A Personal Journal of Grace and Discipleship

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,who loved me and gave himself for me.” - Galatians 2:20

From the blog


 

The Exchanged Life: Finding Freedom and Wholeness Through Spirituotherapy

In a world filled with competing counseling models, it’s not uncommon to find contrasting views on what “biblical” or “Christian” counseling truly means. Searching for answers can feel overwhelming, and the terms alone—“biblical counseling” versus “Christian counseling”—can spark endless debates on how, or whether, secular counseling methodologies fit within a Christian framework.

Fully Supplied through Knowing God
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

Fully Supplied through Knowing God

The Father has not withheld a single provision from those who are in Christ. Grace—the empowering presence of God in action—and peace—the deep, settled calm of heaven’s rest—are not only gifts we receive, but gifts that God delights to multiply in us. This multiplication doesn’t come through striving but through knowing. As we grow in our intimate knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, we experience an overflow of what has already been granted to us through His divine power.

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A Soul Ready to Say, “Here I Am”
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

A Soul Ready to Say, “Here I Am”

In today’s reflection, Oswald Chambers challenges the romantic notion that readiness is merely about waiting for grand assignments from God. Instead, true readiness is shown in our awareness of where we are now—of being fully present and aligned with God in the ordinary places He has placed us. Moses didn’t cry out, “Send me somewhere better,” or “Tell me the plan first.” He simply responded to God’s call from the burning bush with the words, “Here I am.”

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Abiding Liberation
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

Abiding Liberation

"Abiding Liberation" lifts our eyes from self-preoccupation to Christ-occupation. Today’s Abide Above devotional draws a vital contrast between Romans 7 and Romans 6. In Romans 7, the believer still operates from the old mindset—using the personal pronouns I, me, and my repeatedly—striving in self-effort, burdened by continual failure, blind to the truth that the old self has already been crucified. The authors, L.L.L. and N.B.H., gently but firmly urge us to stop trying to live for God and instead rest in the truth that we have been united with Christ, who always pleased the Father.

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The God of Glory Appeared to Call Us
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

The God of Glory Appeared to Call Us

Today’s eManna devotional invites us to reflect on what truly drew Abraham—and what draws us—into a life of following God. It wasn’t a command or a threat. It wasn’t a list of benefits or the fear of consequences. It was glory. The God of glory appeared to Abraham. That was the source of his calling and the secret behind his willingness to leave all he knew.

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The Exchanged Life: Not I, But Christ
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

The Exchanged Life: Not I, But Christ

To live the Christian life is not to strive toward being like Jesus in our own effort. It is to recognize that the old self has already been crucified with Christ. The life we live now is not a self-improvement project. It is Christ living His life in and through us. Galatians 2:20 makes this clear: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."

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The Center Cannot Be Self
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

The Center Cannot Be Self

E. Stanley Jones warns us in this entry against one of the most alluring distortions in spirituality: the idea that we are, in and of ourselves, divine. He contrasts this self-centric mindset with the biblical truth that while we share Christ’s life, we do not sustain Him—He sustains us. Any notion that shifts the center from Christ to self, even under religious or spiritual pretenses, is not only misguided but ultimately destructive.

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Dealing with the Discharges of Life
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

Dealing with the Discharges of Life

Ray Stedman turns our attention today to a passage in Leviticus that might seem obscure or ceremonial at first glance—rules about bodily discharges and cleansing rituals. But under the surface, there's a rich and grace-filled reminder that God never leaves the defiled without a path to restoration. Even in the smallest imperfections—those not as visible or dramatic as leprosy—God provides a gentle yet uncompromising way back into fellowship.

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Days of Heaven on Earth: A Reflection on Proverbs 16:32
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

Days of Heaven on Earth: A Reflection on Proverbs 16:32

A.B. Simpson draws our attention to a different kind of strength—not the kind that conquers cities or commands armies, but the quiet and resolute authority of a life ruled by the Spirit. True temperance, he says, is not repression or stoicism, but the Spirit-born ability to live from a place of inner composure, free from the tyranny of emotion, desire, or even good intentions that grow unchecked.

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Spiritual Insight for Knowing the Lord
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

Spiritual Insight for Knowing the Lord

Bob Hoekstra’s reflection for today unveils the beautifully relational nature of the new covenant—one that invites us not just to believe in God, but to know Him personally and intimately. This knowledge, however, is not something we grasp by effort or intellect. It’s received. It's a divine unveiling—God giving Himself to us through the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.

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Abandoning All
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

Abandoning All

In this stirring entry, Oswald Chambers brings us to the quiet but deeply personal shoreline of surrender. Using Peter's impulsive leap into the sea at the sound of Jesus’ voice (John 21:7), he asks us to consider whether we have truly and deliberately abandoned all to Christ—not just in outward behavior, but in the inner territory of the will. Chambers is not advocating for impulsive, emotionally driven acts of faith. Instead, he presses into the deeper act of volitional surrender—the kind of decision that is not necessarily accompanied by emotion but is rooted in trust and obedience.

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Rest and Receive
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

Rest and Receive

Today’s entry from Abide Above gently guides us back to a truth that many miss in their eager pursuit of spiritual growth: transformation in Christ doesn’t come from striving, but from receiving. J.C. Metcalfe reminds us that truth—especially the truth of our union with Christ—is not something to be snatched from God’s hand through exertion or discipline. It’s something received by grace, as we sit before Him in stillness and dependence.

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God’s Habitation is Not Made by Hands
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

God’s Habitation is Not Made by Hands

The heart of today’s devotional calls us to consider where God truly chooses to dwell. Through Stephen’s words in Acts 7, we're reminded that God cannot be confined to temples made with hands. He is not looking for stone walls or gold-covered sanctuaries, no matter how majestic they may seem. Instead, He seeks something infinitely more personal—a spiritual home, not crafted by man but cultivated in the human spirit.

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His Life, My Life, One Life
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

His Life, My Life, One Life

E. Stanley Jones guides us to the very heartbeat of union with Christ through one of Jesus’ most beloved metaphors—the Vine and the branches. But Jones refuses to let this picture become a mere teaching aid. Instead, he reveals that Jesus’ words in John 15 point to a present, vibrant, shared life. Christ doesn’t just influence us from above or direct us from afar—He lives in us as His own. We are not merely followers trying to copy a divine example; we are sharers in the very life of the Vine Himself.

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The Need for Cleansing
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

The Need for Cleansing

Ray Stedman brings out a vital distinction today: healing is God’s work alone, but cleansing is something He invites us to walk in as a response. In Leviticus 14, the priest examines someone already healed of leprosy. The healing had already taken place—so why the ceremony? Because cleansing is the outward testimony of what God has already done inwardly.

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Days of Heaven on Earth
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

Days of Heaven on Earth

Today’s entry in Days of Heaven on Earth exhorts us to live courageously by faith, not shrinking back in fear. Simpson contrasts two figures—Jeremiah and King Zedekiah. Jeremiah, though surrounded by danger, remained courageous and obedient. Zedekiah, however, was driven by fear, hesitant to obey God, and ended up devastated. The message is clear: fear makes us vulnerable, but faith-filled boldness under God’s direction protects and even preserves us.

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Pressing On to Know the Lord
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

Pressing On to Know the Lord

Bob Hoekstra invites us into the mindset of Paul, a man who had every reason to boast in spiritual maturity after decades of walking with Christ. Yet Paul humbly confesses, “I do not count myself to have apprehended.” There’s a holy dissatisfaction in Paul’s tone—not despair, but desire. It’s the voice of someone who knows there is always more of Christ to know, more intimacy to be explored, more grace to be drawn into.

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Can You Come Down?
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

Can You Come Down?

Chambers speaks to those of us who’ve known the sweetness of a spiritual high—a moment when God’s presence felt so close, so real, so alive, we thought, If only it could stay like this forever. But the purpose of those moments is not to linger in them. They are glimpses, revelations, flashes of divine clarity meant to shape how we live in the more ordinary valleys below.

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Handicapped for Christ
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

Handicapped for Christ

Today’s devotional reflects on the paradox of spiritual power—how our human weakness becomes the very platform through which Christ’s sufficiency is revealed. A.M. describes a believer who has not merely accepted his weakness, but has rejoiced in it, because it becomes the very setting in which the power of Christ is displayed most beautifully.

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Going to God on Man’s Behalf
Believing Thomas Believing Thomas

Going to God on Man’s Behalf

This morning’s reflection from eManna speaks to a critical, often overlooked dynamic in our desire to reach others with the gospel: the spiritual foundation of intercession. The writer challenges the tendency to jump directly into evangelism with zeal, without having first laid the groundwork in prayer. Drawing from John 6:37 and Acts 2:47, the emphasis is on God as the One who draws, the One who gives people to Jesus, and the One who adds daily to the church those who are being saved.

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