“Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm.    Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.    Whoever wants to embrace life and see the day fill up with good. Here’s what […]

“Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over.     In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is, destroys […]

“Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.    Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. […]

“Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest.     The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds!     But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s […]

“So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk.    You’ve had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God’s pure kindness. Then you’ll grow up mature and whole in God.”‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2:1-3‬ ‭MSG‬‬ There’s something inviting, warm and refreshing when entering a clean […]

The Father loves the Son extravagantly. He turned everything over to him so he could give it away—a lavish distribution of gifts. That is why whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything, life complete and forever!    And that is also why the person who avoids and distrusts the Son is in the […]

“You don’t get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree.    You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It’s who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words […]

“For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ.    Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate.    Can’t you see the central […]

Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have […]

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.     Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit […]