Having Begun in the Spirit
One of the most persistent myths in the church today is the belief that salvation is God's job and the Christian life is our job, as if the whole of the Christian life is something we do out of gratitude for getting to go to heaven when we die....
A Measure of Worth
How am I valuable? How do I know I am worth something? Why do so many people struggle with feelings of worthlessness? Something inside us wants to matter — to be valuable. But where do we look? All around us we see messages about who is valuable. Billionaires have now replaced...
God’s Part and My Part
When talking about how we ourselves are involved in spiritual growth, the biggest mistakes have to do with mixing up what job belongs to whom. We either take on far too much of the task and attempt spiritual growth by direct self-effort, or we become too passive by praying...
Why God Often Speaks Without Words
Most of the time, we experience God's communication to us in the form of spontaneous words and images. But why? Couldn't He speak more distinctly? Perhaps audibly? Or at least in clear sentences? The following is an excerpt from Whispers of my Abba, where I address this characteristic of...
Why Would a Christian Need Grace?
A great many Christians today think that grace only has to do with gettng saved — Grace is when God forgives our sin and makes us a child of God. True enough. But that is only the beginning! Grace is everything God does in us and for us that...
Real Knowledge
"And this I pray — that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment" (Phil.1:9). When Paul speaks of knowledge in this way, he is not talking about information. He means that kind of knowing that comes from experience, as in knowing a...
Eternal Life
"We proclaim to you the Eternal Life which was with the Father was revealed to us…so that you also may have koinonia with us; and truly our koinonia is with the Father and His Son" (1Jn.1:2-3). For John, eternal life was not just a thought about what would happen...
God is not Silent
"God is not silent, has never been silent." — A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God When I try to convey the extent to which God's voice has changed my life, I am almost speechless. I am not the same person I was just fourteen years ago when I...
The Importance of Movement
In Peter's second letter, he makes an important statement about continuous growth: "If these characteristics are in you and continuously increasing, you will become effective and fruitful in your experiential knowledge of Christ" (2Pet.1:8, paraphrased)....
Our Jealous God
In the middle of his diatribe against divisiveness among Christians, James makes a vague reference to Scripture that has puzzled many translators and scholars. While there is room for debate about what he meant to say, my own preference for the verse is expressed in the New King James:...