Godly Insights for the 21st Century Life

"Jesus said, 'I am the  way, the truth, and the  life.  No one  comes to the Father except through me. '" ~John 14:6, emphasis mine Recently, I saw a post on Facebook asking fellow Christians if they struggle with the idea that belief in Jesus is the only path to eternal life. The author went on to mention how devout Jews faithfully follow God as well, but don't believe in Jesus, and how many people live their entire lives without ever hearing about Him. He even went on to say that scientists believe that there are other planets that may support life, and that these aliens, if they exist and have sufficient intelligence to form a belief system, are overwhelmingly unlikely to believe in Jesus because He is an Earthling. You just can't make this stuff up people! Until he devolved into talk about extraterrestrial life, I could see where he was coming from, to an extent. There are great people throughout history who were not Christians, and it seems wrong for ...

A couple of weeks ago, the school I work at had its Spring Break. One of the things I did in my week off was go see two movies. The first movie I saw was I Can Only Imagine , which tells the story behind the hit MercyMe song. The second was A Wrinkle in Time , based on the 1962 sci-fi/fantasy novel by Madeline L'Engle. Even though I had initially only planned to watch one, I am glad I changed my mind because I enjoyed both movies, although neither was perfect. Here, in no particular order, are a list of the strengths and weaknesses of these two movies. Visuals: One of my favorite things about A Wrinkle in Time  was how beautifully done all the visuals were. Even though I was unable to see the movie while it was still in IMAX, the visuals were still immersive enough to draw me into the story. The colors were dazzling on Uriel, and the ever-shifting landscape of Camazotz lends a tension leading up to the climax, where we are introduced to the jet-black, multi-tentacled It. The ...

"Only love can drive out all the darkness What are we fighting for? We were made to carry one another We were made for more"-" Bleed the Same "~Mandisa Late last week, I was on Twitter, and I noticed quite a few posts about the school shooting that occurred on Valentine's Day. Most of the posts called for people to pray for the victims and their families, but others took a more combative tone on the issue. One of the ones that was particularly disturbing to me came from someone who is not only a good friend of mine, but also a Christian role model. This person insinuated that Republicans are a bunch of hypocrites because they call for immigration reform following terrorist attacks but don't want the shooting to be politicized because the families of the victims need to be left alone to grieve. Unfortunately, this is just the latest in a series of divisive tweets I have seen recently from this person, and they are by no means the only one doing this. I...

"I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail, but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them."~Acts 5:38-39 The above quote may seem like an odd way to start a post. In fact, there may be some of you that don't even realize that this is in the Bible. I didn't really notice it until two years ago, and that was after having read the Bible a couple of times. This verse isn't often quoted, it's not one that's assigned to be memorized, and, at least at my church, it's not really preached about. However, I feel that this verse is as important to the spread of Christianity now as it was when it was first said almost 2,000 years ago. This statement was said by a Pharisee named Gamaliel during the time when Christianity was just getting its start. The Pharisees were angered by Peter and John's refusal to stop speaking about Jesus. They were planning their...