Devotions (Page 41)

2 Corinthians 12:9, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” Earlier this month, I had a chance to share at Life-Spring about what God has been teaching me over the past few weeks. Much of what I’ve been learning is around a new opportunity that I’ve taken up this fall. I had a chance to teach a course at Tyndale Seminary this fall semester for the first time.…

Dear LifeSpring Family, The speaker at Power To Change chapel last week spoke on Luke 17:11-19. Most of us are familiar with this passage of our Lord Jesus Christ healing the ten lepers.  Jesus Cleanses Ten Lepers11 On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers,[a] who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to…

When I was a young Christian in the 80’s, the wise words of a church elder in our small group (Danny Chia) made an indelible mark on my heart which has served as a safeguard for my soul to this day: “As soon as you think you will never fall into a particular sin or temptation, you are already vulnerable.” (Probably not verbatim, but that was the essence of what he said.) It served to help me embrace my fragile…

Jireh by Elevation & Maverick City has been looping through my brain for the last few weeks. Every time I listen to it, I feel like the Lord reveals new layers throughout! It’s filled with references to Scripture that bring comfort and build up faith; God reveals areas in my life where I need to be growing in trust as I release “control” of them; my true identity in Christ is called out; layers upon layers of God’s love and…

Over the past couple of weeks I have had the privilege of engaging with people from all walks of life. Some seniors, some children, some in ministry, some in the workplace, etc. Something that really stood out to me was the fact that everybody has a story. In a recent meeting, the speaker mentioned that his eldest child was having a very difficult time in life. In fact he stated that it is an extremely difficult time. It was a passing statement…

On our road to growing in maturity, I’ve found that one of the things that hinders our growth is our sight. We hear great things that our God promises for us but they often don’t look like what we think it should look like. Our expectations of what should happen can cause us to grow bitter and angry sometimes. Even when the visions God gives us are so grand and seemingly difficult, we tend to shy away because of the…

Is anybody else out there already starting to Christmas-ify their home?? I’m really hoping it’s not just me… 😅 It feels like I am especially early this year. I don’t have a tree up yet but the decorations and festive soap fragrances are slowly beginning to sneak their way in. And I am here for it! In times of darkness, like the new 5:00 pm (thanks Daylight Savings) and in times of waiting… having something to look forward to, something…

Over the past few months, one of the areas where God has been speaking to me is about humility. As important as humility is for our journey as Christians, it can be difficult to understand what genuine humility is and how it’s different from pride. I’d like to share a few things I’ve learned about humility–two of them are about what I call false humility, and two of them are about genuine humility. The part of scripture that illustrates this…

Being a newlywed and moving into a new home has brought many joys, many adjustments and many more responsibilities. The list of items gets longer but we still only have 24hrs in a day. It wasn’t long before I felt my cup was running dry and that there wasn’t enough time. Gabe always says that when life gets busy, one of the first things to go is your time with God. With that in mind, I have kept my morning…

Over the past 3 months we have seen a dramatic increase in people who are in need! As we Make Every Effort to support those in need, sometimes I just wish we could simply do more. I wish that we could provide a special formula and all the suffering, challenges, and tears would simply be wiped away. In our family, our aunt has had health challenges. As Karyne and I wrestled with how we can help, how we can make…

“Therefore, let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do…

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. Matthew 9:9 This week during our pastoral meeting, we were talking about some of the plans and purposes God has been putting on our hearts for the future. In the midst of that, we also had a chance to look back on the journey God has taken us on as…