In China, I hold a green card. However, I also have a spiritual passport that says Heaven. Jesus says I was reborn and began a new life. A new life already began when I believed. I Peter notes that new in our belief, we are babies who need good spiritual milk. Hebrews talks about new babies who are not thriving. It is a hard to leave our old life or even family, cultural or national culture, but Jesus died that …
It, Consistent readers of the Main Thing know that I have some tendencies in the Autistic realm and grew up in a house determined to repress all feelings. Therefore, I especially had something to learn about loving God with my heart. I will convey that story below the Bible passages. It might help some readers to consider deeper what Jesus said. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind …
The guy who wrote and sang Sold Out walked away from faith and said it did not happen all at once, but rather the sweater unraveled. In his job, he had to be pastoral and needed to write meaningful Christian songs. He was terrified of losing his faith, so stuffed down his doubts. The band backed off, and he did not need the band for income. He then looked at his lost faith and knew he did not believe. Jon …
God made us each different. Isn’t it amazing? Unfortunately, it is irritating that people around or near us have such strange concerns, habits. and fears. Can both be true together? God and the Bible helped me see who I am and others are through 40 years of my life. Then a Christian boss who loved to share the gospel gave me a new challenge. I worked to create a better system, and a better more honest culture for his Christian …
Being the body of Christ is much harder than we guess at first look. Why can’t we just get along? The Apostle Paul gave us the basic course when he said we are a body with different parts, and the hand should not say it does not need the foot and such. Many times people are different, and we still have trouble with them. To this I recommend Please Understand Me II. It is published by a major atheist publishing …
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 …
