-
Hope: My Faith Is Built on Nothing Less
“For in hope we were saved. Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.” (Romans 8: 24 – 25) The word “hope” is a lovely word. But what do we hope for? “I hope that dress goes on sale.” “I hope I win $20 on my lottery ticket.” “I hope my car makes it.” “I hope she calls.” “I hope the stock market turns around.” But that definitely doesn’t sound like the kind of “hope” the Bible is referring to! In fact, hope is one of the three…
-
The Ordinary to the Extraordinary
This morning in Mark Batterson’s In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day I read this: “Here is a novel thought; What if actually did what they did in the Bible? [Ten days together in the upper room, then the coming of Pentecost.] What if we fasted and prayed for ten days? What if we sought God with some ancient intensity instead of spending all our energy trying to eliminate His surprises? Maybe then we’d experience some ancient miracles.” I don’t know if I could fast ten days, but I sure as heck can fast for a day. I cannot take more time off work to do it, but…
-
Forgiveness Isn’t a Feeling
Forgiveness is not in our fallen human nature. We are attacked, we defend ourselves; someone treats us unjustly and we want justice done to them; someone is mean to us and we want to hit back. Even as the event recedes into the past we keep it alive with fantasies of revenge. God Is Really Clear on This Yet Jesus was extremely clear – extremely clear – that we need to forgive! “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” (Mark 11:25) Note that here, Jesus doesn’t say anything about if a person really…