Category Archives: Marriage, Love & Family
The “Spirit” of Christmas
December 2, 2016
What is this “spirit” of Christmas everyone talks about? It’s a mystical creature that makes its entrance from black Friday (or before) until approximately January 6, and it compels us to put up lights, decorate trees, and stress ourselves out baking cookies and buying gifts. It’s this notion that colorful twinkling lights, carols, snow, turkey and ham, presents and parties can take our worries, disappointments and hurts away. We fall into the trap of giving more value to things rather than people, and many times we find ourselves dishonoring God by shopping on credit instead of trusting in Christ. It helps us be nice to others and utter phrases like “Merry Christmas”, “Happy Holidays” and “Joy to the World” only for a short period of time, but after the year ends, it turns into a spirit of dread, emptiness and regret that amplifies the cold, dark and short days of winter, plaguing many with the “blues” and “cabin fever”.
God’s Present Will
January 18, 2016Every time I think of the challenge of actually knowing God’s will I get excited about the possibilities but apprehensive about my experiences where I didn’t hear well, interpret what I heard well, or just flat out missed it.
As you read this know that God is speaking truth and He so wants to meet you in the place where you are. Whether in total peace or total chaos, He loves you. He has a will for you, He has a will for your family, He has a will inside of your calling and your gifting.
Books have been written on this subject. Actually volumes of work on knowing God’s will. I want to focus on three categories. God’s perfect will, His permissive will and His present will. Wait, what do I mean by present will?
I set you up. Yeah sorry. Perfect and permissive will, that’s way too complicated. Let’s just focus on present will.
In this moment God has a very specific will for you. Let me say it again – IN THIS MOMENT. How much of our lives do we live either in the past or in the future? I like to call those the “two thieves.” These are regrets of the past and the anxiety of the future. They can steal our joy in the present. Thieves they are. I liken them to the thief that hung next to Jesus on the cross. Full of self-pity, judgement and piety. If we hang out in those places we’ll miss the blessing right beside us. In this case, he missed an eternity by not seeing the present as a gift from God.
‘Thumbs Up’ to the Nearest Idol
September 25, 2014Why the Facebook “like” has contributed to a society in social & moral decline
If you find yourself posting material or sharing what’s on your mind, be very careful of your motive for doing so. Keeping family members and close friends abreast of things: great. Fueling the engine of “self”: very dangerous. The “like,” very unfortunately, has become a measuring stick for Facebook users. The more “likes”, shares and comments, the better they are doing. Do you see the reason for concern? We were all fashioned to have a measuring stick but it was never intended to be social media, it was supposed to be Jesus. Jesus and nothing shy or beyond Jesus, anything else that we give our time and devotion to would qualify as an idol. The “like” is symbolic, in a sense, of a broader cultural phenomenon; the phenomenon of social media, reality TV, sensationalized and agenda-driven, divisive news media, etc. These things have been both distracting and way too influential in defining who we are and what we believe. Let this serve as an urgent call for a spirit of discernment for the church in this age.
Cultural Relativism: redefining words at the expense of truth
1. It has redefined the meaning of the word ‘like’
Similar to that of ‘love,’ which is a word that’s been greatly weakened by American cultural syntax, the word ‘like’ has suffered the same fate. So much so that if it’s used in conversation it many times might need to be clarified; are you talking about actually liking something or are you talking about “liking” something, as in that thing you posted? Here is another example: if we knew that the word ‘Diva’ essentially means ‘female goddess,’ would we be so quick to label talented young singers as such? If you don’t believe God’s sovereignty is agreeable, than you’re probably more inclined to use this language, but to those of us who want to please God in word and deed, we should probably avoid considering entertainers as divine. The word ‘Diva’ is commonplace today in our culture, and we’re quick to dish it out to the independent and sassy girls out there like we’re paying them a compliment. But what are we really doing when we say that?
The Quail Just Kept Coming?
May 30, 2014I was listening to my favorite Bible teacher the other day speaking about the people of Israel and their complaint against the daily supply of manna; requesting of God meat to satisfy them. All the while, grumbling about how tired they were of wandering in the wilderness and eating the same food. Can you imagine they even suggested they’d be better off back in Egypt?
It struck me that all that complaining about God’s perfect provision resulted in a swarm of quail. Quail in the morning, quail in the afternoon and quail at night. Quail coming out of their nostrils. Then He struck them down with a plague due to their obsession.
So what’s that got to do with our behavior as Christians? Think about it. God knows what’s best for us yet we continue to ask for what we believe is better. The crazy thing is, He’ll actually give us what we want. Then we realize just how destructive our choices can be when deciding to ignore God’s perfect plan for our lives. Be careful what you ask for. You actually may get it. Then what happens when it virtually destroys us?
What’s Love Got to Do with It?
April 15, 2014
Unconditional Love. It’s all about establishing trust. When our only daughter (only child for that matter) headed off to college it became painfully obvious that my wife and I were about to experience a “loss” in our lives that we only understood on paper, not in reality. After 19 years, with only three children around the household (my wife, daughter and I), there was a pretty inseparable bond that had formed. Some might call that codependency. We called it camaraderie and love.Total love, total trust. The sort of glimpse that God gives us into His heart toward His sons & daughters.
Fast forward only a few months and we just knew that a replacement “child” was on the way, from somewhere. Let’s face it, we can’t produce one ourselves anymore so let’s go buy one.I mean, come on. You can’t live this way for too long, right? Enter Barnabas. A tiny little toy poodle (you can see him in the photo the day he came home). Before too long we understood why dog spelled backwards is God.
