Life is beautiful when every experience is full of the feelings of joy, wonder, and contentment. This is a great ideal, but it can begin to seem like a fantasy instead of a reality much of the time. Most of the events in daily life seem terribly mundane and ordinary, which leaves little room for amazement or wonder, and joy is seldomly the first emotion that comes to mind as the day passes. Many people find themselves very discontent with their lives, and nearly everyone wishes they could change something about their life in some way, from small parts in significance to very important areas of life. When we are constantly thinking about ordinary events that take place in this world instead of focusing our thoughts and desires on honoring and glorifying God, we limit ourselves from truly having joyful, complete, and wonder-filled lives. The solution to this problem, and thus the method to creating beauty in life, comes only through acknowledging God’s presence in our lives daily, and allowing Him to use this presence in significant, meaningful ways that fill us with joy, wonder, and lasting contentment. Read the rest of this entry »
Why do we continue to sin, when we know it is wrong and we are certain of the dangers associated with it?
It seems to me that none of us intends to sin. It is a mistake, as we are all too often found claiming when the sin is brought to light. No good Christian begins his day with the sole intention of sinning, yet we continue to see ourselves sinning against our good intentions. When we are given new life through Christ, we left behind all of those lifestyles and mindsets, and through our new ability turn away from sinning, right? But what about when turning away doesn’t seem like a lifestyle as much as just a thing we do, and even then, only occaisionally? Sometimes it can seem like a struggle to make it through one day without seeing ourselves sinning in the same way as we have in the past. There is a solution to this problem, but it may be different than you think. We are going to go back to some basics first then return to this question a little bit later.
I just found this wonderful study tool for the Bible, YouVersion.
Whenever I am on an internet capable computer and need a Bible to study, this is the place I will be going to. It has options for community study notes on any passage, which act as a sort of dynamic scripture commentary. I would suggest being careful about the community notes, though, because anyone is able to post them on the site. Personal notes on any scripture passage and a section for a personal journal are included as well, which is very handy. I have already bookmarked this page, and I am looking forward to using it more often. I can’t wait to jump in.
This may be the spark to ignite a passion for Bible study in our generation that uses the internet more than any other as a means of communicating our thoughts and feelings.
God’s love for humans is aggressive. It revolves around doing the impossible to prove to humanity how He loves us. Time after time, He reveals Himself to mankind in more serious and personally significant ways as history has progressed. The ultimate example of His aggressive love is His willingness to live as a human and die a human death, all to bring mankind nearer to Himself.
So, how do modern Christians reflect this aggressively loving God to all the people around them? I thought about what it means to reflect God’s aggressive love, and what it means we, as Christians, must be aware of. I hope that the considerations that I have been able to think of are relevant to this and helpful for you in the application for your life. This is what I feel a Christian must remember in order to effectively reflect God’s aggressive love:
Be determined to find opportunities to serve other people around you. Look for service projects if organized activities are how you work best. If you are more oriented to smaller acts of kindness and love, there are plenty of opportunities in every day life if you are ready for them and determined to take advantage of them. Be confident and do not stray from your mission of reflecting God’s love to others, no matter how tempting it becomes to stop. Seek out the ways you can help others, and make sure that you follow up on everything you begin.
Pay attention to the people around you. Take notice of the small ways that others try to express how they are feeling, and take the time to understand why they would feel a certain way about a situation or circumstance. It is surprising to me how many times I think I understand what someone is going through and start to give them advice without even trying to understand their true feelings. If you take the time to understand just what someone needs, you can avoid a lot of mistakes and get to helping them with the real need first.
Do not let missed opportunities affect your desire to continue reflecting God’s love. Everyone is imperfect, and I certainly fit into this category as well. We can’t possibly be looking for every single opportunity, and when you miss one do not get down on yourself for it. It can be easy to give up because opportunities to reflect God’s love seem to slip through our hands when we desire to practice it the most. Don’t let it demoralize you to the point at which you are unwilling to keep going and looking for ways to be a reflection of Christ to others, because there is nothing abnormal or different about missing signals and forgetting to pay attention to the needs of others. See your mistake and try to pay more attention in the future.
Remember who it is you are representing. He has a reputation, and everything you do, good or bad, affects it. When you show someone that they are not worth your effort or time, they will equate this with what Christ is about. It can cause a lot of mistakenly hurt feelings and push people even farther away from God.
Trust God to do what He says He will do, and then do your part in it. Understand this, you cannot do it all by yourself. You are not able to change people’s hearts, nor are you able to fix everything about an individual’s circumstances. The important thing is that you are reflecting God’s love for them, and then stepping back and not attempting to force them into coming to grips with their need for God. Only God can create this realization in them, and your duty is to reflect God’s love towards them through kindness, service, and love.
Go beyond merely following opportunities on your schedule. Make extra time and put yourself into situations where you will be pushed into reflecting God’s love to those around you. If you wait for the opportunity to come to you, it may never happen, and then you cannot truly say that you have done everything that you could to turn others toward God. Whenever you see a need, make a solution. Even more than that, go out of your way to seek out the needy, so that you may show them who God is through your actions.
Leave behind all your worry about how people will react to your actions. Just start practicing reflecting God’s love to them regardless of whether or not they accept it or show gratitude in return. In all likeliness they will appreciate you for what you are doing if you are adequately reflecting God’s love, even if they do not openly express these feelings to you. If you are too afraid of what people will think of you to take a chance for the sake of Christ’s reputation, you are focusing on the wrong aspect of this interaction. The main point is that you are reflecting God’s love, and so if they reject you, they are rejecting God in reality. You do not need to worry about how they see you, even if you worry for the reputation of Christ, because God is using you in just the way that He means to.
Look to the examples given in the Bible of those in history who have reflected God’s love. The Bible is full of examples to show us how to live as a reflection of Christ, in the old and new testaments alike. They are bold and confident in God’s power over their life, and they forget about trying to look good in society’s eyes. They openly proclaim God’s word and reflect God’s compassion to all those around them.
Be sure in your knowledge of who God really is. If you are unable to explain who God is, you will probably be unable to reflect Him in your life. It requires a lot of study about God’s true character to discover what you should be doing to show others who He is. It is essential to know the object of your reflection before you can adequately reveal Him to those around you. A mirror cannot reflect the light unless it is in the full shining of the light.
This is my take on this. Do you have another conception of our task in Reflecting God’s aggressive love? I want to know how you feel about these tips. Do you think they will increase your personal effectiveness? I eagerly await your response.
What I mean is; Do we make God smaller than He really is to attempt to understand how He works?
I think we do. And I believe that it is wrong. Very Wrong.
You are probably wondering just what I mean by this. You would ask me how attempting to understand God is wrong. The real issue I have is that when we refer to God in our conversation, we almost always limit His ability in our own understanding so that we may be able to understand at all. We feel that we must understand how God works, without regard to changing His characteristics in our understanding. The real problem is that we gain no understanding of the true nature of God through this and actually limit our own perception of God’s power. Read the rest of this entry »
Yet more audio for your ears is available right here. Prepare yourself for another great podcast.
This week we are continuing our discussion about the five Solas, and we are specifically focused on Sola Fide, or “By Faith Alone”. We also throw in some other fun tidbits for you guys, the listeners, and hopefully you’ll enjoy them as well. We talk about Kent’s new activity, Chase’s freedom to use his technology again, and my laziness in the falconry update department along with a bit of random advice we somehow salvaged from our minds to present to you on this episode.
I truly hope this is beneficial to you, and if you have any questions, comments. Anything at all you want to say to us, please send an email right out to us or post it in the comments section.
I found this over on ReclaimingTheMind.org, and I found it very informative. I never knew that this sort of discussion was happening between Christian leaders and Muslim leaders.
I agree with Piper on this one. Watch the video and let us know what you think. It runs just under ten minutes, so make sure you have enough time to sit down and watch this (or just listen to it).
Should we give until we are unable to support ourselves?
At first glance, that seems like a terribly bad idea, but is there more to it than only being unable to support yourself. Perhaps being unable to support yourself would be an invitation for God to come in and support you. Then again, the logical answer is definitely no.
I know that we are commanded, as followers of Christ, to be charitable, but I have always had a burning question about this particular command: Are we commanded to give until we are unable to support ourselves? This seems like a bad thing to do, but is it the true degree of the command to be charitable? To me there are two arguments for this question: The Logical, and The Spiritual. Read the rest of this entry »
This is a recent blog post on a Christian Faith Blog by David Heddle that I enjoy about a predestination interpretation of John chapter 3. David points out that this passage is usually interpreted as a neutral and sometimes free will passage. He explains how there is a chain of occurrences in an individual’s salvation experience that will inevitably point to a more predestination slant on the teaching presented in this passage. the occurrences are becoming born again, which is an act of the Holy Spirit within us and not of our own will, and believing in order to have eternal life with Christ.
I thought this was very interesting. I feel inspired after reading several of the prayers on the main page of this website, Dear-God.net. I felt as though I was consoling a friend about a difficult situation, and this is exactly what happens in some cases. In the comments of several of the prayers, I saw people encouraging and providing resources and advice to help the prayer giver. Of course, there are also many discouraging comments, but there are always those who choose to harass believers in spiritual things if they do not necessarily feel the same way.
Dear-God.net is a global project to share the secret (not so secret anymore. ) hopes, praises, requests, prayers, rants, and fears of whoever wants to participate. This is a non-denominational website, and it actually goes even further than non-denominational to encompass all versions of higher deity. It is a very inspiring experience, and also a great opportunity to pray for others’ needs. You can share a prayer with the site or just read others’ prayers.
Each post provides a prayer for reading, a picture to sum up the prayer, and a comment section to allow the readers to help or console the prayer giver. I am definitely going to visit this one again. This could be a huge tool for bring more into a saving faith in God’s salvation. I can only hope that it is bringing glory to God, and from what I see on the website already in just one visit I believe that this is the case.
Anyways. Visit the site. Let us know what you think. I thought it was worth mentioning and I hope that you feel the same way.
Yet more audio for your ears is available right here. Prepare yourself for another great podcast.
) hopes, praises, requests, prayers, rants, and fears of whoever wants to participate. This is a non-denominational website, and it actually goes even further than non-denominational to encompass all versions of higher deity. It is a very inspiring experience, and also a great opportunity to pray for others’ needs. You can share a prayer with the site or just read others’ prayers.