Category: Christian Spirituality
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Losing to Find: How Surrender to Jesus Helps Us Discover Ourselves
Anyone finding his life will lose it, and anyone losing his life because of Me will find it. (Matthew 10:39) Like Jesus’s prior statement that he is to be loved above anyone or anything else, including our own lives, this is not the statement of an ordinary human being or teacher. It’s an extraordinary claim.…
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Rise Up and Follow: Loving Jesus for All He Is Worth
The person who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; the person who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. (Matthew 10:37-38) With these words, the commissioning of Matthew 10…
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The Presence of God and the Value of Sparrows: Why We Don’t Need to Be Afraid
From Rachel: I apologize for the lack of a new blog post last week. Health reasons prevented me from writing, but I’m glad to be back this week! Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body…
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“Your Father Knows”: Why It Matters Who You Pray To
From Rachel: I am kicking off 2019 with three months of rest and seeking God, so I am reposting favorites from the blog. I’ll be back with new posts in mid-April. Enjoy! When you pray, don’t babble like the idolators, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. Don’t be like them, because your…
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“Pray Like This”: How to Pray the Pattern in the Lord’s Prayer
Therefore, you should pray like this . . . (Matthew 6:9) In last week’s post we talked about “vain repetition” or empty babbling: praying like the prophets of Baal, in a desperate show of works meant to get the attention of an indifferent God. Jesus is clearly against that kind of praying. What sometimes gets…
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The Gospel According to Jesus
From Rachel: I am kicking off 2019 with three months of rest and seeking God … so I am reposting favorites from the blog. Enjoy! The Beatitudes, so familiar and easy to gloss over, are breathtaking when we see them clearly. Far from just a disjointed list of niceties, these kingdom blessings encompass the gospel…
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The Hidden Gospel in the Heart of the Beatitudes
Several years ago I was supposed to speak at a women’s conference here in Ontario on the Beatitudes and the kingdom of God. The idea was “seeing yourself through a kingdom lens.” I’d suggested that topic in part because it was specific but still broad enough for me to develop my talk over time, as…
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Blessed Are the Spiritually Impoverished, for the Kingdom of Heaven Is Theirs
The first blessing Jesus gives in the Beatitudes makes no sense at all. Poverty is not a “happy” state (makarios, the Greek word for “blessed,” is also translated “happy”). To be poor is devastating, not blessed. It is not a virtue to be poor in spirit: to be poor in spirit means we have no…
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To “Repent” Is to Hope: The Real Meaning of Jesus’ Call to Repentance
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:1-2, ESV) To many of us I think the word “repent” conjures up visions of angry Baptists picketing funerals or rock concerts, or maybe of old-school preachers raining down fire and brimstone…
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Name Him Jesus; Call Him Immanuel: The Names of Jesus and the Point of Religion
From Rachel: I am kicking off 2019 with three months of rest and seeking God … so I am reposting favorites from the blog. Enjoy! The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After Mary his mother had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant…