The preceding chapters in Numbers 17-19 show the first step toward community transformation begins with yourself. Pray for more passionate love for Christ personally and among other believers in your community. Follow God’s leading so you embrace His calling for your life. Give generously to your local church and kingdom projects. Spend regular time in confessing sin. Encourage others to…
The vision God gave Moses was to focus on spiritual intimacy as a good soldier while making no provision for the flesh or being entangled in the affairs of everyday life (Ex. 39; 2 Tim. 2:3-4). Two additional images Paul gave Timothy was a disciplined athlete and hard-working farmer that Moses implemented in setting up…
One of the prime reasons why the world does not believe in Christ is the division they see in the church. Marketing the church won’t work. When I served in college ministry, many students said the multitude of denominations confused them. It prevented them from seeing Christ. In John 17, Jesus prayed that believers would…
Everyone experiences times of dryness in their relationship with God. Do you feel stagnant? Have you stopped growing? Have you plateaued in your vocation? Does it seem like you aren’t making an impact? Some of the causes of spiritual dryness are lack of prayer, sin, work imbalance, pagan rituals or superstition, spiritual undernourishment and following…
Tim Keller says the following about idolatry: 1. Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God,2. Anything you seek to give you what only God can give you.3. A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living4. An…
It’s easy to take God for granted and diminish His attributes. We forget His great works in saving us. We diminish His honor and glory. We overlook how God transforms people. We disregard His presence in our lives. We fail to acknowledge His miracles of provision. To counteract apathy in your relationship with God, study…
The earth is intimately tied to the sun, around which it revolves. Without the sun, life on earth could not exist because of the need for light, energy and holding it in place so it won’t spin off into outer space. Because the moon is big, its gravity tugs on the earth under the location…
Have any of you played dominoes? One domino starts a chain reaction knocking down all the others lined up next to each other. God has His own set of dominoes. When Israel left Egypt, they experienced God’s presence after the Egyptian army was defeated at the Red Sea. Beginning with presence, the following dominoes were…
A battle wages in the heavenlies. You don’t fight humans but rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Eph. 6:12). God’s power is superior to the world or Satan. Just as Moses battled evil powers when God told him to confront Pharaoh, each of you face…
Quoting C.S. Lewis: “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desire not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us,…
After choosing a college major, I wondered if it would deliver ultimate satisfaction. Once I started my first job, I soon learned it wouldn’t. It was a disillusioning moment in my life. Many people hope their choices, whether it’s a career, mate, children or hobby, will provide that sense of relief or freedom from the…
For the first 18 years of my life, I rarely thought about God. I tried to get through life the best way I knew how. Most people go through life not thinking about God. They don’t attach any significance or weight to Him. Perhaps you have struggled for reasons why God should be the single…