Category: Level: Beginner

When someone repents and believes in Jesus as their Saviour and Lord then God does something that defies the imagination. He actually creates a new self inside us. Why does He do this? Because in our natural state we are a mixed bag of good and bad. The good comes from the fact that God originally made us in His image, that is, as a limited reflection of himself. But when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God’s command and try to take control out of God’s hands then the image of God in them shattered. This meant that they could no longer think and act in healthy ways but rather in destructive ways, which is what sin is. (Sin is anything that blocks God’s goodness, especially the love we are supposed to have for one another.) Furthermore, they could no longer bond with God because it would be like Continue Reading →

Jason Hanson’s dad was out of the home when Jason was two years old. Eventually Jason started using drugs, got kicked out of his house, almost committed suicide twice, experienced his sister’s suicide, started selling drugs, committed two assaults and eventually ended up in prison and accepted Jesus. But he couldn’t live a Christian life and ended up in prison three more times. Each time he got out he was a lost soul looking for life but he kept relapsing. Eventually he ran into James, a Christian man who poured his life into Jason. This transformed his life. James let Jason know that he cared about his heart, he showed him how to live a godly life, and he persevered with Jason for over eight years. In short, he re-fathered him. Incredibly, Jason eventually became a very effective youth pastor! It would not have happened without James’ fatherly love and Continue Reading →

God actually adopts us into His family as His child when we believe in Christ (Rom. 8:15)! It seems too good to be true but it is. This is our new core identity and we need to remind ourselves of this daily. When we remember who we are we will find strength to become more like Christ. When people adopt a child they often go to great expense and effort. God did the same thing for us: the Son came to earth as a human and endured opposition and execution just so that God could adopt us as His child. And once He adopted us we became one of His heirs (Rom. 8:16). In fact, Scripture says that Jesus is our brother (Mt. 12:49-50 (Mk. 3:34-35); Heb. 2:11, 17) and just as He receives an inheritance from the Father so too we are fellow heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). But Continue Reading →

In my early 30’s I had gone through over a year of excruciating physical and emotional pain. One day I was standing in the yard looking out over the sea and reflecting on what I was feeling and I realized that I was angry at God. This was not welcome news but I accepted it and started to tell God why I was angry at him. Even though I was afraid to express anger at God I pressed on because I trusted his forgiveness. When I was done there was no sense of rejection from him, on the contrary it was a big release and birthed a deeper relationship with God. It was okay to have my bad and tell him all about it. It’s interesting how a forgiveness mindset changes our view of ourselves and others. Without a forgiveness mindset our natural attitude towards our faults is to minimize Continue Reading →