On God's Love

I have been reading Donald Miller’s latest book Searching For God Knows What. It has really got me thinking which is why I read in the first place. A chapter on the story of Jesus deals with many different aspects of His personality and why His story is about relationship and not some sort of formula that we have turned it into.

This got me thinking about God’s love for us and I wondered why some people seem to have so much trouble accepting it. By accepting it I mean not trying to get love and acceptance from everywhere else but being happy and content with what God gives us. That leads me to ask why do I find it easy to accept? I suppose it has something to do with being raised in a loving home and normally being surrounded by people who sincerely love me. I guess if I didn’t have that I may have trouble too. I also think I find it easy because God’s love for me seems obvious when I read the Bible. When I read about Jesus and his character and the way he loved everybody it makes it easier. I love it but find it challenging that Jesus would always be found with the social outcasts, the “non-religious”, the dishonest tax collectors and prostitutes. He didn’t care about what anybody thought He just loves.

In John 4 you’ll find a story about Jesus and a Samaritan woman at a well. This woman had had five husbands and was currently living with another man so her reputation wasn’t very good. And the fact that she was a Samaritan woman and Jesus was a Jewish man also shows the extreme Jesus went to in dealing with people and loving them. In Donald Miller’s book he mentions that Jesus asking this woman for a drink would be the equivalent today of a known evangelical going into a gay bar and asking a man to buy him a beer. That’s my Jesus! That’s the God I serve, the one who loves me unconditionally no matter what, the one who would go into a gay bar and ask a guy to buy him a beer. No matter who I am or what I’ve done I can count on Jesus loving me.

It is stories like these found throughout the Bible that convince me of God’s love. This doesn’t mean that I don’t need love and acceptance from people in my life it just means that I will strive to get my love and acceptance from God rather than people. I wish I could survive on only God’s love. Maybe some would say it’s possible, but I think since the fall of man we are forever destined to look for it elsewhere.

What does striving to get my love and acceptance from God look like? Maybe my wording is wrong because I believe we all have His love and acceptance no matter what. I want to make sure I’m clear about that. No matter what I’ve done or who I am there will never be a time in my life when God doesn’t love me. He is the perfect Father. He’s obviously disappointed when we disobey His commands but like a perfect worldly father He still accepts us and loves us and waits for us to come back to Him in obedience. What I am trying to say is that I try to get my value or identity from God’s love rather than trying to please other people and be accepted by them. This is tough to do and I fail constantly but it is what I have been reminded to strive for!

GL

Read more...

Terrorist Attacks. Again!!

With the recent bombings in London you can't help but think back to 911. The last I heard about these bombings is that they were terrorist attcks and one German news outlet even reported that Al Queda claimed responsibility for it on a web site somewhere. All this talk of Al Queda and Islam and Jihad got me wanting to learn more about who these people are and what they are about. So over the past year or two I've tried to do a little bit of learning.

Dr. Grant, who is based in Franklin TN has likely contributed the most to my most recent academic development. He's at least got me wanting to learn again. So I'd like to direct you to some of his thoughts. His most recent blog on these attacks is quite interesting. The comment discussion is pretty good too.

Dr. Grant's most recent Blog.

And here's a book he wrote sometime around the Gulf War about this same topic.

Blood of the Moon - A book by Dr. Grant about the age-old conflict between Islam - especially Islamic fundamentalism and the Western World.

He also has a CD series on Islam which is really great and I'd recommend it to anyone. The only problem is that I can't find a link to it anywhere on his site. If anyone is really interested in that let me know and I'll do what I can to find a copy.

And on the same theme as Dr. Grant's most recent blog here's another.

GL

Read more...

Some Suggestions

I added a couple of new photos of my boy over there on the left. He’s already 13 months old!! I can’t believe it. We feel so blessed to have him. I totally understand the bragging parent thing and I have been guilty of trying to show him off quite often. It’s pretty hard not to. I guess this is how every parent feels though.

So for anyone who knows me you would know that I travel a lot. Be it on the road or on planes or even by foot or bike trying to get some exercise. It’s hard for all of us not to be irritated once in a while so at the risk of turning this into a complaining blog I’m going to list some of the areas I think humanity can improve on! I will try to remain positive.

First off, how about driving improvements?
- If you use your turn signal we will all know when you are turning.
- If someone does have their turn signal on how about letting them in?
- The left lane is for passing, please cruise on the right.
- A lower sub woofer volume at lights and in the city will allow all drivers to hear their music.
Parking
- If you have a disabled parking pass in your car and you are the one who is disabled please don’t allow friends and family to abuse your privilege.

Onto the airport and various other public places.
- I know the escalator moves but if we all keep moving and actually walk up the stairs we will get there even faster!
- I know the moving sidewalk moves too but if you stand on it you will actually be going slower than a walk, so let’s keep moving here too.
- Bathroom operators, can you make some adjustments to the automatic flushers please. One flush per visit is plenty.

I’ll try to have something a little more . . . deep? . . . next time!!

GL

Read more...