Many of us probably have friends who post a faux version of their lives on social media. They present personas without scars and lives unhindered by challenges or failures. That’s nothing new if you’ve been on any social media platform for some time. In truth, it’s how many of us live – seldom willing to …
“The devil cannot command, he can only influence.” I heard those words from a recent devotional, and they stuck with me. To issue a command, one must hold a position of power over subordinates. When God, the ultimate Sovereign, made the earth, He delegated His authority over it to humankind, not the devil [Genesis 1:26-28, …
Obviously, that question presupposes that a person is already seeking God, and many people certainly aren’t. For some, God is a figment of the imagination of those who believe He exists. I readily concede that in today’s world, eloquent apologetics is unlikely to sway anyone firmly ensconced in their belief that all that’s visible is …
Free will carries a burden of responsibility because choices have consequences. Although God made it easy for us to choose good [Deuteronomy 30:15-20], human beings have demonstrated throughout history that we’re incapable of making good decisions consistently. Either through ignorance or wilful disobedience, we repeatedly violate God’s commandments with our free will [Romans 3:23]. The …
Humour me with an impossible hypothetical scenario: Imagine someone who had listened to Jesus and His first disciples preach had fallen into a coma and has just woken up. What would such a person make of a typical news cycle on most cable networks? On any given news segment, there’s a report on war, economic …
I noticed something curious with my kids recently. We may have just finished talking about the fact that Jesus wants us to be generous towards others. Then, almost immediately afterwards, they are squabbling because one refuses to share a packet of sweets with the other. What I find even more amusing is the response I …
We don’t hear much about the donkey in the Palm Sunday story. We know Jesus explicitly directed two of His disciples to find a specific donkey no one had ever sat on [Luke 19:29-34], but we don’t know much else. That’s OK because the donkey is a prop in this story. Its Maker, the One …
Several people gave up everything to follow Jesus during His earthly ministry. Some of them left behind their families, jobs, etc., to accompany a street preacher on evangelical missions across Israel for three years [Luke 18:28]. It was a risky, uncomfortable leap of faith [Luke 6:58]. John tells us that these men and women beheld …
In any journey, it’s worthwhile to know where you are in relation to your destination. Anyone who decides to follow Jesus must realise that it’s a journey with a predetermined path, and we aren’t at liberty to change the route or the destination. In the first part of this discourse, I pointed out that if, …
I’ve been thinking of the lyrics of Be Magnified recently. The song begins with the lines: “I have made You too small in my eyes, o Lord, forgive me. I have believed in a lie, that You were unable to help me. But now, o Lord, I see my wrong”. I find those words convicting …
