Jun 29 2009
For so long, we’ve seen churches filled with women. Sunday morning comes and the women and children file off to church while the men are at home, working on cars or watching football or sleeping in. Now, obviously, I have nothing against women — I am one. And of course there are exceptions to this rule. But I would say, as a whole, there are far more women in churches than men.
Why is that?
Jun 28 2009
Last night I watched the Bourne Ultimatum. It wasn’t the first time I saw it, but every time I watch it, this thought goes through my mind: “This guy is unreal. He cannot be beat.” And then, as is my custom with most war/action movies, I started trying to equate it to spiritual terms. And man, this one was a cinch. It only took me a few seconds to think of the spiritual significance of it.
Jun 24 2009
Something is shifting. Something has shifted.
For me, this is hard. I’m honestly not ready for Jesus to come back. I mean, from a spiritual standpoint, yes, I’m ready. But I have so much in my heart that I’m longing to see and do. Living to be 100 years old wouldn’t even be long enough. I’m not one of these people that is white-knuckling it, hoping that Jesus will hurry up and come back so that all my problems will be solved. I don’t have problems. I live the Word of God and I defeat satan on a daily basis. I don’t wish and hope and pray for victory. I have victory. If satan creeps in with depression or sickness or poverty, I cut him to pieces with the Sword of the Spirit of the Word of God. Through Christ, I always triumph.
Jun 17 2009
When I came home from Cambodia, I wouldn’t have thought for one second that I was a Pharisee. If anything, I was the one that had it together. I’d been away for five months and not once during that time did I butt heads with someone. I got along with people. I liked people. And they seemed to like me. So if anyone was in the wrong, it had be my parents. And I couldn’t wait for them to see it. I couldn’t wait for them to start treating me like I deserved to be treated.
Jun 16 2009
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. -Jesus’ words to the Pharisees, Matthew 23:27
Because the name “Pharisee” sounds so old and out-dated and old-fashioned, I never thought much about the prospect of such people being alive today. Weren’t those the kind of people who wore long robes and tried to fulfill long lists of religious rules and regulations? I didn’t personally know anyone like that. Maybe those people existed in dusty old Catholic cathedrals, but I was charismatic. I had to be the furthest thing from a Pharisee. There was no tradition in my church. No list of rules to fulfill. We just loved Jesus and wanted to be like Him. What was Pharisaical about that?
Jun 14 2009
The more I read God’s Word, the more I notice something. Something that disturbs me. Something that saddens me.
I’m sure that no one would disagree with me that the importance of God’s Word in the Christian life is HUGE. The truth is what sets us free. And how can we know the truth if we don’t know God’s Word? But what I’ve been realizing more and more as I read God’s Word is the subtle forms of deception that have trickled, not just into the world, but the church.
Jun 13 2009
Last night, I opened my sword to one of my favorite Psalms — Psalm 119. That chapter brings me to tears. I don’t consider myself a cryer. I may feel something deeply, but it really takes a lot to bring me to tears. But that chapter, it does it to me. The purity, the truth, the rightness of it. It cuts me deep.
Jun 08 2009
The righteous will never be uprooted,
but the wicked will not remain in the land. -Proverbs 10:30
The passage from Ephesians 6:13, which says, “And after having done all, to stand” is continually on my mind when I think of living victoriously. And so, when I read the above verse from Proverbs, my heart leapt. The righteous will never be uprooted. Who are the righteous? Simply speaking, they’re those who follow and obey God. And the wicked? Those who don’t follow and obey God; those that mock the truth and turn a blind eye towards wisdom.
Jun 07 2009
Anger is cruel, and wrath is like a flood, but who can survive the destructiveness of jealousy? -Proverbs 27:4
Jealousy. Of all things?
Lately, I’ve been trying to read as many verses from Proverbs as I can before I go into work each morning. Sometimes I get through two chapters. Sometimes it’s only 10 verses. Some go down easily. Some don’t. Some cut deep and hurt and bring out issues I’d rather not deal with.