I heard it said that a man’s life without God is driven by power or pleasure. As a Christian, I find it to be true in me too. I claim to be a mature Christian who finds value in God and not the things of this world. However, I got married and had kids. I found if things were bad at the office, I was OK as had God. If things were bad at home, I was good as had …
Life is no picnic. Not only are there sinners all around us, but we have devious sin within us. The result is, when things go wrong, that we often feel life is too hard. After, we realize a lot. When Things God Wrong, God is With Us Let’s look at Proverbs 3:11 which My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines God loves us enough to turn the screw tighter and tighter on us. …
How about a Chinese Church faith report? I should have blogged on this insightful article last year, but find myself only now starting to write. The question is: Should we see the Chinese church as persecuted and needy or perfectly provided for? Or just how should we see them? This article brought a hearty Amen from my heart. See the quote below. Though this narrative (China as a persecuted needy church) may have been accurate in the 1980s as China …
I recently bought an ebook called Five Essentials to Engage Today’s Men. It is done by Barna, so they did good research. It reminded me how hard it is for men to be better than their father. This certainly includes me. From it I learned it is good to be a Christian man. In 10 different areas like mental health, work life balance, and physical health, Christian men, on average, felt better than non Christian men. Men who had intergenerational …
We all know we should keep reading the Bible. It has the words of life. However, it gets old. We get bored. What can be done for us? And why are we reading it as we know the stories already and hear more in Church? Four things here: 1.Let’s not read the Bible like a text book or to know the trivia. We best go to see what God likes and does not. What makes him smile and what gets …
We all know that expectation of harm is worse than the real thing. Jesus said not to worry and that God would take care of us, but expectations are tough. They are often the worst part. Beyond that we often do not know how much is in us in the suffering. God made us much stronger than we think. Let me tell you a story. Expectation of Harm is Worse by Far I moved to poor nearly starving China in …
Christmas is exciting, light, soft, and happy. It is not surprising that Easter gets less press. Easter is heavy and often so heavy. We like light happy meaningful Christmas. Easter is the main thing though. Did God want us to only feel heavy here? Easter often is like lessons on how bad it is to die on a cross which is true. There are no funny things here. So people developed the friendly Easter bunny. However, I need not just …
In I Thessalonians 1:3 Paul praises the Thessalonians for their faith, hope and love. These are not easy to bring to life. Paul knows and follows by saying we can do it by God’s power. We are not people who follow a wise old principle. It does not work actually. It becomes a kind of facade over our real selves. The Spirit gives us power. Are we receiving it? By faith toward connection we gain power to live out life …
Satan loves secrets. They really work on us. I recently turned 56 and thought how age 55 was a better year than age 54. Growing in Christ is one general issue, but the main thing was I hurt myself through most of age 54. At age 50, some aches and pains started catching up with me. At 54, I started to feel a pain in my knee and say silently and hopelessly “54”. I certainly said it every day. Near …
Yes, God exposed my idol. Let me explain. I have been reading The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon. I was terribly shook by reading about the terrible Roman Emperors’ behaviors. I then read that Trump is Julius Caesar and how they cause the end of the Roman (American) Republic. I was shook and pale as I stood up from reading. My family asked what was wrong. I was not sure. Then I saw why an article …
