On this day 12 years ago our son Joshua went to heaven. Now, what do we want? To see him again soon. You lit up our lives for a short 25 years and we miss you today, Josh, and the wait seems long; but eternity is longer. Can’t wait! St. Augustine says: He that loveth little, prayeth little; he that loveth much, prayeth much. What do you want? Surprisingly we rarely visit this thought. What do I need, what can I eat, what do I need to do and what does God want, are statements more common. Christians say, “I lost my vision when things didn’t work out and now I am just meandering.” “What do you want?” When I dutifully focus on my Savior. He says “what do you want?” Some folks in the Bible got healed because when Jesus asked them “what do you want?” —they had an…
Category: <span>Personal God</span>
God’s pure nature becomes the model for Israel in the Old Testament, and the model for healing today. With God’s re-established free will in man during Noah’s time as a basis, His faithful promise keeping with Abraham came next. Because of His commitment to His own people in history, from Mount Sinai comes the governing and protecting principle to be learned by them and us. God’s justice must be known for men to emerge healed. How does this work? Well, “justice and judgment are the habitation of God’s throne in Psalm 89 and all of His ways are judgment in Deuteronomy 4:32”. Whatever God does, it comes forth as an implementation of judicial fairness. How could it not? According to the Bible, God “is” Love and also God “is” Holy. Holiness refers to the purity of God. Fittingly, God cannot allow anything to dirty His nature that’s pure. Thus,…
Grand Canyon Let’s take a picture. It involves straight-arrow aiming of the camera box but also a precisely focused lens. But whoa, a true photographer adds a whole lot more than this. Modern technology has yielded polished lenses, filters for light, color film and camera-steadying devices. All of these components are carefully selected for the perfect shot. The flash timed specifically, the moment caps. The goal; capture the image, as true-to-life as possible, but also warmth or frigidity, beauty or distaste. The professional wants us to smell and taste the scene or portrait. To observe the mere silhouette of a beautiful garden would be a sham. Much like the picture taking illustration, penetrating impressions impact our human eyes; they emerge clear, through focus and repetitive review. “Apprehension,” (grabbing) starts the process. It sets the right tools and grabs the best image. More developing, however, transfers that best image to permanent…
Arizona Lake 1989 Folks in general don’t want to talk about anything too negative. Why is that? Darkness and light are both alike to God, but not to us. Psalm139:12. See, the highway of holiness admits and allows the wayfaring man, and the fool does not err therein. Isaiah 35:8. This gives all of us entry there, but few find it. For this reason men struggle still with the hills and valleys of life and mostly ride the ups and downs. We have a tendency to see God as a mere moral One and prosperity means God’s favor, where adversity means God is mad at us. To most He is a God of circumstances. Let me open a thought. Do we have an expectation for our life, or are we contented to handle anything that life dishes up? Careful. Well no, we are not contented to take anything, we have…