John Woodward
Who Is Sufficient?
A while back my wife, Linda, and I were in our living room when we heard a “bang”! The electricity in the neighborhood went out, so we lit some candles. A while later the electric company fixed the problem and the lights went back on. When we lose power it reminds us of how important…
Read MoreThe Exchanged Life
One phrase that is often used to describe the process of allowing Christ to live His life through us is “The Exchanged Life”. It was a phrase used in chapter 14 of the devotional biography, Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret. The great missionary to China, who had been frustrated in his attempts to live the abundant…
Read MoreBlessings in Christ
“But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God–and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). The preceding verses in this context describe how God chooses the “weak and foolish things” to put to shame the values of this fallen world (1 Cor. 1:23-29). “Of Him you are…
Read MoreEvery Good Thing That Is Ours
When the apostle Paul wrote to Philemon, he affirmed the good testimony of this pastor of a house-church in Colossae and prayed for his continued spiritual growth. As verse six reads in the Amplified Bible, “And I pray that the participation in and sharing of your faith may produce and promote full recognition and appreciation…
Read MoreJars of Clay
I remember that years ago our daughter went to a concert by the Christian musical group, Jars of Clay. The name “Jars of Clay” is based on the phrase Paul used to describe our frail, mortal bodies. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. …” (2 Cor. 4:7). The “treasure” refers to the precious,…
Read MoreAscended With Christ
“Even when we were dead in trespasses,(God) made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward…
Read MoreOpen Your Mouth Wide
“I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Psalm 81:10). When I think of this invitation to “open your mouth wide,” I picture a young bird eagerly responding to its mother’s feeding in the nest. That imagery was impressed…
Read MoreA Place to Belong
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as…
Read MoreSalt and Light
I like eggs sprinkled with sodium chloride, do you? It sounds much more tasty to ask “Would you like salt on your eggs?” I’d say, “Yes, and some pepper too!” David Johnson comments on the chemistry of salt: Sodium is an extremely active element found naturally only in combined form; it always links itself to…
Read MoreTrusting Christ As Your Life
“As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” (Col 2:6). In Dr. Charles Solomon’s book Handbook to Happiness, we see the parallel between salvation by grace and abundant living by grace: “We entered into salvation by grace through faith; we enter into identification (with Christ) in precisely the same manner.…
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