Start the Year on Your Knees
“Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you?…
Rodney Garcia
When You Can’t See What’s Coming
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5–6 (NIV) The future is a mystery you can’t solve.…
Leave It at the Cross
“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize…
What the Hard Seasons Taught You
“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts…
Remember When God Showed Up
Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good…
The Neighborhood God Chose
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” John 1:14 (NIV) God moved into the worst neighborhood imaginable. He didn’t wait for humanity to clean up before showing up. He entered a world stained by sin, broken by…
The Fullness That Never Runs Dry
“Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.” John 1:16 (NIV) Grace keeps coming like waves on a beach. The literal translation is “grace upon grace,” one wave after another. You receive one…
The Inseparable Pair of Grace and Truth
“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” John 1:17 (NIV) Jesus never split grace from truth. Notice John doesn’t say He came full of grace OR truth. He came full of grace AND…
Pitching Your Tent in Hard Places
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 (NIV) Jesus didn’t just visit;…
From Heaven to Earth
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” John 1:14a (NIV God left heaven for you. That sentence should stop us in our tracks every single time. The Creator of galaxies chose to become a helpless baby. He…