It makes more sense to think Jesus is comparing service to fellow believers with service to him, rather than to hear him saying, “You should see my image in the faces of the poor.” Granted, Jesus was a “man of sorrows,” so other sufferers may be able to identify with Jesus in a special way.... Continue Reading

Friend, you are not Moses. You are not the last guy. God never meant you to be. Honor your predecessor not by being a better version of him but by building on whatever good foundation he left behind.   We are all interim. I have often reminded myself of this fact in recent years. When... Continue Reading

It is in being received as a child of God that we find the love for which we long. We are born longing to become beloved. To feel beloved. Due to our homeless hearts, we have a strong bent toward misplacing this desire in things and people that can never deliver on it.   Editor’s... Continue Reading

To Pilate, Jesus was interesting and innocent (Mark 15:5, 14). But at the end of the day, Jesus was inconvenient. Pilate valued his reputation for keeping the peace and his career as a Roman governor over and above giving justice to this innocent man. He didn’t want to kill Jesus, but he did want to... Continue Reading

The hope we have is not to get through the flaming sword of those cherubim or to go back into those places where those two special trees were. God will accomplish the goal of the garden. It will be through Christ’s work—the glory of what the church’s future is in Christ—but also a new creation... Continue Reading

Jesus spoke about how our mindset is connected to who we are in His Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7). He explained, for example, how Old Testament commandments relate to who we are inside. He said that anyone who even looks at a woman with lust commits adultery in his heart (Matt. 5:28). That’s because... Continue Reading

I know that my children will not love Christ until they really comprehend His love for them (1 John 4:10). I know that without faith it is impossible to please Him (Heb 11:6). But even still, I want my children to be trained to love Him. I want to teach them to worship. How do... Continue Reading

You can damage the gift of conscience, just as you can damage other gifts from God. Oddly enough, you can damage it in two opposite ways: by making it insensitive and by making it oversensitive. We make conscience insensitive by developing a habit of ignoring its voice of warning so that the voice gets weaker... Continue Reading

When we think of Hebrew idolatry, we tend to think of worshipping another god. However, another form of idolatry is making a version of the Lord and then substituting that image for the true Lord. We do this when we form an image of the Lord in our minds, a god who winks at our... Continue Reading

“Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad. Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His face continually”. (1 Chronicles 16:10-11)” The word “face” was commonly used to describe God’s presence. David experienced this daily, and now, as ruler, he wanted the whole nation to join him. And he believed the Ark’s... Continue Reading