Verse of the day

1Corinthians 13:11

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

Daily Devotional – March 31

 

Grow up! 

There is a reason Jesus used the phrase "born again" with Nicodemus in John chapter 3.   There is also a reason that Paul constantly and consistently throughout his epistles spoke of spiritual growth as being similar in nature to physical growth.  (1 Corinthians 3:2, 1Corinthians 13:11, Hebrews 5:12-14, etc.) In our physical lives we basically go through 4 stages of development (with many subsets in between): 

• Infancy (Faith)– “I feel”, but am largely self-absorbed.  My entire range of experience is a sensory one.  I am ruled my need and emotion.  (1Corinthians 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, [even] as unto babes in Christ.)

• Childhood (Virtue) – “I believe”.  I am guided by rules and regulations.  The world is black and white.  (Galations 4:1-3  Now I say, [That] the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
   But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world🙂

• Young Adult (Knowledge)– “I think”.  I am guided by logic, and am a skeptic.  I search for cause and effect relationships and a sense of order in the chaos. (Colossians 1:9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard [it], do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding😉

• Mature Adult (Temperance, Patience, Godliness, Brotherly kindness, Charity) – “I know”—I am content. I am at peace with myself and my creator.  Love is an extension of self, given, rather than sought after.  (Galations 5:22-24 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.)

More to come.

-j

Verse of the day

James 3:13

Who [is] a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.

Daily Devotional – March 30

 

(This post dedicated to our friend Brandon) 

The Fool

1Corinthians 1:27(a) But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise;

An atheist friend of mine wrote:

"There is hardly any proof that the major minds of our times believe in religion. This denigrates all of the scientists who do not–which is most of them."

CBS 60 Minutes correspondent Andy Rooney said, 

'I am an atheist, I don't understand religion at all. I'm sure I'll offend a lot of people by saying this, but I think it's all nonsense.' He said Christian fundamentalism is a result of “…a lack of education. They haven't been exposed to what the world has to offer.”* 

Is this true?  Are Christians just some fanatical cultists who are steeped in superstition and ignorance? 

Contrary to my friend’s line of reasoning and society’s assumptions:

• We have electricity as we know it today because of an scientist who was a Christian.
• The Big Bang theory was proposed and developed by a Christian.
• The father of modern genetics and genome research is a Christian.
• Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes,Newton, Boyle, Faraday, Mendel, Kelvin either all Christian or believed in God.
• Darwin himself even said it was impossible to theorize a universe without a designer.
• Encyclopedia Britanica: "Firmly denying atheism, Einstein expressed a belief in "Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the harmony of what exists."

Psalms 14:1(a) …The fool hath said in his heart, [There is] no God.

*This is a bit humorous when stacking up someone like Mr. Rooney who failed to finish college with people like my father who is a “Christian fundamentalist” and a doctor (Phd. and DD) and has traveled every continent of the globe-and lived in many.

Verse of the day

James 1:26

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion [is] vain.

Daily Devotional – March 29

 

Immortal Words

"To err is human, to forgive divine"

"I'll be back"

"Know thyself"

"I have a dream" 

“Luuuke, I am your father…”

How many times have you said something and, much to your distress, you have it repeated to you at a most inopportune time?  The topic of "words" is dealt with often in the scripture–a lot having to do with their immortal nature.  Even centuries after some of the above were quoted they are still remembered, still used.  Words seem to last much longer than our human lifespan. 

There are words that should last as indicated by Christ:

MARK 13:31
Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

But many of us know that there are words that we wish had never been said and we wish WOULD pass away.  Once words escape our lips, there is no retrieving them, and they have the potential of living far longer than we do.  How many times have you been at a funeral and someone who is speaking of the deceased says, "I remember when he/she said…"

Everything we say should be a conscious decision.   Christ himself indicates that what we say is what is truly in our heart:  Matthew 12:34(b)…for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

Keeping this in mind,

 Colossians 4:6 Let your speech [be] alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

Verse of the day

2 Timothy 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Daily Devotional – March 28

  

Do you fear truth? 

• Japanese revisionist Nobukatsu Fujioka and his group lashed out against their Ministry of Education for allowing school textbooks to include some brief and vaguely worded passages on atrocities committed by the Japanese military during its brutal invasion of other Asian countries in the 1930's and 1940's. Instead of respecting the truth, the revisionists insist all other nations were equally sinister and Japanese children should not be taught about Japan's ugly past. They plan to rewrite history textbook depicting Japanese "with dignity and balance." – or in other words – lie. 
• When the Watchtower Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses) forbids its members to read critical literature, they expect to be obeyed without question.  They refer to such literature as "spiritual pornography". At the same time the Watchtower claims that people who refuse to read their own literature do so because they afraid of truth. 
• As recently as the 1960’s the Roman Catholic Church continued to conduct its services and Bible readings in Latin.  Unfortunately few, if any, in the congregations understood Latin. To this day they have created an environment of unquestioning faith, where only the priest can interpret the scripture—never the laity.   
• Many Baptist churches fail to rightly divide the Word because it would threaten their control and influence.  The Ten Commandments is far more attractive to its pulpits than Paul’s epistle to the Galatians: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”  Our sleeping churches would rather preach the guilt and bondage of obligation.  Coercion is alive in well in fundamental and evangelical circles. Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 

Why is it that people choose a cloak of ignorance? Hendrik Wilem van Loon said, "Any frontal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession — their ignorance."  Common thought seems to be, "I am happy with my beliefs, please don't confuse me with the facts."  2Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 

For the willfully ignorant, truth invades their comfort zone.  For those who would keep others ignorant, it is more about power and a position of preeminence. 

 John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

-j

Verse of the day

HEBREWS 12:1-2

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Daily Devotional – Monday, March 27

 

Ever wonder who you are? 

I remember in the late 70’s (although it started before then) when there were a host of people “looking for themselves”.  Everywhere you turned there was someone who didn’t know who they were, and they were in search of themselves.  For some reason, all of them seemed to end up in Boulder, Colorado, so I guess that’s where they were.  

The birth of modern psychology and its advancement by Freud, and others, the promotion of ideas such as existentialism and the investigation into eastern philosophy and religion, lead many a person on an inward journey in search of themselves—these constructs still do.  Many of these people spend a lifetime searching never finding out who they “really are”. 

The truth of the matter is that we are not beings waiting to be discovered, but lives in the process of creation.  We aren’t waiting to be discovered, we are constantly and consistently being built.   

Philippians 1:6 says, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ:

and

Hebrews 13:21 says,  “Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom [be] glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Still wondering who you are?  Then find out the answer to what is being created in you.