Author: Phil Rehberg

darkness dark night

The Benefits Of Desolation

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Most of us will face seasons in our lives when we cannot sense God anymore. We’ll feel like He left us, or maybe doesn’t even exist. This often happens after we have overcome most of our major external sins. But in spite of our progress, we still can’t connect with God. We think back to times when we felt God’s presence or could clearly see His activity in our lives. We remember the pleasure we had with God, especially during worship, or reading scripture, or prayer. But suddenly our spiritual life seems dry or even dark. We don’t feel the enthusiasm for God we had before. Now we can gain the benefits of desolation. This stage of the Christian life has been experienced and written about by many of the great Christian teachers since the earliest centuries. Some have called it “desolation”; in the 16th century John of the Cross Continue Reading →

Weekly words of encouragement

We Work For Jesus – Weekly Words Of Encouragement

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“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” Col. 3:23-24 (ESV) This is one of the most practical words of encouragement in scripture. Everything we do each day can be done for Jesus; we work for Jesus! This makes our everyday tasks wonderfully meaningful even when they are monotonous or distasteful. Many of us spend much of our time on tasks that are not enjoyable or in unpleasant environments. For example, think of all the time we spend on house chores, paying bills, grooming and other types of maintenance. This passage explains that whatever task we are doing we are actually serving Jesus. The Lord values the work we do. Whether we are landscaping a yard, teaching a class, answering phones, or keeping house – Jesus Continue Reading →

guilt conviction sin

Embracing Conviction Of Sin

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Conviction of sin can lead to destructive attitudes as well as constructive sorrow. Seeing our sin may lead us to self-condemnation or rejection, or to imagining that God condemns or rejects us. We may begin to hate ourselves or think we are hopeless. These are all strategies of Satan. He knows that if we reject ourselves (for any reason, not just sin) that it will create a wall between us and God. Self-rejection may be Satan’s number one strategy in every person’s life. It cuts us off from the grace and power we need for healing. Instead, we should treat ourselves the way God does: with grace and forgiveness. We do not have permission from God to contradict what God thinks about us. We are His saints and His children. His Son died in our place so that nothing could ever separate us from His love and acceptance. If He Continue Reading →

Weekly words of encouragement

You Will Appear With Jesus – Weekly Words Of Encouragement

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“When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:4, NIV). When Jesus comes back and appears to all then we will also appear with Jesus. What kind of appearance will we make? First, we will have a joint appearance with the “star” of the universe: Jesus Christ. A rising movie actor may hope that one day that they will get to appear in a movie with one of their movie idols. But we have a much greater appearance in mind – and ours is guaranteed! Jesus is purifying us “so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:27, ESV). Secondly, we will appear “in glory”. This does not just mean that we will go to a glorious place to live. The Continue Reading →

battle against sin

Facing The Deeper Battle Against Sin

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After turning away from the more obvious sins in our lives, we may begin to think that we are fairly godly. But that is when we face the real battle against sin. Sinful thoughts and attitudes remained buried deep within our hearts and control us in ways we don’t realize. If we saw all our sinfulness at once, it would overwhelm us and drive some of us mad…which is a warning against excessive self-examination. Yet we still desire to grow in godliness. We want to share in His nature and reflect it to others, and to do that we must continually give Him permission to uncover deeper areas of our lives. Better yet, we should eagerly ask Him to do so and pursue it with our whole heart. Then our heart will have an attitude of continual openness to His promptings. We will be more willing to open the door Continue Reading →