Showing posts with label Random Thoughts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Random Thoughts. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Random Thoughts


Thoughts culled from my random file, gathered from my Twitter tweets, Facebook updates and Instagrams. About God, the mystery of the Incarnation, redemption, faith, and life in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of prayer and quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. The stuff that memes are made of. Offered as “jump starts” for your faith.
  • When you love, you don’t think about sacrifice.
  • The Incarnation means that Christ did not die on the cross simply instead of us but that he died as us. His death was our death so that his life is now our life.
  • The Incarnation, when God became man, is the atonement — the at·one·ment. For in Christ, God has become one with all humankind. The Cross and Resurrection flow inevitably from that.
  • At his baptism, Christ identified with us in our brokenness and shame, and turned us to God. In our baptism, we are identified with him in his death and resurrection.
  • Lord, let the prayer of my breathing be as angels ascending and descending, inhaling the breath of your Spirit and breathing out your praise. Amen.
  • God is love. Grace is the love of God reaching out to us. Glory is the revelation of that love and grace — the revelation we have in Jesus Christ.
  • The holiness of God is the revelation of his love, and the justice of God is the revelation of his mercy. All is perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ.
  • Let go the what ifs of the future and if onlys of the past. They keep you from the one thing that matters: this present moment with God — the only moment there is.
  • Jesus did not come into the world to get mixed up with religion.
  • The fast God desires is one that never ends, an ongoing process of faith being formed by the love of God.
  • Repentance does not change how God sees us but how we see God.
  • Sin, like repentance, does not change the way God sees us but the way we see God.
  • It is through the gift of repentance that God shows us the way to life. It is a good day to repent.
  • Life is not a passing stream of moments. It is but one moment. This one.
  • Our understanding of eternal things gets flattened out in our time-bound perspective, like trying to understand a three-dimensional world from a two-dimensional point of view.
  • Our true origin is not in time but in eternity, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
  • We are naïve about evil until we have recognized the depths of it in our own heart.
  • Pride has ten thousand faces, and every one of them is false.
  • In praying, “Forgive us our trespasses,” we are asking forgiveness not only for ourselves but for everyone else as well. For there is no them; there is only us — of whom we are all a part.
  • God redeems our every moment, transforming them by the blood of the Cross and the power of the Resurrection, making them all one.
  • With God there is no merit system. No points are awarded or taken away. There is simply no such reckoning, and never has been. There is only the love of God surrounding us through Christ by the Holy Spirit.
  • Christ has broken the gates of Hades and set us free. The only hell now is the one we create within our own hearts.
  • In Christ, God has reconciled us to Himself, and so also to our true selves, who are created in the image of God.
  • Though we are created in the image of God and to be like Him, still we are finite creatures and ever shall be. How then shall we suppose that anyone possesses an infinite ability to resist the love of God forever?
  • There is no us and them. There is only Christ, in whom all in heaven and on earth are made one.
More random thoughts ...

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Random Thoughts


Thoughts culled from my random file, gathered from my Twitter tweets, Facebook updates and Instagrams. About love, forgiveness, divine grace, and finding our lives in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of prayer and quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Offered as “jump starts” for your faith.
  • We are united with Christ not by reason of our faith but by reason of His Incarnation. What we do with that is a matter of faith. We can rebel against it, but we cannot undo it.
  • Funny thing. The more I consider Christ, the more my theology changes in conformity to Him ... and that seems to be confusing for some people.
  • The judgment of God does not come to condemn us but to restore us. Not to enslave us but to set us free.
  • Christ is God’s Yes to us. Faith echoes Amen.
  • The Resurrection of Christ shows that the love of God is truly unconditional, for not even death can stop it.
  • Eternal life. Eternal love. Same thing.
  • We live continually in the presence of Divine Love.
  • Whatever it is for which you would be rewarded, that you must beware.
  • The confession that Jesus is Lord is a form of anarchy, for it means that Caesar is not.
  • If you would see the kingdom of God, forgive one another.
  • God always gets the last word, and it is a good word: Love.
  • If ever there was a time when God hated anyone, even for a moment, it would be His undoing, for God is love.
  • If you are seeking Christ, you will find Him in the middle of your mess and at the bottom of your ditch.
  • Faith is not about certainty but about trust.
  • Lord, keep me from being part of the strife but make me a part of the peace. Amen.
  • Thank God, nothing depends on our certainty.
  • Christ is God’s elect who, by the Incarnation, has become one with all of humanity.
  • Believe the life of Christ in you.
  • Christ is our only true reality. In Him we live and move and have our being, and in Him all things hold together. Everything that moves away from Him moves towards nothing.
  • Christ inhabits every broken story until all the world is mended.
  • Christian theology does not begin with philosophy or theological abstraction but with the concrete revelation of God in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.
  • Christ is not only God’s Yes to us, He is also our Yes to God.
  • Christ did not come to institute a new moralism but to give us New Life.
  • When the brokenness of sin meets the faithfulness of Christ? No contest. When the power of death meets the life of Christ? No contest. Sin and death were doomed by the Incarnation, when God became one with us.
  • The Incarnation means that whatever is true of Christ in his humanity is true of us in ours. But it also means that we partake of his divinity and become by grace what Christ is by nature.
  • Christ is God’s humanity and our divinity.
  • Christ is the image of the invisible God, in whom all the fullness of divinity dwells in bodily form, and in whom we are made complete and become partakers of the divine nature.
  • Christ is the True Light who gives light to everyone in the world. Faith is an awakening to the light of Christ within us.
  • Sometimes my failures all gang up and fool me about who I am. Sometimes my successes do, too.
  • Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us ... for we are all in the same boat.
  • We are holy not by keeping a moral code but because God has chosen us in Christ through the Incarnation. It is by faith that we embrace this holiness.
  • If it comes down to a choice between prayer and politics, I’ve seen what both can do. I will choose prayer. Every time.
  • The gospel means there is nothing so broken that it cannot be mended, for Christ is making all things new.
  • Prayer is not a way of escaping the reality of the world but of becoming more deeply aligned with it.
More random thoughts …

Thursday, November 30, 2017

Random Thoughts

https://www.flickr.com/photos/terrykimura/5042152080/

Thoughts culled from my random file, gathered from my Twitter tweets, Facebook updates and Instagrams. About love, forgiveness, glory, divine grace, and finding our lives in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of prayer and quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Offered as “jump starts” for your faith.
  • When we are unwilling to forgive, we put up a roadblock to what God wants to do in us and in the world.
  • If we are not ready to forgive those who have sinned against us, we are not ready to pray the prayer Jesus taught us.
  • The ability to truly forgive others is a miracle, a gift of God’s grace.
  • To forgive others requires repentance on our part. On our own, we do not wish to forgive, so we must turn our soul toward God, who alone can work that miracle in us.
  • Faith is not so much about certainty as it is about trust.
  • Haters are gonna hate. Lovers are gonna love. Which will you be?
  • If a literal reading of the Old Testament contradicts the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, then the literal reading must give way.
  • The Christian life is one shaped by the death and resurrection of Christ.
  • If we are disappointed in others on Jesus’ behalf, we probably need to spend more time with Jesus, who is not disappointed in any of us — he came to rescue all of us.
  • The light of Christ shines in every human being and the darkness cannot overcome it.
  • There is nothing that could ever put to shame the love Christ has for us.
  • Sin is not a broken law but a broken relationship — with God, with each other, with creation, even within our own selves. Christ came to turn us back to God and each other, to restore all of creation and make us whole.
  • Jesus entered into our darkness and faced down the accuser of our souls. He is our light.
  • The light of God does not come to condemn us but to free us from our darkness.
  • Salvation is not so much a matter of destination but of transformation by the divine fellowship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • True repentance, the turning of the soul toward God, is a miracle, a gift of God’s grace.
  • The love of God, wisdom of God, justice of God, holiness of God — these are all one. For God is one, and God is love.
  • There is no us and them in Christ. There is only the union of all things in heaven and on earth.
  • The ability to see things from a different perspective is a miracle, a gift of God’s grace.
  • The love, mercy and grace of God are with us always, without limitation or condition.
  • You are created in the image of God, and there is nothing you can do that could ever change that. It is the truth about who you are.
  • All humankind is summed up in Jesus Christ, in whom God became one with us — even in all our brokenness.
  • Discipleship is learning to live in the reality of King Jesus.
  • Discipleship is learning to live in the divine fellowship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • Discipleship is learning to live in the fullness of God and our completeness in Jesus Christ.
  • Lord my rest, teach me Your way, the simplicity of Your love.
More random thoughts …

Saturday, June 24, 2017

Random Thoughts

https://www.flickr.com/photos/randya38/2987161038/

Thoughts culled from my random file, gathered from my Twitter tweets, Facebook updates and Instagrams. About love, freedom, glory, humility, and finding ourselves in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Offered as “jump starts” for your faith.
  • The love of God never forces our wills ... it frees our wills.
  • Freedom is not the power to change who we really are but the grace to discover who we really are in God.
  • The story the Scriptures tell looks very different from the outside than it does from the inside, where we realize we are part of it. It is only from the inside that we begin to understand it as the story of the gospel, the story of Christ — and truly good news.
  • Mercy is God’s judgment.
  • We are chosen in Christ. Faith does not make this true. Faith embraces the truth of it.
  • The manifestation of evil is not in any way necessary for the glory and goodness of God to be revealed.
  • The passion of the bird is to fly, and of the fish, to swim. In this way, they honor the God who made them and what they were created to be. Likewise, the passion of man is to worship and adore in holy fellowship. But when the object of our worship is anything less than God, the world disintegrates.
  • The glory of God and the humility of Christ are the same thing.
  • You cannot experience God second hand.
  • Today I contemplate God in Christ and Christ in me. It is a good day.
  • The love of God burns away all our delusions so that our wills may be truly free and we become the divine image God created us to be.
  • Today I partake of Jesus my healer, in whom I am made whole.
  • The good news of the gospel is that Jesus has joined Himself to us. This changes everything. Literally.
  • The good news of the gospel is that you and I are part of God’s new creation in Christ.
  • The good news of the gospel is that we are chosen in Christ for the unity of all things in heaven and on earth — which means that all are chosen.
  • Jesus has never been about the difference between us and them — He came for all.
  • To the extent we are willing to forgive others, we are allowing God’s forgiveness a place in us.
  • The good news of the gospel is that in Jesus Christ we discover our true selves being renewed to the image of our Creator, and so become who we really are.
  • When we love well, we are doing good theology, for God is love.
  • Weep with those who weep, for tomorrow it may be your turn. And rejoice with those who rejoice. Same reason.
  • Every moment, regardless of season or circumstance, is an opportunity for me to become what God has created me to be — to discover my true identity in Christ.
  • Christ is the lens through which we read the Scriptures and the context by which we understand the world.
  • We are always reaching out for God and each other. We just very often do not realize it.
  • We fulfill the Law not by following the Law but by following the Spirit, whose fruit is love.
  • Christians are those whacked-out people who believe that God has, in Christ, broken the power of sin and conquered death on our behalf — and that this changes everything.
More random thoughts …

Monday, January 2, 2017

Random Thoughts

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bhartman/187529065/

Thoughts culled from my random file, gathered from my Twitter tweets, Facebook updates and Instagrams. About faith, divine love, the kingdom of God and new life in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Offered as “jump starts” for your faith.
  • We do not overcome evil with evil — not even with the lesser of two evils. We overcome evil with good.
  • Do good and leave the results to God who knows how to redeem every situation.
  • The will of God for you and me, in one word: Love — to love and be loved.
  • God is love. The will of God being done on earth as it is in heaven is nothing else but the manifestation of love.
  • Jesus knew how to multiply five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand. He knows how to multiply His body and his blood to feed His people.
  • Wherever the will of God is done on earth as in heaven, there we find the kingdom of God. And there heaven and earth have become one.
  • The glory of God is not found in the will to power but in the will to love. The greatness of God is not found in the ability to take but in the ability to pour Himself out for love.
  • What counts, the apostle Paul said, is faith expressing itself through love. God is love, and faith in God looks like love.
  • Christ did not come to hold us accountable for sin but to set us free from the bondage of sin.
  • Love is unconditional, not co-dependent. Or controlling.
  • The gospel is not a sin management program.
  • The cross was not a management tool for God’s anger issues — and Jesus was not being co-dependent.
  • We are not defined by our faithfulness to God but by God’s faithfulness to us.
  • Father, Son and Holy Spirit, lead us all into the eternal bliss of Your divine fellowship. Amen.
  • We are holy not because of what we do or don’t do but because of whose we are.
  • I desire no other reason for doing good then that God is love and Jesus is Lord.
  • Christ became a human being that we might become our true selves and know real freedom.
  • Christ has irrevocably, inextricably entangled Himself with all humanity — the Incarnation cannot be undone. O Glorious Entanglement that saves the whole world!
  • The Cross was the inevitable consequence of the Incarnation, when He who is infinite life joined Himself to a humanity bent toward death — it could only ever result in Resurrection.
  • Teach me today, Lord Jesus, for You are my proverb and my psalm, my wisdom and my praise. Amen.
  • Christ, the True Light who gives light to everyone, has come into the world. Follow Him.
  • Neither death nor evil nor sin have any purpose, any rightful place in God’s creation. They are imposters, detracting from life and good and wholeness. But their power has been broken at the Cross, where they were shown to be the frauds they are, and they are destined for destruction.
  • Christ is the True Light who gives light to all the world. Look for His light in everyone you meet.
  • Faith in Christ looks like following him.
More random thoughts …

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Random Thoughts

https://www.flickr.com/photos/amitshahc/8732336988/

Thoughts culled from my random file, gathered from my Twitter tweets, Facebook updates and Instagrams. About divine love, forgiveness, the kingdom of God and new life in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Offered as “jump starts” for your faith.
  • In Jesus Christ, God became human. How can this not but transform all of humanity, like leaven in bread? This is how the kingdom of God works, and the leaven of God’s love.
  • Jesus has lifted our shame and carried it to the cross. By that shameful death, he put shame itself to death, for he is pure and righteous, and shame had no right to him.
  • There is no shame so deep that the love of God is not deeper still, pouring itself out even on a cross for our sake.
  • We do not know what it means to be freely forgiven until we have freely forgiven another. And there we find the kingdom of God, the will of God being done on earth as in heaven.
  • Pride and shame are two sides of a coin ~ and both sides lie. Christ teaches us humility, which is a very different thing.
  • We are, each of us, profoundly connected to one another. It cannot be undone without undoing the whole world. This is why we must forgive if we are to be made whole and the world made right.
  • Divine love is a fine madness.
  • Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Neither sin nor death get the last word.
  • The death, burial and resurrection of Christ played out in history but affects all of time, from eternity to eternity.
  • To pray without ceasing is to find Christ in every created thing.
  • Lord Jesus, help me today to walk in the reality of Your resurrection and of Your life in me. Amen.
  • Is there any place in the universe where Christ is absent ~ or any soul in which Christ is not truly present?
  • Christ is everywhere present, and wherever He is, He is love.
  • Christ is the Word of God uttered by the Breath of God.
  • Wherever grace and faith meet, there is life.
  • Lord Jesus, I am helpless. Come be my help. Amen.
  • If we are all connected by our humanity, how can any of us be truly made whole unless all of us are made whole?
  • If in our theology we imagine things about God that are not found in Christ, then our theology is wrong.
  • Christ said that the Law and the Prophets are about Him. The authority of the Old Testament, then, is in the witness it bears to Christ.
  • There is deep spiritual connection in everyone and everything. For God, who created all, is Spirit.
  • Is it the soul that dwells in the body, or the body that dwells in the soul?
  • The kingdom of God is a kingdom of forgiving and being forgiven. Are you ready for that?
  • The Gospel in five words: Christ is making everything new.
  • A prayer for the many times I stray from the way of Christ, who is love: Lord Jesus, I am your little lost sheep. Come find me. Find us all. Amen.
More random thoughts …

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Random Thoughts

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bensonkua/4694899147/

Thoughts culled from my random file, gathered from my Twitter tweets, Facebook updates and Instagrams. About divine love, relationship with God and new life in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Offered as “jump starts” for your faith.
  • The good news of the gospel is that King Jesus the Messiah, whom God has raised from the dead, is Lord of all. Follow him.
  • Intimate relationship with God is the seedbed for every pure desire.
  • Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If you want to know what is in your heart, stop and listen to your mouth.
  • Sometimes the breakthrough we need the most is the breaking of our hearts.
  • We change the world by surrendering to the passion of God.
  • We are as close to God as we are ever going to be. In him, we live and move and have our being. We just do not yet realize how close that really is.
  • We do not truly understand the meaning of a thing until we find Christ within it.
  • A prayer for writers: Lord, give me grace today to write what is true. Amen.
  • I am always in need of the mercy of God ... especially when I think I am doing alright.
  • The revelation of Jesus Christ transforms us. We become what we behold.
  • Today I silence all the voices that speak out against me. The blood of King Jesus declares much better things over me.
  • Today I am living out of the new creation and ignoring the remnant echoes of the old.
  • Give up the vain struggle to overcome sin. It has already been overcome by Jesus the Messiah. Dwell on him.
  • Lord, fill me with the desire for You. Fill me with a desire for the things You desire. Then fill all those desires. Amen.
  • Repentance is turning to God, away from dependence on everything that isn’t God. Everyday is a good day to repent and learn to trust God more.
  • Christ is best revealed in us not by our perfections but by our helplessness.
  • Christ fully embraces my brokenness and heals me with his love.
  • The whole world is a sacrament that everywhere presents us with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • Lord, let me be emptied of everything but You, that I may be truly filled. Amen.
  • The change we really need does not come from psychological techniques or spiritual disciplines but by the gracious work of the Holy Spirit.
  • How blessed it is to realize our helplessness, for then we can hope in God and trust His love.
  • How blessed it is to acknowledge our sin, for then we can hope in God and trust His forgiveness.
  • When we choose to forgive, we are allowing God to love another through us.
  • Forgiveness is choosing to trust that, whatever wrong we may have suffered by another, God will make us whole. It begins with the words, “I forgive,” and continues as often as the need arises in our heart.
More random thoughts …

Monday, May 2, 2016

Random Thoughts

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamiedecesare/1091367656/

Thoughts culled from my random file, gathered from my Twitter tweets, Facebook updates and Instagrams. About divine love, relationship with God and new life in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Offered as “jump starts” for your faith.
  • All humanity is connected, so in joining himself to humanity, Christ joined all humanity to God.
  • Jesus is the light of God who gives life to all and rescues us from our darkness.
  • The Father sends the Holy Spirit to bring forth in us the life of the Son.
  • The Incarnation was not a divine afterthought or merely a necessary solution to a terrible problem. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us because that was God’s desire from the beginning.
  • Faithfulness is faith working through love.
  • Faithfulness is faith lived out over time, turning to God in all weathers and every season.
  • Faith works through love. Love casts out fear.
  • Faith is like a seed. It must be planted before it can grow.
  • Neither faith nor doubt are fickle or fleeting. They are orientations of the heart.
  • When we focus on our faith, how small it seems. When we focus on Jesus, how great our faith becomes.
  • My paradigm is the God who is love and whose grace is far greater than any evil the world could ever produce.
  • God doesn’t distance himself from us because of our sin. He comes near and rescues us from it. So the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
  • Any time you think the Christian life is something you do for God, you’ve got it all backwards.
  • God is love. If he ceases to be love, even for a moment, he ceases to be God. God is loving in all his ways, always and toward all.
  • What if the love of God is deeper than hell? That changes everything.
  • Today I recklessly pursue the God who is love, whose love relentlessly pursues me.
  • Jesus is the perfect expression of God in human form. If we don’t see God as just like Christ, we are not seeing him as he is.
  • In the Incarnation, God became human so that we might become divine ... but also that we might become truly human.
  • By his love, by his Son, by his Spirit, God makes his enemies his friends.
  • Run wild, King Jesus, through Muslim camps and show them your great love for them. Through dreams and visions may they come to know you. Amen.
  • Today I contemplate my divinity in Christ, his divine life in me. It is a good day.
  • Christ in me changes the world.
  • In Jesus the Messiah, God has joined himself to humanity and broken the power of sin and death.
  • Jesus is the True Light who gives light to everyone in the world. What if today we looked for the light of Christ in each other?
More random thoughts …

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Random Thoughts

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dionnehartnett/19171593876/

Thoughts culled from my random file, gathered from my Twitter tweets, Facebook updates and Instagrams. About divine love, relationship with God and new life in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Offered as “jump starts” for your faith.
  • Jesus is the Light who reveals the Father and by whom the Spirit guides our way.
  • One day, God will be all in all. Not just all in some or some in all, but all in all.
  • The cross does not change God’s attitude toward us — God has always loved us — but it changes our attitude toward God.
  • There is no bridge too far for the grace of God.
  • The relentless love of God ever pursues his enemies, even into hell, until they turn to him and are rescued from themselves.
  • Yes, God wants you to be happy, but He wants you to have the true happiness that is found only in Him.
  • Grace does not mean that God is okay with our sin. It means that God has moved heaven and earth to rescue us from our sin.
  • The nature of sin is the brokenness we experience in our relationship with God, with each other and even within our own selves. Jesus is the healer of that brokenness.
  • What is wrong with Christianity? I am. Mea maxima culpa.
  • The grace of God is far greater than I ever imagined when I first graduated from Bible college ... but perhaps not so very much greater than I imagined when I first came to him as a little child.
  • My philosophy as a Christian is not that I am perfect, or anywhere near it. My philosophy is that I am a very broken person whom Christ is transforming by his love and grace and the giving of himself for my sake.
  • Divine retribution can never make things right, it can only punish, so it can never be justice in the truest and fullest sense. But divine love changes hearts and King Jesus makes all things new.
  • God is like the Father of the Prodigal Son, ever watching for our return and waiting to receive us.
  • Today I partake of the divine power, divine glory, divine goodness, divine promise and divine nature of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is a good day.
  • Everything is fuel for prayer.
  • God is love. This changes everything.
  • Today I am believing the extravagance of the love God has for me. It is a good day.
  • Today I am declaring that God is love and Jesus is Lord. It is a day of great expectation.
  • The grace of God is greater than my ability to understand ... or misunderstand.
  • The “right side of history” is the “right side of history” ... until it is the wrong side of history. So I don’t worry about whether I am on it or not.
  • The Holy Spirit leads us by showing us Jesus.
  • The story of the gospel is the story of how God became Jesus and Jesus became King.
  • God is always life, never death. For death is nothing but the absence of life ... the absence of God.
  • Be love. For where love prevails, there is no foothold for bitterness or fear.
  • How does God deal with our sin? He forgives us in Jesus Christ and transforms us by the Holy Spirit.
More random thoughts …

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Random Thoughts

https://www.flickr.com/photos/trp0/132106776/

Thoughts culled from my random file. About divine love, relationship with God and new life in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Many have been my tweets and Facebook updates. Some have been my Instagrams. Offered as “jump starts” for your faith.
  • Faith in God is relational, more about trust than certainty.
  • Today I repent of the prides and arrogances I know about ... and ask forgiveness for the ones I have not yet realized.
  • The humility of Christ and His cross exposes evil for what it is: pride against God and one another.
  • Biblical justice is relational, about readiness for community.
  • The justice of God is not about retribution but about restoration to fellowship.
  • The judgment of God does not come to condemn us but to transform us.
  • The cross was not a penalty Christ paid but a victory Christ won.
  • The cross was not the reason for God’s forgiveness but the revelation of God’s forgiveness.
  • In Jesus Christ, God forgives our betrayals, removes our shame and leads us back to holy community with God and one another.
  • In Jesus Christ we become part of the new creation. The whole cosmos cries out for this revelation.
  • What is God showing you about what he wants to do in the world? Pray that!
  • Thank you, Lord, for your healing presence.
  • Forgive me, Lord, for baptizing bitter fear as righteous anger, for being quick to take offense and slow to love. Teach me the strength, gentleness and humility of Christ. Amen.
  • The resurrection of Christ exposes the truth about death: it is a helpless and defeated foe, and cannot stand.
  • The abundantly available grace of God transforms sinners into saints.
  • In Jesus Christ, sins are forgiven, shame is removed and new life begins.
  • Remember today that your blessing is not rooted in your job but in God.
  • Remember today that your significance is not found in your work but in the love God has for you.
  • How deep the love, how wide the mercy, how abundant the grace, how joyful the fellowship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • God doesn’t do “pay back.” He does “pay forward” ... and he does it with grace.
  • God is love. Love casts out all shame.
  • There are no boundaries to the grace of God. He is always working for our good.
  • DREAM ~ A communication from a deeper realm, a vignette from the spiritual dimension.
  • We live in between the great things God has already done and the greater harvest yet to come.
  • Don’t worry about your significance in the world. God has already taken care of that. Just go on and live your life in him.
More random thoughts ...

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Random Thoughts

https://www.flickr.com/photos/vesparado/14578086631/

Here are a few random thoughts as we turn the page for another go around the sun. About divine love, relationship with God and new life in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Many have been my tweets and Facebook updates. Some have been my Instagrams. Offered as “jump starts” for a Happy New Year!
  • Love is not merely an asset or attribute of God. Love is the essence and energy of God, for God is love.
  • God practices what Jesus preached.
  • O Blessed Fellowship! I am in the Three and the Three are in me. It is a good day.
  • King Jesus, who made all things in the beginning, will make all things new again.
  • Jesus has been given the keys to death and hell. What do you suppose he will do with them?
  • Faith in Jesus is trusting him with your past, as well as with your present and your future.
  • Hell is not the absence of God but the soul unprepared for the presence of God in the radiance of his love.
  • God always gets the last word ... and his final answer is love.
  • Real love is cross-shaped.
  • The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, dwelling in eternal community, know the all-surpassing power of love.
  • Whatever happens — Keep Calm and Remember that JESUS is LORD!
  • Put not your trust in judges or politicians ... nor fear them. King Jesus is Lord over all, and his love will prevail.
  • All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus the Messiah. Love is the outworking of that authority. When we walk in love, we walk in the authority of King Jesus.
  • The full revelation of God is not found in a book, not even the Bible, but in a person: Jesus the Messiah.
  • The revolution has come and Jesus the Messiah is Lord of all. Follow him.
  • I worship the God who is man, the man who is God. His name is Jesus.
  • King Jesus is making all things new by the consuming fire of his love.
  • The mercy of God is available to anyone, anytime, anywhere. Always has been, always will be.
  • One day everyone will get what they want ... but not everyone will like what they get. What is it you want?
  • Lord, in your mercy, strip away in me everything that does not belong. Some things, I can easily tell. Other things, I do not trust myself to know the difference. Let only love be left in me. Amen.
  • My faith is not in how the future will be taken care of, but in God, who will take care of the future, for he is greater than the future.
  • Fear not the future. It is in God’s hands ... and God is love.
  • This is the judgment of God: Jesus the Light has come into the world and exposed the darkness of our hearts. Follow the Light.
  • God is not in the damning business. He is in the Search and Rescue business.
  • The mysteries of God and His love are not for us to understand but to experience.
More random thoughts from this past year …

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Random Thoughts


More thoughts culled from my random file. About divine love, relationship with God and new life in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Many have been my tweets and Facebook updates. Some have been my Instagrams. Offered as “jump starts” for your faith.
  • Today I admit my ignorance and confess my dependence upon God. It is a good day.
  • Following Jesus is not about trying. Or even doing. It is about surrendering … which is all we can do.
  • God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — is all about relationship. For God is love, and love is dynamic.
  • God’s love for us is not based upon the cross but was revealed to us at the cross. So also his forgiveness.
  • We cannot know God except through love, for God is love.
  • Our primary role in this hour, as in every hour, is to worship and pray. Everything else comes from this.
  • Today I am thankful for the gift of remembering ... and of forgetting.
  • That awkward moment when you realize there is a bit of the poser in everything you do.
  • Today I will offer no justifications, no explanations, no excuses. I will simply receive the mercy and be glad.
  • Today is a good day to repent and rejoice in my forgiveness.
  • Gratitude is the recognition that all I have has been given to me.
  • Today I confess the mystery of the Trinity. When I understand the mystery, I will know my own wholeness.
  • When we love, give and serve, we experience the life of the age to come.
  • If God can change my heart, he can change the world.
  • Out of the abundance of their love for each other, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit created you and me.
  • The love God has for you and me is relentless and strong.
  • You will know when the plan of God is complete because God will be all in all.
  • Following Jesus is never about what we do for God. It is always about what God is doing in and through us.
  • Happiness and gratitude are the same choice.
  • The cross is not about “sinners in the hands of an angry God” but about sinners in the hands of a loving God ... in the outstretched arms of Christ.
More random thoughts …

Monday, November 2, 2015

Random Thoughts


More thoughts culled from my random file. About divine love, relationship with God and new life in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Many have been my tweets and Facebook updates. Some have been my Instagrams. Offered as “jump starts” for your faith.
  • The words of Jesus are not just about eternal life, nor do they merely lead to eternal life — they are eternal life. Just as in the beginning, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. His Word is Light.
  • The gospel is an announcement, not a negotiation. It is the proclamation of a new reality: Jesus is King, whom God raised from the dead.
  • In the gospel, King Jesus heals my brokenness with God, with myself, with others and with the world.
  • If sin does not grieve us, it is not because we do not understand Law but because we do not understand grace.
  • The passion of the bird is to fly, and of the fish, to swim. And so they honor what they are and the God who made them. Likewise, the passion of man is to worship and adore. But when the object of our worship is anything less than God, the world disintegrates.
  • The grace of God shatters the remnant echo of unworthiness.
  • Teach me, Lord. I know nothing but what you show me ... even then, I forget.
  • Lord Jesus came that we might partake of the divine nature and so learn to love, for God is love.
  • The nature of the Trinity is love, and the love of the Father is revealed to us through Jesus the Son by the Holy Spirit. By the Holy Spirit, this love is to be revealed in the world through us.
  • Jesus is the victorious King who has broken the gates of death and hell so that they can hold us captive no longer.
  • Love fears no judgment.
  • At the cross, Jesus poured out the wrath of God on sin ... and broke its power.
  • The cross is not subtle, nor is the empty tomb. Both declare the victory of King Jesus.
  • Christ alone is holy, yet he makes the whole world holy.
  • Good memories are made from love. They will endure because love endures.
  • Faith leaves everything in God’s hands, even the timing.
  • God’s plans work in God’s time. And all shall be well.
  • If I am empty, God will fill me with himself. So, let me be empty before him. If I am helpless, God will help me. So, let me be helpless before him. And so will I be blessed.
  • Father, let the light of King Jesus illuminate the world today through Your Spirit. Amen.
  • Faith in God is something that can be seen, because it expresses itself through love.
More random thoughts …

Monday, August 3, 2015

Random Thoughts


More thoughts culled from my random file. About love, prayer and new life in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Many have been tweets and Facebook updates. Offered as “jump starts” for your faith.
  • The judgment of God does not come to condemn us but to transform us.
  • Breath prayer: Thank you, Holy Spirit ... for lighting my way.
  • Breath prayer: Speak, Lord ... for your servant is listening.
  • How does your worship connect with your grocery shopping, or washing your car?
  • We have a tremendous capacity for fooling ourselves. Lord, have mercy.
  • Love is persuasive where logic is not.
  • How easy it is, when we criticize the Pharisee, to become one ourselves.
  • Forgiving other is an act of faith in the God who forgives us.
  • Love that is for self alone is no love at all. For love gives of itself to others, but in self-love there is no other to whom it can give.
  • In the silence of the world nothing can be heard. In the silence of the heart nothing needs to be said.
  • In the silence of the heart there is only one voice — God’s.
  • Lord, let my words today arise from the silence of humility.
  • Love cannot demand or be demanded, it can only be freely given and freely received.
  • Love does not think about sacrifice. It thinks only of the one who is loved, and pout all it has to give.
  • Jesus let go his life so that he could be the life of God for us, and became the firstfruits of resurrection.
  • Hell is not something God does to anyone. It is something people do to themselves. In Jesus Christ, God does not send people to hell, he brings them out of hell.
  • The cross of Christ revealed his divinity as well as humanity. When Jesus died, the Centurion said, “Truly, this was the Son of God.”
  • The death of Christ on Good Friday was not a defeat that awaited the victory of Easter Sunday but a victory that was revealed on Easter Sunday.
  • In the wake of the Resurrection, Christ builds his Church.
  • The Holy Spirit shows us the Light by whom we see the Father.
  • The Holy Spirit Guides me, the Lord Jesus rescues me, the Father embraces me. The Three enfold me in their love.
More random thoughts …

Monday, June 8, 2015

Random Thoughts


More thoughts culled from my random file. About divine love, relationship with God and new life in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Many have been tweets and Facebook updates. Some have been posters. Offered as “jump starts” for your faith.
  • The sacraments (e.g., baptism and communion) are not merely outward signs of an inward faith but the outward signs of an inward grace. Though our faith in Christ may often be weak, the grace of God towards us is always strong.
  • Discipleship is learning to live in the fellowship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • Eschatology is not about the end of the world but about the end of the age. It is about the new creation, which has already begun for us in Jesus the Messiah.
  • A new twist on an old saying: Pray as if everything depends upon God. Work as if everything depends upon God.
  • Fear is at the root of all kinds of issues, and it is a terrible bondage. It is an “orphan” spirit, desperately looking for, and never finding, a father. However, God has not given us the spirit of fear that leads us into bondage again but the Spirit of Adoption by which we cry out, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). And when God’s love is perfected in us, it casts out fear. When we fear, it is because we are not trusting in the love of God.
  • We were conceived in the divine love and fellowship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • At the cross, God did not pour out his wrath on Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ poured out the wrath of God on sin, death and the devil.
  • In King Jesus the Messiah, all are made new. Come to him. Trust him. Follow him.
  • We are created for greatness, though it often comes in ways that seem small and insignificant — but that is because we have gotten things upside down.
  • If God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, how in the world could anyone ever be insignificant?
  • Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. Do thou likewise. Therein lies greatness.
  • All that belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son. The Spirit reveals them to us — and we are caught up into divine fellowship.
  • God is Love. Love pours himself out for others. And so Love fulfills all.
  • God is love. In God, there is one who loves, one who is loved, and one who is the love between them. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • There is not a soul in this world who does not long for the glory and presence of the Lord. Many just do not realize it yet.
  • God is love, and a consuming fire. He burns away everything that cannot be loved.
  • The love of God never gives up on us, never ceases to work for our good. Even in hell, God is love.
  • The Christian life is infinitely impossible to live on our own — but intimately available to all in Christ who is our life.
More random thoughts …

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Random Thoughts


Some thoughts culled from my random file. About love, relationship with God and new life in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Many have been tweets and updates. Some have been Instragram posters. Offered as “jump starts” for your faith.
  • When we delight ourselves in the Lord, he is delighted to give us the desires of our heart, because the desires of our heart are then shaped by his.
  • There are some things I need to know today, and a lot of things I don’t. Wisdom is in knowing the difference.
  • God opens wide his hand toward us and calls us to open wide our mouths toward him (Psalm 81:10 and 145:16). How big is your expectation?
  • Prosperity does not come because of what you keep but because of what you give.
  • Jesus is the image of the invisible God? It sounds almost like a koan.
  • Words are creative — and powerful. Handle with care.
  • It is in clothing ourselves with humility and serving one another that we are clothed with greatness in the kingdom of God.
  • The Christ life is infinitely impossible to live on our own — but intimately available to all in Christ, who is our life.
  • The Algebra of Love: God is love; love gives and serves. (1 John 4:8; John 3:16; Mark 10:45)
  • The Algebra of Stillness: Be still and know that the LORD is God and that God is love. (Psalm 46:10; 1 John 4:8)
  • The blessing of God is recession-proof.
  • Being right with God is not about rules and regulations but about relationship. Rules and regs wrap and warp the soul in death. Divine relationship with God in Jesus Christ is a fountain of life and joy.
  • The gospel in terms of Colossians 1:19-21 — God reconciles all things in heaven and on earth to himself, by Jesus the Messiah, making peace through the blood of the cross. What if “all” really means all?
  • Love, mercy and forgiveness are not contrary to justice but are the highest expression of it. We discover that in the cross, where justice was most profoundly served.
  • The justice of God is not about finding someone to wail on but about breaking the power of evil and removing what separates us from God and each other.
  • In the beginning, Love created the heavens and the earth.
  • The announcement of the gospel is not that God is taking us to heaven but that heaven has come to earth. We are living in the days of the outworking of what God has done in Jesus the Messiah.
  • In Jesus the Messiah, God has reconciled everything in heaven and earth to himself. Faith in Jesus is learning to live in that reality.
More random thoughts …

Monday, March 2, 2015

Random Thoughts in Lent


Some thoughts in the season of Lent, culled from my random file. About baptism, repentance, discipleship … and the impossible Christian life. Some have come to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Many have been tweets and updates. Offered for your edification, inspiration and preparation in this season.
  • Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent remind us that we are the dust of the earth ~ and the breath of God.
  • The point of Ash Wednesday is to reckon ourselves dead to sin but alive to God through King Jesus the Messiah.
  • Lent is a good time to take time ~ to watch, listen and think about what King Jesus is doing in the world ... and what he wants to do through you.
  • Lent is an opportunity to enter into the purpose, passion and power of the Lord Jesus Christ, and be made more like Him.
  • What to give up for Lent: The vain struggle to overcome sin. It has already been overcome by Jesus the Messiah. Dwell on that.
  • The fast God desires is a fast that never ends, an ongoing process of faith being formed by the love of God and expressed through love for others.
  • Embrace your doubt in faith, like the man who came to Jesus for healing for his son (Mark 9:24). Here’s a simple breath prayer. Breathe in: “Lord, I believe.” Breathe out: “Help my unbelief.”
  • The Christian life is impossible. Only Christ can live it — and he comes to live it in you. Let him.
  • Jesus’ first words in the Gospel of John are, “What do you seek?”
  • A disciple is someone who is learning to live in the reality of King Jesus.
  • In the humility of baptism, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world identified with the people who very much needed to have their sin taken away.
  • The power of baptism is not that I was baptized but that I am baptized, and the life of Christ is mine — now and always.
  • Baptism is an epiphany, a revelation of Jesus Christ. When you’ve had an epiphany, it changes everything. It changes you and you can’t go back to the way things were before.
  • I am baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit — and that is a wonderful fellowship to be immersed in.
  • The most fearful thing that can happen to a person is for God to let him have his own way.
  • Lord, fill me with the desire for You. Fill me with the desire for the things You desire. Then fill all those desires. Amen.
  • Repentance is turning to God, away from dependence on everything that isn’t God. Every day is a good day to repent and learn to trust God more.
  • Discipleship is learning to live daily in the reality of King Jesus and the love of God.
  • Today I am living out of the new creation and ignoring the remnant echoes of the old.
  • Today I silence all the voices that speak out against me. The blood of King Jesus declares much better things over me.
  • The devil is defeated. King Jesus reigns. See everything through that lens and dwell on that reality.
  • Lent is not a “Spiritual Strongman” competition, a season for striving to prove our mettle. It is for knowing our weakness and finding our strength in Christ.
More random thoughts …

Monday, February 2, 2015

Random Thoughts

Some thoughts culled from my random file. About faith, love, life and relationship with God. Some have come to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Some are aphoristic and avuncular. Many have been tweets and updates. Offered for your edification, inspiration and/or motivation — or your money cheerfully refunded.
  • God is love and God is light. When we walk in love, we are walking in light, and darkness cannot prevail.
  • God is light. God is love. God is life. His way will always be about those things that shed light, manifest love and promote life.
  • The faith that overcomes the world is the faith that works through love.
  • Eternal life is not a commodity but a person — the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we know God the Father.
  • Many church people have been accustomed to a comfortable, cultural sort of Christianity and have often mistaken it for faith in Christ. They wring their hands when those easy forms are overshadowed by secular culture — they are not up to the challenge of following a Christ who is counter to the culture of the world. They have often been inoculated against a full-on case of the gospel, of which they are as much in need as anyone who has never even heard of Christ.
  • In his baptism, Jesus identified with me. In my baptism, I am identified with him.
  • Enunciate the promises of God and articulate his blessings in your life. Open up your mouth and speak them out. Your mind will stop to see what your mouth is saying. Your heart will take notice, too.
  • Start thanking God for something and see what a floodgate that opens up.
  • Building relationships and making community with people will, in the long run, be more effective than hit-and-run evangelism. Because the gospel is not a story about a bunch of disconnected individuals but about a community of faith King Jesus is creating.
  • God is not saving a collection of individuals but families and nations. He is creating one new body in Messiah, a community of faith.
  • The words that will have the most power in your life today are the ones you allow to lodge in your heart and come out of your mouth. Let them be words full of faith, hope and love.
  • Today you are continuing the story your father and mother began. Make it a good story.
  • A testimony is a powerful thing. It can not only bring something back to your mind but also back to your heart.
  • Who is the disciple Jesus loves. When you realize the answer, you will lean your head on Jesus’ breast.
  • Every good gift comes from the Father of Lights, who has light for whatever darkness you may find yourself in.
  • We often think that pleasing God is about doing this or not doing that. But the goodness of the gospel is about what God was pleased to do for us and the world.
More random thoughts …

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Random Thoughts for a New Year


Random thoughts for a new year, culled from the old one. About faith, love, life and relationship with God. Some have come to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Some are aphoristic and avuncular. Many have been tweets and updates. Offered for your edification — or your money cheerfully refunded.
  • The reason we need to keep having the gospel preached to us is because salvation is not just about our acquittal, it is also about our transformation. And it is not just about individuals, it is about the community of faith, the people God is growing together. And it is about the world God is renewing through the Lordship of Jesus the Messiah and the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to be drawn deeper and deeper into these realities so that the glory of God may be revealed in and through us.
  • The world will not be changed by the gospel until we are changed by the gospel.
  • When we proclaim the gospel, we are presenting the kingdom of God, because we are presenting the King. When anyone receives the gospel, they are receiving the kingdom of God because they are receiving the King.
  • The nature of the kingdom of God is to manifest the love of God.
  • Where the love of God is manifested, the kingdom of God is present.
  • The funny thing about sacrifice is that when you love, you don’t think about the sacrifice you make — you think about the person you love.
  • Inheritance is what we receive from those who came before us and legacy is what we leave for those who come after. The inheritance we have received opens many doors for us. The legacy we leave will open doors for the next generation. But we must be careful to sort through the inheritances we have received because not all the doors they open are ones that ought to be opened, nor should they become part of the legacy we leave.
  • Whenever you speak to a child, you are speaking to the future. Indeed, you are speaking the future itself. Choose your words carefully.
  • There is a relationship between faith in Jesus and following Him. Those who trust Jesus, follow Him. Those who do not follow Jesus, do not trust Him.
  • Following Jesus a lifelong journey, and you never know where it will lead you. But you go with Him anyway because you trust Him.
  • I think I’ve just about come to the place in my life of realizing that the only thing I can do is set my love upon the Lord — and even that is His own love burning in me — but that is quite enough.
  • Have you ever thought of worship as spiritual warfare? One of the hymns I like to sing is “When Morning Gilds the Skies.” In the second verse, it says, “The powers of darkness fear when this sweet chant they hear: May Jesus Christ be praised.” Our worship continually announces the Lordship of Christ to the principalities and powers — and that is a very powerful thing.
  • If God gives you more than you can handle, He will handle it.
  • If at any time today you start to realize how much more you need the Lord Jesus than you knew before, you are having a good day.
  • We cannot create diversity any more than we can create unity — or both become restrictive and deadening. But true diversity, like true unity, is a gift from God.
  • Faith in the promise of God creates expectation.
More random thoughts …

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Random Thoughts


Some thoughts culled from my random file. About faith, love, life and relationship with God. Some have occurred to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Some are aphoristic and avuncular. Many have been tweets on Twitter and updates on Facebook. For your understanding and edification — or your money cheerfully refunded.
  • The gospel is, first, the public announcement that the kingdom of God has come into the world — and that Jesus, whom God raised from the dead, is God’s Anointed King. Then it is the personal call to participate in that kingdom through faith in King Jesus.
  • The gospel in five seconds: The kingdom of God has come into the world and Jesus Christ is King over all. Come trust Him with your life and follow Him.
  • When you are able to let something go, it has become your servant, not your master.
  • With regard to man in relationship with God, repentance means to turn to God, or return to God.
  • Justification, in the context of biblical covenant, means that one is counted as fit for fellowship; in regard to man in relation to God, it is the verdict of righteousness — i.e., that one is right with God, in right relationship with Him.
  • Love is giving yourself to another without reserve.
  • The Christian faith is not about a God who created the world out of loneliness. It is about Three Persons who created the world out of the overflow of love they have for each other — and they desire to catch us up into their fellowship.
  • An assumption is something that can be made without thinking. Some assumptions may be reasonable. Others are not. Assumptions often function as faith for some people. Some aspects of faith may be based on reason, but the Christian faith is ultimately based on revelation, and everything must be rethought in light of it. And that takes a lifetime.
  • I trust God to be continually at work in me, so how l “measure up” is now His problem.
  • Faith pleases God and love fulfills the commandments. So whatever is of faith and expresses love is good ... and will measure up.
  • Christ is not only the light we see, but the light by which we can see everything else properly. So our lives as Christians cannot be compartmentalized. We cannot speak of the Christian life as if we also have some other life we can live in addition to or instead of our life in Christ.
  • We want to be faithful, but I think we can get too focused on our own faithfulness — as if it were indeed our own and not the faithfulness of God at work in us — and then we get discouraged. But if we focus on the faithfulness of God, we become like what we behold ... and there is no discouragement in that.
  • The apostle Paul said, “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” In the meantime, His glory starts poking through in our lives.
  • Quit trying to justify your existence. It is God who created and loves us, Jesus the Messiah who redeems us and the Holy Spirit who transforms us.
  • There is a difference between becoming a Christian and becoming Christian. One may take a moment, the other takes a lifetime.
More random thoughts …