The Line of Prayer …
Beware of a church that runs on the momentum of tradition rather than the power of prayer.
Beware of a church that runs on the momentum of tradition rather than the power of prayer.
If we are unloving and unrepentant then we should not think that God is likely to answer our prayers.
I feel tremendously challenged by the example of Jesus to strive for increased wisdom and understanding of Scripture.
Let your prayers embrace all kinds of people: high and low, white and black, democrats and republicans, Soviet premiers and Iranian Ayatollahs. Enlarge your heart until it embraces the world.
Our prayers should always aim not merely at our own satisfaction, but also at the benefit of others.
There are six things that should characterize every effort at team ministry in the church.
No single sin, not even suicide, evicts a person from heaven into hell.
God's Word is every Christian's infallible guide to maximum sexual fulfillment.
Don't trust in the kind of tree you are. If there is no fruit that accords with repentance, you will be destroyed.
Marital sex is a great joy that also proves to be a fearsome weapon against our ancient foe.
You can tell where a man's heart is resting by the way he handles his money and by the attitude he has toward his possessions.
Something has to happen if we are to be saved from the wrath of God. We must be profoundly changed.
You can learn more from a book if you stop and ask it questions than if you just read it passively. That includes the Bible too.
The great problem in contemporary Christian living is not learning the right things to do but how to do the right things. The problem is not to discover what love looks like but how to love by the Spirit.
The fundamental meaning of being filled with the Spirit is being filled with joy that comes from God and overflows in song.
God gives us spiritual gifts so that we can help others keep the faith in the midst of life's storms.
The church is the cosmic showcase of God's mercy, but he gets cosmic reproach when we fail to receive his mercy with joy.
There are at least seven qualifications if a group wants to be a church in the NT sense.
Jesus Christ is always eager and willing to make peace with anyone who will accept the terms of peace he offers.
God loves his holiness with infinite love and cherishes his purity. This is the starting point for understanding God and man and the world. If we don't start here everything goes askew.
Both thieves wanted to be saved from death. But O how differently they sought their salvation.
If we are going to love like Jesus loved, even in times of great stress and worry, then we must be filled with living hope.
It is relatively unimportant to Satan whether we are healthy or sick, rich or poor; what he wants is to sift out our faith. If he can do it by suffering, he will try that; if he can do it by wealth, he will try that.
You can't bless somebody if you desire their harm. If you are a follower of Jesus, you must desire the good of everyone, no matter what their race or nationality.
What does it mean to "fear the Lord"? And why is it so important that we praise a woman who fears the Lord?
What is wisdom? And what are some biblical instructions for how I can get it?
Why was Jesus' ascension into heaven good news for his disciples?
When God almighty pours himself into an individual, the inner life is changed; it is filled with God.
How you do your job is an essential part of Christian discipleship.
We must honor God above the state. But if the state does not require us to disobey Jesus then we should be subject for the Lord's sake.
Do not fear the work God calls you to. He loves you deeply, knows you fully, and will turn all for your good.
Never underestimate the power of truth spoken in a single sentence.
We are afflicted and blessed with a chronic restlessness, an insatiable soul-thirst, for this reason: that we might keep looking until we find Christ.
Jesus is God's fullest revelation and the source of all the knowledge and power that is good for us to have.
Labor to feast on Jesus. Satisfy yourself with his beauty and his hope-filled fellowship.
Only worship is an end in itself. Only worship should not be done as a means to achieving something other than itself.
God designs human support to sustain his children's faith and to lighten the burdens they bear in the service of love.
When you value someone because they value God, you are not denying that God is your only good; you are expressing it.
Since God created everything, we and all our so-called possessions are his to do with as he pleases.
Total abstinence may be the best way to treat alcohol today, but it should not be a requirement for church membership.
The essence of the Fall and of our depraved hearts is the desire not to depend on God.
Everything that you try to do will come to nothing unless you do it through a conscious, abiding dependence on the enablement of Christ.
God's 4,000 year old relation to Abraham is of immense importance for your life as a believer today.
Witnessing physical hunger should cause the church to wake up to the worldwide ravages of spiritual starvation.
God shows great power on behalf of his people so that others might see and fear.
As I was reading about Joseph's unjust imprisonment the other day, I was struck all of a sudden with the similarity and contrast between Joseph and John the Baptist.
The law is a description of the obedience of faith; it is not a job description for how to earn the wages of God's blessings.
Do not grumble; it is God's grace that sends you into the wilderness. He is inoculating you against the infections of wealth.
Gratitude is not an act of will power but the glad response of one who acknowledges grace.
If the old Joshua was victorious over the enemies of God, then how much more the new Joshua.
The way we seek to have something may be wrong, when the having, itself, may not be wrong.
The promise will be fulfilled in spite of all judgment.
Christmas marks the arrival of the end of history, which will soon be consummated by Christ's second appearing.
You can't cleave to Christ with white-hot devotion if you don't remember and feel what your plight would be without him.