Hope

Run to God and Wait

“The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?” – Psalm 27:1 When I am aware of thoughts that are causing me to lose sleep or I have feelings of discomfort in my body — I am learning to just run to God. It is easy to blame others, like your spouse, a political party, or the government for your frustrations. I am thankful that as I run to God, I can just say, “Lord, this is what is on my mind and my heart. God, what is your answer to my frustration? How can I align with you in this situation?” I can then wait for God’s answer. God has victory in store for your life, and half of that victory is just believing that it is so.  Looking at the life

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Sudden Resurrection

“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?’” – Luke 24:1-5 What an awesome truth we celebrated this past Sunday! I can’t stop thinking about it! Though the road to the cross was dark and filled with pain and His death was bloody and horrible, Jesus’ resurrection overcame it all! Naturally, when His mother and friend came to the tomb to tend to

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Keep Hope Alive!

“If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” – 2 Timothy 2:13 We’ve been looking at the story of Joseph and how getting to where he needed to be was a long process that required unexpected twists and turns, many of which looked like anything but the fulfillment of a destiny. His story is encouraging to us because it teaches us about God’s redemptive sovereignty. You see, the Lord is not holding our sins against us. We can count on the cross for our forgiveness and know that as we put our trust in Him, He will get us to where we need to go. Even when we are faithless, He is faithful!  This reminds me of my son, Cohen, who just loves Disneyland. To him, it really is the happiest place on earth. I remember a few years ago, he didn’t understand the concept of

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Heavenly Assignments

“In his defense Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.’” – John 5:17 As we talked about yesterday, non-work is not ideal, but our culture is bent towards thinking that leisure is King. We have come to believe that Heaven is a place where we sit around eternally and eat from a buffet, float on clouds, and fly. However, the truth is that there will be work for us to do there, too, but it will be the best kind of work. In the next life, we will have meaningful, life-giving assignments, the type that we were meant to experience before the fall. In short, it will be avodah. There are probably many of us who think seriously about the afterlife and at one time or another feared that it might be boring. The good news is

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Three Kinds of Faith

“Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you.” – Matthew 9:29 We’ve been talking a lot about faith — what it is and what it isn’t and how it plays out in our lives. Today, I want to assert that there are different kinds of faith that correspond to distinct seasons of our lives as Christians.  Different things motivate our trust at various times in our lives, but the bottom line is that faith is essential to our survival and quality of life. Why? Because faith has to do with the future. When we are unable to put our hope in anyone or anything, we quickly become despondent and crippled by worry, anxiety, and depression. Faith is the essential component of a productive, abundant, and fruitful life, which is why living in the Kingdom of God is absolutely the best way.

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Faith in the Small Things

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” – Luke 16:10 Do you like to fly? If you’re like a lot of people, you may not. I used to feel a fair share of apprehension when I would fly, even going so far as to put my hand on the little logo of the plane as I was walking through the door and saying a prayer. However, as the years have gone on and I have flown more frequently, I am not uptight like I once was.  I remember when I was on a flight some time ago, a lady sat down next to me. She had a totally dignified demeanor and she was flying from Orange County to Texas to meet her new grandbaby. She warned me from the start that

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Attack Precedes Victory

“The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” – Exodus 14:14 We talked yesterday about the fact that we have an enemy and that he is serious about taking down believers before his final demise. Today, I want to share another thought about that — the devil may have his eye on you because God has set you apart to do great things.  Most of you know of my grandfather Dr. Robert H. Schuller. He was a great man of God and although he didn’t often preach about Satan, behind the scenes, he talked about spiritual warfare, the Holy Spirit, and angels all the time. There was one particular encounter with him on this subject that I vividly recall. It was when I was in college and I was totally on fire for God. He was getting older and he sometimes needed help, so I was

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Seek Fulfillment in Him

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” – Matthew 13:44 Yesterday, we talked about the fact that God is sufficient in our finances. However, today I want to share with you that even having stable finances doesn’t promise an abundant and fear-free life — that is something that can only be attained when we let Jesus into our hearts and have faith in Him. I remember reading a story told by Simon Sinek, who’s a leadership author and speaker. He shared that he was sitting in a room with 150 of the world’s most successful leaders and business people and there was a speaker, although he didn’t say who it was. As the speaker began to address the crowd, he asked two

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Your Life is Full; You Lack Nothing

“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” – Psalm 23:1 In today’s worry-laden culture, many of us have shrinking worlds. Let me explain to you what I mean by that. Because we exist in a society that is laden with fear, we tend to see our life and its possibilities through a lens of scarcity; and a sense of lacking what we need. But what are we so afraid of? Many of us are in a kind of vortex of worry and we don’t even realize that we are. We are rushed, hurried and driven not by our true desires, but by our feelings of never having enough, whether it’s time, money, opportunities, friendship, or freedom. When we focus on everything we don’t have, our lives begin to lose its luster and dreaming becomes nearly impossible.  The fruit of this mentality of scarcity is that we become protective of

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You’re Not What You Do

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” – Ephesians 2:8,9 Well, the holidays have passed, and many of you will have returned to your regular routine by today. You may return to your office to find an inbox full of messages from folks who require your assistance. There may even be a desire to become overwhelmed and frustrated at the start of the year. If you’re feeling this way, please remember one thing: you are not what you do. Even if you’re still on vacation and haven’t yet returned to the grind, I encourage you to think about this crucial concept. Many people who grew up in religious households are shocked to learn that they are not what they do. In fact, I was asked to

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