content of the familiar text of Romans 12:1. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

First we must see that Paul is pleading with us, begging us to do something. He is very earnest about this, and he bases his appeal on the mercies of God.

What are these mercies of God? They are His tender mercies. He loves us in Christ, He has adopted us as His own children, He has extended forgiveness to us in Christ, and He has transferred us into the Kingdom of His Son. Not only that, but He has plans for us, plans that are good and acceptable and perfect.

Based on these mercies, what is it Paul is urging us to do? He wants us to give our bodies to God as a sacrifice. Not as a sacrifice to be slaughtered, but as a living sacrifice. He wants us to live on the altar of God. And when we give Him our body, our mind and spirit come along with it. Read More

When the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our hearts, the result is fruit. Lots of it. And yet even Christians can forget that without the grace of God working in and through us, we can become barren and unfruitful. In 2 Peter 1:5-8 we have a list of things we are to diligently add to our faith (virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, etc.) and the conclusion is that “if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ: (vs. 8).

Now we can be very, very busy people, with a calendar booked for months ahead, but that is not the same thing as being fruitful. I’ve been trying to come up with a definition of fruitfulness, and I know that it isn’t connected to busy-ness. Obviously, it must be connected to the fruit of the Spirit, but I don’t think it’s the same thing as Read More

The last couple years my yard officially got away from me. It was so overwhelming that I would go out in the spring, walk around seeing all that needed to be done, and then come back inside, not knowing how I could tackle such a big project.

Then I decided to ask a dear friend to come give me perspective. She walked around my yard and suggested that I turn one area along the south of the house into a focal point and just start with that. In other words, pick a spot and dig in there rather than looking at the entire project and throwing up my hands.

So I took her advice and recruited my husband to pull out some overgrown and unattractive bushes (no mean feat), and he dug up the hard-as-nails soil for me so we could add some of those good things that you add to soil to make it garden-ready with garden fencing .

After we were ready to roll, Lisa came back over with a carload of starter plants, and she helped me lay them out in the space according to size and color and time of bloom. And did I mention… she also met me at the Read More

We all have natural instincts and impulses that kick in when we receive criticism. But after those instincts and impulses get out of the way, if we are trying to receive the criticism in a Christian manner, we thank the person who gave it, tell them that we will think it over and weigh it and pray about it and consider it. And at the end of the day, we might think their criticism was brilliant or we might think it was cuckoo. But my point here is that we are used to the idea that we should take criticism seriously and at least give it some consideration. The Scripture says plenty about receiving criticism. For example, “Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Prov. 27:5-6).

But what about praise? We have natural instincts and impulses here as well. I’m pretty sure that I receive a compliment without much soul searching. Praise has a Read More