Do You Have A Habit That Harms Your Relationships?

It is important to take time to consider the ways in which our habits and behaviors harm people around us. The harm may not even be intentional, but if we allow a harmful habit to continue then we are responsible for the damage it causes. Sometimes our habits harm others in the sense that they keep us from projecting God’s goodness and blessing to others as we otherwise could. Our actions obscure God’s light shining through us like mud on a window obscures sunlight. What does God think of this? How will he judge your life? How do you want your biography to read when you enter the next age of the New Creation? So what do we if we have a bad habit that is harming our relationships? What if we have prayed and tried to break it but we can’t make much progress? Obviously, such habits are opposed Continue Reading →

Living With A Wound Of Love

We will naturally desire to experience the sweet love of our Beloved, and this is good. Wouldn’t it be sad if we did not desire this? Thus, our challenge is to desire to experience the love of the Beloved in this life as well as the next, while at the same time completely letting go of control of making that happen and being content if we don’t experience it. Instead, we focus on walking in the Spirit, Christformation and doing God’s will. This is one of the great challenges of the Christian life. It may take an entire life to fully embrace this tension. We should enjoy spiritual pleasure as long as God provides it, as long we as focus on God and not the pleasure. This means we do not cling to the pleasure. The spiritual hedonist focuses on their own will being done (their desire for pleasure) while Continue Reading →

The Supreme Goodness Of Loving God

God is populating his kingdom with lovers until the day when he will fulfill all his promises of the kingdom and establish the perfect community of love with himself and his followers. Loving him is our greatest good, and for citizens of his inaugurated kingdom the King’s greatest commandment is to learn to fully love him. This keeps us on the trajectory that culminates in our future spiritual marriage with God on the New Earth. In this way we conform to the core of the image of Christ, for his highest priority is oneness with the Father and love is the bond of that oneness. These are the reasons that loving God is the supreme commandment and supremely important for all of our growth. God’s love for us is the foundation of his goodness to us. Our resulting love for him is the foundation of all our responsibilities toward him Continue Reading →

Surprise Yourself By Activating Your Will

Sometimes we think we are not able to accomplish Christformation and defeat a bad habit because we need something more when in fact we do not need anything more. God has already provided the strength inside us so it is within our character, or maturity level. If we commit ourselves to it then the change will come. Popular culture may tell us to just be ourselves, or that other people are responsible for all our problems, but Jesus calls us to actively grow up into new Adams who can overcome life’s challenges. A simple exercise will illustrate how your character relates to transformation. Think of a minor bad habit that you want to break. Commit yourself to abstain from the habit for one week while you look to Christ. Most people will find that they can succeed. This is because it was within their character, and they just needed to Continue Reading →

Am I Trying Too Hard Or Too Little?

When it comes to the relationship between God’s will and human will we are diving into a profound mystery that cannot be fully understood. The question cannot be completely answered because it is not clearly answered in Scripture. In order to answer this question we would have to understand how God’s will operates inside the depths of God which we cannot do because God’s nature is so far beyond our nature. We would also have to understand the details of how God relates to time and the nature of time itself. We cannot do this either. Even human will is a mystery to us. Considering how much we don’t know is it really possible to make assertions on this matter that are not clearly stated in Scripture? If we venture beyond Scripture, then we will find ourselves clinging to shaky speculations. What we can do is embrace what God has Continue Reading →