Tag / Bible

by Greg

Trust In Action

I’m having a difficult time right now. I know something to be true, even able to put it into very clear words in a conversation with some friends. But I’m having trouble knowing what to do next.

I know God will take care of my family. I know that I am not the provider for our family, my job does not provide for our family… God does. I know that. I trust him to, because I have seen him do it many times over.

Right now, that is very difficult.

Money coming in is lower than usual… probably feels much lower than it actually is. And there have been many expenses this month, and coming up next month. Not a good combination.

So, I’m asking God to let me know what he wants. Does he want to prove himself to me… where I really let go and trust him? Or is there a time where we need to “take some action”? The points from each “side” are volleying back and forth in my head. I’m sure I will hear the same responses. It’s funny though.. the line reverberating in my head from one “side” is “God helps those who help themselves” (which is not a scripture…) 🙂 while one the other “side” I can think of several scriptures 🙂

“Without faith it is impossible to please God.”

“God is able to do immeasureably more than we could ask or imagine”

“We walk by faith, and not by sight”

Hmm… perhaps I am answering my own question? But that’s just it. I know the truth. I trust the Truth. But… what do I DO right now? I still have the bills to pay. I still have a family to feed and clothe?

This is heavy on my heart right now for sure.

by Greg

Distractions

The boys and I are reading through Luke (I believe I have already said that…) and today Jesus was addressing another crowd (SIDENOTE: I posted an entry here before about how it seemed that Jesus was not usually speaking to crowds but more to small groups and even individuals. It seems however that in Luke, almost everytime something comes out of Jesus’ mouth it’s to a CROWD, so… I stand corrected. 🙂 End sidenote…) We read a story, and some more teaching from Jesus.

The story was about a rich man who had an abundant crop. He decided he would store it all up in bigger barns, so he’d be set for the future. God said, “You dummy… you’re going to die tonight… what good does all your stuff do you now?” Then Jesus reminded us that birds don’t have to worry about what they will eat, and flowers look great, even though they’re here today, burned tomorrow. We’re more important to God than both of those, so… don’t worry.

And we finished today with Jesus saying don’t treasure things that can be taken, or eaten. (Moths destroy…) Make your treasure eternal stuff… sorta, intangible stuff. Things that can’t be taken. Because, where your treasure is, that’s where your heart is.

(Somewhere else it says that your heart is the “wellspring of life”… I think that means it’s important…)

So I asked the boys what this meant. First they shook their heads in bewilderment. But with some more directed questions, we figured out that Jesus was trying to tell us not to worry about stuff. Don’t “treasure” stuff that will break, could be taken, or will just eventually be gone.

Alex didn’t like that so much.

I said, “What if our house burned down? To the ground. Everything was gone. Then what would happen? Would that be bad?”

Ian quickly said no, but Alex had a very concerned look on his face. Finally he said, “That would be bad!”

I said, “Why would that be bad?”

“Well, it would burn down, but we’d have Sega, Nintendo, and Backyard Football?” (He really, really likes video games…)

“No, they’d all be gone. But we’re all fine. Would we be OK?” I asked.

He thought for a moment and stuck to his guns, “No…” his eyes were filled with near horror, “That would be bad!”

You gotta love Alex’s honesty. He really means it. To him, that would mean the end of his world. For whatever reason, Ian has learned the lesson that stuff does not matter. It’s fun. He can enjoy it just as much as Alex, but Alex has wrapped his heart up in stuff. He can not imagine a world without his stuff.

I told him that this was a great example of what Jesus was talking about. Stuff doesn’t matter, and Jesus knew that. It’s fun, but it doesn’t matter. If we “treasure” stuff that will eventually break, be taken, or just die… then our hearts will be crushed with our treasure. Where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also.

And later this morning I got to thinking. I know I would be OK if all my stuff was gone. I would be a bit panicked about all my clients’ files and such. Hard to recover all that stuff. I would be bummed to lose the stuff of nostalgic and emotional value. But in the end I’d be OK.

That said, I sure do have a lot to distract me from important stuff! I love video games too. That takes a good amount of my time if I let it. I sure do love my computers, and the internet. That takes time too. I love to watch Star Treks. I love watching Hockey, and Football. I enjoy a good movie now and again. I even enjoy sitting down with a nice book and a cup o’ something.

There sure is a lot to “treasure”, eh?

So, I think at some point in the not-too-distant future… I may take a serious break from all my stuff. I want to cut away the distractions and spend some good time with Jesus. Every once in a while I long for that (I guess, when I haven’t had it in a while?) and now is one of those times. I think he was reminding me of that again today.

Some stuff in life is expendable. Well, OK… probably most stuff. Some stuff is not. Time with my Father who loves me is fantastic. I mean just hanging out time. We’re always together. He’s with me in everything I do. But sometimes it’s good to just be together, not really doing anything else, eh? I think I’m wanting some of that today.

So, I hope your treasures are in the right place today. I don’t mean black/white, right/wrong. I just mean, in a place where your heart won’t be crushed if your treasure is. We’re going to coax Alex toward that better place. Hope he follows.

by Greg

God Can Throw You Into Hill

Following our morning Bible reading time the other day, Jen was eating breakfast with the kids – may have been also reading a book to them – when Alex interrupts to inform her that, “God can throw people into Hill.” She was probably a bit curious as to where that originated… 🙂 Earlier that morning, the little story we read had Jesus reminding us that we don’t need to fear anybody because “once they kill you, they can’t do anything else to you.” (That was a loose quote…) “But,” he continues, “God is the one you should fear. Not only can he kill you, he can throw you into hell.”

As I finished saying that, both the boys looked at me wondering, and finally said outloud, “What’s ‘hell’, Dad?” Let me tell you… that’s not an easy thing to explain to an 8 year old and a 5 year old. 🙂 So, I think I kinda did… and they went on their way. But apparently, that little statement from Jesus made an impact on little Alex… who now knows that God can throw people into “Hill”.

There is never a shortage of entertaining moments around here… 🙂

by Greg

I Guess I’m Emergent?

Not too sure about the results here, but saw this on Chris’ blog and thought I’d take a crack at it. Last time I was Seventh Day Adventist, which was awesome. 🙂

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don’t think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.

Emergent/Postmodern
71%

Neo orthodox
68%

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
57%

Charismatic/Pentecostal
50%

Fundamentalist
39%

Classical Liberal
36%

Reformed Evangelical
32%

Modern Liberal
21%

Roman Catholic
14%

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

by Greg

Three In One

This morning the boys were in my office to read the Bible, and we got talking about one particular line we read.

Soon after this, Jesus was going through towns and villages, telling the good news about God’s kingdom.

Luke 8:1

So many times we take the good news out of the “good news”! I told the boys that sometimes we make knowing Jesus about knowing what not to do, or what to do, instead of the greatness of a God who loves us. The story we read yesterday was about the woman who came and poured expensive perfume on Jesus, and was crying on his feet, wiping away the tears with her hair. Jesus told the astonished “holy dude” who was with him that someone who is forgiven much will celebrate that forgiveness much more! That’s the good news! God’s love and forgiveness are available to all!

Somewhere in the conversation we started talking about how the good news is that we get to be close with God, like he’s our Dad. And then I said, “And Jesus is like a brother, which is cool.” The brothers smiled. “And Jesus, who is God, who is also the Father, is like our Dad, which is cool.” I started losing them here. “And then God is spirit, too… and that’s like, you!” I was sort of confusing myself, but stick with me here… “It’s like God can be so close that he is inside us, where only you can be. No one else can be inside you except you… and God (the Spirit) who lives inside of us.”

At this point Ian said, “Yeah, he can get inside through our ears! Or, our nose! Unless… if we have a cold.” 🙂

(That was awesome.)

But I thought that was pretty neat. God in his three persons is as close as a brother, as a father, and even as ourselves as the Spirit, living inside us. I hadn’t ever though of that before. But we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, he is actually inside us. Our relationship with him is that intimate. No one else can be there. Just God.

Neat.

No super-amazing conclusion from all of this, just thought it was interesting enough to share. And, the line from Ian was classic. 🙂

Happy Easter, everyone.

Go Sabres! 🙂

by Greg

The "Word Of God"?

The last two podcasts from The God Journey have been on the topic of Scripture. Good stuff. A few moments that might have challenged me before, but I have been thinking about what the “Word of God” is recently as well. We read through John not too long ago, and everytime you read that phrase there it’s referring to Jesus. A person. The “living & active” Word of God. (Ref: Heb)

I went to Bible college. I learned to revere the Book as many Christians do. But I think I have come to see that the Bible is a very special book that helps us to know God’s heart for us – but we can easily be tricked into worshipping IT. (Rather than the God from whom it comes.)

Good line from one of the podcasts (the second one) was when a friend of one of the hosts was asked, “Do you believe in the inerrancy of Scripture” his reply was, “I believe in the infallibility of the God who gave it to us.” 🙂 That was good.

I do not believe in the super-holy-magicness of the book that I hold in my hand. I do not believe in the “power of prayer”. My hope, my trust, my life is in the One whom I know through those things. God is not limited to the pages of my Bible (nor are the pages actually limited to the type that is on them, which is equally cool!) He IS the Word. (Well, Jesus is, anyway) and that is way cooler than a book 🙂

(Don’t worry… I still think the Bible is the super coolest book… I just think that sometimes we give it more credit that God intended it to have.) 🙂

I’ll take him any day.

Links?
The God Journey Podcast
The Wonder of Scripture (3/23/07)
The Wonder of Scripture II (3/30/07)

by Greg

Judging You, Judging Me?

The other day as we were reading through the book of Luke, the boys and I heard Jesus say, “Don’t judge other people and God won’t judge you.” I stopped when I said that and said to the boys, “That’s crazy! What does Jesus mean by that? Does he really mean if we just don’t judge other people, then God won’t judge us???” And I thought, How does that get us out of it??

And I think I was revealing a misunderstanding of God right there.

Is God really the big mean judge just waiting to condemn us? Or is he rightfully judge, but willingly grants us a completely restored relationship with him through Jesus – “There is no now condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”?

Today I happend to be thinking of an instance or two where I was feeling “judged” and that reminded me of these words we had recently read, that Jesus spoke long ago. I was thinking about when I felt judged and trying to figure out why I was being judged in the frist place. And all I could think of was that the person(s) I was thinking about just might not understand the God who does not demand perfection from us? Perhaps they just don’t know that God does not look at everything as “right” and “wrong”?

And then the verse made sense! Maybe Jesus didn’t mean the cause and effect version I thought, where when we don’t judge, God doesn’t judge us. Perhaps he meant that if we understand that he doesn’t judge, and so we won’t judge others, then we will feel less and less “judged” by him. As we treat other people as he does – then we can understand the Father who does not “judge” us?

Perhaps I’m just rambling… or just not saying well what I think I realized today. If you have any thoughts, please add them to this. That’d be great.

But also, please know that he does not judge your every move. You are loved by your Father, and there is no condemnation for you who are in Christ Jesus.

by Greg

The Devil Made Me Do It

We’re in the book of Luke now, me and the boys, and today we got to the story of Jesus being led by the Spirit out into the desert where he didn’t eat for 40 days. First of all… that’s just insane. That’s a really, really long time to not eat. And one of the best lines in the whole Bible follows the statement of that fasting fact… “And he was hungry.” You think? 🙂

So what ensues is a little battle between Satan and Jesus. Satan tries to trick Jesus, and Jesus doesn’t buckle. He defeats Satan with his knowledge of Scripture and his pure “Jesus-ness”. I remember from many decades ago now, in my Children’s Bible (the big brown one with all the cool drawings…) seeing the epic battle unfold. Jesus in his flowing white robes (standing tall, and regal, looking none the worse for wear, even though “…he was hungry”) and Satan looking ugly and menacing, with his tiny little horns protruding from his red skull cap or whatever. It was quite obvious who was the good guy and who was the bad guy… and it was even more obvious who would be the victor.

As I was reading the story again today, I couldn’t help but wonder, why was Satan even trying? Didn’t he know that Jesus was God? I mean… Jesus made everything (I think that’s in Colossians) so… that means he made Satan… (Lucifer, or whatever you might want to call him) and, so, they knew each other, right? What made him think he had a chance of tricking Jesus into giving in to a desire for food, or power, or anything else? I mean… he’s God, right?

But that’s when I thought… maybe Satan understood Jesus more than we do sometimes. I’ve mentioned this before on the good ol’ blog… we are prone to over-deifying Jesus (if that were possible). Like in my old Children’s Bible. Jesus was clearly deity there. Totally unaffected by his humanness. One could argue, he seemed not even “human” at all. And we tend to do that to Jesus, whether in drawings, or in our relating to him. We remember that he is God, but we forget that he is our brother. A person: body, soul, spirit… just like us.

It seems like Satan understood this, and was trying in every way he could to get Jesus to fall… because he could. In Hebrews it says Jesus was “tempted in every way” as we are. That means there had to be a chance he might choose poorly. It wouldn’t be a temptation if in his God-ness he could just be perfect without even trying. No, Jesus was (and is???) very much a human being, just like us.

So what does that mean? Is there wisdom to be gained from the Devil? Can we maybe understand Jesus more from seeing what he thought of him? I’m not sure. Perhaps I am reading too much into it. (I can do that sometimes…) 🙂 But, it seems that he knew something about Jesus we tend to forget. He’s so much like us. And I do think that’s amazing. It means he can totally understand us, and relate to us… and I think that’s exactly what God wanted. What an amazingly cool connection we have to him. He’s not some super-man… He’s just like us.

There’s not really a big “point” to this post… I just found it really interesting that the Devil thought he could trick Jesus… he was really trying, so, it seems like there was some chance he might be able to. Or so he thought.

It definitely would have been strange to “hear” Jesus say the words, “The Devil made me do it…”

by Greg

Sneaky Jesus?

In today’s Gospel reading… we see a bit more nefarious side of our hero, Jesus. Could it be that he was trying to mislead his own kin? Could it be that he was twisting the truth… or not telling the whole truth? Could Jesus be that sneaky???

The boys and I are going through the book of John, and yesterday the story was about his brothers sort of mocking him, saying, if you’re so cool… then go down to the big festival in Jerusalem and show everyone! We finished that story up with this line:

Jesus answered, “My time hasn’t yet come, but your time is always here. … Go on to the festival. My time hasn’t yet come, and I am not going.” Jesus said this and stayed on in Galilee.

OK, that’s cool. Nothing to that part of the story. His bros wanted him to go show off, and Jesus told them it wasn’t time yet. Got it. BUT THEN… look what we read today!!!

After Jesus’ brothers had gone to the festival, he went secretly, without telling anyone.

During the festival the Jewish leaders looked for Jesus and asked, “Where is he?” The crowds even got into an argument about him. Some were saying, “Jesus is a good man,” while others were saying, “He is lying to everyone.” But the people were afraid of their leaders, and none of them talked in public about him.

When the festival was about half over, Jesus went into the temple and started teaching.

This is crazy! Did Jesus intentionally mislead his brothers, when his full intention was to go to the festival? Did he need to because he had different ideas for how to spend his time than they did? OR… did he actually change his mind?!?! HAHA. That would be awesome.

I can picture it now. The house is quiet. Everyone is gone, down to Jerusalem for the festival. Jesus is just hanging out, enjoying the solitude. He does a few projects in the wood shop. Catches up on some reading he’d been neglecting with all the healings and public teaching and stuff. But, after awhile… he gets a little ansty. He keeps thinking of the fun he could be having with everyone else at the Festival. He talks with his Father about it… and eventually, decides he can probably sneak down there, without anyone noticing.

But, about half way through the festival, he can’t contain himself anymore, and he goes and starts teaching. What he said he was not going to do! He couldn’t help himself, I guess???

The funny thing is, when he has a public altercation with the religious folk, they try to kill him, but can not because “it was not his time”. So… what was he scared of in the first place?

I really have no point to make, just thought it was a fascinating story to share. If you would like to read it, it’s John 7:1-30 (… there’s more, but that’s what we read). What do you think? Was Jesus being “sneaky”, or did he just change his mind? Pretty funny either way… 🙂

by Greg

Fingernails and Jesus

fingernailThis morning as the boys and I were reading through John (our latest morning read) I was struck by a simple line that John (who is known as “The Baptist”) spoke. Regarding Jesus baptizing more people than he was at that moment, he replied, “No one can do anything unless God in heaven allows it.” Anything? Like, murdering, genocide, hatred, war, etc… those came quickly to mind as being part of “anything”. Now, I know that’s not what John was talking about, but it was a strange thing to read, to be sure. He was focusing more on the positive, that Jesus was doing a good thing (that was having some success, I suppose) was an indication that God was OK with it, since, no one can do anything unless God allows it.

I just found that an interesting thought to ponder this morning… as I do stuff, that falls under the “anything” label.

In other news… as I was chopping vegetables for our meal for this afternoon (which would also fall under that ubiquitous “anything” label), the knife slipped off of the veggies and landed firmly on my finger. Thankfully… God invented fingernails. (That’s not my finger in the photo, by the way…)

All is well, and I find myself marveling at God’s forethought once again. I even have a little knick where my finger would have been sliced open, if not off!

Good thing it wasn’t part of the “anything” God allowed me to do!