Sorry, I have been busy lately. Here are some thoughts that I have been pondering over the past week. Most of these are not original to me.
May these thoughts challenge you as much as they have me.
- Heaven is not a boring place. It offers more beauty, more purpose, more joy, more everything than the best of what this earth has to offer. Why then do so many people have a rather blasé view of heaven?
- Jesus specializes in raising the dead. He calls us to do likewise.
- Believing God despite what we see or know to be true with our senses is not the power of positive thinking. No, this is the power and freedom of having the mind of Christ.
- If most people drive a car by looking ahead instead of focusing on the rear view mirrors, why do most people live life by focusing on the past instead of what lies ahead?
- Psalm 12:6 says, "The LORD's promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over."
- Desire is not the problem. Trying to fulfill desire in a wrong way at a wrong time is the problem.
- If you never strive for life greater than you can achieve on your own, how will you ever know just how big God really is?
- Walking in the Spirit is not about rules or a program. It is all about a relationship with God.
- "Your spirit already knows everything that is in the Bible. If you read it once, if you were that in tune with your spirit, you could read the Bible one time and know everything word for word in your spirit." - Gregory Dickow
- Those who trust God don't look for progress reports or quarterly updates. They trust God no matter what they sense around them. When you plant your seed, you don't dig it up and wonder if it's growing. You trust that God will make it grow in time.
- Self help never really works. It is just another way to creatively re-package sin management. It leads to death as you try to be righteous on your own.
- Jesus did not die to make us moral people. He died to make us a new creation. We discover that life as we learn to live in relationship with Him.
- Jesus said that a wicked and perverse generation asks for a sign. The people of God are to be led by the Holy Spirit and not by signs and wonders.
- Fear is the great enemy of faith.
- Jesus' words frequently caused offense to many who heard it.
- God has made us in His image and created us to rule and reign over His creation.
- "True love is possible only when it is freely chosen." - John Eldridge
- Less than 5% of sport utility vehicles are ever taken off road. These vehicles give us a sense of adventure without the real experience.
- "The problem with desire is, you want everything." - Paul Simon
- "We hide our true desire and call it maturity. Jesus is not impressed. He points to the less sophisticated attitude of a child as a better way to live." - John Eldridge
