5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. (Lk 17:5-6, NIV)
Continue reading “What faith DO we need?”The rebukes of Jesus to his disciples constantly challenge me. I am especially challenged when he points out their “little faith” or “no faith.”
In Matthew 17, after Jesus has come down from the transfiguration event, the disciples have been confronted with a situation they can’t handle. The trouble they have is they experienced the spiritual battle with demons before and had cast out demons, but now this particular situation wasn’t working out the same.
Continue reading “Regaining the power of the Church”At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time. (Matt. 24:23-25, NIV) Continue reading “The rise of false Messiahs”
“The fact that those freed by the divine action still live in the world does not mean that they belong to the world, as though possessed by the world and incorporated into its structure. They are indeed in themselves finite individuals, but are no longer in slavery for — through the process of dying and rising with Christ — they have broken through into the infinity and freedom of God himself.” — Hans Urs von Balthasar, Engagement with God
Reading for today:
Psalms 131-133, 140, 142
Ex. 7:25-8:19
2 Cor. 3:7-18
Mark 10:17-31
We are being transformed into that same image from one degree of glory to the next degree of glory. (2 Cor. 7:18) Continue reading “Sufficient faith that rests in God”
Reading for today:
Psalms 121-126
Ex. 5:1-6:1
1 Cor. 14:20-40
Mark 9:42-50
The deep walk of faith is one of trust. We trust who we know. The lifelong pursuit of knowing God is critical so we can truly know him and out of that knowledge we can trust him. Continue reading “Desperate faith leads us to radical trust”
Reading for today:
Psalm 107; Ex. 2:1-22; 1Cor. 12:27-13:3; Mark 9:14-29
One of the powerful principles drawn from the Beatitudes is this: no one is beyond Kingdom blessing. Continue reading “The Kingdom can touch anyone”
