1 John 4:19-5:3 We love, because He first loved us.  If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.  And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Fathe...  Read More

Two Steps To Knowing God’s WillBy Rick Warren“If you want to know what God wants you to do, ask him, and he will gladly tell you, for he is always ready to give a bountiful supply of wisdom to all who ask him.” (James 1:5a NIV)If you want to know God’s will, you need to do a couple of things:1. Admit that you need guidance.We don’t really like to admit when we’re confused. Men especially don’t lik...  Read More

Why Won’t God Tell Me the Next Step?By Rick Warren“When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools.” (Ecclesiastes 5:4 NLT)You already know a lot of things God wants you to do with your life. So why haven’t you done them? God is not obligated to give you step 2 until you’ve already done step 1. Some of you keep saying, “I want to know God’s will...  Read More

Three Mistakes To Avoid When Seeking God’s WillBy Rick Warren“The steps of a man are established by the Lord …. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.” (Psalm 37:23a-24 NASB)You may be at what you think is a dead end in your life. “We’re never going to get out of debt! I’m never going to have a baby. My dream is never going to come true. How ...  Read More

How Do You Find God’s Will?By Rick Warren“God … invited you into this wonderful friendship with his Son, even Christ our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:9 TLB)God’s not playing games with you. He wants you to understand his will, his purpose, and his plan for your life.You may say, “I want God to guide me, but I still get confused. I don’t know what to do.” Often the problem is we’re looking for the wrong...  Read More

Everything God does is intentional, and the timing of Jesus’s resurrection is no exception.As pastor Skye Jethani explains in his book Futureville, the reason why Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday has its origins in the creation account of Genesis 1. Historically, Christians have identified “Sunday as the first day of God’s creative work.” And just “like the creation account in Genesis, which b...  Read More

Today’s passage from John shows us “the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead” that first Easter Sunday (see John 21:14). Commenting on this scene, St. Augustine once wrote admiringly that after Jesus had “risen from the grave, after seeing the marks of His wounds, after receiving, by means of His breathing, the Holy Ghost, all at once [these disciples] becom...  Read More

Happy Easter!1 John 4:11-18Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.  By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.  We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.  Whoever confesses...  Read More

Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea had a lot in common. Both were members of the Sanhedrin—the religious governing body that had just played a role in crucifying Jesus (see Mark 14:53-65). Both men, most scholars agree, were likely very wealthy. And both men were secret followers of Jesus…up until Good Friday, that is.Something about Jesus’s death compelled these two men to go public with their fai...  Read More

Peter and “the two sons of Zebedee” (James and John) had a broad vocation to follow Jesus. But on the night before their rabbi’s crucifixion, they were given a more specific job: Simply to stay awake while Jesus went away to pray.As they were all walking into the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus “began to be sorrowful and troubled.” He was “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”What’s going on...  Read More

Day 10 | Confidence Grows with EncouragementReflectionToday and every day we are called to find ways to encourage one another. When we do this, we achieve more than growing confidence in others – we so often gain confidence ourselves in the process.The Greek word parakaleó, translated into English as encourage in Hebrews 3:13, is a compound of the words ‘para’ and ‘kaleo.’ Para involves ‘coming al...  Read More

Day 9 | The Loneliness of the Scattered Red DotReflectionAt LICC, we often describe life as a Christian in the UK with two images, both depicting 100 dots. Six dots are red, depicting the 6% of people in the UK who go to church at least once a month. The rest are grey, depicting those who don’t.In the first image, the red dots are gathered in a block next to each other.In the second, they’re scatt...  Read More