The Encouragement Blog

“You can’t always get what you want You can’t always get what you want But if you try sometimes you just might find You get what you need” There is a story recorded in the Bible (Luke 5:18-25) of a paralyzed man being lowered through the roof of a house by four friends of the man, so that they could

The late, Brennan Manning wrote this in an essay on Forgiveness in his book, Souvenirs of Solitude. “The proof par excellence of the Christian who has experienced God’s unbearable forgiveness and infinite patience is that he is able to be forgiving and patient with others.” This statement reflects what Jesus taught in the parable of the Unmerciful Servant in Matthew

We need to remember that even if our lives are completely blown up, they can be repaired. God is a repairman who fixes shattered lives and makes them whole again. His tools are conviction, confession, repentance, and forgiveness of sin. These are the tools of deep, permanent, personal change in our lives. One of the dangerous facts about sin is

Comic actor Dennis Miller said in one famous rant, “Guilt is simply God’s way of letting you know that you are having too good a time.” There is truth in that statement, but God has higher uses for guilt in our lives. God places the feelings of guilt in our moral consciousness for good purposes. All of us have done

God loves to meet us and change us where we are, right where we are living at this moment. He doesn’t wait until we have it all together before God visits us and cleans us up. King David knew this when he wrote Psalm 51 and asked God to give him a “right Spirit.” Some of us can identify with

Sin is real. Anyone who truly believes that sin does not exist has not been paying attention! In real-life, when we are honest, we look anywhere and see the evidence of sin. We see greed, snarky comments on social media, and mean and angry attitudes. Just think about your language the last time someone cut you off on the freeway!!

“You can’t always get what you want You can’t always get what you want But if you try sometimes you just might find You get what you need”  There is a story recorded in the Bible (Luke 5:18-25) of a paralyzed man being lowered through the roof of a house by four friends of the man, so that they could

Yes, Jesus did very carefully and gently tell the women caught in adultery to simply “Go, and sin no more.” He did not want her to feel like scum as the crowd wanted but loved her at the same time of telling her to stop sinning. Confessing our shortcomings to an AA or Al-Anon sponsor should not be a humiliating

The late, Brennan Manning wrote this in an essay on Forgiveness in his book, Souvenirs of Solitude. “The proof par excellence of the Christian who has experienced God’s unbearable forgiveness and infinite patience is that he is able to be forgiving and patient with others.” This statement reflects what Jesus taught in the parable of the Unmerciful Servant in Matthew