Choices we make in tragedy impact a long way. My Great Grandfather John M Nelson was born in Norway in 1869. His father was a stern man and when his mother died when he was 11, all childhood went with it. He had to go to work to float his family. At roughly age 21 he moved to the US and met Jensine Olsen, also a Norwegian immigrant. They lost a few houses to tragedy. One to a flood of …
It is bold to publish a guide to gaining humility. Surely there are 600 page books even from Christian writers on this topic. The best school is still at the foot of Jesus’ Cross. This Cross is the only place where I can see I am a horrible sinner, and see I am deeply loved all at the same time. I also wrote about this at Abiding at the Cross to Save Me Now. At the Cross, perfect mercy, perfect …
Luck does not appear in the words of the Bible, but do we get lucky? This week with my teennage daughter, we read. … I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is …
Atheism and the unseen means they have a problem with the unseen. We Christians often get confused too. What is unseen is greater than what is seen. May we believe. Atheism and the Unseen are Not Friends I moved to China in 1991. China is a very pragmatic country that accepted atheism as its state religion. Atheism teaches that matter is the source of life and all we know. They say matter has the power to evolve in all ways …
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and his sons had no rules, no structure, no Bible, no communication from God for 100’s of years. Just circumcision is established. Jacob’s kid Judah hires and impregnates a prostitute and no one cares and God has no comment. Judah only initially condemns his daughter-in law for being umfaithful to his son. Moses 400+ years later says God hates prostitution. Judah’s only pre Moses ‘sin’ is not giving Tamar his youngest son to be her husband according …
Seeing our own problem of Christians and bias may sound hard but actually it is even harder. First, let’s consider how Jesus viewed it. In John 8:28 Jesus says he does nothing on his own but only what the Father tells Him. Jesus was without sin and relied completely on the Father’s better perspective. Jesus very strongly faced his potential bias. How about us? Nicodemus was a highly educated member of the Jewish leadership. To Nicodemus, he said, “You must …
I noted on the front page that if Jesus goal was to set up a religion he did a bad job. Clearly, God had another goal. For example, more than 1 billion people say they are Christians as saw something in what He did do. My 7th grader is suffering as they must do presentations of three minutes each and each of them presents on the exact same topic. She fears boredom. She says this is a bad topic for …
I went to school at West Point and certainly grew in faith in there. They had a written prayer that we often prayed that is of benefit to West Point’s culture but also has some good things in it for Christians. Here is the whole thing taken from the West Point website. Cadet Prayer O God, our Father, Thou Searcher of human hearts, help us to draw near to Thee in sincerity and truth. May our religion be filled with …
In 1 Corinthians 13, tough Paul takes a deep breath and says love is irreplaceable. He said it is about love. Because I grew up in a family where I was taught to not feel, this was a puzzling problem for me. I read 1 Corinthians 13 in 9th grade and knew love was important and that I knew nothing about it. So I memorized the whole chapter and hoped that would help. God’s help broke through my barriers when I …
Why is the Sermon on the Mount so famous? In Matthew 5, Jesus says we should be poor in spirit, mourn, be meek, hunger and thirst for righteousness, be merciful, pure in heart, and a peacemaker to be in the image of the kingdom. Then he says to put this light on a stand for all to see. Jesus then says he has not come to abolish the law and that every letter counts, and we need to be better …
