Categories
current affairs eschatology human

Rainbows, Promises, and Holiness

bow

Today I saw a rainbow.

We’ve had heavy rain the last couple of days. I had stopped at a traffic light as I was driving down from Farmington into Bristol. The radio (and friends) had reported that another cell was moving slowly through Bristol. Farmington was still bright with the shining sun but right across the street everything was out of focus in a haze of rain.

Every now and then, during these days of rain, there was a calm where you would look outside and see that wall of clouds blackening the sky except where you are standing.

It really is a weird feeling if you happen to be aware of the conditions.

You transform into this tiny, insignificant speck in danger of any of the forces all around you. The wind, if it gets strong enough. The water, if there is enough of it. The lightning, if it crashes down.  A tiny speck against that power doesn’t stand a chance.

But today, during one of these heavy blasts of rain and momentary pauses, the sun broke through the wall of clouds.

Categories
church history human israel religion

When Our Situations Trump God

Theology is the study of God. By definition, we expand it to a package of beliefs.

This means you can get your package of beliefs from different places. Studying the stars, looking at how people act with each other, the metal rock that fell out of the sky, or the situation you’re.

Sort of like the Biblical authors but much different.

Categories
church human

What Is God’s Will For My Life (and Yours)

For years I was told to seek God’s will for my life. What career God wants for me. What school God wants me to go to. What woman God wants me to marry. That if I don’t do these things I am acting outside of the will of God and at best missing out on blessings or at worse sinning.

I was told that if I made right choices, I’d feel the peace of God that passes all understand. But if the wrong choices I’d have nothing but problems.

For me, these sorts of words led to worry. “What if God wanted me to be a missionary?”, I thought with fear as I picked my college. Quickly followed by “what if by going to that school I had missed out on the girl God wanted me to marry?”

Let me break down my thinking which I think accords more with Scripture.

Categories
church human spirit

The True Marks of the Spiritual Man or Woman

Going back over my archives, I was reminded of an article from Milk & Honey: the Marks of a Spiritual Man by Bob Gesner. I remembered posting it (with permission) while planning t to interact with it.

Essentially the article highlights seven marks of a spiritual man: (1) hunger for God’s word; (2) dependency through prayer; (3) humility and obedience; (4) compassion for the lost; (5) longsuffering and forgiveness; (6) love towards the unlovely; (7) endurance and faithfulness. These seven marks are supported by various passages and are predicated on looking a certain way.

A hunger for God’s word is evidenced by daily devotions on God’s word. Putting away desires of the natural man evidences a spirit of humility and obedience. An overwhelming concern for the lost (like being moved in the spirit or weeping like Christ) is evidence.

Now, it’s great to encourage someone to read the Word and meditate on it—the Bible itself illustrates this in say Psalm 119, for instance. Unfortunately, I think the list winds up giving us a bunch of requirements that we all fall short of and, ultimately, can cause lost hope if we don’t cheat our way to attaining it. I find myself in agreement with the article where it says “most of us must conclude that there is much to be done in our spiritual life” but then don’t feel like I should be aiming to do anything. After all, I can’t.

Categories
history human

Quotables: Against Matthew Vine’s (And Boswell’s) Exegesis of Genesis 19

quotables

Every now and then I like posting something incisive that was written in the past because it speaks so well into the present. The sweet thing about this is that these guys, who are often waved away today, have dealt with a lot of the same issues while remaining simultaneously (by the modern mind) ignored. This one comes from Samuel Shin in 2005.