Advent, #1 of 3: God Is Love

Christians celebrate this pre-Christmas season looking back to Jesus' first coming in Bethlehem, looking forward to his promised return in power and glory to bring peace on earth (Yes, really!) and soaking in his daily coming into our lives and thoughts by his Spirit. These three

New Clothes, New Life

I just purchased a new pair of jeans and was surprised again by how dark blue they are compared to the old ones I've shredded in the last few years. New clothes always feel unfamiliar and a little awkward, but at the same time warm and special -- almost like a

Make Up -- by a young girl

An amazing spoken-word poem by a young woman with a ton of insight and a great talent for wordplay. The message:  You are beautiful without the chemicals.
Fathers, let's give that message to our girls. Brothers, be strong in validating our sisters as the daughters of God. Husbands -- we validate our wives every day by the way we give them love and honor as our sisters in Christ, beautiful just as they are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YFylbO4-wc

Ways to Pray

Pray with words, gestures, music, finger-paint, modeling clay, stories, photography, or any other medium that connects you with God. After all, he is the creator, and is infinitely creative; and he put creativity in you too, so he can speak to you through those things. But pray at all times, in every way, about everything!

Singing a New Song - With Some Help

"Let's have some worship before we start our study" often, in church-speak, means playing and singing a couple of songs. Of course, worship isn't confined to singing. Psalm 96 has a lot to say about worshiping God, and some of it is about singing--but there's

What Works for You?

For many years, I was told "prayer is when you talk to God, and Bible study is when God talks to you" and mostly, that simple answer seemed

Why?

Children ask a lot of "why" questions. Why does the sun come up in the morning? Why do birds eat worms? And so forth. Isn't it a shame we tend to lose our curiosity as we get older? Maybe we should get it back. It's a very useful trait.

I've spent a lot of time this last year studying the #1 question of all time: who God is. I think there are, roughly, three ways you could understand God and what he wants from us. They range from great strictness to complete looseness. Here are the first two:

If God is primarily concerned with whether people are doing wrong and then punishing them for it, you have a God of judgment and the primary job of his messengers is to tell people not to sin. If God is primarily concerned with accepting people, then he will overlook or excuse their sins and evil ideas, and the primary job of his messengers is telling people that he loves them and has decided not to care about their imperfections. Those are the two extremes.

There's a third option that addresses both of these: If God is primarily concerned with bringing people into a loving relationship with him, then he has found a way to deal with peoples' imperfections, weaknesses, sins and evil. The primary job of his messengers is telling people that God is passionately interested in a deep relationship with them, and that he has already handled the problem of evil in them and in the world.

This last one is the comprehensive message found in the Bible. It includes God's judgment against sin (overall, our rebelling against his love and instructions in an attempt to do it our own way) as well as his limitless love for us and desire to have relationship with us.

Here's the grand unifying theory, in two passages from the New Testament: "When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God." (Romans 5:6-11)

"For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

God's judgment against our sins, and his love for us, come together and are dealt with perfectly and completely in Jesus Christ, who was the perfect union of humanity with God. That means the Gospel is, truly, good news -- the best news you could ever hope for. And that message is what his messengers live for.

Why are you here?

Breakfast with the ducks

God and I had breakfast this AM with some ducks out on Ralston Creek, not too far from my apartment. Bright sunshine, peaceful scenery, new grass and flowers -- beauty all around.

Some ppl don't get it that God permeates this creation. Sometimes I get busy trying to get from A to B and forget to notice what he's doing out there. But the Bible, his word, says he is actively involved in keeping it going. In fact, it's not just "God" in the generic sense, but Jesus himself, who once walked this earth and still is intimately involved in it:

"Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven." (Hebrews 1:1-3)

So, what this is saying is, the one who created the whole universe billions of years ago, came to the earth and brought the whole thing -- including the people -- back from our disastrous self-will detour, and is asking us to walk alongside him as we learn to take care of the place and each other. And he still holds it all together himself, because he likes it that way. He's still involved and he's not going away.

Even if we get busy and don't notice him. Or don't believe in him. Or don't want to go along for the trip.

But he's busy, continuing the work he sent his Son to do. He's got projects going on all over the world -- and all over Arvada, or wherever you live. He asks us to be involved with what he's doing, showing his love toward his children everywhere we meet them -- whether they're 'wayward' or not.

Join me and God for breakfast sometime? He'll refresh you with real food and real energy for the job he's about to give you.