I think one of our greatest shortcomings as Christians today is left-brained knowledge of God without right-brained experience of God’s loving presence. That when my heart is longing for the faux and fleeting feeling that “just one more thing” can give me–one more purchase…one more flirtation…one more TV episode…one more experience–that instead of gratifying this empty desire, I can instead stop and gaze upon God’s beauty. I can instead sit in God’s presence. I can gaze upon his face smiling down on me (Numbers 6:24-26). I can seek his face. That his loving and majestic face is the answer to my heart’s longing.
Ep. 44: Satisfying our unending appetite of insecurity with the unending love of our Father
Noah opens up about his own insecurities and brings the Flip Side back around to how to tap into the love of our Father to satisfy our deepest longings.
Ep. 43: Interview with Laurie Krieg on what a mixed-orientation marriage can teach us about love and the gospel
Noah interviews Laurie Krieg about her new book An Impossible Marriage: What Our Mixed-Orientation Marriage Has Taught Us About Love and the Gospel, that she co-wrote with her husband Matt.
Psalm 18 Devotional – God’s Hype Music
Psalm 18 is God’s hype music. Hype music is what a sports team plays in the locker room before a game or what blares from the speakers as a fighter does his walk up to the ring. Hype music is loud, it gets you pumped up, and it has the air of victory to it. Psalm 18 is all of these things.
Psalm 15 Devotional – What God Cares About
Psalm 15 helps us in understanding the things God cares about. As new covenant Christians (I explain here how this relates to the old covenant under which the Psalms were written), we know it’s by the grace of Jesus that we may dwell in God’s sacred tent or live on his holy mountain (Romans 3:23-24). With that in mind, we can now look Psalm 15 as a clear list of things God cares about. I don’t think we spend enough time in modern Christianity looking at the things that are on God’s heart. In any love relationship, you want to know what is on the other person’s heart, and out of love, you want to be about those things as well. This is particularly true with God, who is not only our spouse, but is also our Father and Lord and King. So let’s take a look at this short list in Psalm 15 of some of the things God cares about:
Psalm 14 Devotional – Darkness as the door to finding joy in our salvation
One of the most healthy spiritual disciplines for me is to regularly sit before a holy God during my prayer time. I use Exodus 9:9-25 and visualize myself sitting on the holy mountain as one of those original Israelites. I try to feel the emotion that comes with trying to comprehend the vast chasm between God’s holiness and my sinfulness. Then I turn my prayer and meditation time toward Colossians 1:22, Romans 8:15-17, and Matthew 3:16-17. The chasm of separation between me and God gets filled as the floodgates of Jesus’ love, grace, and mercy open. I can only unlock the riches of this gift if I first walk the path of understanding how much I don’t deserve it. When I begin to comprehend that I don’t deserve it, I can begin to experience how beautiful and amazing it is that I get to have it.