Last week, I noted that God being a God of order must not make Order God. Let’s expand on that thought and see where we may be simplifying following God and then making a god out of some principle. Do we put our foot down for God and fall outside Jesus teaching? Our relationship with God and with the people around us needs more art than rule bound thinking. Let us not simplify God and become cold people. Jesus called …
God is about order as seen in 1st Corinthians below. But is he against chaos? God loves order, but is order God? How can we think about this? In 1 Corinthians 14:33 it says For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people. In the passage, the Apostle Paul says that having people speak in unknown tongues for the church is nonsense as people cannot understand. He then indirectly says that God is about order. Christianity Today has a …
I wrote recently about unconditional love for our children. Today, I want to visit again. Unconditional love comforts us like nothing else. Can we do it for others? Without God going before us, could anyone get there? God gave promises to Abraham that his descendants would possess the land Then after all the ways the people betrayed God. He still again and again saves them and cares for them and even in anger preserves them. When God became a man …
To the third and fourth generation is a repeated mantra in the old testament ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’ Last night my teenage son and I were talking. We noted that our decisions to love are deeply important and have results far beyond what we see in any given day. So let’s talk about the ramifications of …
Connect with and not criticize children is a simple phrase but how should we understand and see it under God? My parents were deeply hurt people and did an amazing thing. They raised me and did not criticize me at all. Amazing for two hurt people. Yet, at age 12, I felt that I lived in darkness. Yes, they had nothing to deeply connect with me. Thus, though accepted and never criticized, I was lost. It led me to God …
Yeah for the Bible! What I mean is the God who made the earth wanted us to know him. Therefore, he became a man. Then he died on a Roman Cross to save us and get our attention at the same time. However, 21st century man would be lost without the Word of God. Again and again the Bible brings the lost back to our true God. He bleeds out of the pages. Are you familiar with Hebrews 4:12? For …
Jesus knew us completely. He knew how incredibly selfish and lost we were. He also wanted to reach us and all peoples everywhere. So he did not specify too much. Take a look. 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law …
Jesus in his incarnation and death on the cross for us his enemies opened the issue of unconditional love. How do we handle it? Let’s start with unconditional love and children – our own children. I picked up a phrase when my children were young that I often shared with them. I would regularly ask them: “If you were really really really bad, would Daddy still love you?” Initially they would say no, but I would help them see more. …
God’s intent is to give us life abundantly. Let’s not live half a life, Let me tell my personal story as an example. I grew up in a good one-half life. My parents had rejected emotion due to their hurt. Their success is that they created a safe place for those who could live in that rational positive space. I was one who could. So, we had only half a world, but I did not know it as grew up …
Many of us have read the whole Bible while still in high school. So why do we still read it? Or, we have read the gospels countless times. Yet we read them again. Why to read the Bible more? Living the Christian life can be likened to swimming up stream in a river going down to a shark infested ocean. When we do not swim against the current, we get moved toward the sharks. When we swim, we hold even …
