Category: Interior Life

two roads

Is Victory Over Your Faults Beyond Your Character?

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Have you noticed how sometimes the reason we can’t rid ourselves of a fault is because we haven’t fully intended to do it? We make some mild efforts to change but they don’t work. Then one day we decide to put our full effort into it, ask for God’s help, and presto – the fault is gone! But we also have another kind of experience with out faults: failure, in spite of all our efforts. “I keep trying to stop doing this, but it doesn’t work.” We’ve probably all said this at some point. We want to rid ourselves of a fault so we ask God for help, read books, study Scripture, and exercise our willpower but nothing works. And the fault lives on. Why do we have such different experiences with becoming holy? Because some changes are within our character and some are not. What do I mean by Continue Reading →

judgment

Courage To Embrace The “Unpleasant” Truths Of Scripture

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This morning I was reading a book by a famous spiritual formation author. In it he talks about “finding the Christ dwelling within us.” Since this was ambiguous I searched to find out if the author believed in the necessity of repentance and the new birth. Instead, I found statements like “Your belovedness precedes your birth…You are fully loved because you belong to God for all eternity. That’s the truth of your identity. That’s who you are. And you can reclaim it at any moment.” So I searched the book (with the Kindle search function) for the words “sin” or “repentance” and they were not found. I could not find a mention of the final judgment of God on human lives. Obviously these ideas could be expressed in different words but I did not find any mention of natural human rebelliousness or of the need to recognize our sinfulness and Continue Reading →

pitfall mud fall soldier

The Four Biggest Pitfalls In Leadership?

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Many years ago I was attending a really good church where the Holy Spirit was present and the people were genuinely seeking God. I was especially thankful because my previous church had just collapsed due to some unresolved issues between the pastor and the elders. Everything was going well at this new church then one day I received a stunning message. The senior pastor had just left his wife and run off with the attractive worship leader, who left her husband to run off with the pastor.  The two of them had been spending a lot of time together in ministry and people on staff expressed concern but the pastor did not respond. Over the years I have observed first-hand pastors and other leaders who fall into moral failure or severely restrict their effectiveness because of four different issues. Maybe there are others that belong on this list but these Continue Reading →

humility

The Unusual Humility Of William Seymour

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In 1906 something very unusual began happening in a small meeting in Los Angeles. People testified that the Spirit of God was coming upon them and filling them with joy and power and praise for God. Their lives were transformed. It was the beginning of the Azusa Street Revival which was the leading contributor to the biggest movement in the Christian church in centuries: Pentecostalism. It was also the second largest social movement of the 20th century after communism – and unlike communism it was still skyrocketing by the end of the century. In the year 2000 over 500 million Christians worldwide considered themselves Pentecostal or charismatic. The pastor of the church that hosted these meetings on Azusa Street was a black man named William Seymour. The meetings were filled with whites as well as blacks and many other nationalities. As news of the meetings spread many ministers spoke against Continue Reading →

searching God distant sky night telescope

Does God Seem More Distant? It’s An Opportunity!

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God is very big on faith. It is the way we connect with Him and it is even the way we are saved. In  human relationships faith, or trust, is a precious commodity as well. We might love someone with all our heart but still not trust them because we deem them untrustworthy. A mother may be willing to die for her wayward adult son, but not trust him enough to let him live with her because of his destructiveness. But God is not destructive, just mysterious and challenging, and trusting Him takes time. This is why He goes to great lengths to develop faith in us. After we have been following Jesus for several years God will typically take away our sense of His presence in order that we might learn deeper faith. He does this because He loves us and wants to be more united with us. And Continue Reading →