Elijah: Faith That Acts by Kim Reisman
Kim Reisman
August 7, 2017
To follow Jesus up close, rather than at a distance, we must base our lives on the reality of faith rather than the reality of fear.
To follow Jesus up close, rather than at a distance, we must base our lives on the reality of faith rather than the reality of fear.
It’s not a time to micromanage, but it is a time to glance at the big picture and identify potential trouble spots and retrain the growth to expand in the direction you’re aiming for.
If we are to hear the voice of God, and thus have an understanding of what it means to follow Jesus in real time, we must surround ourselves with the language and voice of God.
As we rehearse our vision of faith over and over, keeping it ever before us, it strengthens and sustains us, remaining intact as a source of strength during times of crisis and resistance.
God offers Elijah, and us, three specific spiritual resources: visioning, speaking, and acting.
Kingdom-esteem leads to humility, because it involves recognizing that it’s not about us, it’s about what God has done for us.
God’s blessedness is already there, and we experience it when we seek God’s kingdom.
The joy God gives isn’t tied to happenstance, chance, or change. It is deeper, more lasting, and may even have some surprising components.
That is the surprise of the Beatitudes—what appears to be a source of unhappiness, turns out to be a source of joy and blessedness.
As we seek to follow in the Jesus way, we need to recognize that more often than not, rather than being rooted in common sense, the Jesus way defies common sense.
It is not perfection that makes a love great, it is its willingness to persevere through the hardship, challenge, and pain.
We must become walking, talking clues pointing to the transformative power of the Holy Spirit.
The numerous physical healings performed by Jesus to alleviate human suffering are only a hint of the anguish in the heart of God’s Son for wounded humanity.
God’s love is so great, it will conquer all the world’s horrors. God’s love is so prodigious, no evil can possibly prevail against it.
“Jesus calls us at Christmas to enter into the Kingdom of Liberty, to be set free by his Father’s love.”
Advent is about an intensity of desire. It’s about deeply desiring the presence of God in our lives and our world.
In a world filled with brokenness and estrangement, poverty, violence and death, we need Godbearers.
From the beginning, God has desired a relationship of love and wholeness with something other than God.
As Christ followers, in all times and seasons, but especially during Advent and Christmas, we declare to the world that we’ve seen that great light.
That is the surprise of the Beatitudes—what appears to be a source of unhappiness, turns out to be a source of joy and blessedness.
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