As I was reading Greg Laurie’s devotional for today (free registration required), I couldn’t help but think about an acquaintance who has some of the feelings toward God Pastor Laurie mentions:
God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. —1 John 4:16
Maybe you don’t believe God is good. Maybe you think that God is out to ruin your life. Perhaps someone misrepresented God to you somewhere along the line. Maybe you had a bad experience years ago. Maybe someone did or said something that disillusioned you.
Perhaps you had a father who mistreated you, and you may have transferred those feelings onto your Father in heaven. You think of God the same way you thought of your earthly father. I don’t know what your earthly father was like, but I do know that God is good. You need to realize that about His nature, about His purposes in your life.
Not only is God good, but God is love. It is not merely that God has love or is loving. The Bible actually says that “God is love” (1 John 4:16). There is a Hollywood version of love today that is very shallow. It’s probably closer to lust than anything else. This version of love says, “I love you as long as you are lovable. I love you as long as you are beautiful or handsome. But the moment you cease to interest me, I am going to move on to another relationship.”
In contrast, God’s love is unchanging. It is consistent. It is inexhaustible. He always loves us. He loves us when we sit in church with smiles on our faces and Bibles in our laps. But He also loves us when we are failing and when we are sinning. Though He is displeased by our sin, He still loves us no matter what we do.
We need to remember that about God. So don’t run from Him and His love.
When I passed on a copy of Hugh Hewitt’s Blog to Tim, stuff like this post was the sort on my mind: things he couldn’t, for one reason or another, work in to his sermons, but still wanted to share.
Dr. Marc Newman has a rather cool and unusual ministry: MovieMinistry.com. The site takes a look at the latest movies in theaters, and provides a synopsis of each, as well as topics and corresponding verses for discussion. For instance, Pixar’s latest, Cars, can be used to talk about pride, humility, respect for one’s elders, and service to others. This can be an engaging way to interact with others and present the Gospel.
A lot of folks are making hay over the Presbyterian Church’s latest doctrinal statement concerning the Trinity. Joe Carter thinks they get the doctrine right, but their metaphors are beyond utterly wrong.
Seen today at an archive over at Agnus Day:
“If you want proof of the existence of the Holy Spirit, read your church history.” Certainly such a flawed institution couldn’t continue to exist without serious divine intervention.
For some reason, there’s just nothing like rain gently falling on your face from haggard clouds that are worn out from pouring rain on the earth all day. There was a calm. There was a silence. There was a resonate feeling of life and purpose around — yet removed enough to be just beyond the grasp of full understanding — that tweaked the flame of awe inside. For a moment there was nothing but Nature, a reminder of how little we are, and a blatant knowledge that there is a Creator that spun this world into existence, maybe because He, too, likes the idea of rain falling on His face. He, too, likes the way a day full of rain awakens the deep green of Nature. He, too, likes a silence in which you can only hear His creation whispering.
I like the feel of a gentle rain on my face, too. Lord, we could use some more up here in north Texas.
It warms my heart to see more and more Crossroads Bible Church staffers, and members of their family, pick up the blogging meme.
Foremost is our senior pastor, Tim Stevenson, whose new online home is Living Inside Out. Not to be outdone by her spouse, Tim’s wife Deb can be found at Proverbs and other stuff by The Silver Crown, and kudos to Deb for beating Tim to the posting punch.
Joye Messerli, wife of our Lead Pastor, Mike, can be found at the aptly-named Joyeful Things.
The church’s Pastor of Student Ministries, aka, “youth minister,” Brent McKinney, has been blogging for quite a while at The McKinney Diner. Now if we can just get Mike, Dave, Bill, and Bob blogging, the circle would be complete.
This came from an e-mail my mom sent:
God is sitting in Heaven when a scientist says to Him, “Lord, we don’t need you anymore! Science has finally figured out a way to create life out of nothing. In other words, we can now do what you did in the ‘beginning’.”
“Oh, is that so? Tell me … ” replies God.
“Well,” says the scientist, “we can take dirt and form it into the likeness of You and breathe life into it, thus creating man.”
“Well, that’s interesting. Show me.”
So the scientist bends down to the earth and starts to mold the soil.
“Oh no, no, no…” interrupts God, “Get your own dirt.”
Many of the nearly 650,000 displaced by Indonesia’s earthquake are living with deteriorating sanitary conditions, forced to wash with dirty water that infects wounds and spreads skin disease, doctors said Sunday.
Please consider donating to any of the many organizations providing relief assistance. We like the package and plan from World Vision, which has put together individual kits for survivors.
Christianity Today posted an article about the Colorado Rockies, on how Christian values are driving the team’s ownership, management, and some of the players. You can read more in the USA Today piece the article references.
About this time fourteen years ago, my beloved and I were dancing our first dance, or cutting the cake, or visiting with the numerous friends and family members who were generous enough with their time to spend it in celebration with us.
A lot has changed in the world in fourteen years. A lot has changed within each of us. If you had told me fourteen years ago how our lives would be today, I would have thought you insane. Yet we have a really great life. Sure, there are a few things I wish could be better. I wish my mother-in-law would have had more than nine months with her only grandchild. I wish my Granddaddy would have been around to see his first great-grandchild, and my Pappaw would have seen his tenth or eleventh. (There are so many great-grandchildren on that side of the family, it’s hard to keep track.)
We’ve had our ups and downs, but all of that plays in to shaping the kind of people we are today, and the life we have together.
I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I love you, Kelly. Happy Anniversary.
It was not God who failed during the Holocaust or in the Gulag, or on 9/11, or in Bosnia. It is not God who fails when human beings do barbaric things to other human beings. Auschwitz is not what happens when the God who says “Thou shalt not murder” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” is silent. It is what happens when men and women refuse to listen.