Faith, the Key to Every Next Moment (Romans 3:21ff)

Paul's appeal in Chapter 1 is to consider Creation as a revelation of the spiritual reality that lies behind everything we see in physical reality. I don’t think most people have a problem with Creation and a Creator. Creation has to start somewhere and a natural conclusion is to see someone behind it. The problem comes when the invisible personal and relational nature of the Creator comes into play. There is a ‘disconnect’ when we…

Letting God Get His Mind Around Us

Just as there is a difference between God’s wrath and man’s wrath there is also a difference between God’s judgment and man’s judgment. But first we need to revisit the whole issue of wrath. After that we will look at judgment.

God’s wrath is born out of His Holiness and perfection. It is not a planned wrath but rather the reaction of His sheer power of perfection and holiness that cannot but reject sin and evil. It is His nature to be…

‘Seeing is Believing?’ No, Believing is Seeing!

In a speech to Cambridge University students on Dec.4,1857 Dr. David Livingstone, the famous missionary physician said, “People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay?…Say rather, it is a privilege…” Then he said, “God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on…

"Jesus renounced the joys of heaven for the sorrows of earth, exchanging an eternal immunity to the approach of sin for painful contact with evil in this world. He was born of a lowly Hebrew mother in a dirty stable in the insignificant village of Bethlehem. He became a refugee baby in Egypt. He was brought up in the obscure hamlet of Nazareth, and toiled at a carpenter's bench to support his mother and the other children in their home. In due time he became an itinerant preacher, with few…

Judgment, God's and Ours

Paul launches what is his most strenuous attack on the human condition of sin and its resultant behavior (Rom.1:18-32). In this long biting passage Paul has been inspired to hold nothing back. The opening of his letter to believers in Rome is a blanket statement of the truth of the Gospel of God in Jesus the Christ, its inclusiveness of all humanity and the Roman Christians’ part in it. But there is an urgency in his message. They and all others who will…

Faith, The Eye of the Spirit

In 1952 the Mathews Bridge was built connecting Arlington to downtown Jacksonville. Just before its official opening I drove the first bus across it. It was more a time issue than anything else. The bus was a green JJC bus (now JU). I drove the JJC Glee Club to a concert downtown.

Prior to that bridge being built there were only two other bridges, the Old Bridge (Acosta) and the New Bridge (Main Street) as they were then called. There were two big…

Reason, The Eye of the Mind

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that is in you...(1Peter 3:15).”

If we perceive something, say an attitude, can we trust the conclusions we make about it? That is, are we reading that attitude accurately? What is the reasoning behind it? We have to remember that our sinful nature tends to work for safety out of fear and pride. We may have a…

Perception, The Eye of the Heart

'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.' (Matt.13:14, Jesus quoting Is.6:9)

What we hear, do we understand? What we see, do we grasp its meaning? Perceiving is a heart thing that the mind is challenged to define. Perception will call for a response. That's where we are called to act in faith. Are we hearing by faith and are we seeing by faith?

When you meet someone for the first time, hear what he…

Living the High Life

As you might have guessed by now I like old movies. Some were black and white and had fake backgrounds using 'rear screen projection.' Others were in color, a new advancement at the time. The point here is that the dynamics of relational interplay in them are really no different from our present human reality. It's only the technology that has changed and become more advanced. We may laugh at the seemingly overdone morality, the hairdo's and clothing but the…

Judgment, It's All Around Us

After arriving in New York City part of my initiation into gang mentality came when I was accepted to be part of a work crew at a Summer Camp in Connecticut. I was fourteen. I immediately recognized I was the smallest and the least physically able of the rest of the crew. I learned quickly in the city that that could be a real liability. I had to prove myself at some point. That point came when I realized one of the crew had a 'walleye' as it was known…

There’s Bad News and There's Good News

A saddened and frustrated architect looks at a collapsed building he had designed, goes back to his drawing board, surveys every detail of his blueprints and, in anger, sweeps his arm across the tables scattering the blueprints across the floor. What went wrong? Where are the flaws? Was it his design? No one is perfect but he had checked every drawing and had his subordinates recheck them. He begins to survey every step of the construction from…