Category: Devotions

Peacemaker is yet another facet of our new identity in Christ Jesus. It is actually the title Jesus wants us to proudly carry with us everywhere we go. We are his peacemakers—people who are committed to carrying out the “ministry of reconciliation” that Paul wrote about. David Valleskey writes, “‘The ministry of reconciliation’ is the…

There is a section of verses that appears early in Matthew’s gospel known as the Beatitudes or the Blessed Ares. They are part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. These poetic thoughts are unmatched for their comfort and encouragement. Jesus addresses them to believers like you and me. His message is profoundly intimate and personal.…

Someone once observed, “It only takes one person to produce speech, but it requires the cooperation of all to produce silence.” History has its share of corporate silences. The Holocaust, for example, will not be remembered so much for the extraordinary numbers of people murdered in gas chambers as it will be remembered for the…

One of the most difficult things you or I will ever face in life is admitting our own sins. That is especially true if our transgressions have been defined in specific terms. Admitting that we have hated another person is a particularly hard thing to do. The words I’m sorry are the two most difficult…

One of the most sinister strategies for justifying wrongful behaviors is a mental game that is prompted by the question, Who’s on top? The game board resembles a ladder. Every position on this ladderlike structure is relative to every other position. You can rise above another player’s position, or you can find yourself on a…

Both ways of being—at peace and at war—cast broad shadows on the way we view others. When I relate to another individual with a heart that is at peace, I see that person in a way similar to the way I see myself. I see him or her as a human being who has hopes,…

In Eden, before sin changed everything, Adam and Eve knew only one heart condition. Their hearts were always and only at peace with the Creator. They also were at peace with his creation, and with each other. In absolute terms, everything was right in those relationships. God provided for their every need. They lacked nothing…

This is about the time when most of us, dear reader, get up on our high horses in protest to challenge the notion that there may be something wrong with wanting something—with dreaming big. After all, in one way or another, we each subscribe to the concept of the great American dream. Disney built an…