When we worship someone or something else besides God, we turn that person or thing into an idol. Idols can be husbands, kids, careers, money, health, even a ministry or a church. If it’s more important to you then God is, congratulations — you just made a golden calf.   Casting down the idol doesn’t mean abandoning a beloved person or thing! It means not putting insane expectations of godhood and your personal happiness on someone who isn’t God.   Question: In 2018, how will your shift your worship from an idol back to God?

The center of Wesley’s theology is the grace of God, which is the redeeming activity of divine love. , Wesley called the study of grace “practical theology,” or living out our Christian beliefs in our daily lives. Practical theology is not only the study of a particular faith. A non-Christian can be a theologian, and some of them are. But practical theology is what every Christian should practice: to understand how God has saved us through Jesus Christ, and to live out our new life in love and service to God and others. Grace Grace is central to the Christian life. Grace arises from the love of God, if God…

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…