There is no way of getting around it: discipleship is a listening affair and you have been given the capacity to love others by practicing it. Your willingness to listen to others will expose your heart for them and to them.

God’s promise is not that He will change His unchangeable and perfect Law, but that He will offer you a new heart that replaces the old, providing a new life that can walk in grace and truth. The question is whether you will submit yourself to His love.

Jude’s turn.

Benji tends to live in his own world — a welcome personality trait when his older brother is acting like an older brother, and his baby brother is acting like a …well… a baby. The downside, however, is that Benji can be looking right into your soul with his puppy-dog eyes, without even registering that you are saying something to him. He can also hear your voice while being utterly incapacitated by the thought that he is chewing on.

My sons fight outside their weight class when it is time for reproof. When we lock horns, they are quickly conquered and gently reprimanded with love and the enduring truth of the Gospel.

March Madness has begun, and for some of us, we have taken licks because our favorite programs have fallen short. In the moments of basketball ecstasy and head-on-the-floor defeat, my heart has been exposed and found wanting.

The fool is not only the one that rejects eternal life and forgiveness, he is one who gives himself with the wrong fuel. Like a car running on salt water instead of gas, the fool will sputter and struggle until he eventually breaks down.

“Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 

What if it was me in that scenario?