Hope, Tribulation, and Prayer

Romans 12 provides us with one of scripture’s clearest pictures of practical Christ-like living. We see scripture’s exhortation to live a life marked with action. I believe a healthy understanding and practice of these things help us “put to death” the old self and actively “put on” the new self, helps us in the practice of “setting our minds on things above”, helps our transformation by the “renewing of our minds”, helps us to “do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus”.

Here is what scripture teaches us in Romans 12:9-13:
• Allow love to be genuine
• Utterly detest evil and hold on to what is good
• Love the body with brotherly affection
• Excel in showing honor
• Activate zeal and show intensity in spirit in service to God
• Rejoice in hope, patient in tribulation, constant in prayer
• Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek opportunities for hospitality

"...We take this opportunity to break from your previously scheduled programming for this very specific announcement..."  I sorta hear this in my head as I think through the next portion of our study of Romans 12.  As I look over this call to Christ-likeness - to "...rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer" I am brought to the realization that in just a couple of days, one of the greatest moments of my and Jennifer's life will occur - the birth of our sweet little girl!  Thinking about the greatness of this blessing and the journey we've been on to come to this point in our life, I'm humbled by the greatness of God.

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Detest Evil, Hold on to Good

Romans 12 provides us with one of scripture’s clearest pictures of practical Christ-like living. We see scripture’s exhortation to live a life marked with action. I believe a healthy understanding and practice of these things help us “put to death” the old self and actively “put on” the new self, helps us in the practice of “setting our minds on things above”, helps our transformation by the “renewing of our minds”, helps us to “do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus”.

Here is what scripture teaches us in Romans 12:9-13:
  • Allow love to be genuine
  • Utterly detest evil and hold on to what is good
  • Love the body with brotherly affection
  • Excel in showing honor
  • Activate zeal and show intensity in spirit in service to God
  • Rejoice in hope, patient in tribulation, constant in prayer
  • Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek opportunities for hospitality

It's the Saturday of Holy Week and I'm wondering why it's taken so long to come up with this next entry in our blog series.  Thinking about the historic events of this week, I think I understand why now is the time for this thought.

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Let Love Be Genuine

Romans 12 provides us with one of scripture’s clearest pictures of practical Christ-like living. We see scripture’s exhortation to live a life marked with action. I believe a healthy understanding and practice of these things help us “put to death” the old self and actively “put on” the new self, helps us in the practice of “setting our minds on things above”, helps our transformation by the “renewing of our minds”, helps us to “do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus”.

Here is what scripture teaches us in Romans 12:9-13:
  • Allow love to be genuine
  • Utterly detest evil and hold on to what is good
  • Love the body with brotherly affection
  • Excel in showing honor
  • Activate zeal and show intensity in spirit in service to God
  • Rejoice in hope, patient in tribulation, constant in prayer
  • Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek opportunities for hospitality

I'm convinced as I read Romans that Paul's call to "let love be genuine" has everything to do with the vertical, that is our condition of love toward God.

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Word and Deed and Tozer

"We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.  This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church.  Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him, or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. She can never escape the self-disclosure of her witness concerning God."

The Knowledge of the Holy

A.W. Tozer

The question that explodes through my head and every fiber of my being as I read this one paragraph of Tozer is this - "What has my life left unsaid?" ... not an easy question for self-analysis.

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Valuable Grace

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work." -- 2 Corinthians 9:8 [ESV]

How valuable is God's grace?  Value is normally defined in terms relative to supply vs demand.  But we're not talking about finite terms of business, we're talking about infinite measures of value.  So let me propose that we - for the purpose of this brief post - define value as the usefulness of an object and the uniqueness of it's source provider.

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Sufficient Grace

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work." -- 2 Corinthians 9:8 [ESV]

Ever wonder about the supply of God's grace?  God's grace is inexhaustible.  It knows no limits in ability or purpose.

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Infertility and Waiting: This Man's Perspective

For those who don't know me, my family, our lives, our situations, our disappointments, I'll sum the majority of it up in two words - "infertility" and "wait". Each word can be individually devastating for some and earth shattering for others. It's an earthly journey that no one would dare desire. It's misunderstood - even in "church" circles. It's numbing and debilitating in it's very nature. There's a root hopelessness - a vivid picture of the limitations in self-reliance. As with death itself, I don't know how people without the hope found in Christ cope and exist in the darkness of infertility.

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2010 - My Year to Walk the Road Less Traveled

For as long as I have had a favorite poem it has unequivocably been Robert Frost's most famous piece - "The Road Less Traveled". I've always loved the way the poem just sways along as you read it...and moreso I've always had a great appreciation for the message the poem carried for me.

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