Some people believe in a historical Jesus, others believe in an educational Jesus, but a very few believe in a Jesus who still raises the dead. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection." Are you letting God raise the dead areas of your life? For our lives to truly be used by God, they must go through the death, burial, and resurrection process. Don't hold onto your small ways, give them to God so He can resurrect them.  

What made Judas betray Jesus and the other disciples? He made himself look one way when his motive was entirely different. Judas was around the best ministry in the world, he saw all the miracles and probably did some himself. He was around extreme amounts of blessings but still chose to betray Jesus. Everything can look right in your life but if your motive is off it can spoil a whole thing. The true spiritual condition of our life is revealed by our affection for Jesus not simply our association with Him. The scary thing is we all may have a little Judas in us.

We all have an inner voice and an outer voice we fight with. It is important that we don't receive or identify with words that teachers or even parents may unknowingly speak over us. This is an interview with Caeleigh and Dylan on how they overcame dyslexia and words spoken over them at a young age. 

Do you have unsatisfied longings? Creatures are not born with desires unless those desires exist...if I find myself with a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is I was made for another world...Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone because you were made for it, made for it stitch by stitch, as a glove is made for a hand. And beauty will unite with your soul, and you will think, this is what I am made for. -C. S. Lewis.

"If you rule out the supernatural, you will perceive no miracles." -C. S. Lewis.  When we work to disprove miracles, we are actually working to disprove our own faith. In recent history, mankind has decided to put God on trial instead of it being mankind being on trial. Could it be that this judgment we have towards the Almighty is the cause of the lack of miracles in our lives?  When we find God lacking instead of seeing our own failure and need to repent we miss who God really is and what He wants to do. Jesus was God coming down to us on eye level, showing us that God is the God of miracles. 

A summary of C.S. Lewis' book Screwtape Letters. Have you ever thought, "There might be demons assigned to me?" In the same way, God has angels assigned to help us; the devil has demons assigned to us to pull us away from the Lord and what we are called to do. Screwtape Letters is the conversation between two demons working to draw a new believer away from God, and it's not exactly what you think. Some tactics of the devil are more "ordinary" than you would think. We must understand the enemy's scheme to defeat him. 

If you put what is second before what is first, you lose both first and second. Second things do not have the strength to hold up things in life as first things do. Second things are temporal; they are what we can see. First things are what is unseen and what holds everything together. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. -Matthew 6:33

Are you giving Jesus what He truly desires? Simon, the Pharisee, gave Jesus a meal and a seat at his table—an honor probably not given to most. But a sinful woman interrupted Simon's dinner to kiss Jesus' feet. She wept as she kissed His feet and poured out perfume. She gave Jesus all of her love in front of everyone. She laid her heart bare, hoping Jesus would not turn her away. The woman with the perfume bottle gave Jesus everything. 

Are you the one whom Jesus loves? Do you believe that Jesus loves you more than everyone else? It sounds arrogant even to think that way but God is love. You can look for love and miss it. You can try to do things to get God to love you, but what does the Word say to do? In 1 John 4:16, it says, "to BELIEVE the love that God has for us." Even if you don't yet feel the love, believe the love and abide in the love of God. You have a responsibility to believe God loves you because it is true. God's love is more true than anything else in this world. 

What is the art of deferring? It is one of the highest forms of love. Have you ever tried to out-love God, yielding to Him in such a way because you know He will give you more back in return? It is the volley of love; the back and forth is never meant to end. It is only meant to grow. Happy Valentine's Day!