Pain and Sufferring

One of the hardest things that each person must deal with in life is watching people they care about suffer. It is a terrible fact of life that the world we live in is full suffering and pain. Personally, I hate it when I see someone who is in pain even though they believe they did the right thing. Sadly I watched this unfold before me tonight. I have a co-worker who is in emotional pain because she and her boy friend decided to not keep a child (pregnancy in her world). In essence, she bought in to the lie that a pregnancy is something that we can simply chose to abort and that it really isn't a human being that is to be cared for and nurtured. I am watching her suffer in virtual silence because people do not want to hear about how she gets sad every time she sees a baby or that she is hurting. The world has told her such a lie that now she feels like she must suffer in silence. Her boyfriend is in much the same place. He believes the lie even more than she does and because of that he does not even want to talk to her about the emotions that she is dealing with much less any that are probably impacting him. Meanwhile so many of my fellow believers are spending a great deal of energy and effort trying to convince other believers how right they are about some trivial issues.

While I can appreciate the need for these debates I do wonder sometimes if we put too much energy in to them and lose sight of the dead world that is all around us. We fail to see those people who have believed the great lie and now suffer in silence because they are too afraid to believe the truth that they now see deep down in their hearts. It is well past time for the church to rise up and see the world as it is and to get mixed up in the lives of the lost so that they no longer have to suffer alone. To be there to show them that there is another way. To stand-up and say that God loves them and that this world is full of sin and death and that if truly want to be free of that sin then there is only one way and that is Jesus.

Love

We don't fall in love we fall in a hole!

Love is a choice. Each everyday i choose to love my wife. In light of this I have come to realize that I must make the decision to rise above the junk that is around me. I must make my wife a priority in my life. I must do this because God had called me to do this. I must do this because I have chosen to love my beautiful.

I made this choice of my own free will and as such i have responsibilities to uphold. I must do everything I can to ensure that my Angie is everything that God has deigned her to be. In making the choicer to get married I promised God and Angie that I would think of her before myself and in so doing help lead her in to a deeper relationship with her precious Savior.

I know I will continue to make mistakes but with God's grace and Angie's love I know I can do more than I can imagine. I also know that as a couple we can accomplish amazing things.

In the end I know my future is so bright I gotta wear shades!

Fear

Our circumstances don’t define God and when we, as believers allow the circumstances of our lives to determine who God then we are presenting to the world a God who is not unlike the idols found through out the Bible. When we determine who God is and how He functions in this world then we are arrogantly placing ourselves above God and He will not stand for this. The Bible is clear that God is to be primary in our lives and when He is not we will be miserable because we have removed ourselves from the true source of joy in the world.

However, when we are able to step back and realize that God is on His throne then we can see both how small we are and how important we are to Him. I think the smallness of this realization is one of the motivators for us supplanting God and His authority in the first place. At some level we all fear being or becoming insignificant and when we compare ourselves to who God truly is we feel insignificant. However, God says to us in Joshua 1:9 to not be afraid and to be strong and courageous. Most people have looked at the verse in the context of facing life's chanllenges but I think it also applies to the fear of being insignficant.

The Biblical text is clear,  humanity is important to God. We are the pinnacle of His creation. We are loved and cherished above the angels. We are important enough to Him that Son, Jesus, chose to die for us. We are also told that we will never be alone and that He will be with us even to the end of the age (Joshua 1:9, Matthew 28:20).

So as you look you at your life and circumstance remember that no matter what God is still on His throne and that He is calling us to be strong and courageous and to keep on the throne of our lives.

Stand Firm

I have thought a great deal about the analogy that Paul gives when he explains the Christian life as a marathon. I think about how my own running plans and goals are affected by what I do and how I approach them. I have considered the mental discipline that is required of me as a runner and how discipline is required of each believer. I have thought about those times when I get tired as a runner and how I have to some times just make the decision to take one more step and then another and another and so on.  I have thought about how when I am truly dedicated to my running that I reap great rewards and how when I am truly dedicated to God I see some amazing things happen in my life and in the lives around me. I have often considered how I have to make time to run if I am going to get stronger and faster and how if I want to become closer to God that I must make the decision to be with Him.

In the end, for me the greatest lesson from Paul’s analogy is that it is a choice and a decision. I must choose on a daily basis to make God a priority. I must chose to make the things of God important in my life. I must make the decision to stand up and be a man of God and stand firm in my faith, no matter the circumstances in my life.

"Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong"-1 Corinthians 6:13

 

Thinking about things

What do you think about the most? What are those things that take up your mind's time?

I know I have a vast array of things that consume my mental energy. I think about what I am doing, where I am going, my family, my friends, and random other things (such as eagle-chickens). If you are anything like me then you probably do not spend a whole lot of time simply thinking about God especially when we compared to the amount of energy we use on other things.

Have you ever thought about how much God thinks about you? Have you ever considered how much of God's infinite mind is used thinking about you? The fact of the matter is that it is more than you or I could possibly imagine.

"How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You." Psalm 139:17-18

As I have considered this the nerd in me started to think about how the math of infinity might play in to this idea. As I did some research and verification on the web I came to a couple of conclusions.

1. The inverse of infinity is zero.-Implication-Either God's mind is infinite or it is non-existent. It has to be one of the other because the Bible describes His mind this way and the Bible is absolutely true or absolutely false.

2. Applying the concepts of math to the metaphysical can be trick at best.

3. Math can not explain an infinitely loving God because it has no means of putting this in to its strictly logical format.

In the end these verses teach me that God is constantly thinking about me. His thoughts are always about me not matter where I am or what I am doing. And when I think about these verses in light of other verses such as 1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16 and Romans 5:8 I realize that when God is thinking about me He is doing so in such a way that He sees me through the eyes of love and compassion. How awesome is that?!?!?!? The God and Creator of the entire universe is constantly and lovingly thinking about me (and you for that matter)!

The Things God Knows

Have you ever really sat down and considered everything that God knows? It is a whole lot of stuff. Just take your own life for example. How much of your life can you remember? Are there moments you have forgotten in your own life? Of course, there is but God God has not forgotten any of them. He knows every moment and and every tiny detail about your life. He also has this exact same level of knowledge about every person on earth. Plus, He also has this knowledge about every person who has ever lived!

And this is just beginning point of his knowledge! That is a super crazy amount of stuff to remember and keep track of. Yet God in his infinite ability and wisdom is able to have a personal relationship with me. If that fact does not blow you away every time you consider it then I do not know what will.

Psalm 139:6
"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain."

I hope you are able to take some time today and consider the knowledge of God.

Giving without asking

Genesis 3:21 NIV

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

Have you ever considered that Adam and Eve did not ask for clothing? He knew they needed them and He simply provided. God does the same thing today. He knows us so much better than we know ourselves and as such He provides for us long before we ask or even know to ask.