Merry Christmas!

"The Holy Night" by Carlo Maratti (c. 1650, courtesy Web Gallery of Art)

Christmas is arguably the most important event in human history (after Creation, of course), because it celebrates the moment that God the Father entered the world as a little baby, Jesus the Son, God incarnate. I know that there are many who refuse to believe this fact, and there are many more who allow other aspects of the holiday (such as decorating, giving and receiving presents, taking vacations, etc...) to cloud the real "reason for the season."

But that's okay. After all, I think that's one reason this blog exists: to help remind the world that Jesus is THE Way, the ONLY Way, in fact, to be reconciled unto God. So, toward that end, I am rededicating this blog to the One whose virgin birth we celebrate this week (and always).

So what does this mean? I am beginning a long-running series on Jesus Christ, the Son of God, mostly based on Biblical references, but augmented with other historical and contemporary sources. I have already compiled a list of more than 40 topics, which I plan to revisit periodically. Eventually, I will create a new website, independent of Blogger, where all of these posts will permanently reside.

I will continue to post occasionally to my other blogs (see side panel), while most personal updates will be relegated to Facebook.

May your Christmas be joyous, and may you live every day with the love of Jesus Christ in your heart!

Running to Win!

This Garfield comic strip printed in the late 2000's and inspired the original idea for this post, nearly a decade ago.

"Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible" (1 Cor. 9:24-25).

Natural man tends to get lazy about spiritual things, and even seasoned Christians can become complacent and content in their walk with the Lord. But the Apostle Paul, in warning the young Corinthian church to remain steadfast in their faith, likens their relationship with the Lord not to a leisurely walk, but a competitive race. And as motivation, he presents them with the prospect of inheriting the "incorruptible crown", which is their eternal inheritance, should they persevere unto the end.

Not to be confused with a non-Biblical "salvation-by-works gospel' (see Paul's letter to the Galatians, for clarification), Paul nevertheless understands that a spiritually healthy and mature Christian is one who actively pursues Christ and the "mastery" of all things related to Him (faith, obedience, His Word, witnessing, etc....). Salvation is so much more than just having a day when you decided to repent of your sins and follow Jesus; He desires to have a relationship with you, much like a husband and wife. And that takes work..., but it is so very worth it!

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it" (Matt. 13:44-46).

By the way, in the strip, Garfield sarcastically questions whether there is sufficient motivation for him to join Jon in such a torturous activity. But that's a question Peter has already answered, in 1 Pet. 5:8: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."

I'm BACK!... Probably....

As most comic book fans already know, WWII-era superhero Captain America was frozen in the Arctic ocean for several decades, before making a return to the Marvel universe.

My blog posts are known to be sporadic, but it wasn't until recently that I realized my last post to this blog was in December 2014, nearly FIVE years ago! How the time flies! We are all still healthy, I am enjoying the same software development job, and we live in the same happy home. Among the biggest changes have been my son and I getting involved in local theater, Kylen graduating high school and starting his second year at Liberty University (majoring in Christian Counseling), my dad's retirement, and my mom's passing (after battling MS for more than 25 years). All the while, I've been splitting my time between work and family, periodically spending large amounts of time on websites, Windows applications, and theater-related activities.

Our family car has several JesusIsWonderful.com decals on its windows, but it wasn't until our family came to visit, that I was informed that the domain was no longer working! Turns out Yahoo had suspended it, because they had been unable to verify my contact information. They had an outdated e-mail account associated with the domain, but they didn't even try my Yahoo e-mail! And what really took the cake was that they had no problem continuing to charge me for the use of the domain! Really, Yahoo???

Admittedly, blogging has always taken a back seat, and I have to be realistic that it will probably continue to do so. Farrah finally caved a few years ago and got a Facebook account, followed later by our son, and then by me. And with all the other social media sites out there, I wonder if anyone is even blogging anymore.

Nevertheless, I think Blogger is much better suited to my style, than Facebook (which I hardly ever visit, anyway), and I have some exciting plans for the domain. But until then, I will continue to post here (and on my other blogs), at least once in a while.

Your Worth

My son (now in 9th grade!) recently joined a city basketball league team, with his friends. While they have been playing together at our homeschool co-op for several years, none of them is especially good, and this is the first occasion they've had to play as a team. They lost their first two games by wide margins, and my son's experience reminded me of my own.

Ever since I was Kylen's age, I've loved playing basketball. Trouble is that I've never gotten very good at it, and that has always bothered me. Even as an adult who still plays pick-up games almost every week, I often come home disappointed in my lackluster performance on the court. I like to think I have many other talents, but despite the fact that this is my favorite sport, I cannot seem to improve. And that really bothers me, to the point that I risk seeing myself as worthless.

But as a born-again follower of Jesus Christ, I know better. The Bible teaches us that we are all of great intrinsic value to God. This means that my worth does not hinge upon my accomplishments, or the number of accolades I've received over my short existence. While our society bestows greater honor upon its sports, entertainment, or political heroes, God "is no respecter of persons." That means winning a championship or finding a cure for cancer earns you no more "brownie points" with Him, than if you came in last place or got dropped out of college.

He knows that you can do nothing of real importance without Him, and just to prove it, He usually picks the lowliest of the low to show Himself strong through. Who was Abraham, before God told him that He would make a great nation of him? Who was Moses, when God called him to lead His people out of the hands of Pharaoh? Was David not the youngest of many brothers, when God had Samuel annoint him the second king of Israel? How could He choose a lowly manger as His first throne, on that first Christmas day?

Yes, Christmas is the reminder that He valued each one of us enough to die on the cross for us, even before we even drew our first breaths! He has a plan for you, and He will do great things through you, despite your shortcomings. In fact, it is through those very weaknesses that His strength will shine!

Merry Christmas!

Breaking News: Jesus Did Not Exist (Part II)

Christ and the Rich Young Ruler, by Heinrich Hofmann, 1889. Courtesy Wikipedia.

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Even if Mark did indeed omit the account of Christ’s resurrection, virtually every book of the New Testament claims this fact. Omission is not disagreement, nor is it relevant to Mr. Sosa’s thesis.

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Again, the article’s author is merely grasping at straws now. Among the people that discovered Jesus’ empty tomb, Mary Magdalene is mentioned in all four Gospels, and Mary the mother of James was mentioned in three of the four. Since these four accounts were written by four different authors, it’s reasonable to expect different attentions to details. But again, omission is not contradiction.

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Poor debaters like to throw the dogs off their trail by claiming that their arguments are already “established,” irrefutable facts, regardless the number of holes. This paragraph could have easily been omitted, not that it would have saved the rest of the article’s downward spiral.

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How many days after His resurrection did Jesus ascend into Heaven? Mr. Sosa is right that, on the surface at least, Luke and Mark claim that Jesus ascended the same day that He rose from the dead (their accounts are nearly identical; Matthew makes no mention of the ascension). But what the article fails to mention is that while the Book of Acts claims that Jesus ascended into Heaven after 40 days, it is widely believed that its author is Luke himself. If that is the case, then I would be more likely to believe that the seemingly rushed endings of the two Gospels were not meant to be taken as a literal timeline of events. This might warrant some more research.

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In this paragraph, the author again states his opinion that the issues he has brought up are “problematic” to the existence of Jesus. I hope I have shown that that is not necessarily the case. The rest is a side-swipe at Jesus’ moral character and teaching, for which he only refers to a list of Jesus’ supposed self-contradictions, written by “a new convert to Islam.” Most of the items in this list are taken out of context and are easily explained, without any hand-waving or fudging of the text. If you have studied the Bible enough to reconcile God’s commandment to not kill, with His commands to destroy various nations in and around the land of Canaan, you would see right through this list. Perhaps that’s a topic for another post.

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Unnecessary paragraph, strictly expressing the author’s opinion, without any further . Moving on....

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Dr. Erhman is an avowed agnostic, who is against organized religion, particularly the Big Three monotheistic ones, so he is naturally biased (as are Mr. Sosa and myself). Consider this: Ancient Babylon’s Hanging Gardens are considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, despite the lack of documentation on when and where they existed. Jesus has far more supporting evidence, from multiple authors, most of whom happen to be found in a collection of work that we call The Bible.

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As I quoted at the beginning of my rebuttal, most scholars agree that there is more than enough evidence to prove that Jesus did indeed live and was crucified, in the timeframe described in the Bible. I have not researched the reliability of documents by Justin Martyr, but my reading into Tacitus' and Josephus’ accounts of the one called Jesus confirms that most experts agree that at least some measure of their writing concerning Jesus is genuine.

I will not attempt to read Dan Barker’s books, going under the assumption that if he indeed managed to prove that God and Jesus never existed, I would have read about it on Yahoo News.

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I was taught in school to always end my persuasive essays with an excellent clinching paragraph. This is not it. Instead, we are presented with more opinion and a reference to an article about Jesus-like copy-cats, none of whom (1) fulfilled dozens of verifiable Old Testament prophecies and (2) influenced an entire globe for nearly two millennia... and still counting.

Like Mr. Sosa, there is so much more that I could write, but my rebuttal is already longer than the original article. If you need more of a convincer, please also see Wikipedia’s “Jesus of Nazareth” article. In the meantime, I will humbly allow the Apostle Paul to conclude my rebuttal and will continue to pray that the Lord will move the hearts of Chris Sosa and atheists/agnostics like him, as He did my own heart.

“Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice” (Philippians 1:15-18).

Breaking News: Jesus Did Not Exist (Part I)

Christ and the Rich Young Ruler, by Heinrich Hofmann, 1889. Courtesy Wikipedia.

Apparently, Jesus never existed... ... or at least that’s what Huffington Post blogger Chris Sosa claims. This is interesting to me, because even as an atheist, I took the historical existence of the man called Jesus of Nazareth as a foregone conclusion. In fact, here is an excerpt from the introduction to Wikipedia’s “Historicity of Jesus” article (copied on 9/4/2014):

“The majority viewpoint among scholars is that Jesus existed, but scholars differ about the beliefs and teachings of Jesus as well as the accuracy of the parts of his life that have been recorded in the Gospels. Scholars who believe that Jesus existed differ on the historicity of specific episodes described in the Biblical accounts, but most scholars agree that Jesus was a Galilean Jew who was born between 7-4BC and died 30–36 AD, that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, that he was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate and that he lived in Galilee and Judea and did not preach or study elsewhere. The theory that Jesus never existed at all has very little scholarly support.”

What I find even more interesting is that Mr. Sosa chose not to attack Jesus’ divinity, which may be easier fodder for an atheist than Jesus’ mere existence. At any rate, for the sake of some who may actually believe his arguments, and as an exercise in apologetics, I would like to spend a little time analyzing the article.

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Sosa first tries to dismiss the teaching of Jesus by implying that (1) they originate only from Him (yes, my use of capitalization betrays my bias), and (2) their application in moral discussions is a recent development. However, Jesus and His followers made it very clear that the Gospel is really just an extension of the Mosaic Law, found in the Old Testament. Jesus said:

“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment...” (Matthew 5:21-22).

“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40).

And His moral teachings are the basis for our own laws, as evidenced by the writings of our nation’s founding fathers. See William Federer’s “America’s God and Country” for details. In fact, until the last 50 years, there wasn’t really much of a need to invoke Christian morality, because the vast majority of Americans already subscribed to it, even if they weren’t Christian.

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I assume this is Sosa’s disclaimer that he could be wrong, and that Jesus actually existed? I’m not really sure what he’s trying to say here. Is the difference between a Jesus and the Jesus rooted in the number of followers He garnered?

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This is a thesis paragraph of sorts. While subsequent paragraphs will be discussed in greater detail below, I wish to address the generalizations that Sosa makes here. He claims that the four Gospels and Paul’s letter’s (others wrote letters, too, so are they included in this generic statement?) depict contradicting portraits of Jesus. But the only contradictions provided regard relatively minor details surrounding His birth, death, and resurrection. None of the New Testament books disagree about the most basic facts: that Jesus was born of a virgin, was crucified and died, that He physically rose from the dead, and that He ascended back into Heaven. His recorded teachings also contain no contradictions worthy of Mr. Sosa’s explicit mention.

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The Gospels of Luke and Matthew clearly disagree about key events surrounding Jesus’ birth. Timing issues aside, the two don’t directly contradict one another. Luke records the taxing and the manger scene, but omits any references to the famous Wise Men, Herod’s infamous slaying of children, or the young family’s flight to Egypt. Matthew, on the other hand, recounts the latter three, but does not mention the taxing, the manger scene, or even the Star of Bethlehem. Interesting how popular culture mashed all these elements together, into one seemingly cohesive account.

Reading the Wikipedia article on Quirinius (Cyrenius), I concede that the timing of Herod’s reign and Cyrenius’ taxing appear incompatible, but I think this is the only valid point Mr. Sosa manages to make; hardly a smoking gun for the non-existence of history’s arguably most influential person.
While the Gospels of Mark and John begin at the start of Jesus’ ministry, Luke and Matthew both agree on the essentials of Jesus’ birth, many of which were prophesied in the Old Testament: born in Bethlehem, to a virgin named Mary, who was married to Joseph, both of whom were of the tribe of Judah and descendants of King David.

By the way, there are plenty of historical figures whose exact birthdates (or birth-years, even) are unknown. The ancient world wasn’t nearly as into record-keeping as we are today. Unless you were born into a ruling family, your existence typically went undocumented and unnoticed. Jesus was born the son of a Jewish carpenter, shunned political office and fame, and had followers who were zealously persecuted both by the Jews and the occupying Romans. It’s no wonder that there are few records of Him, outside of the Bible, during the first couple centuries AD (in case you were wondering, AD is short for Anno Domini, which is Latin for Year of Our Lord).

To be concluded...

God's Not Dead

We just watched God's Not Dead last week, a well-made independent movie about a college student's efforts to convince his atheistic philosophy professor and the rest of the class that God is indeed real.

I knew almost nothing about the movie, coming in, and was pleasantly surprised, as I was watching the opening credits, that it featured not one, but two former superheroes that I used to watch regularly in the 1990's: Kevin Sorbo (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys) and Dean Cain (Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman). It was fun seeing them again, despite the fact that they portrayed the movie's two biggest jerks.

My purpose with this post is not to review the movie ((I highly recommend you go see it!) or to summarize the logical arguments for the existence of God (I covered that already in my previous posts), but rather to touch on something far more real: how do we, as Christians, react when disasters strike in our lives?

I hope I'm not revealing any major spoilers for you, if you haven't seen the movie yet, but in a tense moment, a major character reveals that it was a loved one's premature death that drove them to abandon their faith in God.

For some reason, despite scriptures to the contrary, mainstream churchgoers have the impression that if they serve Christ, their lives should be peaches and cream. No troubles should ever touch them, and they should be happy all the time. If God truly loves His children, should He not protect them from hardship, sorrow, and pain?

Despite my mother's and wife's health issues, I feel tremendously blessed to not have had people in my life dying prematurely, or touched by cancer, or worries about losing our home. And yet I know that there are brothers and sisters in Christ who have had to face these things. Think about this: if I do not abandon my faith when I hear about brothers and sisters who are going through tragedies right now, why should I doubt God when tragedy comes knocking at my own door?

Case in point: Many of you know about the tornado that struck Arkansas last week, killing 15 people. A news article described a mother who not only suffered two broken legs and a broken pelvis, but also lost her two young sons. Her husband is suffering from head trauma, and all that is left of their beautiful home is the concrete foundation. She has suffered all this loss, that to many of us is unphathomable, and yet her faith in Christ is unshaken. Her friend, who is a photographer and a blogger, came to visit her and took her picture, as she lay there in her hospital bed, bruised, bloodied, and broken. She asked her, if she could use the picture in a future post, after her friend recovered from her injuries. Instead, the woman in the hospital bed urged her friend to post the picture now, in order to "show them what my God can overcome." That's faith in action; a faith that not only does not abandon God when He allows tragedy to strike in our lives, but a faith that shouts from the housetops that victory over all adversity can be found only in Him. It's the faith that no matter what happens, God's wonderful plan for His children will not be derailed, and we can overcome it all, through Christ who has already overcome the world, through His death and resurrection.

Creation vs. Evolution (Part 3)

This post was written on the occasion of the recent debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham, which my wife has just blogged about and which you may view here, for a limited time (forward past the 13-minute countdown at the beginning). The image above was captured during Ken Ham's presentation.

Even though I said that Ken Ham set the bar too high for the debate, I think he was far more prepared than Bill Nye and built the stronger case. Nevertheless, both debaters raised some very good points, which their opponent failed to counter. And likewise, both made statements that they failed to back up with proper reasoning.

No Death Prior to the Fall?
The lynchpin behind the Young Earth model that Answers In Genesis promotes is their Biblically-derived belief that there was no physical death whatsoever before Adam and Eve sinned by eating of the Forbidden Fruit. Ken Ham made the point that since there was no death before mankind’s fall, then the fossil record cannot predate the existence of man, hence it cannot be used to show that the earth is much older than mankind. However, as a man who has studied the Bible for many years, I don’t see Scripture making a strong case for this belief, and Ken Ham did not spend any time explaining the theological reasoning behind it. He also missed a golden opportunity to point out Bill Nye’s lack of preparation, when Mr. Nye incorrectly stated that Ken Ham believes that there was no death prior to Noah’s Flood, which actually occurred long after the Fall.

Belief in Creation Hampers Innovation?
At the core of Bill Nye’s arguments is his often-stated declaration that only an acceptance of evolution leads to innovation, and that belief in Creation greatly hampers it. But he made no effort at explaining how he arrived at these conclusions. Quite to the contrary, Ken Ham gave specific examples of Creation scientists throughout history, who made significant scientific discoveries and technological inventions. He also challenged Bill Nye to give a single example of an innovation founded upon evolution; Mr. Nye ignored the challenge altogether, choosing instead to restate his belief, without any further explanation.

Problems With the Fossil Record
Ken Ham failed to mention any of the problems related to the mainstream analysis of the fossil record. A series of books and videos, called Evolution: The Grand Experiment, expose the remarkable similarities between supposedly ancient fossils and modern animals. In case after case, scientists gave totally different designations to fossilized samples that had no significant difference from modern-day counterparts.

Magnetic Field Changes, Ice Cores, and Tree Rings
Bill Nye mentioned three compelling arguments for an Old Earth model, apart from the typical radiometric techniques. By observing rocks at the ocean floor, it has been noted that the polarity of the earth’s iron core has reversed multiple times. Although the process has never been observed in recorded history, there is compelling evidence that it has happened many times in the past, requiring much longer time than 6000 years. In addition, layers in ice cores extracted from the polar regions and annual rings in trees, also raise serious questions about the Young Earth model. Yet, Ken Ham failed to provide any counter-argument or flaw, in response to these points.

Micro-Biology
One of Intelligent Design’s strongest arguments is that the incredible complexity of DNA and the molecular processes inherent in multi-cellular life forms could not possibly have come about by random, gradual mutations and natural selection, as proposed by the Theory of Evolution. I personally find this field of science to hold the most compelling evidence that we were indeed created by God, and yet Ken Ham barely even mentioned this.

I doubt anyone expected this event to settle the Creation vs. Evolution question, but the debate at least gave people some food for thought and, I'm sure, spurred many discussions and internet searches on science and the Bible.

Creation vs. Evolution (Part 2)

This post was written on the occasion of the recent debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham, which my wife has just blogged about and which you may view here, for a limited time (forward past the 13-minute countdown at the beginning). The image above was captured during Ken Ham's presentation.

Bill Nye (“The Science Guy”) created some waves a few months ago, when he made a video bashing Creationists and stating that a belief in evolution is required for scientific advancement, invention, and discovery. To this day, I have yet to see him explain his reasoning. Needless to say, this drew a lot of attention from the Christian community and ultimately led to an invitation from Ken Ham, to debate evolution with him at the Creation Museum, in Kentucky.

This was the thesis statement for the debate, as composed by Answers In Genesis: “Creation is the only viable model of historical science confirmed by observational science in today’s modern scientific era.”

I did not really expect either man to make an open-and-shut case (after all, this has been a hot-button issue within the science community long before the infamous “Scopes Monkey Trial”), but was looking forward to hearing what they both had to say.  Now that it’s over, I wish to present some analysis of the debate here.

First, let’s put the terminology used in the thesis statement within the context of the debate.

Creation
While there are several plausible interpretations of the Genesis account of Creation, Ken Ham subscribes to the most literal of these, in which, about 6000 years ago, God took 6 literal, 24-hour days to speak into existence the entire universe, all earthly life, and humankind. Because of this, the debate pretty much devolved (pardon the pun) into an argument over the age of the earth and the universe, instead of its origins.

Only Viable Model
This was perhaps the most ambitious portion of the thesis. While the scientific community-at-large dismisses Creation and Intelligent Design as unscientific religious propaganda, Ken Ham went out to completely reverse that opinion. In order to do this, he would have had to not only prove that this model stands up to every rigorous test that has ever been proposed, but also that Evolution, the Big Bang, and all other theories have undeniable holes. This was an impossible task, given the time constraints of the debate and the limited knowledge of both men.

Historical and Observational Science
A pillar of Ken Ham’s argument, vehemently but inadequately disputed by Mr. Nye, was the difference between “historical” and “observational” science. Mr. Ham pointed out that Creationists and Evolutionists usually agree on the causes of events currently observable (hence “observational science”). But analysis of past events, particularly ones that occurred long before there was anyone around to record them, is subject to a great many assumptions, which depend upon the scientist’s point of reference or worldview.

Modern Scientific Era
This seems to me to establish a timebase for Observational and Historical Science, as well as, possibly, refer to the vast knowledge and observational capability that present-day technology affords us. This terminology wasn’t referenced much during the debate, but I find it interesting that Ken Ham thought it important enough to make it part of the thesis statement.

To be continued…

Creation vs. Evolution (Part 1)

This post was written on the occasion of the recent debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham, which my wife has just blogged about and which you may view here, for a limited time (forward past the 13-minute countdown at the beginning). The image above was captured during Ken Ham's presentation.

As a born-again Christian with a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, I firmly believe that science and God’s Creation go hand-in-hand. And although Christians disagree about how literally to interpret the first two chapters of Genesis, at the core of our faith is the undeniable fact that we are all the result of God’s design, not the product of random natural processes.

We know and respect two organizations that promote this worldview: The Discovery Institute in Seattle and Answers In Genesis in Kentucky. The former is a leader in the field of Intelligent Design (ID), which holds that the Laws of Nature are too perfect and the intricacies of life too complex to be the result of random chance. I think that, for the most part, the group agrees with the generally accepted age of the Earth and the universe.

Answers In Genesis, headed by Ken Ham, a former science teacher and devout Christian, goes a step further to claim that God created everything about 6000 years ago, in six literal, 24-hour days. Many find this ludicrous, but until my wife and I read some of their literature, we did not know that there is actually quite a bit of evidence that agrees with that premise, and there are many respected scientists in a diverse range of fields, who also hold to this belief.

 “What’s the big deal?” you ask. “Aren’t science and religion incompatible anyway? You can’t prove or disprove the existence of God using scientific methods, so why even argue about it?” The fact is that there are many staunch atheists in the scientific community, who believe that God is merely a man-made notion, created to explain the unexplainable. They believe that if they can prove that we all came to be here through purely natural processes, then there would no longer be a need for anyone to believe in God.

Rainbows, for example, seem so magical that it’s easy to believe they’re put there by our Creator, to reassure us that the Great Flood will never again be repeated. Oh, but what they really are is light passing through tiny water droplets, resulting in a prism-like effect. Ah, since we now know how rainbows work, then "clearly" the Genesis account of Noah’s Flood must be baloney. Yeah, sure.

Likewise, the Theory of Evolution is man’s attempt at providing a Godless alternative to how we got here. And since the process would require great spans of time to take life from an amoeba to an intelligent human being, a young earth would blow the whole thing out of the water.

Why are atheists so against anyone believing in God? I’m not sure. I was once one myself (not a god, but an atheist), and although I thought religious people were wrong to believe in anything supernatural, I still respected their beliefs and did not try to dissuade them. Yet, I did not realize at the time that if God did indeed exist and if He did create me, then I also had the responsibility to obey and follow Him. His moral law would also apply to me, and I would indeed suffer the consequences if I did not accept His gift of Salvation. But if atheists can prove that God did not create us, then we have no obligation to Him (were He even to exist), and there is no moral standard by which we need to live. I think that at their core, atheists do not want to be held accountable for what they do.

Biblical Financial Principles

Close relatives are currently in a serious financial crisis, and that has prompted a lot of thought and prayer regarding how to respond. It’s made me think long and hard about the financial principles that my wife and I strive to live by. I thought some of you may find it interesting (maybe even beneficial), if I actually wrote them down.

The man’s primary fiscal responsibility is to provide for his immediate family. This often requires working conscientiously, utilizing the talents and opportunities the Lord has provided him. Refusing to work or misappropriating his income is not only a disservice to his own family, but will likely make his entire household dependent on others. As Christians and members of society at-large, it is our duty to strive to be self-sufficient, not just for our own benefit, but also so that we may have the means to help those in genuine need.

Avoid getting into debt as much as possible, and if you do end up in debt, pay it off as quickly as possible. Credit cards are great in an emergency or if you pay off your balance each month, but relying on borrowing to make ends meet is a recipe for disaster (just take a look at our government!). Nevertheless, it’s virtually impossible in our present culture for you to own your own home, or even a car, without getting a loan. Do you really need these things, or can you rent and get around on a bike or the bus? Well, that depends on your situation; let genuine need be your guide, not "keeping up with the Joneses." This also applies to borrowing money or things from individuals. Even if they insist on not having it back, strive to return the item or repay them at the earliest opportunity. It not only expresses your thankfulness, but is also a testimony of your genuine Christian faith. To intentionally take advantage of others’ generosity is the same as stealing.

Make good spending decisions. Did you know that your money is not your own? As with everything else in this life, your income was provided to you by the Lord. Yes, you may be the one working the 40-hour-a-week job, but it was He who provided you with the skills and opportunity to even have that job in the first place. As such, you should be responsible with what you’ve been given, and use it wisely.

Do not lend to those in need, but instead give, without expecting anything in return. Lending money or possessions that you are not really ready to part with can engender bitterness and may put you in the position of having to borrow yourself. There is a saying about lending to the Lord, but that’s not entirely right, since it’s all His anyway! But when you give, don’t do it blindly. As with your spending, set priorities and use your judgment when deciding who to give to and how much. Hold those you give money to accountable for what they choose to do with that money. This is very hard to do, but if done in love and with mutual consent, it will bless both giver and recipient, as well as help ensure that the Lord’s money is put to proper use. Yes, this even applies to "tithes" at church. Hold the pastoral staff accountable for how they appropriate donated money and goods, and don’t forget that there may be weeks when there are others in your life who may need the money more than your church.

Are there any that I missed or that you disagree with? I would love to hear from you..., and I covet your prayers for the Lord's guidance through the current situation.

* Disney's Scrooge McDuck (best known from the Duck Tales TV show) loves to take swims in his giant safe, which is filled with treasure and coins. Hopefully he reads this blog....

Potter's Comeuppance

One of our favorite movies to watch at Christmastime is, of course, It's a Wonderful Life, starring Jimmy Stewart. He plays every-day good-guy George Bailey, who lives in a small town but has big dreams of seeing the world (and changing it for the better, while he's at it). But his plans are consistently derailed by external circumstances and his admirable drive to put others' needs above his own.

It's interesting to note that George is also deeply frustrated that his endearing, Christ-like quality is keeping him from following his (somewhat selfish) dreams. How far better off would he had been if he had come to grips with the fact that a man cannot do everything he wants, and it is often the case that doing the right thing requires personal sacrifice? George sacrifices, but he does so while kicking and screaming. But by the end of the movie, he learns that putting others first is far more rewarding than his own aspirations.

The film's antagonist is Mr. Potter, a greedy, grumpy old man who owns the entire town. Well, not quite all of it. The Bailey Building and Loan, which George takes over after his father's death, remains a thorn in Potter's side. But when George's bumbling uncle unwittingly hands the Building and Loan's $8000 bank deposit to Potter, Potter sees a delicious opportunity to ruin George's reputation and destroy his only competition. He nearly succeeds, but for the intervention of a "second-class" angel and the generosity of the countless people that George had helped over the years.

It makes for a very satisfyingly happy ending, that warms our hearts with the spirit of giving that has been so commercialized in recent decades....

...except for one small thing....

Potter never gets what's coming to him! He gets to keep the $8000, he undergoes no change of heart, and no one suspects him of any wrongdoing. In movies, we're used to seeing the bad guys get what they deserve (insert most any Disney feature cartoon here), or at least see them turn to the good side, just in time to make the ultimate sacrifice and save the day (Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, anyone?).

So why did director Frank Capra and the script writers leave that loose end untied? I don't have the definitive answer, but I have a plausible theory.

(Please read Psalm 37, Psalm 73, and Psalm 94, for some encouragement regarding the wicked prospering in our fallen world.)

Unlike most other movies, there is indeed a God in this one. Ok, so He looks like a little blinky light, but nevertheless, He is there, and He is all-knowing and all-powerful. We can rest in His promises that unless Potter finds his way to Him and repents of his sins, he will one day face Judgment, and it's not going to go well for him. Instead of feeling dissatisfaction, we should pity Potter not only for not having anyone to share Christmas with, but also for what awaits him, unless he comes to the Lord. For his part, George doesn't need to know who was behind his near-demise, because he has already taken his first step toward knowing the all-powerful, all-loving Creator and Savior, Who has his back and has prepared a place for him in Heaven.

Likewise, we may not see everyone who has wronged us get their just desserts, and we shouldn't even seek such things. "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay." Our part is to continue to witness to others and put their needs ahead of our own. After all, isn't that what Christmas is all about?

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Calvinism and Arminianism Reloaded

Several years ago, I wrote a trilogy of posts on the rudimentary difference between Calvinism and Arminianism, two significant schools of thought within Christian theology. In its purest sense, the former results in a "once saved, always saved" view of salvation, by grace alone, ignoring works altogether. The latter is often misinterpreted as salvation through works alone, ignoring grace altogether. These are, of course, exaggerations of the teachings of these two men, both of whom must have understood that the Bible, particularly the NT, tells us that salvation is a synergy of both grace and works. If you have not read those posts yet, I strongly recommend that you do that first, because whether you know it or not, if you claim to be a Christian, your worldview has been influenced by these two theologies.

Our church's bulletin this week contained this pithy saying: "Salvation is not a reward for the righteous; it's a gift for the guilty!"

This, of course, immediately brought to mind the grace vs. works debate. I get that they're trying to remind us that we cannot earn our way into Heaven, and that is true, but in the effort to sound clever, the writer ignores God's call to righteousness and holiness, "without which no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14). Or how does it stand against the claim that God "is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him" (Heb. 11:6b)?

And if salvation is solely a gift, requiring no effort on our part, why, then, did Paul feel pressed to write the following?

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway (1 Cor. 9:24-27).

Salvation is indeed a gift, offered to us through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ crucified, not by the will of man, but that of God. But let us not rest easy, falsely believing that no heart-change and no "fruits of the Spirit" are necessary, lest we find ourselves before the Lord on that Last Day, counted among the goats, and we hear Jesus say to us, "I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity" (Luke 13:27).

Therefore, since we are indeed called to be holy, we all must stand with Paul and say, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14).

Ninja Insanity 2012

Despite my lack of posts over the past few years, one constant is my annual tradition of posting about our Halloween.  That's more than a little odd, since we are devout followers of Christ, and this is a Christian blog.  But we shun its satanic undertones, and instead use it as an opportunity to dress up (which we love doing, anyway) and host like-minded friends and family at our house.

We usually do something creative with our pumpkins, and I often go the extra mile to turn mine into a piece of art.  Unfortunately, we were totally uninspired last year (yeah, I'm actually a whole year behind!).  We had decided to just put them out as-is and try to come up with something cool for next year.  But while I was at work, my wife and son decided that really wouldn't do, so they stuck faces onto the pumpkins, for a comical effect.

We also could not decide what costumes to wear.  Kylen wanted something with lots of weapons, while Farrah was torn between Lord of the Rings and Legend of Zelda characters.  She wanted us all to match, but she also wanted our son to be happy with the choice.  In the end, he opted for being a ninja... FOR THE THIRD YEAR IN A ROW!!!!  Ugh!  What's the matter with the boy???  So we caved.  Farrah got a ninja outfit that matched his.

I combined my Wraith King of Agmar robe with my Street Fighter pants from 2011, and custom-made wooden sandals, to become a fearsome samurai.  The bulk of my costume work was sewing together a sache and making the sandals, which were surprisingly comfortable.

So, what did we do THIS year??? Check out my wife's latest posts!

Fighting Doubt

 

Although my father-in-law typically steers clear of religious humor (out of reverence for our Lord and Savior) he does like to tell this poignant joke:

Satan decided to hold a garage sale.  The whole neighborhood showed up for the event, of course.  Among the various bric-a-brac, there was a collection of tools.  Some were clearly ancient and well-used, while others looked newer and shinier.  Someone picked up a familiar-looking tool and took it to Satan, to ask him how much he wanted for it.  "How did this get in there?" he replied in disbelief.  "I'm sorry but this one is definitely not for sale.  Why, Doubt is my very best tool!"

You can actually substitute any of Satan's tools in the joke (discouragement, temptation, greed, laziness, etc...), but there is little... err... doubt that this is one of his best.

For our weekly Bible studies, we've been watching several excellent apologetics DVDs from Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.  Last week, we watched a Q&A held at a secular university, and one student asked Ravi how to combat spiritual doubt.  Ravi confessed that he never had any doubt in Whom Jesus is and went on, instead, to address hypocrisy in those who profess to be Christians.

Perhaps he misunderstood the question (or maybe I did), but regardless of his own personal experience, doubt is very real, and we, as Christians, need to know how to recognize it and combat it before it sabotages our very faith in God.

The Bible reminds us over and over how instrumental our faith in God and His Word is in living according to His Divine Will.  When we begin to doubt whether He can help us with a problem, or perhaps whether He even exists, we distance ourselves from Him and become hardened to His calling and instruction.  We also forsake the power which He gave us through the Holy Spirit.  And without that power, we cannot live holy lives.

When you consider that the world-at-large has forsaken God, having thrown itself into the clutches of the devil, it's no wonder that doubt is knocking at the doors of Christian hearts.  We are surrounded by a world that denies Christ, and even professing Christians (some very prominent) show signs of departure from (and sometimes outright abandonment of) God and His Holy Word.  It can make us doubt our own experience, our own faith, our own hopes that are in Christ.

How do we fight it?  Through continued study of God's Word, building on our relationship with Christ and other like-minded Christians, and reaffirming His influence in our lives.

A popular slogan of the computer age is, "garbage in, garbage out."  Continued exposure to worldly messages that deny the Christian faith and even the very existence of God works like water upon a rock, slowly wearing it down, until it is entirely washed away.  Instead, put into your mind the Word of God.  Study your Bible daily, not just to read it, but to learn what God's will is for you and to understand how to apply it to your own life.  His Word has the amazing effect of pushing out thoughts of the world and putting in His own thoughts.

You cannot maintain a friendship if you do not spend time with that person.  The Apostle Paul says to "pray without ceasing."  Talking with the Lord builds your relationship with Him.  How can you doubt a friend you know almost as well as yourself?  Likewise, scale back your relationships with worldy people, seeking instead the company and fellowship of like-minded believers.  They will encourage you, and you them.

Lastly, remember what wonderful things the Lord has done for you and those around you.  Remind yourself of your own salvation experience and how the Lord brought you out of tough spots that you had no strength or knowledge to deal with on your own.  Share your experiences with other Christians and, in turn, listen to their testimonies.  It will reaffirm to you that we serve a great and awesome God, whose love for us knows no limits!

And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Luke 12:29-34).

Revering God

Some mornings I wake up with an idea so stunning, that it stays with me for hours, or even the whole day.  Sometimes it's from a dream, others it's simply my first waking thought, often put there by the Father of Lights.  I had just one such experience yesterday morning.

To show reverence for God, you must first accept the gift of His Son, who died on the cross for your sins.  You must surrender to Him and claim Salvation for yourself.  Anything else you try to do to honor, respect, or love God is meaningless, unless you do this first.

Maybe this is obvious to the seasoned Christian, but it was on my heart to write about it.

I read recently that in East Asia it is considered good manners to receive something from a person with both hands, even if it's someone at work handing you something as mundane as a memo.  It shows that you care about that person and appreciate the trouble they went through to offer you the item.  It shows that, at least for the moment, you are dropping whatever else you're doing and making them top priority.

What do we do in America if someone tried to hand us something, especially at work?  We either hurriedly take it with one hand (because we have a coffee mug, pen, or computer mouse in the other) or, even worse, tell the person to "just drop it on my desk."

If a solicitor calls or rings the doorbell, our gut reaction (if we answer at all), is to curtly respond with "no, thanks" and hang up or shut the door in their face.  But what if Jesus Himself came by, with the best present ever offered, stained in His own precious blood?  Would you tell Him, "Oh, uh, just leave it on the step"?

Suffering Loss

 Before anyone panics (does anybody even read my blog anymore?), no this is not our house, nor have any loved ones passed on. The Lord has been very merciful to us. But I do feel like I just lost two weekends (and change) of my life, and it made me think of 1 Cor. 3:11-15, and I thought I should (finally) blog about it. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.  I've heard some use these scriptures to argue that everyone goes to Heaven, after spending some time in Purgatory, or something like that. I don't think that's it at all. Leading into this, Paul is talking about missionary work, and the wood, hay, and stubble are teachings or doctrines that missionaries add to the basics of the Gospel. I take that and extend it a little further, into other aspects of our lives. Unquestionably, The Great Commission applies to us all. After all, everything on this earth has an end, except for our own souls. What other lasting work can there be, beside leading a precious lost lamb to Jesus. He is the Good, nay, the Best Shepherd. Next to that, everything else we do is wood, hay, and stubble. But what about working to provide for our families? Is that stubble, too? Well, I would argue that being my family's sole bread winner enables us to raise and educate our son (in the nurture of the Lord) and blesses us with a financial abundance that we can pass on to others. My computer skills, though gained through a world largely made of wood, hay, and stubble, have been put to good use at our homeschooling co-op. Ultimately, as Brother Paul points out, God's fire will be the true test. And on that day, everything I've ever worked on that has not furthered His Kingdom will burn. I will surely regret seeing it go, as many have before me. But that Final Judgment seems so far away, that I'm not really concerned... until I see something I spent time, money, and energy on burn up right before my eyes. Case in point... Several years ago, my lovely wife and I made a little video, starring our son, in which he did everything backwards. We filmed him getting out of bed, eating, playing, and helping me garden, and then we used a video editing tool called Pinnacle to reverse all the footage. It was a real hit in her co-op class of 7-to-9-year-olds. No, that's not what I've watched burn. Please read on... A couple weeks ago, she asked if we could do a sequel, for another co-op class. "Sure!" I said. "It'll be even better than the original!" We planned all the scenes and then spent the better part of a weekend shooting. Then, I pulled a near-all-nighter with Adobe Premiere Elements 8, cutting footage, reversing it, slowing it down, and speeding it up. It was fun, and it gave me an excuse to get serious with this editing software, for the first time. I spent most Saturday finishing up the video portion and adding some funny songs for the soundtrack. Things played well in the editor's preview window, so, on Sunday, I decided to try rendering: no sound! "Must be the audio settings," I naively thought. I tried changing those, but to no avail. "Ah," sez I, "it says I should use AVI if I want to keep editing it in Premiere." That seemed to work, except now part of one of the songs would cut out at some random point and I would hear nothing until the start of the next song. HOW FRUSTRATING!!! No problem if the sound is natively part of the video, but playback of music brought in separately was majorly flakey. I fussed and mussed with it, until I finally produced a DVD-R. We sat down together around 7:00PM to watch it. The sound was fine, but to our horror, the bulk of the video was nauseatingly stuttery! It seemed like every frame was the result of two overlapped consecutive frames. It was nowhere near the quality of the older movie, which was filmed under similar light conditions and with the same camera! Oddly enough, the few parts in the movie that I left running forward looked just fine. There was something about the footage that was reversed and saved to AVI that Premiere could not handle. 7:00PM the night before Farrah's class, and I did not have a video I could present. Do I cut my losses and just have her show the old one, or do I resurrect our old computer that had Pinnacle on it and try doing the reversing on that? Never mind that (1) I already had to set up and tear down that computer once that day, for a different reason, and (2) I had had to re-install Pinnacle a few months ago, and the version on the disk had some major bugs that I no longer had the patches for. I decided, instead, to try a different approach using Premiere. Big mistake. Here's the burn... It was midnight by the time that I could see the fruits of my labors. Not only did I not fix the stutter, but the sound cut out about a minute into the video. AAAAAAUUUURRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!! Farrah ended up showing the kids the original video, with the only new content being a couple cool logos I made months ago, and I ended up feeling like I just wasted several days of my life. There is nothing salvageable from the new video, as nearly all my work was done on the suspect reverse footage, that did not exhibit stutter until it was saved to AVI or burned onto DVD. All I can do now is vent and hope that I've learned something valuable from the experience. Yes, yes I did: Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matt. 6:19-21).
But seriously, I got to ask you, dear reader, do you know of a decent video editing software for Windows that won't make me rip my hair out???

Be Careful Little Eyes...

Happy New Year, dear Readers! This is by far the longest time that I've been away (only three posts on this blog in 2011), but I hope to be a bit more active in 2012. This is my primary ministry, after all. Before I get to the meat of this post, a few updates....

We've been very blessed this past year with health, great friendships, continuing work, good finances, a nice vacation, and achievements for all of us. I'll probably touch on some of these things in the coming months, but needless to say, blogging has not been among them much. For better or worse, I've let blogging slip below my radar, and I hope that I can improve on that this year, without sacrificing my other responsibilities.

So what's up with Halloween? Wasn't that like almost three months ago? I always do a Halloween post on this or one of my other blogs, mainly to showcase our pumpkin carving. So what if I'm a little behind? ;)

Our theme this time was the kids' song, "Be Careful Little Eyes". I totally did not have that song in mind when I felt inspired to carve a fancy eye on my pumpkin. Farrah immediately thought of the song and suggested she do the feet and Kylen do the hands.

Here is kylen working on his masterpiece. Farrah got a mixer-like attachment to my power drill, which worked very well at scraping out the pumpkin's insides.

Here I am, hard at work on my pumpkin. This was also the first year I successfully employed a Dremel tool to do the fine scraping work. I bought it last year, but did not have time to figure it out. Worked like a charm this time around!

Here is the final result. For several years now, we've been using an old set of C9 Christmas bulbs instead of candles. It keeps the pumpkins fresh longer and even allows us to use different colors. For examples of our past work, click on the "Halloween" tag in the tag cloud to the right.

Then, of course, there is the dressing up! Farrah wanted to be an elf archer (think: female version of Legolas, from "Lord of the Rings"), but we didn't feel like taking the trouble of attaching her pointy ears. Maybe next time. :) We went to Cabela's to pick out a bow, which was the perfect excuse to get one that would also suit Kylen. He loved his first experience with archery, and we spent hours in our unfinished basement, putting holes in stuff.

While looking for costumes at a local shop (boy, could I blog about the spiritual meaning behind the inappropriate costumes that permeate costume shops!), we saw the Street Fighter karate costume. Since that's my favorite game of all time, it was a no-brainer.

Kylen just wanted to be a black ninja (don't ask me why that's totally different from the white ninja costume he wore last year). We had fun fighting each other and laughing at Farrah trying to look threatening with her bow. CUTE thing!

Much of my time this year has been occupied with working on various utility programs. One such example is the sound player I wrote just for Halloween. Why couldn't I just use Windows Media Player, you ask? Because that would have been way too easy, of course! I placed speakers in our pumpkins, just outside our front door, and connected them to my laptop, so I could play the kids' song. I also had our web cam pointed at our front walk, so I could see when kids were coming up the steps and play some nifty little sayings having to do with eyes, hands, and feet.

Yes, I am a geek!

It was fun dressing up to greet the trick-or-treaters, but when things started dying down, we decided to take off the sweaty costumes. No sooner did we get our everyday duds back on, that Farrah's sister, whom we hadn't seen in a year, stopped by with her husband, kids, and LARGE neighbor family. It was fun seeing her two little boys in their Spiderman costumes; they've grown so much!

Finally, as a perfect finish to our evening, our dear friends, the McD's surprised us, wearing full chimney sweep duds (a la Bert from 1964's Mary Poppins). They sang a nice little tune and then joined us inside for fellowship and real-sugar Cokes, bottled in Mexico.

So what's the spiritual takeaway? Does there have to be one? When posting about Satan worshippers' favorite day, there better be one! As I've posted years ago, we completely avoid the scary elements and choose instead to use the day as an opportunity to dress up in fun costumes and try to focus the attention to Christ, instead. You can do this wherever you go, as long as you do not partake of the unclean thing. We are called to be in the world, but not of the world. It's the only way to effectively witness.

True Love (Part 3): Love That Obeys

Love That Obeys

How many times have we heard or said things like, "If you love me, you'll do as I ask," or "If you love me, you'll buy me what I want?"  We almost instinctively associate love with obedience, and for good reason.  In fact, Jesus said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15).

But how much do we need to love Him?  After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to the Apostles on the sea shore, while they were out fishing.  Later, by the fire, Jesus asked Peter not once, but three times, if he loved Him more than fishing.  "He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep" (John 21:17). Jesus wanted to make the point that we need to put Him ahead of our jobs, hobbies, and other passions.

But is that enough love?  "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26).  I love the King James Bible, because it can be so blunt at times.  Obviously, Jesus did not mean that we should actually hate our own family; He meant to emphasize that we must put Him first in our hearts.  We need to love Jesus first and foremost, which is the only way that we will be able to obey His commandments.

So what are His commandments?  "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40).

Obeying God's commandments and living righteously boil down to just one thing: love.  If we love God more than anything else, then we will obey Him.  If we sin, it is because we are misdirecting our love toward something else and putting that above God.  Every sin comes from insufficient or misdirected love.  A heart that truly loves God above all else cannot sin.

But we know that this is impossible in our own strength.  Earthly, natural love is so easily deceived and thrown off-track, that it is grossly insufficient to obey God.  But, after ascending back into Heaven, Jesus sent us another gift, perhaps even more precious than the first: The Holy Spirit, to dwell in our hearts.

"... The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5b).

"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also" (1 John 4:7-21).

It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that we not only experience God's love for us, but obtain the kind of holy and perfect love that empowers us to obey Him and serve others.  "We love him, because he first loved us."

True Love (Part 2): Love That Saves

Love That Saves

"... The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him" (Romans 5:5b-9).

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23).

Oh, I guess I left out one small detail: when Jesus offered Himself on the cross for our sins, we were the scum of the earth, reeking in our own filth, deserving nothing better than death. We were like that traveler who was left for dead on the side of the road, with nothing worthwhile to offer anyone.  And then Jesus came and traded places with each one of us, taking on our punishment upon His mighty shoulders, taking our sin and nailing it to the cross.

Christ loved us before we knew Him.  Christ endured suffering at our own hands.  Christ died in our stead when we hated Him.

To do all that took a whole lot of love, a pure love that everyone else on this planet falls far short of.  How can we ever hope to have such a love for anyone?  Does God even expect it of us?  Would it even be fair if He did?  Did He give us anything else to help us out?

To be continued...