Truths such as the following are of the sort that turn off the luke-warm Christian and give impotent ammunition to unbelievers:

“God has not placed Himself under obligation to honor the requests of the worldly, carnal, or disobedient Christians. He hears and answers the prayers only of those who walk in His way. ‘Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight… If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.’ (1 John 3.21-2, John 15.7)” – A.W. Tozer

This bothers many believers of today because it says quite clearly that God does not honor all prayers asked of Him, but only those from believers who are living in accordance with God’s will. It jibes with the pervading social philosophy of the day, which states that everyone is equal, everything is equal, and all things are good if they do no harm to others. In other words, the Scripture used above jibes with the philosophy of relativism that is so prevalent today.

Good.

Man cannot set his own morals, because they are based on the world in which they live. What is moral today was anything but 100 years ago. What is moral in America may not be so in Sudan, Saudi Arabia, or China. If morals are variable, then, how can man base his life on them? He cannot. It is akin to building a house on the sand – one day it will fall and man will have to try again. Much better is it to build a house on immovable rock. FULL POST

“American Christians”, more accurately described as the voices one so often hears from the religious right, have a persecution fetish. Their politics and faith have become so tightly intertwined that to step on one is to encroach on the other. Because of this, whenever their political sensibilities are offended – which is quite often in this environment of no compromise, take-no-prisoners politicking – they cry afoul. I will agree that things such as the contraceptive mandate stipulated by the Obama administration is offensive and a violation of many Christians personally held beliefs. Accordingly, we should not be forced to capitulate if it comes down to a choice of God or country.

To call this persecution, or to take this as the latest shot across the bow in the “war” being waged on American Christians, however, is disingenuous to the point of embarrassment. American Christians want to feel persecuted, for reasons upon which I can only speculate. Perhaps they think that if they claim persecution, they will be drawn into the club of martyrs who have suffered and died for the faith over the millennia. Maybe they are doing it in hopes that those responsible for the “persecution” will back off. I really do not know. FULL POST

“At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised."

– Job 1.20-21

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit”

– Psalms 34.17

This is not my first attempt to write something to the horrors and suffering of the past few days in the U.S. When so much devastation occurs in so short a period of time, how can words suffice? This is a time for grieving, so to the victims and their families I would say that hearts are breaking all over the country for your loss and your suffering.

A number of things have struck me over the past few days when reflecting on these tragedies.

1.) Life is fragile – I highly doubt that anyone involved in either the Boston Marathon massacre or the West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion had any idea or expectation that they would meet their end, or any sort of harm when they took their fateful trip to these ends. It serves to show that our feeling of invincibility is folly to no end. God has promised us many wonderful things, but our next breath is not one of them. We tend to live our lives without the thought of consequence, despite the fact that at any given moment our lives could well be snatched away from us without a moments warning. FULL POST

I am blessed to have the opportunity to bear witness to the Truth of God's word with a former colleague of mine. This young man grew up in the church, but holds a more agnostic outlook. He has many questions, concerns, and doubts about God, the Holy Scriptures, and everything therein, and told me that if it takes 40 years, he wants me to try to convince him of the Truth. I assured him that I will never convince him of anything, but that I am happy to be the vessel between him and Christ. That said, the following is our first exchange. I welcome your comments, encouragements, criticisms, and/or recommendations in the comment section below.

 Young man:

Lets start off with some premises to bring clarity:

1: God is omnipotent
2: God is omniscient
3: God wants everyone to go to heaven (obviously people ultimately determine it)
4: People have free will

Why did God choose the imperfect vehicle of human language to communicate the Gospel? Is there not a better method? Couldn’t people with free will alter it? Since God wants people to go to heaven, shouldn’t he choose the best method to communicate the Gospel to maximize those in heaven? FULL POST

The Horsehead Nebula, found IIIIINNNNN SSSSPPPPAAACCCEEEEE

The picture above is of the Horsehead Nebula. As with most things in space, it is very, very big. In fact, the picture above shows the nebula from one end to the other. This Nebula in particular measures 13 lightyears from point to point. This means that traveling at the speed of light, the speed which cannot be broken, it would take you 13 years to get from one end of the nebula to the other.

Granted, this image was taken from a salelite in earth orbit, but think how far away one must be in order to take in something so incomprehensibly massive that it would take 13 years traveling at the speed of light to cross. Hopefully you are now beginning to take in just how large this nebula is, and yet look at the picture again. Look at how distant beyond the nebula that most of the stars are. What we think of as big just became unimaginably small compared to the scale of which I write.

I bring this up to make the following point: we live in a big, beautiful state/country/world/galaxy/universe filled with wonders beyond our knowing, yet we make everything about us. Did you create the heavens and the Earth? Were you there at their foundation? We are experts at making everything in the world about us and our small problems or desires. We are told from the moment we wake up to the last waking seconds of the day that all of life revolves around us. Look at that picture, and try to tell yourself with a straight face that anything truly significant is actually about you. FULL POST

It is safe to say that we live in an increasingly Godless world, though there is certainly no shortage of godliness. It is because of this godliness (notice the lower case “g”), that there is so little of God in the public square. Our personal focus grows more narrow with every passing generation, and because of that we look more and more at ourselves, the irony being that to focus on ourselves rather than to focus on God and His will for our lives is tantamount to focusing on the tree and missing the forest.

Our selfishness – and we are all selfish. You, me, my sweet grandparents, your sweet grandparents, all of us – draws our focus inward, and as it does we begin to lose sight of the things that matter, of the truth. It was Churchill who said, “The truth in incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” Well said, Sir Winston. Well said, indeed.

The truth, however, is often inconvenient, so over the years we have developed quite the knack at either ignoring the truth or deluding ourselves into (falsely) justifying it away. We have made the truth relative in our own minds, and in so doing we have allowed ourselves to live the lives we wish to live. We may now do those things which were once held to be universally wrong. Right and wrong do not evolve over time; they are not living, breathing doctrines which grow and change. St. Augustine said that, “Right is right even when no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.” The thing about truth is that it can be said in Greece in the 4^th century, and it will still be true across the vast ocean of time 1,600 years later. The truth is the truth, and it always will be what it always has been. Nothing more, nothing less. FULL POST

“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When the Pharisees tried to trap our Lord Christ in a worldly dilemma – proving their utter foolishness throughout the annals of history – this was the Christ’s response. He drew a line in the sand, designating that there are things which are solely the domain of the world, and there are things which are solely the domain of God, and that this designation should not be violated. [Take as an interesting side note that “the things that are Caesar’s” are money. God has no concern interest in your money. He doesn’t need it to work His majestic wonders.]

This is Christ’s call to us until He returns in glory – to keep our perspective right and true. God is God, and government is government, and nary shall the two paths cross. When God becomes political, when politics are deified, neither will continue as their true nature intends. To politicize God is to (try to) put Him in a box. While this does not in the least bit limit God in terms of what He can do (nothing is impossible for God), it limits our scope of who God is and what He wants to do for us and through us. God did not send His Only Begotten Son to be an advocate for the pro-life cause, or to rally against higher taxes. The Christ was sent for to bring us salvation from the just due of our depraved, sinful lives. That is why Christ came, that is why He died on the cross, and that is why He rose again; that, and for no other reason than that. FULL POST

Was anyone really shocked by the events which unfolded in Connecticut last week? Horrified, yes; disgusted, of course; but shocked? Hardly. We are gradually, but still upsettingly quickly becoming a world in which these sorts of terrible events are more and more commonplace. We have been stretched to the absolute max, and now it would seem that we are finally beginning to snap.

And why is this? Why has such extreme behavior been on increasingly public display of late? If only there could be a simple answer to this. The truth is, there is no one reason, but many, and the deeper one delves into the reasons, the more apparent their interconnectivity becomes. Suffice it to say, the situation is complicated.

It is hardly a secret that we live in a very dark and fallen world, but to treat this as a new development in the course of human behavior would not only be false, but would require an altogether disingenous and creative thought process. If we are honest with ourselves, we are not at all shocked by this kind of evil. If we are shocked by anything, it is only that it happened so close to home, but that is the rub with evil – it does not discriminate against where it will and will not strike. Evil goes where it will and does as it pleases.

Evil finds those who are already afflicted with various weaknesses, and exploits them. It speaks to us in such a way as to seem rational or otherwise justified. This is its modus operandi, and it has been since the beginning. This is why when acts of such heinous violence take place, we feel sick but we are not caught shocked. We have been jaded to acts of evil. What was once unimaginable has since become, not only imaginable, but realized to boot. FULL POST

There was once a very stubborn individual. His name is irrelevant. All that you, the reader, need to know is that he was a very faithful, but very stubborn man. One day, the rains came and they did not quit for some time. The floodwaters rose so quickly that this man was forced onto his roof for safety. After some time on his roof, the waters still on the rise, a National Guard rescue helicopter came by and lowered a ladder. This man, however, opted to stay on his roof. His reasoning, which he screamed to the pilot, was that he was a man of God, and God was going to save him. Sometime later, a police boat came by offering rescue. The man, again, told the police boat to move along because God was going to save him. A little while thereafter, a man in a dingy came by and told the man he was soon to be washed away if he did not get in the boat. The man, faithful but stubborn, told this third individual what he had told to previous two – that he was waiting for God to save him. Sure enough, the man was soon washed away and was never heard from again. When Jesus greeted him in the ever after, naturally his first question to Christ was, “Lord, why didn’t you save me? Why did you just let me wash away?” Christ replied, “I sent you two boats and a helicopter. What were you expecting?” FULL POST

I always thought that the idea of a mid-life or quarter-life crisis was pure poppycock; that is, until I found myself caught in the middle of my own. I am 26-years old, stuck in a job which, though I am grateful to have, offers me nothing except a means (cash flow) to an end (living on my own). I am single because unbeknownst to 23-year old Jeremy, it is remarkably hard to meet people and make meaningful connections once you are out of college. I have lost my former passions and interests. Socializing, reading, writing, making music – all these things I know to be integral parts of who I am, yet I feel little-to-no desire to take part in them. In their absence, there is a void waiting to be filled, though by what I do not know.

I am in a quarter-life crisis. I feel as if I am trapped between the realities of life, and the dreams that I am only just holding on to. We all dream of working that dream job, but we most often wake up to see that it was just that – a dream. We all would love to have a job which allows us to explore our passions, but once we get home from the office, there is only so much time and energy to go around. We would all love to travel and experience new things, but we are enslaved by the cost of that higher education, which oh-so-ironically promised us freedom. FULL POST