Spiritual Ponderings

God created a universe full of evidence reflective of the perfection and fairness of His character. He created intelligent beings with minds and hearts similar to His own in many respects, designed to live and thrive on love, to accept blessings in order that they could pass them on to all around them. Living in harmony with the great design that reflected the very essence of God Himself, everything in creation functioned perfectly, harmoniously and with great joy until one of the created beings, one with the greatest intelligence and capacity of all, chose to begin tampering with the evidence. Lucifer, the light-bearer, the one created being commissioned to be the most trusted representative of God to all other created beings, began to entertain ideas foreign to what God had created him to use. He began to harbor pride and desires to be the recipient and focus of worship that only God deserved. The longer he allowed these false ideas to linger in his heart the more he found himself...

You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin. (Hebrews 12:4) Resistance. That is an issue that I have thought about a lot. It is an element that is central to understanding the real truth about hell as well as our relationship with God. But this verse that came to my mind this morning speaks of a resistance that is different than the resistance that keeps me from maturing and advancing in my relationship with Jesus. It speaks of striving against sin to the point of shedding blood. But I sense that the typical assumptions about what resisting sin means keeps most people trapped in confused attempts about how to do that. If we don't have correct definitions of sin then the kind of resistance we are likely to put up may all be efforts in a completely wrong direction and ironically may even strengthen sin rather than eliminate it. We too often are fighting a battle where the real battle is not taking place. I decided that the best way to e...

And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. (Luke 9:23) And He said, "I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me ." (Luke 22:34) In these verses the Greek word translated 'deny' is defined by Strong's this way. aparneomai; to deny utterly, i.e. disown, abstain:--deny. What motivated Peter to deny that he knew Jesus, that he was a disciple of Jesus? It was fear: fear of what others would think about him, fear of what might happen to himself if he were too closely associated with Jesus when He was extremely unpopular and nearly everyone was intent on hurting Him. In a sense Peter was actually telling the truth. He didn't really know Jesus very well at this point in his life. But to deny that he was even a disciple of Jesus was an outright lie and an act of cowardice motivated by natural desire for self...

Always be filled with joy in the Lord. I will say it again. Be filled with joy . Let everyone see that you are gentle and kind . The Lord is coming soon. Never worry about anything. But in every situation let God know what you need in prayers and requests while giving thanks . Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel (CEV) and will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus. (GNB) Brothers and sisters, continue to think about what is good and worthy of praise. Think about what is true and honorable and right and pure and beautiful and respected . (Philippians 4:4-8 ERV, GW) A couple weeks ago I put together this passage to leave open on my computer screen so I could revisit it easily. Over the past few months God has been increasingly convicting me about my need to turn away from the dark things of life and fill my mind and he...

The legal and justice systems that we know here on earth are designed around the foundation of offense. Written right into the legal codes and implicit in the methods of law enforcers is the practice of assuming offense both large and small. Policemen, military personnel, judges, lawyers – all are trained to look for the slightest infractions of the multiple layers of rules and policies and legislations, all designed to create opportunities and excuses to unleash punishments for supposed or real offenses. Given the all-pervasive atmosphere of expecting offense and even soliciting and inducing offenses, a climate is created for opponents to reflect a similar spirit and take offense themselves. Thus the basis is laid for offenses to multiply which is all calculated for the benefit of the state which is ever seeking for excuses to increase their power and strip their subjects of more and more of their rightful freedoms. To be offended by this state of affairs is itself to become a victi...

I have some observations about how the mind works from both experience and based on many things I have learned from others over the years. This directly affects my daily relationship with others and largely shapes how my intimate relationship with God progresses and deepens. At night when we are sleeping, the brain goes through a sorting and editing process. This idea is generally accepted by many experts and has been observed through laboratory experiments. Certain chemicals go through the brain and trim away nerve endings that were started the previous day but are considered unnecessary for long-term use. Additionally, memories created or awakened during recent experiences are stored away with other more long-term memories, all while we are sleeping. All these are stored primarily in groupings based on the type of emotional content of the memories. One of the main reasons and uses for dreams is the linking together of new and old memories during this sorting and filing process. Aft...

I caught a glimpse this morning of the truth about what we often think are blessings. Comforts and pleasures that we enjoy can often be the greatest hindrances in our lives to seeking intimacy with God. Pleasures and comforts many times fill in the emptiness that is supposed to be filled with God thereby preventing our hunger for God from motivating us to seek Him with an intensity enough to find Him. Lack of spiritual hunger and low levels of desire for God leave us satisfied with such tiny encounters with His glory that we never realize how dangerous our condition is until it may be too late. Our very gratitude for what we consider to be blessings that are in fact the very things that are keeping us from seeking God seriously, may be a mistake. It may be discovered that we are praising God for curses in our lives rather than things that are truly beneficial to us. The early Christians experienced such a deep level of intense fellowship with God under persecution that it was little...