He Hears My Voice

I thank You, God, that You hear my voice. What comforting words. The God of the universe hears my small voice, and not only hears it, but loves to hear it. Right before Lazarus was raised from the dead, Jesus said, “I thank You, Father, that You always hear Me.” This was a statement of confidence, connection, and comfort, a deep knowing that God not only hears our voice, but responds to it. God hears my voice. What a comforting truth in a very uncertain world. God, I thank You that You always hear my voice, and that You love…

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Eyes to See

The words of Jesus are right and true, and that should sober us. Human reasoning can be deeply deceptive because it is often clouded by hatred, pride, self interest, idolatry, and plain selfishness. All of these distort our perception of reality. Jesus called the Pharisees blind guides and warned that both the guide and the one following would fall into a ditch. Blindness is a frightening condition, because when we cannot see clearly, we inevitably stumble and fall. We must guard our hearts carefully and remove anything that blinds us. God, free us from the things in our lives that…

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Never Alone

Where is Christ to be found? When we receive Christ, He comes to live inside us. This means the place He is found is within us. God becomes very near, very close. He becomes our constant companion, never leaving our side. He is within us in the hardest moments of life. Loneliness begins to lose its power. We are never alone. We are never unloved. He lives inside us, loving us, speaking to us, and walking with us as our closest friend and constant companion. Never alone becomes the theme of our lives. Never alone again. This becomes our world,…

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One Spirit with Christ

Jesus became flesh and blood so that He could dwell among us, so that He, God, could become one spirit with us. God’s ultimate purpose was not merely for us to believe in Jesus, nor simply to take us to heaven someday, but to make us one spirit with Him now. The Bible says that the one who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him. For this union to be possible, Jesus had to become flesh and blood. He also had to die to a selfish life and surrender everything to the Father. This is the nature…

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The Unveiling of Jesus

One of our great problems today is that, for many reasons, the glory and splendor of Jesus are hidden from us. We see Him only in part. Some see Him more clearly than others. In John chapter 17, Jesus prayed, “Unveil the glorious splendor of Your Son.” Those words, the glorious splendor of Your Son, are striking. This prayer needs to become our prayer as well. When the prophet Isaiah saw the glory of God, he was completely undone. An encounter with God’s glory changed everything for him. In the same way, we need to see the glorious splendor of…

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Beyond Our Comprehension

You, O God, are far greater than my perception of You. You are beyond the mind’s ability to fully comprehend. When we look at the universe, at atoms and molecules, at the billions and trillions of elements required to produce intelligent life, we are humbled by the staggering complexity of it all. Even the complexity of the human body alone is overwhelming. The world around us testifies that its Creator is beyond our comprehension. We need God’s help to understand even a small portion of who He is. God, reveal Yourself to me. Only You can do this, because I…

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Fusion

Christianity is not merely accepting Jesus or believing in Him, even though that is true. It is far greater than that. It is allowing Jesus to come inside us and fuse His divine life with ours. We become one with Him, and His divine life forms an entirely new person within us. We see this transformation happen again and again. Jesus described it as being born anew, from above. Divine joy, divine peace, and divine love become the hallmarks of this new nature, and our restless, thirsty souls finally find a home. This is enormous. The God of the universe…

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A Law of the Kingdom

The kingdom of God is a real kingdom. It has a government, with rules and laws. Laws exist for the protection of all, to bring peace and security. They are not meant to spoil our joy, but to guard our lives. When we drive our cars, there are many rules in place for the safety of everyone on the road. In the same way, the kingdom of God has laws designed for our well-being. One of these laws is found in Philippians 4:6–7: “Do not fret or have anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer…

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Finding Meaning in a Meaningless World

The apostle Paul made a striking statement in Philippians 3:8. He said that he counted everything as garbage compared to knowing Christ. To describe everything in the material world as garbage sounds extreme, but Paul was not saying that all things are worthless. He was saying that, in comparison to a relationship with Christ, everything else falls away. Garbage is made up of things we use up and no longer need, so we discard them. To view material things this way is not as unreasonable as it may sound, because that is ultimately what happens to all of them. Over…

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Defining Reality

We are born into a real world of things. Billions upon billions of realities that shape who we are. As we grow, we begin to define the world by observing it. We live in a world we discover, and those discoveries help define who we are and where we live. For example, we live on a small sphere we call Earth, rotating around a massive nuclear reaction at roughly 64,000 miles per hour. We cannot say the Earth is flat when observation tells us otherwise. Reality must be defined by what we see, not by what we wish. We are…

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