Category: Daily Reflections

“You must no longer live as the pagans do.” —Ephesians 4:17 Paul started the Ephesian church by leading twelve men to Christ and to new life in the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:5-7). A few years later, Paul observed that the Ephesians had lost their early love for Christ (cf Rv 2:4). Paul likely could tell this because the lifestyle of the Ephesian Christians had become merely modified paganism. Paul maintained that when the Ephesians “learned Christ” (Eph 4:20), they should have learned a new lifestyle by laying aside their former way of life (Eph 4:22) and acquiring “a fresh, spiritual...

“Then on Herod’s birthday Herodias’ daughter performed a dance before the court which delighted Herod so much that he swore…” –Matthew 14:6-7 If you had asked Herod whether his birthday party was for God or for Satan, he would likely have answered that it wasn’t fanatically religious or demonically possessed. He would maintain that the party was not that pious and not that evil, just “good clean fun,” morally neutral. Most people think much of what they do is morally neutral because they mistakenly think they can be neutral. However, there is no such thing as neutrality. The devil is...

“They were filled with amazement.” –Matthew 13:54 We want God to help us, bless us, and be there when we need Him. However, He wants us to help Him, bless Him, and be there when He needs us. We want to tell God what to do, but He wants to tell us what to do and take over our lives. That’s much more than we had in mind. Like the people of Nazareth, we find Jesus “altogether too much” for us (Mt 13:57). If only Jesus would stay in His place, come when He’s called, speak only when spoken to,...

“Then the Israelites would see that the skin of Moses’ face was radiant; so he would again put the veil over his face until he went in to converse with the Lord.” –Exodus 34:35 Moses had a halo after talking to God. People had to wear sunglasses when they looked at him. You could get a tan just sitting in the same room with Moses. The man was a human lightning bug. When we talk to God, do we light up like Moses did? Does communion with the Lord have a visible effect on us? We may not glow, but...