Tagged: Prayer Intention

“You ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly, with a view to squandering what you receive on your pleasures.” –James 4:3 Human history provides ample testimony about the effects of pleasure seeking. One pleasure is never enough. People always want the next pleasure, followed by another. Companies thrive by stoking the pleasure-seeking desires of masses of consumers. Left to our own desires, we become slaves of pleasure-seeking, servants of the cravings of our own flesh (see Rm 6:12). I challenge you to spend the next ten seconds looking at a crucifix. As you gaze on Jesus’ crucified...

“But some fell on good soil, grew up, and yielded grain a hundredfold.” –Luke 8:8 The Lord promises we can receive His Word to bear fruit a hundredfold. This is like saying $1,000 will turn into $100,000 which is an astronomical increase. Most Christians believe God’s Word will help, bless, teach, and even heal them, but few expect the hundredfold harvest. If we took seriously the Lord’s promise of a hundredfold, we would do our very best to: tremble in prayer as we open the Bible, kiss the Bible before opening it, never miss our daily Bible reading, go to...

Jesus “said to him, “Follow Me.’ Matthew got up and followed Him.” –Matthew 9:9 When Matthew met Jesus, he repented of selling out to the world, immediately walked away from his job, and became a disciple of Jesus. Because Matthew was so in love with Jesus, he invited many tax collectors and other sinners to meet Jesus (Mt 9:10). Matthew was so thankful for Jesus having mercy on him, he would have thought it merciless if he had not invited others to meet Jesus. Matthew, the first of the Gospel evangelists, shows us that the essence of life in Christ...

“I handed on to you first of all what I myself received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that He was buried and, in accordance with the Scriptures, rose on the third day.” –1 Corinthians 15:3-4 A miracle is an act of God which goes beyond the laws of nature. Christianity began with the miracle of the Incarnation, God becoming man. The essence of Christianity is Jesus’ death on the cross when He took away the sins of everyone who has lived or will ever live. He gave everyone the opportunity to be begotten from...

“There are in the end three things that last: faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.” –1 Corinthians 13:13 Without love we are nothing (1 Cor 13:2), and we gain nothing (1 Cor 13:3). “The man without love has known nothing of God, for God is Love” (1 Jn 4:8). Therefore, we all like to think of ourselves as loving. Yet are we actually loving? Signs of true love are: suffering patiently a long time for others (1 Cor 13:4 in the Greek), kindly bearing others’ burdens (1 Cor 13:4 in the Greek), forgiving others and...