Gospel Re-Formed

"Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." 1 Cor 13:4-7 (NASB) The entirety of 1 Corinthians is about love, using several angles to fully define what Christian love is supposed to look like. It not only defines attributes of love (what love looks like) but even expresses the importance of love over other gifts that are given to Christians, even our speech. Take 1 Cor 13:1 (NASB): “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” No matter what you say, whether it is true, from God, or neither, without love the information becomes nothing but noise. Not only that but like a noisy gong, painful to hear, a...

"The real danger is not atheism, but that we ask God to coexist comfortably with the idols of our heart." - Tim Keller (on Twitter) When I was a teenager, I had a dream that I was replaced by a robot. I was playing soccer with my friends and got seriously hurt, ending up in the hospital with my heart hanging off of one of those IV poles. So I was replaced. My friends came to see me after a game with the new "me", gloating about how great he was. They were so close to him that I thought that I was no longer needed, so I cut the lines. It was a horrible dream, especially for a teenager. Dreams can be good or bad. Dreams can expose fears, like being alone or replaced by a robot. It can reveal our desires for the future, like a career, or something materialistic such as a new house or sports car. It can spark a journey for positive change in society. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream for all people to be treated with equality, a dream that still needs to be realized to...

We all see the brokenness of this world. We see violence, sickness, poverty, death, and a sadness that streams from this experience we call life. We also have a desire to bring the world back to a better state, righting the wrongs that we see. So we attempt to change this world. The canvas we see is not white as if fresh and clean, but warped and distorted, the woven fibers of time tainted by sin and death. In the darkness, we attempt to paint this world in a color that covers this darkness, this brokenness. We paint in many colors, some bright, some dark. We draw rainbows, smiling children, catchy sayings, cat videos, even Bible verses. We also draw the roaring warrior within, loudly proclaiming our authority and power over this world through boldness, pride, and dominance. We even display the good ol' red, white, and blue. Although most of the time it is just red or blue because the country’s real enemy is the other color. We try to paint anything to distract us from the ...

No matter what spy-based series you watch, there is always one episode where someone is being tortured. There is also a moment in the scene where the hero or villain states that everyone has a breaking point, the line for the individual that, if crossed, will break the individual (ie spilling their guts). I was wondering when the breaking point would be before protesting starts. I guess it was last week. Do I understand? Sure. I mean, the show must go on. People cannot live like this forever. We even seem to be going down in cases. But do I agree that it should be now? Maybe I am biased. Things change when someone you care about is high risk, my wife being one of them. As people scream that they want the right to go back to work, my thought is about keeping my wife safe. I am not alone. There are many with high risk family members that are concerned about the virus and the effect it has on family members and the more we stay at home, the faster this is over. Perhaps it is selfish t...

I have spent the last few weeks pondering about my testimony for our small group, how I came to be who I am before and after Christ. It is good to visit your journey at least once every few years. This is not just to remind us where God has brought you, which is important, but it also gives you an overarching view of where God is taking you now. How far has God transformed your life to become more like Christ? Pondering this encourages us in our walk, and sometimes corrects us to better see where we fall short. Someone, who will remain nameless, once told me when I began my Christian walk that eventually that fire that you have for God will die down, in other words I will start to become less passionate in my faith. I am ashamed to say that this has become true in some areas of my life. I say “ashamed” not because I feel guilt that I should have done better or tried harder, but because I know that Christ desires for us to be more like Him and I am missing out from that opportunity. ...

Katherine and I just finished watching "Outbreak". I know, I know. haha. This reminded me of a thought I have been pondering for a while now. In the movie, Donald Sutherland plays the antagonist, the ambitious General McClintock. His posture and tone portrays a man who is full of pride and unsympathetic to the people, only the mission and power. The protagonist, played by Dustin Hoffman, reveals a man fighting for the lives of the people and to reveal truth. The General was presented as a normal view of what people see as an antagonist, especially in a 90's movie. He gave a "I'm better than you" vibe, treating people as if lowly subjects that should obey or get demoted. There was no changing him, no bringing him back. The protagonist has pride himself, but in a way that makes you feel that he is fighting for you. In the end, truth comes out and the town is saved because good triumphs over evil. In most movies, as in real life, the image of good and evil ...

I have heard people use the term “Biblical principles” quite often lately. I do not think that people are really using the term properly. Don’t get me wrong, I used it often as well one time or another. I have had a chance to think about what that term means and wanted to write out my thoughts.  The term “Biblical” according to Oxford just means that the text is in the Bible (That is the source Google uses). I do not think this should be the full definition. There are many passages found in the Bible, and they are good for reproof, correction, and instruction for His Church. But the words themselves are just words without interpretation. If something is misinterpreted in scripture, is it still biblical? A good example is the prosperity Gospel, the idea that God’s desire is for His people to prosper financially and will provide whatever you ask. Can you find scripture to support this? Sometimes, yes. Can you find scripture against it? One-hundred times yes! Scripture must be t...

I was cleaning out one of our closets a few days ago and ran across my wedding rings. Not sure if anyone even knows this except for my wife, but it took a long time to pick a ring. I really wanted a ring to show my faith, so I found a couple of options that I bought online to try out. One was a big black one with a cross and Celtic decorations surrounding it, another was a bit smaller and with a simple swirling fish like design. They were both a bit thick, but I was so excited to wear a ring with a message. After a few months of wearing it I got annoyed with its size, especially in the IT world. Eventually I changed it out for a simple aluminum one that I bought in a market while Katherine and I were in Philadelphia. I still have both the rings hanging out in the closet, never sold them for some reason. As I looked at the rings sitting there I started to ponder. I wanted the ring to be a symbol of our marriage and to show that I was a Christian. I wanted people to know that my fa...

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.  Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.  Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?  Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?” - Luke 12:22-26 "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." - Yoda There is so much fear out there! Fear of the environment, health, rights, the economy, war, personal/family protection, identity, religion, and the list goes on. Fear can be a good thing. You certainly want to look both ways before crossing the street or not touch a poisonous snake. We can use fear to create change, gathering for a common cause against the thing that a group collectively fears. If there is a hu...

My last post was over 10 years ago! It is always good, and hard, to think back… and to do so honestly. The good and bad. The Good? God's transformative power has been evident in my life. His desire for me to dig into the Word and to grow in the truth, even if I had to go against this world. Another is my desire to spread the good news of the Gospel. I wanted people to be changed as I was changed, broken from the shackles of sin and death. In the past I called this being "Heaven Bound," as my last post was titled. For me this was the Gospel. I still had a lot to learn about what the Gospel really was. We should always grow towards truth, and sometimes that truth gets clearer over time, but we must be able to identify when it is not. Truth itself does not change, but sometimes truth can be remanufactured into something different. You can see this in historical based movies. When it says it is “based off of a true story,” does that mean the story is true? Not r...