Posts with the tag “following-jesus”

Most of us have areas of life where we are trying to hold new things in old containers. A new commitment poured into old patterns. A new desire for God poured into a schedule with no room for Him. The wine is not the problem. The container is the problem. Jesus is putting new wine in you. Make sure you are becoming the kind of container that can hold it.  Read More

Most of us are carrying something we have not brought to Jesus because we are not sure He wants to deal with it. We have made a quiet decision that this particular brokenness is ours to manage and His to overlook. But the leper did not make himself more presentable before he came. He came as he was. And Jesus reached out and touched him before He said a word. The touch came before the healing.  Read More

There is a gap between the authority we have declared and the authority we have actually handed over. We say Jesus. But the voice that wakes us up at two in the morning belongs to someone else. This week, notice the voices. Not to fight them. Just to name them. Because you cannot submit to the authority of Jesus in a room where you cannot hear Him over everyone else.  Read More

Every few years a story surfaces that follows the same basic pattern. A charismatic leader. An intense community. Sacrifice and devotion. And then the collapse. The secular world draws the obvious conclusion: the problem is religion. The problem is authority. But that misses the actual diagnosis. The problem is never that people submitted to authority. The problem is that they submitted to the wrong one. Jesus walked into a synagogue and the people immediately knew something was different. He taught as one who had authority, not as someone who had borrowed it from someone else. In the last days, Scripture says the counterfeits will be convincing enough to mislead even the elect. Which means discernment has never mattered more. Read the full post.  Read More

Most of us have nets. Not fishing nets. The thing we keep holding onto that keeps us from full availability to Jesus. Simon and Andrew were not doing something wrong. The nets were their livelihood, their identity, their plan. The nets were not the problem. Holding them when Jesus said follow was. You already know what yours is. You knew it Sunday.  Read More