Our walk with Christ is a journey that calls to love God with all we have and to love others as ourselves. But what does that look like? This blog helps you examine your knowledge, motives, and experience as you move along that journey of loving God and others.
Click on the menu above and pick a category or an article below to get started. For a complete description of the Physical click here.
Kings had it. Princes were trained to get it. Others coveted it to the point that they would go to war to get a piece of it. Because of it, a king could make you or break you with a single word. Many of them lorded it over their subjects.
Today, generals, drill instructors, and the President of the United States have it. So do corporate executives, legislators with the keys to the purse strings, and your mom and dad … and if you are a mom or dad you have it.
Many of us know what it is like to have the power of making a final decision on something and can relate to the sign on Harry Truman’s desk “The buck stops here.”
So in one sense, we can understand how God has complete control over everything and everyone because in the small slice of our world, we have it. Yet on another level, we have no idea what it is like to have the sovereign power that he holds.
One of the things we try to accomplish with this blog is to help people walk with Jesus. We write about how to think about God, how to reflect his image, and how to convey his word. We help people think through sticky, sometimes controversial theological concepts, learn a thing or two about discipleship and what it means to worship God.
One of the things that we haven't touched on yet is how we interpret Scripture. Since Scripture is the basis on God's special revelation, it would be important to learn how to rightly divide his word.
I ran across this blog post that helps us do that very thing. The author of the blog, Justin Taylor, asked Gerald Bray who is a Research Professor at Beeson Divinity School at Samford University, and director of research for the Latimer Trust, which questions do we need to ask when looking at a biblical text.
The leader of a Bible Study I attend told us that a friend of his who knows quite a few billionaires told him that many of those billionaires are the unhappiest people he knows.
There are a large number of people who believe money will bring happiness. They think that if they just had enough money, they would be happy. But an interesting thing happens along the way to earning enough money…many of them discover that they can never earn enough to keep up with their desires. As their income grows, so do their desires.
The Bible claims that those who love money will never be satisfied loving money. (Ecclessiastes 5:10) This is because money is unable to fill the “satisfaction” void. It was never designed for that purpose.
To be clear, the Bible is not anti-money for there are many examples of very wealthy, God loving people in the Bible. Abraham, Solomon, Job are three examples.
I am not big on all the reality T.V. shows, but there are a couple that have caught my attention. One is “The Biggest Loser” because it gives hope to the hopeless.
Many of the contestants before the show have just given up on life. They have tried every diet under the sun, yet they continue to fail to reach their goal. By routinely being discouraged and disappointed, they lose all hope that their lives will ever change.
The layers of guilt, shame, and embarrassment add to their emptiness as they know that they cannot change their lives themselves.
The personal trainers on the show, Bob and Jillian, rescue them from their hopelessness and push them to crazy depths for them to be transformed. As they see the results of their weight loss, they believe, many for the first time in their adult life, that they can be restored to a healthy self-image and weight.
“For him who confesses, shams are over and realities have begun; he has exteriorized his rottenness…he longer smears it over with hypocritical show of virtue – he lives at least on the basis of veracity (truth).”
William James
Confession is good the for soul…it takes a heavy burden off your shoulders by cleansing you and is the first step in dealing with life on life’s terms. The Bible tells us that those who conceal their sins will not prosper, but those who confess and forsake those sins will find mercy. (Proverbs 28:13)
Peter Beck, Assistant Professor of Religion at Charleston Southern University has an outstanding post ontime management here. Here is a portion of it. The verse Beck is referring to is Ephesians 5:16.
Of this verse Jonathan Edwards once preached,
And hence it is that time is a thing so exceeding precious, because 'tis by that that we have opportunity of escaping everlasting misery and of obtaining eternal blessedness and glory. 'Tis upon the improvement of time that there depends an escape from an infinite evil and an obtaining an infinite good. And this puts an infinite value upon time.
I would encourage you to read the entire post and think deeply how you are spending your time. It has convicted me of areas of my week that I need to reduce while encouraging me to increase the amount of time in other areas of my life. Maybe it will do the same for you.
This is the very definition of mercy. As we draw closer to God and he pours more of himself into us, there will come a point when we start reflecting many of God's attributes, including his mercy. As we see how undeserving we are in times of great need and how God meets where we are, we experience his mercy.
Some get a sense of mercy when they throw themselves at the mercy of the court. They have been convicted of a crime, know that they are undeserving of escaping punishment, and are in great need of relief. Before the judge, they plead with him to reduce or waive the sentence. They are at the judge's mercy.
Likewise, a child is at his/her parent's mercy when they get caught red handed doing something that they are not suppose to do, then the child pleads and cajoles begging for the parent's mercy.
This is the way many people believe that they will get to heaven. It sounds fair doesn’t it? As long as you aren’t an axe murderer, rapist, or child molester, you’re good. On the surface this looks good, but let’s dig deeper and ask:
How hard do you have to work?
What are the right things?
Who makes these types of decisions?
For instance, the Aztecs believed child sacrifice was a “right thing.” Will killing innocent children to appease God get them into heaven? They thought so.
Muslim countries that adhere to shia law believe women should wear burkas, not work nor drive. Westerners see this as oppressive and not the right thing to do. What’s one to do?
The Bible guides offers a clear answer to these questions. Warning: this answer is counter-intuitive. It cuts against our pride and the good old Protestant work ethic.
There is nothing we can do or offer God to get to heaven. It is all up to him. Consider, “he saved us, not be of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy…” (Titus 3:5) or “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
God is the one making the decisions through his mercy, not our works; through a gift of his grace, not through anything that we can offer. It’s all about him, his desires, and his will.
The Bible tells us that our even best works are “polluted garments.” (Isaiah 64:6) This is a very nice way of saying “menstrual garments”, as the original readers would have metaphorically understood. Think about that for a minute. When the light of God’s perfect glory shines upon our best efforts, they don’t reflect what we believe what they reflect. Rather it reflects every bit of its imperfection.
So, even if you work really hard and do all the “right things” as you define them, you remain in the same boat as those who don’t lift a finger and do bad things.
Discouraged? Feel that justice has been thrown out the window? Check out this post.
What are your thoughts? How have you explained this to others?
A couple days ago one of our children's classmates looked at me and asked, "Are you Samuel's father?" I said yes then Samuel happened to come up and stand next to me. His classmate looked at both of us and said that he knew that I was Samuel's father because we looked alike.
That got me to thinking about my father. My younger brothers and I walk the same as he did. If all four of us were in a crowd and you were walking behind us, you would think that we were all related because we all walk the same way … the same cadence, the same posture, the same stride, everything is the same.
We reflected my father’s image as Samuel reflects my image. This is the case with nearly everyone. We reflect looks, mannerisms, emotions, behavior and the like of those who bore and reared us.
The Bible tells us that mankind was created in the likeness and image of God (Genesis 1:26), our Heavenly Father. So what does that mean?
