Sin and Self-Hatred

Do you feel a distance between you and God? King David felt it. And he asked God to lead him back to worship. Psalm 43:3 says – Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! Amen.

1 John 1:9 says – If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God has forgiven Christians because of Jesus. But they still confess the sins they commit as a matter of cleansing.

But maybe you hate yourself because you keep doing the same sins. So, you stop coming to God with it. And what’s keeping God from you is you’re keeping yourself from God. Your desire to cleanse yourself won’t work. Because sins you refuse to bring to Jesus are sins that continue to control you. Let Jesus do his job. When Jesus told Peter seventy times seven, he wasn’t just talking about you forgiving others. But Jesus forgiving you. 

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Focus Your Hope

When you feel bad, when it looks bad, when it IS bad, what can you do? Here is what the Bible says. This is King David preaching to King David. Psalm 42:5 says – Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation. David was in a bad place. So, he focused his hope. And your hope is not in your situations. Your real, true, greatest and ultimate hope is in God, who is orchestrating your situations for your good and his glory. So, you lift up your soul, by proclaiming your hope, and praising God. Don’t let your situations preach to you about God. Preach to your situations about God. He will save you.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

The Totalitarian Trail

Recently, we’ve had clashes in the streets of Minnesota and Oregon. We attacked Venezuela and captured their dictator. We attacked terrorist sights in Syria and Somalia. We’re talking about attacking Iran and toppling the government. And taking Greenland by force. We’re threatening Cuba as well. All sorts of social, political, and economic action taking place, some apart from the normal checks and balances built into our system. Where are we headed with all this?

Theodore Roosevelt said walk softly and carry a big stick. I don’t think he meant we should be surprising and smashing. And I don’t think this is what when Ronald Reagan meant when he talked about peace through strength.

Yes, the Pax Romana of 27 B.C. to 180 A.D., with its relative peace, prosperity, new roads, and a common language, helped Christianity to spread. But I don’t think that’s what’s happening in today’s world. Some believe that we are called to implement a sort of Christian hegemony. But are we following Jesus down the narrow road? Or travelling down the totalitarian trail? 

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Hot Coals on their Head

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Can God Be Wrong?

Can God be wrong about the future? If the answer is no, then even considering our free will, and our responsibility for what we do, people won’t do anything other than what God already knows they’re going to do. So, that means the future is already fixed. But how is the future fixed?

If God does it, then you can be confident that there is a good purpose behind all you see, even if you can’t see it now. But if God doesn’t do it, then God wouldn’t have a planned-out purpose for all the evil that happens. God just learns what happens, and then reacts, causing good to come from evil.

But that would make the universe bigger than God, because God would be dependent on other things. And that God may be the biggest thing in the universe. But that God can’t be God, because you can imagine something greater. And that God is smaller than the God of the Bible.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©