How to Live the Bible as it Lives in Us

The Bible is alive—the living Word of God. Yet, how does it live in me? And how do I live it? 

I wanna take Your word and shine it all around

But first help me just to live it Lord

In his day, Christian singer and songwriter, Keith Green, was considered a man of No Compromise (album title and book about his life).

So these lyrics from his song, Oh Lord, You’re Beautiful, carry a powerful message. 

Perhaps we also desire to shine God’s Word all around. Maybe we want to live a life of no compromise.

The only way to strive for this kind of life? The Word living in us and us living the Word.

Living Scripture in our daily lives equates with a life of no compromise. Because our goals, desires, values, morals, decisions, relationships, lifestyle, worldview, heart, mind, and so on, stay bent toward scriptural truths. 

Then, we really live the Bible that lives in us.

Desire to shine God's Word all around. Strive to live a life of no compromise. How? The Word living in us and us living the Word. #GodsWord #Bible Share on X

Here are some ways to L.I.V.E. God’s Word.

L-Lighting Our Path With God’s Word Helps Live it

Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Verse 130 continues, “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.” 

Even though we may not carry lamps to see where we’re going, we’re all familiar with needing light to find our way in the darkness. Whether it’s a candle, flashlight, or nightlight, they dispel enough of the dark to keep us from tripping.

Likewise, lighting our path with the Word keeps us from spiritually tripping. Through understanding, it drives away the darkness of the evil one, deception, and false beliefs. 

Read More…

Christians: Living Billboards for Heaven on Earth

Whether it’s a local business, restuarant, medical group, smiling real estate agent, or even a marriage proposal, billboards dot our highways and roadsides.

Teresa, my friend since high school, enjoyed a successful sales career with a major advertising firm that displayed customer ads on billboards.

Perhaps, we’ve seen some fun and memorable ones that captured our attention. Maybe we purchased the services or product or changed our perspective on something.

Because we liked or needed what we saw.

Likewise, God’s children become walking billboards for heaven on earth. Breathing and living beings who represent a picture of the Creator and our future, eternal home.

We desire for others to see God in us and realize they need Him too. We are living billboards, “The same God who lives and reigns in heaven, lives and reigns in me.”

We are living billboards, 'The same God who lives and reigns in heaven, lives and reigns in me.' #heaven #Billboard Share on X

Billboards Displaying Jesus’ Blood

But we aren’t marketing heaven or advertising Christianity like some commodity or service purchased with money.

Still, we were bought with a price. The blood of Jesus. And it spilled out on a cross for everyone we meet, come in contact with, know personally, and in our sphere of influence. And the friends and family we love.

Read More…

7 Biblical Promises for Walking in Humility

Humility. 

A characteristic missing from a “me” culture. A trait often overlooked when climbing the corporate ladder—any ladder going to the top.

And a powerful attribute underestimated for leaders in ministry, coaching, business, and more. It’s usually misunderstood in our present world. Even tossed to the side.

But God calls His people to put on, walk in, and practice humility in every area of our lives.

Because even becoming Christ-followers starts with recognizing Jesus as Lord and Savior. We’re not our own lord or savior.

So the Bible has much to say about the subject and the promises surrounding it.

Humility is a characteristic missing from a “me” culture. But God calls His people to put on, walk in, and practice humility in every area of our lives. #Biblical #humility Share on X

(1.) God Hears Humble Pleas

King Josiah is spared from disaster for those who didn’t keep God’s law. “Because your heart was tender…and you have humbled yourself before me…and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord” (2 Chronicles 34:27).

Jesus told this parable. “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ But I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14).

(2.) God Heals Contrite Hearts and Nations

Read More…

Faces: Stories They Tell And How Love Matters

Love whispers, Look deeply and intently at faces. Gaze into their eyes. They’re faces with a story and the people God loves.

There’s more to a face than meets the eye. Aesthetics present features in color and shape, and how they lay between the forehead and chin.

Yet, much more is seen. So consider the variant qualities of faces: beckoning, engaging, enchanting, yearning, magnetic, and stolid.

Faces are Storytellers

Narratives of gladness, sadness, loneliness, heroism, defeat, victory, or captivity dwell behind a face. And other chapters waiting to be written. Every human longs to share one story of magnitude. A story of real love.

God calls us to love the people in our home and family, in our neighborhood, in the workplace, in a local church, and so on. And loving in a broader sense in our community and world.

But how do we love others well? Can we love all people? And is it possible to simultaneously love people under our roof, those in our backyard, and people on the other side of an issue, a hurt, our town, and the world?

Perhaps the answer is found in an attempt to grasp how God sees and loves people.

See the Way God Sees

God sees every person as someone who needs a story of love. Because God loves each of us with a steadfast love like no one else.

His love story was already written on Calvary’s cross and an empty tomb. It becomes our personal love story if we let God write it on our hearts when we accept His salvation.

But other stories of love are waiting for us to pen in people’s lives.

Read More…