I said a prayer for you today and know God must have heard,
I felt the answer in my heart although He spoke no word.
I didn’t ask for wealth or fame, I knew you wouldn’t mind.
I asked Him to send treasures of a far more lasting kind.
I asked that He’d be near you at the start of each new day.
To grant you health and blessings and friends to share along the way.

The Jesus life is another way of saying the ethic by which Jesus lived.
The character and morality that shaped and directed His daily decisions and actions.
Jesus words in Matthew 5-7 not only describe how we are to live, but how He lived – the Jesus life.
This ethic is described elsewhere in the bible, including 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, Galatians 5:22, Colossians 3:12-14, and especially Romans 12:9-21.
The way Jesus lived is an expression of the good news, it is God’s grace in action.
It is through Jesus humility, patience, kindness, generosity, etc. that we are saved (see Philippians 2:1-11).
In addition, the Jesus life is not only HOW we are saved, it is WHAT we are saved for.
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. (1 Peter 2:21)
Obviously this life is too hard for us to follow by ourselves, but with God’s grace (assuring us of forgiveness for our flawed efforts) and with God’s help (assisting us by His Spirit to improve and magnify our flawed efforts), we do our best.
The Lord is not concerned with those who try and fail, but with those who fail to try at all.
From beginning to end, the Jesus life is a gift of grace – He lived it for us, He lives it with us!
Knowing that I am sinful, knowing that I am forgiven and accepted by grace, I strive with all my might and His to live the Jesus life, confident in Him and not in myself.
I do my best to be patient, I make every effort to be more forgiving, I resolve to be more generous or kind… but I do all this fully aware of how flawed my attempts are.
I place my flawed and imperfect attempts into His hands, and trust that He will use them for greater results than I could have done on my own.
This is what Paul is getting at when he says: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
The Jesus life is good news for me, but it can also be good news for others through me.
Will I allow the grace of God which saved me to work through me to others?
Will I strive with His grace and help to live the Jesus life – to be more loving, forgiving, merciful, patient, kind, etc.?

“If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.” – Thomas Edison
Not only is this true for all human beings, this is especially true for Jesus followers.
If we all did the things we are capable of doing in Christ, we would literally astound the world.
By myself I am able to do some things, but I can do all things through Christ Who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13).
What does this mean practically?
For me it means that I am underachieving, that I’ve set my goals and expectations to low.
As William Carey said, “Attempt great things for God, expect great things from God!”
May my dreams be God-sized this year, and may He do great things through me!
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. (John 14:12)

I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto Me and rest;
Lay down, thou weary one, lay down, Thy head upon My breast.”
I came to Jesus as I was, Weary and worn and sad;
I found in Him a resting-place, And He has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Behold, I freely give
The living water; thirsty one, Stoop down and drink and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank Of that life-giving stream.
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, And now I live in Him.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, “I am this dark world’s Light.
Look unto Me; thy morn shall rise And all thy day be bright.”
I looked to Jesus, and I found In Him my Star, my Sun;
And in that Light of Life I’ll walk Till traveling days are done.

Author: Horatius Bonar, 1846
Composer: John B. Dykes, 1868

“Consider the possibility that Jesus Christ is in an unparalleled position to offer spiritual help for all people, regardless of their religious background. Think of it. A rabbi to the Jews, a prophet to the Muslims, an avatar to the Hindus, an enlightened one to Buddhists, the Son of God to Christians, a wise teacher to secularists, and “a friend of sinners” for the rest of us.”
(Bruxy Cavey, The End of Religion, pp.11-12)

“The greater danger for most of us is not
that our aim is too high and we miss it,
but that it is too low and we reach it.”
- Michelangelo 

Wow, I did it, I can hardly believe it.
For the past three years I have kept up a blog journal on every chapter in the bible.
This has been part of my desire to help people experience Jesus through the bible, to hear His voice as they read and to choose each day to follow Him.
I know that some people have been trying to go through the readings with me.
My hope is that it has been a good experience for all of us, and above all that it has strengthened our relationship to Jesus.
One thing I wanted to highlight was how this was a communal effort. Continue reading through the bible in three years

SCRIPTURE: Revelation 16
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him. [Revelation 16:9]
This vision is shaped after God’s judgment against Egypt and Pharoah, with the many signs and plagues, and the people refusing to repent.
The things that happen in the world as it moves towards judgment day should be enough to get people’s attention, to make them think, to make them repent.
Wars, disasters, tragedies and crises, all of these are the birth pains that precede the final event, and should provoke us to see our need for God’s help and mercy.
And still people refuse to repent and glorify Him.
God is actively revealing Himself to humanity, and there is ample evidence of His glory and grace, so that we are without excuse [Romans 1:18-20].
Everything God does and allows is intended to get us to seek Him [Acts 17:26-28].
But they refused to repent and glorify him. [Revelation 16:9] Continue reading repent or refuse?

I received an email recently with wisdom from Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft). There is something so relevant and true about what he writes, and yet how many of us seem to forget it? How many younger people are going into life with an illusion about what life will be for them, and unprepared for reality. What do you think?

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about eleven things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair – get used to it!
Rule 2 : The world doesn’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: They called it opportunity.
Rule 6 : If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10 : Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.