THE BLOG
Topic
- Anxiety 2
- Beauty 1
- Bible 7
- Blessings 1
- Body of Christ 1
- Burden 1
- CEO 1
- Christian Living 189
- Christlikeness 6
- Christmas 13
- Commandments 1
- Community 1
- Conflict 1
- Cults 1
- Culture 1
- DDM 1
- Death 2
- Discipleship 5
- Emotions 6
- Eternity 2
- Evangelism 7
- Faith 2
- Forgive 4
- Freedom 1
- Fusion 1
- Gather 1
- God 2
- Gospel 3
- Gratitude 2
- Hebrews 11 1
- Holiness 1
- Holy Spirit 1
- Homosexuality 1
- Humility 1
- Israel 2
- Jesus 9
- Joy 2
- King of Glory 1
- Lying 1
- Missions 3
- Outreach 1
- Pastor Jeff 1
- Perspective 2
- Prayer 8
- Psalm 119 3
- Reading 1
- Salvation 13
- Sanctification 1
- Satan 1
- Scripture 3
God's Yes!
The word “promise” can conjure up all kinds of emotions and reactions. Sometimes the word can invoke the sorrow and pain of a broken promise. Other times it can inspire the joy and hope of a promise kept or that of a future expectation.
Unfortunately, today the word “promise” connects more to the word “broken” than the word “keep.” But not so with God.
God's "all things" Truth
It doesn’t take long after reading a few pages of the Bible to learn how BIG our God really is.
Rather than writing about it, I’m going to let God speak for Himself about His “all things” truth.
How did everything come to be? “You created all things” (Rev. 4:11); “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.” (Col. 1:16); “For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.” (Heb. 3:4); “God, who gives life to all things” (1 Tim. 6:13); “The God who made the world and all things in it” (Acts 17:24); “He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.” (Acts 17:25); “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3).
Faithful
What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word “faithful”? Your spouse? A pet? An appliance or tool? A friend? Semper Fi? Rain in the Puget Sound area? “Old Faithful” at Yellowstone National Park? The Mariners playoff drought (20 years…the longest active postseason drought in the four major men’s North American sports—I’m not bitter)?
Bumper Sticker Theology
As many of you know, I have long been fascinated and intrigued by bumper stickers. They seem to communicate something about the owner's philosophy or beliefs in life.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Spiritual Snowflakes
Has anyone else noticed how overly sensitive so many people seem to be? It appears at times that virtually everyone gets charged with being offensive in one way or another (e.g., a look, post, posture, words, attitude, action, tone, reaction, beliefs, politics, race, etc.) and you can find yourself feeling like you are walking around on eggshells.
Our actions and reactions clearly matter to God and impact people. As believers, we understand how essential the gift of God’s supernatural love is to the mutual enjoyment and blessing of relationships. God expects His unique love to be flowing in and through us in a way that selflessly and actively gives what is best for others.
Assistance Needed
You may have seen or heard the recent news story about a smart robot that recently performed the first laparoscopic surgery without human help. In the study, published Jan. 26 in Science Robotics, the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) performed four soft tissue surgeries on pigs to reconnect two ends of an intestine. Such procedures require a great deal of repetitive movement and precision. One misplaced stitch can result in an intestinal leak that could prove disastrous for a patient. The results showed that the robot performed the procedures with significantly better results than human surgeons achieve.
Seven Daily Things
Dustin Benge is provost of Union School of Theology in Wales, and he posted the following 7 Things Christians Should Tell Themselves Every Day.
I can’t improve on these excellent truths to remember daily.
Idolatry? Me?
Ever heard of Nehushtan? We’ll get back to that.
The apostle John chose to close out his first brief letter on real faith with some pointed words of warning: “Little children, guard yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). In other words, be on guard against anything or anyone that might attempt to occupy the place in your heart that only God should ultimately occupy.
John never qualified that warning. He never gave us a list of idols. Any idol, regardless of its beauty or usefulness, is not allowed to compete with the supremacy of Jesus Christ. Not one.
So, what is an idol? It is giving more love, devotion, or trust to anyone or anything other than to the one and only true God who said, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3).