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Free eBooks on Prayer and Fasting

As we start our annual prayer and fasting, I would like to recommend two excellent eBooks for reading.

The first one is Pastor Joey Bonifacio’s “The Mystery of the Empty Stomach.” It’s not a very long book, in fact, you can finish the whole thing in less than two hours. With only 69 pages, Bonifacio managed to pack a lot of helpful stuff in so short a book. He clarified that fasting is about desiring Jesus more than anything else; it is subjecting everything else to the primary need to commune with Jesus. Nothing else comes close. In the whole duration of the fast, everything in life is set aside. Jesus takes center stage. He gets all the passion, all the attention, all the focus, all the energy.

A Heart That Was Never Truly Moved

After Judas died, the story of the world simply moved forward. Someone took his place, Acts 2 got written, the church flourished. His memory is only remembered for his betrayal.

How do you make sense of that kind of life??

He saw the Master face to face and heard Him preach the most wonderful messages in the history of mankind. He beheld His glory, saw Him miraculously feed the five thousand and raised Lazarus from the dead. He was in a place where millions of people could only imagine.

Yet his heart was never truly moved.

Don’t Forget the Firewood

You will never run out of things to do. There will always be things that will demand your attention. Until the day the Lord calls you home, your list of responsibilities and the people’s expections of you will only increase and pile up.

But the secret to accomplishing much is choosing what is more important and what has eternal value. Like Mary who took time to sit down at the feet of Jesus, let us resolve to choose what really matters.

Counseling can wait. Ministry can wait. That Facebook post can wait. But your time at the feet of Jesus is far more important. It is the fuel that brings fire to your counseling, to your ministry and to all the other things that you need to do. In fact, your time with Jesus is the fire that turns your Facebook posts from an annoying religious stray bullet to a powerful word of encouragement. Continue reading Don’t Forget the Firewood

You Want to Grow Deeper?

If you want to grow deeper in your Christian walk this year, take time to read substantial books, not just the popular best sellers. There is too much wisdom in years past that we miss out on because we are too lazy to blow off the dust of the old classics. Don’t be afraid if people call you “deep” or “serious.” If it’s going to help you grow strong, why should you bother what they think?

An Ongoing Preference for Christ

Saving faith is not merely a one-time decision for Christ, but is an ongoing preference for Christ over all other values. The pursuit of Christ is the evidence of genuine faith in Christ as our treasure.

—John Piper

Christmas Posts that Grabbed my Attention

Some Christmas posts to chew on as we subside from the aftermath of the Christmas parties and brace ourselves for the New Year celebrations.

David Mathis on the three kings who visited Jesus:

I’m not eager to play the spoiler here, but these dudes aren’t kings. They are pagan astrologers, not too far from what we’d call sorcerers and wizards.

Gandalf and Dumbledore are coming to worship the baby Jesus.

These magi are not respected kings but pagan specialists in the supernatural, experts in astrology, magic, and divination, blatant violators of Old Testament law — and they are coming to worship Jesus. Continue reading Christmas Posts that Grabbed my Attention