THE BLOG
Topic
- Anxiety 2
- Beauty 1
- Bible 7
- Blessings 1
- Body of Christ 1
- Burden 1
- CEO 1
- Christian Living 200
- Christlikeness 6
- Christmas 14
- Commandments 1
- Community 2
- Conflict 1
- Cults 1
- Culture 1
- DDM 1
- Death 2
- Discipleship 7
- Emotions 6
- Eternity 2
- Evangelism 7
- Faith 2
- Forgive 4
- Freedom 1
- Fusion 1
- Gambling 1
- Gather 2
- 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
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).
The Schooling of Sickness
Well it finally happened. The COVID bug caught up with me. It wasn’t fun…it assaulted my respiratory system, gave me some chills (called night sweats), and diminished my energy levels. God was gracious and I am well on my way back to normal. Thanks for your prayers.My sickness brought to mind a few scriptural considerations:
Hope Now
“Hope is called the anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19) because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a "wish" (I wish that such-and-such would take place); rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made.” -RC Sproul
This Disciple Development Month (DDM), we are focusing on how we can have “Hope Now.” Life is hard, and it is easy to become discouraged at points along the road, but God gives us hope for today. This hope is based upon what Christ has done, what the Holy Spirit is doing, and what the Father is bringing in the future. It is a hope taught to us in Scripture but needs to be realized in community.