God rewards those who seek him. Not those who seek doctrine or religion or systems or creeds. Many settle for these lesser passions, but the reward goes to those who settle for nothing less than Jesus himself. And what is the reward? What awaits those who seek Jesus? Nothing short of the heart of Jesus. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18 (TLB), “And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him.”

Can you think of a greater gift than to be like Jesus? Christ felt no guilt; God wants to banish yours. Jesus had no bad habits; God wants to remove yours. Jesus had no fear of death; God wants you to be fearless. Jesus had kindness for the diseased and mercy for the rebellious and courage for the challenges. God wants you to have the same. Isn’t it just like Jesus!

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God will always be the same. No one else will. Companies follow pay raises with pink slips. Friends applaud you when you drive a classic and dismiss you when you drive a dud. Not God. God is always the same.

James 1:17 says, with him, “there is no variation or shadow due to change.” Catch God in a bad mood? Won’t happen. Fear exhausting His grace? A sardine will swallow the Atlantic first. Think he’s given up on you? Wrong. Did he not make a promise to you?

You see, God is not a human being, and he will not lie. He is not a human, and he does not change his mind. What he says, he will do. What he promises, he will make come true. His strength, truth, ways, and love never change. Hebrews 13:8 declares he is “the same yesterday and today and forever.” What he says, he will do!

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People came to Jesus. My, how they came to him! They touched him as he walked down the street; they followed him around the sea; they invited him into their homes and placed their children at his feet. Why? Because he refused to be a statue in a cathedral or a priest in an elevated pulpit. He chose instead to be Jesus.

There’s not a hint of one person who was afraid to draw near him. There were those who mocked him. Those who were envious of him. There were those who misunderstood him. There was not one person who was reluctant to approach him for fear of being rejected.

Remember that. Remember that the next time you find yourself amazed at your own failures. Or the next time acidic accusations burn holes in your soul. Remember, it’s man who creates the distance. It’s Jesus who builds the bridge!

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I can’t assure you your family will ever give you the blessing you seek, but God will. Let God give you what your family doesn’t. How do you do that? By emotionally accepting God as your father. It’s one thing to accept him as Lord, another to recognize him as Savior, but another matter entirely to accept him as Father.

To recognize God as Lord is to acknowledge that he is sovereign in the universe. To accept him as Savior is to accept his gift of salvation offered on the cross. But to regard him as Father is to go a step further. Ideally, a father is the one in your life who provides and protects. That’s exactly what God has done! God’s proven himself as a faithful father. Now let God fill the void others have left. You are his child, and he’ll give you the blessing he promised!

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Healthy marriages have a sense of tenderness and honesty and ongoing communication. The same is true in our relationship with God. Sometimes we go to him with our joys, sometimes our hurts, but we always go. And as we go, the more we go, the more we become like him. Paul says we’re being changed from “glory to glory.”

People who live long lives together eventually begin to sound alike, to talk alike, even think alike. As we walk with God, we take on his thoughts, his principles, his attitudes. We take on his heart.

And just as in marriage, communion with God is no burden. Indeed, it’s a delight. The Psalmist says, “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God” (Psalm 84:1-2 NIV). Nothing—nothing—compares with it! 

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Crankcase oil coursed my dad’s veins. He repaired engines for a living; Dad loved machines. God gave my dad a mechanical moron, a son who couldn’t differentiate between a differential and a brake disc. Dad tried to teach me. I tried to learn. Honestly, I did. Machines anesthetized me, but books fascinated me.

What does a mechanic do with a son who loves books? He gives him a library card. Buys him a few volumes for Christmas. Places a lamp by his bed so he can read at night. Pays tuition so his son can study college literature in high school. My dad did that. You know what he didn’t do? Never once did he say, “Why can’t you be a mechanic like your dad and granddad?”

Study your children while you can. The greatest gift you can give your children is not your riches, but revealing to them their own.

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How would you fill in this blank: a person is made right with God through…what? A person is made right with God through…being good. Pay your taxes. Give sandwiches to the poor. Don’t drink too much, or drink at all. Christian conduct, that’s the secret. Suffering, there’s the answer. Doctrine, that’s how to be made right with God.

No, no, no. All of the above are tried, all are taught, but none are from God. In fact, that’s the problem – none are from God. Who does the saving, you or him?

Romans 3:28 says, “A person is made right with God through faith.” Not through good works, suffering, or doctrine. They may be the result of salvation, but they’re not the cause of it. Faith in God’s sacrifice, in the gift of his Son. It’s not what you do; it’s what he did.

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The Bible says in Romans 8:28 that “in everything God works for the good of those who love him.” Do this simple exercise. Remove the word “everything” and replace it with the symbol of your tragedy. How would Romans 8:28 read in your life? In hospital stays God works for the good. In divorce papers God works for the good. As hard as it may be to believe, you could be only a Saturday away from a resurrection. Hours from that precious prayer of a changed heart. “God, you did this for me?”

“Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us,” Paul said. “The Scriptures give us patience and encouragement so that we can have hope” (Romans 15:4 NCV). These are not somewhere-over-the-rainbow illusions. They are historic moments in which a real God met real pain so we could answer the question, “where is God when I hurt?”

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I’m about to tell you something you may find hard to believe. You don’t have to agree with me, but I’d like you to consider it with me. Here it is: if you were the only person on earth, the earth would look exactly the same. The Himalayas would still have their drama and the Caribbean its charm. The sun would still nestle behind the Rockies in the evenings and spray light on the desert in the mornings.

If you were the sole pilgrim on this globe, God would not diminish its beauty one degree.

Because he did it all for you. And he’s waiting for you to discover his gift, for your eyes to pop, your heart to stop. He’s waiting for the moment between the dropping of the jaw and the leap of the heart. For in that silence he whispers, “I did it just for you.”

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They sat on opposite sides of the room, a man and a woman, bidding on an adorable puppy at a school auction. Others dropped off, but not this duo. Back and forth until they’d one-upped the bid to several thousand dollars. This was the Wimbledon finals, and neither player was backing off the net. Finally, the fellow gave in and didn’t return the bid. Going once, going twice, sold! You know what she did? Amidst the applause, she walked across the room and presented the puppy to the competition.

Suppose you did that to the competition, with your enemy, with the boss who fired you. Suppose you surprised them with kindness. Not easy? No, it’s not. But mercy is the deepest gesture of kindness.

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