"Dead Or Alive?"

At a debate one of my colleagues attended on the existence of God, there was a rather vociferous atheist who sported an unforgettable jacket. Monogrammed on the back of the jacket were the words of a familiar verse, yet with a surprise ending...

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What Kind of Hero?

Though I am not by any stretch of the imagination a fan of video games, articles on the subject do from time to time catch my eye. I was intrigued once by the descriptions given by a video game creator who developed a game that casts the player as a character in a world of choices. The game is now a few years old, but the character customization system it employs is still reasonably unique. It is based on the idea that everything the character does will affect him...

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What Do You Want?

"Wait a minute; what do I really want?" a friend asked himself in my presence as if speaking the language of epiphany. He found himself initiating new interests in things, filling his time with pastimes--pining after that new thing that would change everything--when suddenly he realized that there was a search behind all of his searching...

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The Taste of Joy

Like Augustine, C. S. Lewis was aware of deep human emotions that point to a dimension of our existence beyond time and space, a deep and intense feeling of longing ...

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It's All About Me

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Matters of the Heart

Have you ever given or received the advice, "Trust your heart?" It is a motto we hear often, in various forms and across various mediums. Flipping through an old high school yearbook where well-meaning friends offered a mark of wisdom beside their signature, I was nearly convinced the expression was a requirement...

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Arriving and Leaving

(A night in the San Francisco International Airport exposes the emotional nature of departures and arrival.)

Watching a long overdue greeting at an airport is amazing. It is full of excitement and tenderness and relief.

The same thing can be said about leaving a place. What about when you leave but you aren’t ready to leave?

Isn’t it an instant tearjerker? I can remember when my wife and I were single,we were dating from a long distance. When I would leave after visiting her I tried to hold my tears back every time. Of course one or two would escape but it wasn’t enough to even begin to demonstrate what I was feeling and thinking.

So as I begin planning for my next flight I have been thinking about other emotions associated with airports, like anxiety. I think it begins before you even arrive at the airport. I t slowly increases as you get closer to the terminal and then you have to go through security and eventually reaches it’s height during takeoff into flight.

I think airports can capture a large range of human emotions. Imagine if they could capture your thoughts. What impact would that have on security and anxiety?

Here’s how it would work. Suppose there was a way to put a device in your brain that would record all your private thoughts… and then as you get ready to travel they could be reviewed by airport security professionals. So if someone had been thinking of any sinister plans before flying they would be known ahead of time and stopped beforehand.

But would anxiety be decreased or increased? I mean your private thoughts to be seen by others. Wow, I think that would make us keep a constant watch for what we are thinking.
So then imagine your thoughts are in some airport security computer and a hacker takes those thoughts and displays them on Youtube or something like that. All your friends and family and strangers would be able to see them.

That brings me to something much more important. While this technology may or may not be available someday or even legal to apply, do you think that God knows your inner most secret thoughts?The bible says, “God knows the secrets of the heart” (Psalm 44:21) So then, if this is true there is nothing that we can hide from God.

It is true that 10 out of 10 people die. Think about this, every second approximately three people die. By the time you lay your head on your pillow tonight over 150,000 people will have died in a 24 hour period. The bible says, “it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,” (Hebrews 9:27). On judgement day how will you do?

So some people go to bed everyday living by the scales. Asking the question, “did I do more good than bad today?” (To find out take: The Good Person Test). They think that by doing more good than bad they will have access to eternal life. Some try to live “a good life” or are religious or they follow an ethical philosophy, or that they must workout all the “negativity” that is within them through some sort of esoteric “cleansing” practice, and yet others say they are not sinners.

This is what Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.” (John 14:6).

You can’t earn eternal life. It is God’s gift to all who humble themselves and come to Jesus.

The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ provides full and free deliverance from the power and penalty of sin. It is the grace of God alone through faith in Jesus Christ alone that salvation is given.

1 Corinthians 15 1-4 ,gives a summary of this good news.

As we go through life experiencing anxiety… keep in mind that we have all been born as sinnners and that none of us deserve to be forgiven of our sins by God. It is only through the mercy and grace of God through Jesus, that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus but only everlasting joy. (Romans 8)

Will you be the judge?

Incredible performance, his gift shines on throughout the performance as he stands confident in his craft.
But this video also points out something very interesting.
What great example of how man judges the outward appearance.

Like Bob Dylan sings,
“All he believes are his eyesAnd his eyes, they just tell him lies.”

The judges in this video had made a decision of “no”, before Paul even sang a letter.
We obviously know this because they admitted to their surprise and shock.
And they even go on to criticize the performance afterward.

I don't know about you but I've done this before.
How eager we are to ‘like' someone or on the flip side 'dislike’ someone, based on what is on the surface, because we “had a feeling”, that “she” or” he”, was a certain way...

We do this with books and movies and in real life all the time. We are drawn to the characters. We connect with them and identify with them. The characters may not be real or some may be real, like in this video with Paul.

And then we are shocked and surprised!

Again, man judges the outward appearance, God judges the inward person.

Jesus said the heart is deceitfully wicked who can know it out of it springs forth sin. Mark 7:21-23 “For from within,out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,an evil eye, blasphemy, pride,foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

But until you see that we are sinful,the mercy and grace that God offers seems foolish to those that are perishing. But it is God's power to those who are saved.
(see 1 Corinthians 1:18.)

Mercy is not getting what you deserve and grace is getting what you don't deserve.

God has made a way to show both perfect justice and loving patience toward us. Jesus Christ, was crucified for your sins. He died and was buried. He rose again in fullfilment of the scriptures.

In his great mercy, God has provided a way for us to escape the punishment we deserve. “Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:3-5).

There are those who think they are great thinkers and reasoners, and yet they deny that sin is real. They deny that it is something that God will punish wherever it is found. They suppress the truth and choose their flesh over God. They want to do things their own way.

The Bible says God gives grace to the humble but resists the proud. So we must humble ourselves place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ as the one and only payment for our sins.

I leave you with a quote from George Whitfield's sermon,
“The method of Grace” (1714-1770)
“Our hearts are so cursedly wicked, that if you take not care, if you do not keep up a constant watch, your wicked hearts will deceive you, and draw you aside.”

Going, Going, Gone!

It's only been it's only been four months since this blog's inception but it's finally happened. According to TheGreatFirewallofChina, my Blog has been banned in China.

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.”
—William Shedd, theologian