The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'" Mark 1:3 (ESV) I read (I think in one of my study Bibles) that in the Book of Mark, he uses the word "IMMEDIATELY" or "AT ONCE" 41 times in this book, showing a sense of SPEED and URGENCY often introducing a new incident, or turn[...]
All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is TRUE to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare His people to do every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NLT). This passage is so helpful to me today! I'd been feeling a l[...]
Jesus responded, “Beloved daughter, your faith in Me released your healing. Go with My peace.” Luke 8:43 (TPT) In just a few verses, this woman enters the text unnamed, labelled unclean, treated an outcast, and leaves healed and made whole, from rejection to belonging, under the law covered by grace. She has suffered for 1[...]
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10 (ESV) This scripture is a challenging one for me. To say I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities would be a stretch. To be[...]
The Lord is my light and my salvation—so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble? (Psalm 27:1 NLT) While we sat in our car as we travelled, the vehicle’s engine slept; the forward motion accredited to the marine vessel it rested on. But, unlike other weekly sea voy[...]
“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Jeremiah 2:13 (ESV) Imagine you were lost in a desert, having had no water for days. Then suddenly, you were offered the option to receive water from[...]
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” John 4: 10 (ESV) Like the Samaritan woman at the well, God often calls us to come away with Him to be refreshed with living water. Some of the mos[...]
During this Easter Sunday service worship, as I listened and prayed, God gave me a vision. I was lifting my hands to Him, cupped with my heart inside. Then out oozing through my fingers was a liquid because the heart was being squeezed. Then from above came a big light, like a laser beam, that went right between my hands to op[...]
It's crazy how we can sing lyrics of a song with such gusto, but if we were to remove the music and lay the lyrics bare, could we truly say the same words with the same conviction? Do we really mean what we are singing? Think about it for a moment, how many times have the words "All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give[...]
When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” (John 19:26 NIV) One thing I know about the character of God, and therefore of Jesus, is that he loves each of us equally. There is no discrimination in the kingdom. So I have often ponder[...]