Passages

 

Those who struggle to have children suffer greatly.  It is a primal need. The trajectory of building a family is a treasure of love, sacrifice and purpose. The price of passage is more than just dreams and conceiving.  It is the practice of placing others before yourself.

1 Corinthians 13:11 (NIV) 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

3/31/2024

What does it mean to be "born again"?

When you are “born again,” you switch from an ego based awareness and intelligence to an experience with the enormity of God’s love and the lessons of Jesus. You suddenly see that this is the true reality - not what is called reality on earth - but God’s true eternal reality. 

1 Corinthians 3:18-23 (TLB) 18 Stop fooling yourselves. If you count yourself above average in intelligence, as judged by this world’s standards, you had better put this all aside and be a fool rather than let it hold you back from the true wisdom from above. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As it says in the book of Job, God uses man’s own brilliance to trap him; he stumbles over his own “wisdom” and falls. 20 And again, in the book of Psalms, we are told that the Lord knows full well how the human mind reasons and how foolish and futile it is. 21 So don’t be proud of following the wise men of this world. For God has given you Paul and  Apollos and Peter as your helpers. He has given you the whole world to use, and life and even death are your servants. He has given you all of the present and all of the future. All are yours, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ is God’s.

3/24/2024

You can Run but you can't Hide

 

A good observation of people is that when they do things they have been warned against or know are wrong, they cover-up and hide. This is a guilty response and it is not a new phenomena:  Adam and Eve covered-up and hid from God in the Garden. 

Genesis 3:6-11 (NIV) 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” 11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

3/17/2024

Love means to Respect

Love means to respect.  God respects your freewill, children are respected for their differences, Jewish law required respect for foreigners and animals. Jesus respected all classes of people. Being law abiding means you respect right authority.  Evil, by definition, is LACK of respect. 

Matthew 22:37-38 (TLB) 37 Jesus replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.’ 38-39 This is the first and greatest commandment. The second most important is similar: ‘Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.’

3/10/2024

Many paths to God?

There is a popular notion of “many paths to God.”  That means God can be, among other things, the Universe, Buddha, Allah or a pagan god. What the Bible says is that coming to the Father - by knowing who Jesus is, said and did - is exactly the one and only way to get there. 

John 14:4-6 (TLB) 4 And you know where I am going and how to get there.” 5 “No, we don’t,” Thomas said. “We haven’t any idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus told him, “I am the Way—yes, and the Truth and the Life. No one can get to the Father except by means of me.

3/3/2024