The one that made me smile this morning

"This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all." ~ 1 John 1:5

Something about hearing this one on the radio when you're just waking up and light is peeking through the blinds is just awesome. Our God is LIGHT! The very nature of light. Before anything existed, He said...

"Let there be LIGHT!"

And there was.

And there is no darkness at all in our God. God cannot go against His nature--He cannot ever contain any darkness! We never have to worry about darkness or grief coming from Him.

It feels like chaos, but somehow there's peace

There is crazy everywhere.

Perfectly young friends are having surgeries all over the place.

There are bad things here and iffy situations there.

You walk around one corner in the maze, and then find another dark room or brick wall.

Dark secrets dance around like so many fauns in the night.

What is going on?

There are so many things I can't see right now. Brick walls, dark rooms. But now I've given up trying to light my own lamps and walk through. Right now I'm just sitting. Sitting in a dark room waiting for God to turn on the lights. Every time this happens and I give up trying to walk through on my own, I wonder why I didn't just sit down earlier. It's easier to leave it to God and just pray. Though praying doesn't always make you quit worrying :)

"Even the best of Christians are troubled by the question, 'Why does an almighty God send, or at least allow, suffering?' When you are nagged by thoughts like this, say to yourself, 'I am still in elementary school. When I graduate from the university of Christian life, I will understand his ways better and doubts will cease.' "

~ Richard Wurmbrand, imprisoned for his faith for 14 years

The Creed for the Modern Thinker

I heard this article on a Ravi Zecharias podcast. It is by Steve Turner, an atheist and English journalist. It was published in a secular paper, and I have copied most of it here...

Here is the creed for the modern thinker:

We believe in Marx and Darwin.

We believe everything is ok as long you don't hurt anyone to the best of your definition of "hurt" and to the best of your definition of "knowledge".

We believe in sex before, during, and after marriage.

We believe in the therapy of sin.

We believe that adultery is fun.

We believe that everything's getting better despite evidence to the contrary.

The evidence must be investigated and you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there's something in horoscopes, UFOs, and bent spoons.

Jesus was a good man just like Buddha, Mohammad, and ourselves.

He was a good moral teacher, although we think basically his good morals were really bad.

We believe that all religions are the same - at least the ones that we read were. They all believe in love and goodness, they only differ on matters of creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

We believe that after death comes nothing because when you ask the dead what happens they say nothing.

If death is not the end and if the dead have lied then it's compulsory heaven for all except perhaps Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan.

What's selected is average, what's average is normal, and what's normal is good.

We believe that there are direct links between warfare and bloodshed.

Americans should beat their guns into tractors and the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good - it's only his behavior that lets him down.

This is the fault of society, society is the fault of conditions, and conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him, and reality will adapt accordingly - the university will re-adjust, history will alter.

We believe that there is no absolute truth except for the truth that there is no absolute truth.

We believe in the rejection of creeds and the flowering of individual thought.

PS - If chance be the father of all flesh, disaster is his rainbow in the sky. And when you hear "state of emergency", "sniper kills ten", "troops on rampage", "youths go looting", "bomb blasts school" it is but the sound of man worshipping his maker.

The Armor of God

I am here commentating on Ephesians 6:10-18 in red.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Imagine if you tried to fight a duel on your own and without any armor! For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. I just wrote a story about this - there is a guy who is living a normal life, but doesn't know that the demons and God are in a great battle for him. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Readiness that comes from peace - it makes sense doesn't it? If you're peaceful about a situation in Christ, you're not going to freak out and say the wrong things. You're ready with Christ! In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The word of God is like a sword! Do you have it ready? We should work on memorizing more scripture and have it on all the time, just in case. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Praying for the saints... do you do it? I don't as much as I should. But why not? I haven't figured that part out yet. I'd certainly like to be prayed for to stay strong in my faith, so why don't I do it for other people?

Got Darkness?

"Let him who walks in the dark

who has no light,

trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.

But now, all you who light fires

and provide yourselves with flaming torches,

go, walk in the light of your fires

and of the torches you have set ablaze.

This is what you shall receive from my hand:

You will lie down in torment.

~ Isaiah 50:10-11

Can you relate to these verses? Have you ever been at a place where you just didn't know the next step? What did you do?

We are supposed to trust in the LORD when we have no idea what to do... because he can see in the dark! Lazer eyes!!! And what's more - He loves us and wouldn't let us trip over something if we are trusting in him. We were in kind of a situation like this when we were moving to Colorado... and didn't have a house.

BUT sometimes we don't trust God and what do we do? We try to find a way for ourselves. We light torches that honestly don't work very well. If we keep trying to use our homemade torch to see the end - we'll surely trip. While the whole time, God is waiting to give us direction!

It sounds so easy - trust completely in God and he will make everything work out. But why is it so hard to do?