Lessons for Living

Do You Know How to Trust?

I believe that my Heavenly Father will provide for me as His child.

I believe that Jesus the Good Shepherd will meet my needs as one of His sheep.

I believe that the Comforter will do exactly that for me.

I believe all that because the Bible tells me so.

But I still struggle against doubt and fear and…well, never mind.

What do you know about trust?

Do you believe this chapter (from a book my friend Steve H loaned me)?

He Always Provides for Our True Needs

Have you asked the Lord to fulfill all your needs? This mighty request requires no intercession from others, for God will provide for all of your needs in Christ Jesus without their asking Him to do so. He is your heavenly Father, and as such, He has obligated Himself to meet your necessities.

Any anxiety we have concerning temporal necessities issues from unbelief. We need never worry about what we shall eat, drink, or wear. These things our Father knows we need, and so we must not fret about them as do those who are not in living union with the Lord.

The reality is that if I do not have something, I do not need it. God is meeting all of my needs at every moment. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not lack. That is always true. Read it all

To What Kingdom Does That Belong?

I don’t watch TV or movies. Not even on my computer via the Internet. But I could. And I could become addicted to both. I know. (I even could become addicted to blogging, Facebook, and other social media.)

Maybe you don’t watch TV or movies either.

But we read. (Well, some.)

This applies to our reading as well as our viewing:

We went to Blockbuster and rented one season’s worth of episodes.

[…]

I overlooked it and kept watching for the laughs. […] The feeling lingered and I went to bed feeling oddly soiled. I prayed. I sought God’s perspective on the TV show. I made two lists […]

Here were the reasons in my second list for not continuing to watch the TV series:

  1. The dirty feeling afterward.
  2. We are told to “walk as Jesus walked” (1 John 2:6), and I can’t picture Jesus sitting on a couch, passively taking in the sights I took in.
  3. Scripture says, “Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves” (Romans 14:22). I am not at all sure that I would not judge myself someday for approving of watching that show.
  4. God commands us to love Him with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. I don’t believe that finding enjoyment or interest in that TV show meets that bar.

Then I fell asleep. In the middle of the night I woke up with a single word in my mind, a word that is not part of my working vocabulary: “abomination.”

What would that list do to our (you know, my and your) viewing and reading?

What would these do?

“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11).

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14).

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” (2 Corinthians 6:17).

Oh, and please read the full version of the article above: Andrée Seu’s piece at World Magazine, Abomination.

His Name Is Obama

Use it carefully if you bear God's name!

Obama: How mangled, twisted, and corrupted it becomes in the hearts and tongues of the Talkerati and the Bloggerati.

Obama: The last name of the 44th President of the United States.

So use it properly. Like this:

  • President Obama
  • Mr. Obama
  • Obama

Don’t be disrespectful of the President, like this:

Obummer
Bamster
Bammy
The One
The O
The Zero
The Man-Child
The Anointed One
The Messiah

The Bible tells me so.

“Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king” (1 Peter 2:17).

Yeah, fear God.

If you can’t honor the President and his name for his own sake, do so for God’s sake.

Or will you bear His name in vain as well?

PS: This is apolitical because I’m apolitical. This is an appeal to my fellow Christians.

Why Not Be Cruel?

Philosopher Richard Rorty allegedly admits that the secular liberal has no answer for that.

But now I’m ahead of myself.

David Brooks titled his September 12 New York Times column thus: If It Feels Right…

And here you have the first and third sentences of his piece:

During the summer of 2008, the eminent Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith led a research team that conducted in-depth interviews with 230 young adults from across America. […] Smith and company asked about the young people’s moral lives, and the results are depressing.

OK. So it’s only 230 young folks out of million? But even that few people in the 18-23 age range ought to know better. (Surely they didn’t pull a Kinsey and survey Gutter Dwellers.) Read it all

Above all, love God!