Category: Weekly Word of Encouragement

For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD. Psalms 117:2 (NIV) For this passage I will present the words of John of the Cross (1542-1591) who described what it was like to experience God’s love. The soul now feels that it is all inflamed in the divine union, its palate is all bathed in glory and love, that in the intimate part of its substance it is flooded with no less than rivers of glory, abounding in delights, and from its depths flow rivers of living water.[1] The soul feels its ardor strengthen and increase and its love become so refined in this ardor that seemingly there flow seas of loving fire within it, reaching to the heights and depths of the earthly and heavenly spheres, imbuing all with love.[2] The soul always walks in festivity, inwardly and outwardly, and Continue Reading →

God is merciful.The LORD preserves the simple Psalms 116:5-6 (NIV) The Hebrew word translated as “simple” means naive or inexperienced. The book of Proverbs was written to instruct the simple (Prov.1:4), for they can become wise (Prov. 1:22). We are all simple in some areas. By definition, we cannot be experienced in everything we do. Sometimes we have to forge ahead with our simple understanding. But Yahweh (LORD) does not pass over the simple because they are not yet wise. He does not leave us to ourselves because we are inexperienced. Instead, he is merciful. He preserves our hearts and keeps us from ruining ourselves by our simplicity. This is very helpful to remember when we have to take some risks and we have done our best to discern God’s will, but we don’t have full assurance. We do not need to have full assurance of God’s will for every Continue Reading →

When it comes to the 2nd great commandment to love others (Matt. 22:39) we have a much greater responsibility to show active love to those for whom we have some responsibility. We don’t have time to actively bless everyone in our vicinity, but following Christ means that we definitely bless those in our care. This applies to our behavior in the workplace as well as to every other dimension of our lives. Business owners or executives are sometimes tempted to skimp on wages or benefits to employees in order to keep more for themselves. A Christian business owner may even justify this in their mind by thinking that the extra income allows them to give more to ministries. But obviously, skimping on wages is a very repulsive practice even for a non-Christian. An owner’s primary responsibility to their employees is to bless them. If there are extra profits, then the Continue Reading →

Surely the righteous will never be shaken . . . Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear;in the end they will look in triumph on their foes Psalms 112:6, 8 (NIV) God promises that if we are righteous then we will not be shaken. Since we are in Christ we have his righteousness, so judicially we are righteous. And God expects his children to live righteously too, which is what much of the New Testament focuses on. Thus, if we abide in Christ, then our soul, our heart, will not crumble like a collapsing wall. We will still have sorrow and tragedy, but our heart is safe in Christ. The peace, joy, and unity with God that we have in Christ cannot be taken away. There is no fear that can overtake us. So, when this age is over we will be able to survey the world and Continue Reading →

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;all who follow his precepts have good understanding. Psalms 111:10 (NIV) In this verse the Psalmist expresses the same idea in two different ways, which we refer to as a Hebrew parallelism. Notice that one cannot even begin to have wisdom unless they start with the fear of Yahweh (Lord in all caps is a translation of God’s name, Yahweh.) If you fear (respect, honor, recognize that God will judge all) God then you have already begun to have wisdom. This puts you far ahead of all the ideologies that swirl around the world today. So many groups spin their views of reality and meaning without considering the God of all creation. They teach the future generations in our universities, influence our politics, and transform our societies. Yet ultimately, these ideologies and religions are destructive because they do not know the Continue Reading →