Category Archives: Faith
In Love
“Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. But the crowds were displeased. ‘He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,’ they grumbled.” Luke 19:6-7 [emphasis added]
For a heart change to occur, the second thing is, I Must Believe that God LOVES me. It is not enough to believe that God is after me because some people think that God is after them to kill them. When some people think of God coming after them, they think of a judge with a big whip searching for their errors and whacking them on the head and on the backside. For a lot of people, when they think of God all they can think of is a taskmaster. So it is not enough to say that God is after you. In fact, if you stop some people and Read the rest of this entry
God Wants You!
“When Jesus came by, He looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name, ‘Zacchaeus!’ He said, ‘Quick, come down for I must be a guest in your home today.’” Lu.19:5 [emphasis added]
Pay attention to what Jesus said; I must be a guest in your home today. In other words, I am compelled to. Do you want Jesus to be compelled to go home with you today? I am here to tell you that God has not given up on you. Jesus is hanging around the tree you are on. In fact, He is shaking the tree and calling you to come down. What do you think that moment was like for Zacchaeus? He was an outcast amongst his people. He had a bad name. He was a short man. But Jesus, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, put Read the rest of this entry
Yes, You!
“When Jesus came by, He looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name, ‘Zacchaeus!’ He said, ‘Quick, come down for I must be a guest in your home today.’ Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy” Luke.19:5-6 [emphasis added]
God is after you. God wants to have a relationship with you. God wants to connect with you. Zacchaeus goes out of his way to find Jesus only to discover that, the whole time, Jesus had been looking for him. Jesus looked at the tree and said, Zacchaeus come down. Zacchaeus must have fallen out of that tree. The Bible says he came down from the tree quickly. That is all the information we have. We are not told how he came down. But just imagine you were the one on that tree looking for Jesus and unknown to you He even Read the rest of this entry
Even You
“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it” Eph.2:8-9
In Luke 18:25, Jesus said, “It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Not long after that statement comes Zacchaeus. As you can imagine everybody was waiting for Jesus to give him a show down. Everybody was waiting for Jesus to tell him the story of his life and its fullness or lack thereof. Standing there was Zacchaeus, the same man that climbed the tree because he was too short to see Jesus from the ground. His name, Zacchaeus, means the righteous one. But Read the rest of this entry
Love Works IV
But be sure in deciding these matters that you are living as God intended, marrying or not marrying in accordance with God’s direction and help, and accepting whatever situation God has put you into.” 1 Cor. 7:17 [TLB, emphasis added]
When you ask God, be ready to do what He says. It may not make sense to you now but it will do you good for years to come. A young man came to the office to tell me about the three girls he was keeping simultaneous relationships with and had invested in. He was ready to get married and settle down and he wanted God to pick a wife for him from the three ladies. The impression I got of the Lord at the time was, what if it is none of them? And I told him but he insisted it had to be because he had “invested” in all three ladies.
Love Works III
“Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” 1 Cor. 13:7 [emphasis added]
You will be shocked at the number of divorce cases that happen because no one had the courage to say there was a problem or because everyone decided to avoid confrontation. “…we can trust God to do what He promised” Heb.10:23 [NCV]. There is only so much that you can do in your strength. Do not kill yourself. Confront the elephant in the room. I know it is going to make you uncomfortable but it is inevitable. It is obvious that there is no other way because what you have been doing has not worked. So why not just do what the Read the rest of this entry
Love Works II
“Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” 1 Cor. 13:7 [emphasis added]
As human beings, we sometimes drift out of love in our relationships. And weeds will grow on anything that you abandon. So what do you do when you discover that you have drifted apart maybe because you focused too much on work or allowed a season to take too much out of you? What do you do when you find yourself in a place where your heart and your feelings are absent? What you do is to act in love. Acting in love will mean still opening the door for your wife even though you do not feel anything yet.
Love Works I
“Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” 1 Cor. 13:7 [emphasis added]
God wants us to understand that relationships, particularly covenant relationships, can be very tough. But at the end of the day, love overcomes all things. I once saw a video of a couple that grew old together in marriage. Along the line, the woman became ill even to the point of not recognizing the husband. But that man stayed fully committed to loving his wife. Only love can take you through such situations and keep you there everyday. “Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” I Cor. 13:7 [emphasis]. In real life you will face real disappointments but love endures through every circumstance. So what is that huge disappointment that you feel? Go to God with your disappointment and watch God do a miracle. Read the rest of this entry
Love Endures
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1Cor.13:13 [NIV, emphasis added].
Go to God with the disappointments you feel in your relationships. However, in cases of character flaws, God says make allowances. For some people, the allowance might require you standing up to fill a gap in your relationship for a season. And in some other cases, it may mean a temporary separation until the other person is able to take responsibility for those errors and correct them. However, it does not mean you should give up on the relationship altogether because you never know what God can do. Sometimes the Read the rest of this entry
Relational Clarity
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1Cor.13:13[NIV].
The quality of your life is directly proportional to the quality of your relationships. The quality of your life is not directly proportional to the quality of things that you own. The quality of your life is directly proportional to the quality of your relationships. If your relationships are sour, your life will be sour. Unfortunately, because we struggle in our relationships, we try to fill our lives with things. So we end up loving things and using people. It is a trap you should not fall into. God wants us to love people and use things.
