So many people try to quench their spiritual thirst by physical means: family…friends…job…possessions. Yet none of these earthly things can meet their heavenly need, as Augustine famously prayed centuries ago: “Our heart is restless until it rests in You” (Confessions 1.1).
To many people who seek something more from life, God seems remote, unreachable, silent. Yet others have overcome the obstacles of man-made religion to find true meaning through a personal relationship with the eternal God. What does that mean? How can we begin a relationship with God? How can we lead others to truly know Him?
The answer is Jesus Christ, who freely gives living water to all who thirst.
The dictionary says keeping a journal means recording daily events. I find this basic definition comforting because it means anyone can do it. In fact, you’re probably already journaling without realizing it.
I began journaling during my 16 months overseas. I saw my “thoughts disentangle themselves over the lips and through the fingertips,” a little saying I learned from a mentor who gave me my first journal.
People ask this question because there is no reference to God or the Law in Song of Solomon and it seems explicit in celebrating sexual love. Through the centuries it has been one of the most controversial books in the Bible.
In reality, we all come before the mirrors to do business! We gaze hard in that painfully honest reflection with the purpose of doing something about what we see.
And it was this intensity that caused prayer to degenerate from a flowing spontaneity to a rigid, packaged plan, dispensed routinely by the religious leaders. Prayer changed from privilege to an obligation.
Wise living chooses to understand and respond to all of life—our relationships, our work, our words, and our money—from God’s viewpoint.
Why don’t we experience more victory in the Christian life? We have neglected the spiritual disciplines and opted for comfort and mediocrity. So now what do we do to find victory?
In his immortal work on the martyrs done in the 16th century, John Fox listed some of the epitaphs that appeared in the catacombs beneath Rome. Fox found other epitaphs on non-Christian graves. The difference is remarkable! So what accounts for the difference in these inscriptions? One word—resurrection!
Perhaps you never realized that it was Jesus’ attitude of unselfishness that launched Him from the splendour of heaven all the way down to a humble manger in Bethlehem…and later to the cross of Calvary.
Unless we view Bethlehem from the perspective of the cross, most of what we sing and celebrate at Christmas amounts to glorying in the cradle, not the cross.
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