Mt. Rainier
My family and I spent Friday and Saturday at Mt. Rainier National Park. We did a little hiking and saw some deer and a bear. Mt. Rainier is beautiful, especially at sunset. As we hiked this verse kept running through my head: "The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth." Psalm 97:5
"You are glorious and more majestic than the everlasting mountains." Psalm 76:4
Our God is Mighty!
I love you
Jeremiah 2:25, “I have fallen in love with these foreign gods, and I can’t stop loving them now!”
There’s a common philosophy that if you love someone, or something, then your love makes it OK. That is, love becomes the highest good. In the verse above, Judah justified turning away from God because of her love for other gods.
Practically, this philosophy is often seen in sexual relationships, both hetero- and homo-. People will justify going outside of God’s parameters for healthy sexual relationships based on the love they feel for the other person. “I love him/her, so it must be OK.”
GOD IS LOVE AND HE WANTS ME TO BE HAPPY
You will often hear people say that God is love, therefore, he wants me to be happy. In other words, Why would a loving God deny (forbid) the love I have for the other person, regardless of what his word says? “I know the Bible forbids adultery, but I love him so much, he makes me happy, and he “completes” me, so it must be OK to divorce my husband and leave my kids.”
This kind of thinking makes our love the ultimate measure of morality. And since love is subjective, that measuring line will move with each person. What’s important to remember is that GOD is love. His love is perfect, our love is imperfect. In fact, our hearts our deceived, darkened, and easily led astray.
God’s ultimate goal is not our happiness, it’s our salvation. Yes, salvation from sin, but more specifically salvation from looking to people and things for our salvation, which is idolatry. Love is a good thing, but when we turn it into an ultimate thing, it becomes an idol.
When we truly begin to realize what God did for us through Jesus, the direction of our love begins to shift off of ourselves and what we want, and begins to shift more and more to God. That God did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves in offering salvation through Christ alone, by his grace alone, through faith alone, begins to fill us with love for God which shows itself in obedience.
In the end, it’s not about my love, it’s about HIS love.
Simplification through Elimination
I read a great quote this morning: "The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak." ~ Hans Hofmann.
What a great reminder, especially during the Christmas season when everything gets so cluttered. If we want the true message of Christmas to speak loud and clear in our lives we need the ability to eliminate the unnecessary. Yet, this idea of simplification isn't reserved only for Christmas; it about life as a whole.
I'm trying to simplify my life into three pursuits: 1) develop my faith (to know God), 2) deepen my connections (to know others), 3) devote my life to God's purpose (that God would be known).
The obvious question is, "What do I need to eliminate that is preventing me from faith, connection, and life?"
I'm learning to pray as the Apostle Paul did when he prayed that we would determine what really matters (Philippians 1:9-10), and eliminate the rest.
Thank you, Veterans!
Doing some reflection about Veteran's Day. The one word that keeps coming to mind is sacrifice. Those who served, and currently serve, in our armed forces sacrifice a lot. I've never been in the military, but I do know people who are active and I see the sacrifice required to serve. What's noteworthy is "sacrifice" and "service" go hand-in-hand; to serve requires sacrifice.
To the Veterans who sacrificed by being away from their families, who missed their children growing up, who left home and country to fight in foreign lands, who left stable jobs to fight for our country, and to those who made the ultimate sacrifice with their lives...THANK YOU!
Service requires sacrifice. When Jesus came to Earth, he came as a servant. He served by sacrificing his life and dying for you and me.
As a Christ-follower, it's a reminder to follow Jesus' example of servanthood. And the freedom fought for by our military offers the greatest opportunity to serve and reach others with the Gospel.
Here's a Veteran's tribute video with shots of a lunch GBCK served at the U.S. Vets out reach in Kalaeloa: Veterans Day Video
Latest tweets
- No public Twitter messages.
Recent Posts
Categories
- Books of the Bible (2)
- Catalyst West Coast 2009 (1)
- church (20)
- Devotions (3)
- Discipleship (2)
- Faith (8)
- Family (5)
- Gospel (9)
- Jeremiah (1)
- Leadership (13)
- life (9)
- Message Series (5)
- Nehemiah (1)
- On my mind (8)
- Parenting (5)
- Philippians (1)
- preaching (6)
- Reflect and Review (5)
- Uncategorized (11)