Wrestling with an Angel

A stark vision of Jesus washing His disciples feet flashed across my mind and I wondered if this was what He meant when He said, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”

From "Wrestling with an Angel"

ESV App

Nice FREE ESV App from the iTunes store. If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, you should get it.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Good post about Patrick of Ireland.

Look to Jesus

If you have ever asked me for help with problems in your life I have probably at some point asked you about your relationship with Jesus. I have had a lot of puzzled looks over the years over that question. Most folks want a list of things they need to do to solve their problem.
But most of our problems usually have to do with our self worship and not looking away from ourselves to the all-satisfying treasure Jesus Christ.
I realize folks have physical problems that need to be addressed sometimes but our biggest problem is self and that is the one thing we most easily forget.

At first this advice sounds simplistic until you begin to think about how to go about getting closer to Christ. So actually here is a list to help out looking away from self to Christ. Although in reality, if the Holy Spirit does not work in your heart to make this list important to you it is just a list that will become a burden. So the first point is probably the most important.

* Pray- Pray for God to pull your heart away from yourself and to point it to Christ.
* Read Scripture knowing that the entire Bible is about Jesus. David was not just a great king he was pointing to The Great King. Joseph was not just a great savior of his family he was pointing to The Great Savior of His family, etc.
* Write down propositions about Christ as you read to reflect on later. Read the book of John and write down all of the descriptions of Jesus. I am the bread of life, I am the light, he is The Word, he is the True Light, etc. ( you could meditate on what is meant by the bread of life all day, or week, or year).
* Memorize and meditate on passages like Col 1:15-23.
* Meditate on the gospel and what Jesus has done on your behalf.

We all need to look away from ourselves to God. The Bible gives us the most complete view of God through the revelation of who He is in the person of Christ. What a gift we have at our disposal.

If God is so powerful, why do bad things happen?

I Don't Want My Children to be Happy

"Darlings, we love you so much. You will never even grasp how much we love you until you have children of your own, and then you'll get it, and then you'll apologize for the ways you treated us ;) But our goal is not to please you. Our goal is to please our Heavenly Father. And nowhere in the bible does the Lord command that we save our money to send our kids to college.

But the Lord does command us to care for the orphan around fifty times. He does tell us to care for the poor around 300 times. He does tell us that when we care for the neediest, we are caring for Jesus Himself. And in chapter six of the book of Matthew, He tells us to seek His kingdom first, and let Him worry about the rest, like college tuition. Because it's all His anyway."

From "It's Almost Naptime"

Our Quid Pro Quo God

"This is also not to deny that God does indeed discipline those whom he loves (Heb. 12)—but he does so not as a quid pro quo god does but only as a Father. That is, the discipline has nothing to do with something we've done or failed to do, but only with the person he wants us to become. It has no relation to our sin, but only a relation to the grace of the One in whose image we are being created, Jesus Christ."

Good article from Mark Galli.

New Plan #5

Okay, obviously I am not that serious about #5 in the New Plan post below since I just put a link on Facebook and Twitter to this blog...

Francis Chan-Crazy Love

I am finishing up Francis Chan's book "Crazy Love" tonight. I think it is worth reading if you have not already read it. I am not going to do a review (too much work). It is an easy read and should not take over a few days to read.

There was one quote that I read about 5 times and tried to digest. I am still not quite comfortable with it but it did make me think.

"I urge you to consider and actually live as though each person you come into contact with is Christ", page 166.

I think I get what he is talking about but I think my first reaction would be to fall down and worship Christ. That might be a little weird to do with everyone I meet.

The New Plan

Well I started back blogging last year and did a pretty poor job of keeping up my posting. I tried to do two blogs and kept up pretty well and then just quit.
I think I might try again to put a few posts up now and then, probably on this blog, mostly.

Why did I stop? I think it was a combination of things.
1) I am lazy
2) I am not a good writer, some of my friends make me embarrassed to write anything, they are such good writers. ( i probably just made mistakes in this one sentence)

3) Some of my friends are such good theologians that I am embarrassed to write anything.

4) People do not want to read anything or watch anything that takes more than 1 minute of their time. People want to Facebook or Twitter or something really quick.

5) I was too concerned with looking at Google Analytics to see how many people were reading my stupid blogs.

6) I was too concerned with choosing just the right words because I was afraid of the response from saying what was really on my mind.

7) Other stuff I can't really think of right now.

Here is my new plan.

1) I am still lazy, I may not post regularly.

2) My friends know I am not a good writer so I am not going to worry about it anymore. If I leave a dangling participle ( whatever that is) or a double negative or miss a comma or whatever, get over it.

3) If you don't agree with my theology that is okay I am still forming it. Maybe I will catch up with you some day.

4) Maybe if I would post something worth reading or watching someone would invest more than 1 minute on it.

5) I honestly don't care how many people read this thing anymore.

6) I may say something that you don't agree with and are offended by, I am sorry, but only Jesus got everything right and they killed him.

7) My plan is subject to change.