pain

Be Gentle

“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1 Today, I want to share how being aware of what people are going through and being sensitive to their pain enables us to love as Jesus did. I want to talk about how we can become a life-giving presence in relationships with others — be gentle. In our world, it seems that we have gotten more and more harsh with each other. Whether in politics or religion, people have become violent in their rhetoric and language. When we get in a fight with our spouse or get angry at the guy who cut us off in traffic, many of us tend to respond angrily and with a mean spirit. However, this is not helping us as a society. Even as we are forced to function in an angry world, there’s one important thing to remember:

October 29, 2022 3 Comments

A Transformed Mind = A Transformed Life

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” – Romans 12:2 In Spain, there’s a man named Justo Gallego Martinez, who lived to be 96 years old. Justo was a Trappist monk during the Spanish Civil War, a time in which he saw many of his friends murdered and his own life was also in grave danger. Even worse, after the war, he contracted tuberculosis causing him to leave the monastery and he could no longer be a monk. Refusing to lose hope, he thought to himself, “Lord, if you heal me of this disease, I’ll build a cathedral for you.” The Lord healed him — the problem was, he had no money or resources to carry out his vow to God.

June 16, 2022 No Comments

Jesus Softens Hard Hearts

“Then he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.’” – Matthew 13:3,4 I touched on this subject last month, but today, I want to look at how hard hearts develop. Many of us are familiar with the parable of the sower, which is the story Jesus told of the farmer who went out to scatter seed; some of it fell on the road, some on rocky soil, some on thorny soil, and some on good soil. The thing that most fascinates me is the seed that fell on the road. Unlike our paved highways today, a road in Jesus’ day would have been simply a dirt-packed trail that had been trodden so frequently it had become impacted, hard, and nothing could grow there.

June 14, 2022 1 Comment

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

April 20, 2022 1 Comment

The Suffering Savior

“Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ And they slapped him in the face.” – John 19:1-3 Having just celebrated Easter, the death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus is fresh on our minds. There’s no better time to remember the long and painful road our Savior endured to get to the cross. After three years of difficult public ministry that were no doubt physically, emotionally and spiritually draining, He was betrayed by one of His own disciples. He was turned over to Roman authorities, who, after pressure from the zealots among His people, agreed to have Him killed. As if the sentence of death by crucifixion wasn’t horrendous enough, He was beaten to

April 19, 2022 No Comments

Utterly Pure and Persecuted

“Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, ‘Come to bed with me!’ But he refused. ‘With me in charge,’ he told her, ‘my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care…One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. She caught him by his cloak and said, ‘Come to bed with me!’ But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.” – Genesis 39:7-9,11,12 Yesterday, we looked at the beginning of the story of Joseph. He was a young and naive dreamer who was sold into slavery by his brothers in their jealousy. After being sold, Joseph’s saga progressed, and he ended up in the household of a wealthy Egyptian named

April 15, 2022 1 Comment

Radical Mercy

“Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” – James 2:12,13 I believe it was Rick Warren who once said, “Hurting people hurt people.” As a pastor who has seen a lot of pain, I don’t know of any truer statement than this. So today, I want to invite you to consider what would happen if you purposefully adopted this view of the ones who wrong you? Do you have any idea how life changing it might be if someone blatantly offended you and you purposely show them the Kingdom of God instead? What if someone cuts in front of you in line at the store or at Disneyland? While your natural inclination might be to read them the riot act, do you

April 9, 2022 No Comments

Vulnerability in Relationships

“See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.” – Luke 11:35,36 Today, I want to sum up our discussion of discipline and secrecy and how it deepens our walk with God. Allow me to offer you two practical steps you can take to employ the power of secrecy in your own life and in your relationships, both with Jesus and others. First of all, when you do something really great for someone else, keep it a secret. If you’ve never done this before, I encourage you to give it a try. Give a gift to a friend or a stranger, serve in some capacity, or volunteer for a day, but don’t tell anyone. When

February 1, 2022 1 Comment

Present Through the Suffering of Others

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” – 2 Corinthians 1:3,4 We discussed yesterday how being present in pain allows us to withstand and learn from our life’s winters. Today, I have one last tip with you that will help you grow and bless others during your wilderness seasons: be present with others in their pain. You have the fantastic opportunity to be present with those who are experiencing their own pain, whether you are now in a winter season or have recently entered spring. Everyone who is going through a difficult moment requires someone to accompany them through the valley. Pain alone is the only thing worse than suffering. Those

January 23, 2022 No Comments

Present Through Suffering

“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance…” – Romans 5:3 We talked yesterday about the importance of not asking too many questions during the winter seasons of our lives. Today, I want to provide another tip that can aid us in navigating the difficult times we are in: be present in your suffering. I’ve previously told the story of a boy and a silver ball on a string, and it perfectly illustrates the argument I want to make today. It’s a Russian tale about a school-aged child who meets a fairy while roaming through the woods. She gives him a present during the encounter, which appears to be a simple silver ball on a piece of string but is actually a magic wand that allows him to pull the string and fast forward past difficult aspects of his life. While

January 22, 2022 1 Comment

Be Gentle

A Transformed Mind = A Transformed Life

Jesus Softens Hard Hearts

Sudden Resurrection

The Suffering Savior

Utterly Pure and Persecuted

Radical Mercy

Vulnerability in Relationships

Present Through the Suffering of Others

Present Through Suffering

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