Hmm, what about priorities in Christian Life? I love my wife. My kids are precious. I also love the birds near our home. My job and the house we own, I also love. I love my country and am politically center right. Oatmeal is part of my every morning routine and am not as happy if I cannot. I love God and am His forever. Now when all these needs and wants come at once, which is most important? What …
What is Christian marriage? Funny question to ask in a blog post when so many books have been written. What does the Bible say about marriage? How is that relevant to us? In Genesis 2:24, the Bible says, 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. God does not say this about my Mom and me or my wife and our kids. He says this about husband and …
Really? Desire More is the path to life? Doesn’t desire cause our problems? So, I grew up in a family where my parents saw emotion and desire as the enemy. This led me to have a favorite color of gray and really a gray life. I first discovered that God wanted me to feel when I was 25. However, that does not mean I could clear away all the wrong attitudes and habits I had. I married a woman who …
In early morning I went running in my new neighborhood along a Yangzte river delta stream in our City in Wuxi, China. I noticed that not many people were out, but other runners were out. 80% were men running alone like me and 10% were couples out walking together and 10% were women running alone. Here I see again that by creation design women and men are so different. In the evenings in China women gather to do line dancing …
What is fair? Fairness or one love one another? My family is starting to send kids to college in quick succession. As such, we are liquidating the rental house we own to help pay for it. I am thrilled by how it has gained in value even while we sometimes could rent it out these 8 years. But here is the hitch. I like things to be stable and not change. Um, my 2 younger children and wife like change …
My teenage kids remarked to me that they got scarred by Genesis as children. Genesis is not G Rated and neither is the rest of the Bible. Spreading the Good News in China, I also had this experience of people getting hurt and driven away by Genesis. Lot and his daughters is the biggest problem. However, those of us who have looked closely at the text know the Bible has even more non G issues. It is not just that …
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 …
God made men and women so different. We were indeed made to complement each other. Amazingly, a difference shows up in the Covid-19 data. Men and women created different make the world go around because they are different. Now the data. 70% of the vaccinated people who report symptoms are woman. Are women getting sick more? Researchers found something different. Men have the same side effects and symptoms. However, men only report serious effects like fever. Women report all kinds …
What does God intend for men? Leadership? Initiative? Sure, but how does that look in practice, and how are we men doing? For starters, Men, engage your family. Some women learned to play American football and hockey. Others sought to and became the CEO. Notably, God is clearly more sensitive than women and tougher then men . He encompasses all. So women broke free to find more even as God is more. Many of these women were following God every …
By personality, I tend to not have much confidence in the future. This tends to make me more serious and concerned than many others. Like them, I tend to get weary of this heavy life only I live with it 24/7. I need some time on the lighter side. Learning the lighter side of life is a project of mine. First let’s come back to Philippians 4:8,9. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, …
