God lets your soul grow before giving you blessings you’re not ready for. You’ll get the Promised Land little by little.

Like the spies to the Promised Land, you’ll hear conflicting reports about your future, but God’s report is the one that matters.

I bless you to be new, Child of God, New, in Christ, new! “If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation. The old has passed away; Behold the new has come.” (2 Cor. 5:17) May you let go of The old— The moldy, The useless, The binding. And embrace The new— The fresh, The empowering, The freeing. May you let go of Hell’s condemnation And take hold of God’s grace. May you let go Sin’s old habits And immerse in Love’s way. He says you’re new, Beloved, So be new… Be brand new.

Herod held the power… So it seemed. But the fox Was outfoxed. His plot to kill Christ So easily foiled As the stargazers slept And heard from God: “And being warned in a dream… They departed to their Own country by another way.” (Matt. 2:12) How easily God prevails! The wicked king stewed And brooded And conspired, while… The magi slept, And were saved. God can do more For you while you sleep Than all hell can do to you Wide awake. So, sweet dreams, Child of God, The Lord of Glory Is at work overpowering The evil powers For you.

Revelation of good news releases energy in the soul.

I bless your spirit To “… earnestly desire The spiritual gifts, Especially that you may prophesy.” (1 Cor. 14:1) Not that you may Thunder like Amos Or agonize like Jeremiah. Not that you may Speak perfect oracles Or tell the future Or rebuke sinners— But that you may “Strengthen... Encourage… Comfort….” (1 Cor. 14:3) God has given you Spiritual Eyes, May you see as He sees. God has given you Spiritual Ears, May you hear all He speaks. God has a thousand ways To reveal truth through you To bless people out of darkness. You can watch and listen, Child of God, You can see and hear Him— And you can speak.

I bless your desires To become increasingly God-shaped And God-sized. “… eagerly desire The spiritual gifts,” (1 Cor. 14:1) Paul cries out. May His gifts Become your desire. May you hunger For God’s kind of food. Desire His gifts. Not demand, But Desire. Not idolize, But expect. I bless the eagerness Of your desire To be empowered And equipped by the Spirit. May your longing Match God’s yearning— May your thirst Mirror God’s outpouring. Grow, Desire for God, Grow.

You need not live under the weight of law and fear, a greater glory has come!

Not power from within or from the world but from on high.

God knows you can’t live the Christian life by your own strength!

It’s not your striving or sacrificing or straining that makes God happy.

May God give you courage. That is, en-courage you today!

The Hebrews didn’t just need to get out of Egypt-they needed to get Egypt out of them.

There’s no going backward with God. You can move forward today by His grace.

Like the spies to the Promised Land, you’ll hear conflicting reports about your future, but God’s report is the one that matters.

Every spiritual step you take in your Promised Land is guaranteed.

I bless you today “That you may Know Him And the power Of His resurrection.” (Philippians 3:10) Christ wants you To know HIM And to know The power Of His RESURRECTION. The invitation Is deep And personal. The welcome is Preposterous— That you might Know Up close The Creator and Savior Of the world. The king wants to be friends With you. But, the shock is greater, He wants to share His earth-shaking power With you. The same power (dunamis) That raised Jesus from the dead Is yours In Him. He invites you to know HIM AND His power, child of God, I bless you to take up His offer!

I bless you to be “Found in Him Not having a righteousness Of your own That comes through the law.” (Philippians 3:9) “Found in Him.” Like, If someone were looking for you, There’s only One place Where they’d find you— In Him. Like, If someone were to wonder Where you are, They’d only Find you If they looked inside the Heart of God Where His grace is flowing. And when Christ comes And consummates His kingdom And creates a new heaven and earth, The angels won’t have to search The world over To find you— You’ll be easy to find, In Him. Rest easy, Child of God, You can’t be lost When you are in Christ.

I bless you to Treasure Christ And the gift of His imputed righteousness So highly That all your own merits Are Garbage In comparison. Rubbish. Or maybe, More starkly, Dung— That’s what our Personal religious accomplishments Are compared to “That which comes Through faith in Christ, The righteousness From God That depends on faith.” (Philippians 3:9) You have been given A salvation So great So free So glorious That all other Self-salvations Stink in comparison. Go ahead, Throw out the garbage, And live in the aroma of Christ.

Though we may be surrounded by darkness and trying circumstances, we can find hope in the 'belly of the whale'. Join Pastor Alan as he brings a good news message from the Book of Jonah.

Take in the promise of God to Joshua before his conquest of Canaan: “I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them” (Joshua 1: 6).

What if you could live 'from now on'? Not looking back, but embracing the future. It is possible.

What if you could live 'from now on'? Not looking back, but embracing the future. It is possible.

Grace is the atmosphere in which human beings grow and blessing is the strategy for human productivity.

While there may be some sinful patterns passed down from your forebears, there is something much greater that has been passed down to you – the generational blessing!

While there may be some sinful patterns passed down from your forebears, there is something much greater that has been passed down to you – the generational blessing!

This is a term that defines a certain kind of blessing – one which flows from one generation to the next.

Jeremiah prophesied: “Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them” (Jeremiah 10:14, ESV).

All of those things – the value of a devotional life, the knowledge that I belonged to God, the importance of a moral life – are important and good.

Christ didn’t come to give us a modified Old Covenant – He ushered in a New Covenant! It is utterly new and altogether better than the Old.

If the message of the Gospel is in any way clouded by a message of shame, then people will avoid church at all costs. If, however, there is a church that proclaims eternal truth and mystery in the context of utter love and acceptance, that church will find the world at its door.

Religious shame comes in the form of “you ought to.” You ought to go to church more. You ought to pray more. You ought to read your Bible more. You ought to do more for the poor. You ought to have more faith. You ought to, you ought to, you ought to – it’s enough to give you what my friend Dudley Hall calls “the hardening of the oughteries”!

You can’t control people and you can’t make them change, but you can be used by God to help them grow.

It’s not wrong to want someone to change. If you love someone, you want him/her to grow. To grow means to change.

Have you ever reached a mountaintop, and, the next day, felt lower than ever?

God has a journey for you still to take. Even if you’ve reached a great pinnacle, He has more in the future for you.

Jesus isn’t only the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world; He’s also the scapegoat who has born our shame.

No matter what family brokenness you’ve experienced on earth, you’re no orphan in Christ. You’re an heir.

True, godly conviction is a sweet gift of liberty guiding you back to the Father.

There’s a huge difference between shame and godly conviction.

The more that you trust Jesus to cover your shame, the less energy you have to spend trying to cover it yourself.

We change when the pain of staying the same is worse than the pain of changing!

If you have experienced dishonor and shame, you can forgive and you can be healed. Every wound can be healed.

Sometimes, when your offender hasn’t apologized, it’s healing to receive a confession from another person. No matter your wounds, it’s possible to forgive and move on

The love of God sets you free. Ask God to expose the traps of shame that keep surfacing in your mind, then look upon Jesus’ smiling face. Listen to your Savior’s voice. “Where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you? Neither do I condemn you; go and from now on sin no more.”

Until the gospel of grace uproots the lies of shame, our souls are tortured with angst. For some, it leads to a life of perfectionism. For others, it leads to a life of rebellion. Either way, the soul knows no real rest.