The Reality of Our Present World

Many awful things have been done with the doctrine of hell. “You’ll go to hell for that” has been used to condemn all sorts of things that God does not condemn. You know… “Don’t smoke, don’t chew, don’t go with girls who do.” Furthermore, those who have swung the idea of hell around like a club give you the impression that they’ll be glad to see you sent there. But not our God, who “is patient with you, not…

https://youtu.be/lV9sKi9Re4E Tree of Life It began sometime after day 6. We’re not sure exactly how long it took, but apparently, Satan got busy tempting Adam and Eve soon after he was relegated to planet Earth when leading his great rebellion. One that would take about a third of the angels with him and out of God’s presence. Then came the blame game. God is holding out on you, he told Adam and Eve. It’s his fault, you too can know the difference between…

I remember my dad asking that question many times. What’s your hurry? Maybe it’s generational and he did live through the Great Depression, if that’s relevant. He took his time on most any project he ever did to be sure it was done correctly. He worked with numbers in his management career for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Perhaps that’s why he wasn’t in a hurry. Everything had to add up before moving to the next thing. That certainly is not the…

In difficult seasons, it’s natural to want to make changes—such as quitting a job, ending a friendship, or moving away—in order to resolve frustration. But first we should investigate the cause. Discontentment may come from: • Inability to accept ourselves as we were created. The talents, personality, and physical attributes God gave us are exactly what we need to follow His will for our life. Dwelling on the things we lack or would change distracts…

Let’s come back to something very basic to our pursuit of God and the transformation he is always after in our lives—everything we do has a reason behind it, a motive. Within the Christian community we tend to focus on behavior, and that is right and that is wrong. Of course what we do matters. It matters how you treat people. It matters whether you lie or steal or commit adultery. Our actions have enormous consequences to them. However, according to Jesus,…

As I was scurrying around this morning in preparation to take Tucker (our Golden) to the groomers, I quickly saw that I was running out of bandwidth to leave on time. In fact, I was already late. The reason is rooted in my innate desire to get all the boxes checked on my to-do list before proceeding to the next. Tucker knows that. When I arrived at Joy’s Salty Dog, I immediately announced that Tucker overslept; he was to blame for our tardiness. I got a couple…

In Christian theology, spiritual warfare refers to the ongoing struggle between good and evil, light and darkness, in the spiritual realm. It is the concept that Christians are engaged in a spiritual battle against spiritual forces of evil, such as Satan and his demonic forces. According to Christian belief, spiritual warfare encompasses both external and internal battles. Externally, it involves resisting and confronting demonic influences and powers that seek to hinder or…

We mere mortals know so little about the power of persuasion innate in Generative AI. We know even less about how it was constructed and the impact it will have on every aspect of our lives. I saw a recent interview with Elon Musk. He co-founded OpenAI, before abandoning it for greener pastures. Musk pulled no punches in expressing concerns over the dangers of artificial intelligence in the wrong hands. “Things are getting weird—and they’re getting weird fast.;…

Rest sounds easy, but sometimes it may require supernatural strength. Our natural tendency is to scramble, fret, and push our agenda, and those habits turn our mind away from delight and trust in the Lord. The stronger our desire is, the shorter our fuse. Sometimes we may even try to give God a timetable, but true rest occurs on His schedule. Only He understands every circumstance and knows the precise moment when answering our prayer is best.  So, the basic tenets of…