Yes you are right, God does love you. He doesn’t care if you are red, yellow, black, or white, straight, homosexual, a do-gooder or a murderer. “For God so loved the world…,” it’s taken straight from the Bible in the book of John chapter three verse 16. He loves you, He loves me, He loves the bad guys, the good guys and the wallflowers. He loves the one who has done you wrong just as much as He loves you. And that will never change.
However, the verse does not end there and it is imperative that one looks further because your eternity will depend on it. Obviously God knew we would have a problem, a very serious one at that. If we were created perfect and everyone could get to heaven in their own way then why would God not just end the verse there? God loves us and He has turned us free to find our own way to heaven, the end. God doesn't end there, He goes further, beyond what any of us would volunteer for. He sends His one and only Son, Jesus, to the cross to suffer an excruciating death just so that everyone and anyone could join Him in heaven by accepting His gift of salvation. Knowing that some would reject His perfect sacrifice He went ahead and did it anyway.
Yes, God knew we would struggle with sin before He even formed Adam out of the dust of the ground. He was not surprised when He found Adam and Eve cowering in the Garden of Eden because they were ashamed of their nakedness. He didn’t voice His frustration by saying, “WHAT DID YOU DO??”, or, “Why did you do this to me? I gave you everything you needed for a fulfilling life and this is what I get in return?!” God knew.
Do you have kids? If not you are someone’s child. Did you or your parents foolishly believe that this child being brought into the world was only going to make the right decisions in their lives, give you absolutely no frustrations, no rebellion, no struggles in their quest for independence and be the perfect child. I haven’t met anyone that thought that way and the thing is people keep having children even though they know their kids will not be perfect.
My son has asked me, “Why didn’t God just make us perfect so that we wouldn’t do wrong things?” I will offer the same answer as I have given him. What would mean more to you, someone loving you because they were designed to love you and had no choice but to love you or someone loving you because they, of their own free will, wanted to love you? It is always better if someone loves you because they want to, not because they have to. God wanted a loving relationship with each of us because we want to have one with Him not because we have to.
God has designed us, He has given us boundaries, He has made a right and a wrong. If eternity was not at stake then why would He need to send His Son to die for us? If we were free to live our lives the way we wanted to, without regard to sin, why would He need to send His Son to die for us? If there were many paths to heaven why would He need to send His Son to die for us?
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
All of My 'Stuff'
We are getting a new piece of furniture to replace my current dresser so of course it meant we had to rearrange our bedroom. I knew we had a lot of 'stuff' but I didn't realize how much 'stuff' until we had the floor piled high with stacks of books and the bed loaded down with movable possessions just so we could navigate the pieces of furniture from one side of the room to the other.
I ask myself, why do we have so much 'STUFF'??? How much of this 'STUFF' do I really need or use??? I am reading a book concerning the poverty devastation throughout this world and I am trying to look at my belongings with a new perspective. In gearing up for today's 'Operation Bedroom Clean-out' I have been asking God to lead me to keep only what I truly need. I have considered using the rule 'if I haven't used it in six months then throw it out! Or as I like to do, donate it!
I feel as if I have been purging my house for several years now and 'stuff' keeps reproducing itself. All of this 'stuff' keeps me pre-occupied, laden down and discouraged with its existence. I guess you could liken it to my christian walk, when I am consumed by worry, negative thoughts, and 'keeping up with the Jones's' attitude I spend my time pre-occupied, laden down and discouraged with who I am and who I am not.
It is time to give another HURRAH! to purging my house so that I may expend my energy on what God has for me rather than dreading each day because of the 'stuff' which greets me when I wake up. There is some truth to 'Cleanliness is next to Godliness' because when you don't have earthly belongings weighing you down you free up time and energy to use as God would have you use to assist in His mission for your life!
I ask myself, why do we have so much 'STUFF'??? How much of this 'STUFF' do I really need or use??? I am reading a book concerning the poverty devastation throughout this world and I am trying to look at my belongings with a new perspective. In gearing up for today's 'Operation Bedroom Clean-out' I have been asking God to lead me to keep only what I truly need. I have considered using the rule 'if I haven't used it in six months then throw it out! Or as I like to do, donate it!
I feel as if I have been purging my house for several years now and 'stuff' keeps reproducing itself. All of this 'stuff' keeps me pre-occupied, laden down and discouraged with its existence. I guess you could liken it to my christian walk, when I am consumed by worry, negative thoughts, and 'keeping up with the Jones's' attitude I spend my time pre-occupied, laden down and discouraged with who I am and who I am not.
It is time to give another HURRAH! to purging my house so that I may expend my energy on what God has for me rather than dreading each day because of the 'stuff' which greets me when I wake up. There is some truth to 'Cleanliness is next to Godliness' because when you don't have earthly belongings weighing you down you free up time and energy to use as God would have you use to assist in His mission for your life!
Saturday, October 8, 2011
My Thoughts on the First Ten Chapters of THE HOLE IN OUR GOSPEL
So, I have been asked to sum up in 100 words (or less or more) the book I am reading, THE HOLE IN OUR GOSPEL by Richard Stearns.
Richard Stearns is the president of World Vision, a well known faith based relief organization serving, well, the whole world. Mr. Stearns life testimony begins with a troubled childhood and a decision he made to rise above the poverty and alcoholism he experienced as a child. His young adulthood was spent in colleges and universities as he evolved into an intellectual who felt he didn't need God.
God did become a part of Mr. Stearns's life in his mid to late twenties and he went on to have a successful business life and family of his own. His transition to president of World Vision is preceded by a grown man huddled in bed sobbing midday because he does not want to make a decision he senses God is asking him to make.
That was just the intro! The meat of the book is the most convicting, how do you view, what do you do to relieve, and what do you perceive as God's desire for us to soften the bitter sting of poverty around the world? As president of World Vision, Mr. Stearns has seen poverty at its cruelest measure.
Where do faith and assistance meet? It is so easy for us Americans to view poverty as their choice or just a way of life that we want to avoid at all cost. According to Mr. Stearns it goes much deeper than just wrong choices people have made. In Mr. Stearns own words, "These precious human beings created in God's image have been left behind and cast on the garbage dump of history by circumstances they cannot change. We must never say it is their fault. How dare we?"
Richard Stearns is the president of World Vision, a well known faith based relief organization serving, well, the whole world. Mr. Stearns life testimony begins with a troubled childhood and a decision he made to rise above the poverty and alcoholism he experienced as a child. His young adulthood was spent in colleges and universities as he evolved into an intellectual who felt he didn't need God.
God did become a part of Mr. Stearns's life in his mid to late twenties and he went on to have a successful business life and family of his own. His transition to president of World Vision is preceded by a grown man huddled in bed sobbing midday because he does not want to make a decision he senses God is asking him to make.
That was just the intro! The meat of the book is the most convicting, how do you view, what do you do to relieve, and what do you perceive as God's desire for us to soften the bitter sting of poverty around the world? As president of World Vision, Mr. Stearns has seen poverty at its cruelest measure.
Where do faith and assistance meet? It is so easy for us Americans to view poverty as their choice or just a way of life that we want to avoid at all cost. According to Mr. Stearns it goes much deeper than just wrong choices people have made. In Mr. Stearns own words, "These precious human beings created in God's image have been left behind and cast on the garbage dump of history by circumstances they cannot change. We must never say it is their fault. How dare we?"
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