Godly Insights for the 21st Century Life

"I'm not the same me, and that's all the proof I need"-Britt Nicole, "All This Time" The title of this post comes from a conversation in one of the Harry Potter  novels. In this conversation, one of the characters is telling another about his love for someone, a love so strong that even his beloved's death did not quench it. Christ offers His people this kind of love as well, but His is even stronger because He loves everyone this way, and His love is unconditional. He has loved us since long before we knew Him, He loves us even when we make mistakes, and He even loves those who have turned their backs on Him or never want to know Him. There is nothing we can do to earn His love, and there is also nothing we could ever do to lose it. Christ's love is also transformative. As is stated in the song quote that opens this post, after we accept His love for us, we will never be the same again. Even before Christ was born, the Israelites knew that lovin...

I don't like worship music. Now before you think I've completely gone off my rocker, let me clarify what I mean. I think worshiping God is one of the best ways to grow close to Him and music can be a great way to help facilitate that worship. I just don't like the praise and worship genre of music. I like quite a few songs that fit into that genre, but I am not a fan of the genre as a whole. Here are the main reasons why. Too Restrictive Most of the songs in this genre have a certain sound, and all of them talk about worshiping God. However, there are a plethora of songs that talk about worshiping God that are not included in this genre. In my opinion, a worship song is any song that is either directed toward God or talks about all that God has done for us. That means that Skillet's "What I Believe," Tenth Avenue North's "Strong Enough to Save," and Group 1 Crew's "He Said" are as much worship songs as anything written by Chris ...

On August 11, America was shocked by the news that Robin Williams had died in an apparent suicide. Since then, numerous articles and blog posts have been written about the subject. Some say that suicide is a choice, others argue that Robin Williams died of a disease and it was no fault of his own. Some say suicide is selfish, others say it is not. From what I've seen, all of these articles and blog posts lack a crucial background point: none of them were written by someone who had actually survived the temptation to commit suicide. One article was written by someone who called herself a "suicide survivor," but really had no expertise in the matter other than the fact that her father had killed himself. Her claim that she is a "suicide survivor" is as ridiculous as me claiming that I am a lung cancer survivor because my grandfather died of lung cancer, and basing her article off of that flawed premise negates her argument. So how do I propose we fix this problem?...

"I have set before you today life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live."-Deuteronomy 30:19 On June 30, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of Hobby Lobby founders David and Barbara Green. They had petitioned the high court to allow them an exception to the Obamacare mandate with regard to four "potentially life-terminating drugs." As Christians running a family business, being forced to provide these drugs to their employees would be a direct violation of their First Amendment rights and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which is a federal law. In the aftermath, many decried the fact that such a ruling infringed on a woman's right to choose what to do with her body. However, this argument ignores the fact that these drugs are still available. The ruling didn't make the drugs illegal, it just made it so that Hobby Lobby and other companies like it won't be forced into paying for them. I am both p...

This past Sunday, the associate pastor at my church, preached on six short parables found in Matthew 13. Two of these parables, the first and last in the gospel lesson, talk about the end of the age. The first appears in verses 24-30, and tells the parable of the weeds among the wheat. In this parable, a farmer sows grain in his fields, but an enemy sneaks in one night and sows weeds among the wheat. As the plants grow, the dastardly deed is discovered, and the servants want to rip out all of the weeds, but the farmers tells them no. Ripping out the weeds would uproot the wheat, so the farmer allows them to grow together, and instructs his reapers to separate them out at harvest time. The second is found in verses 47-48, and compares the kingdom of heaven with a net that was thrown into the sea and caught many varied kinds of fish, It was then drawn in, and the fish were separated into good fish to keep and bad fish to throw back. Both the separation of the wheat in the first parable a...

A few months ago, a young lady I know got into trouble. Big trouble. Now the young lady in question is not a bad person. She just doesn't always think before acting. After she got in trouble, I prayed for her. I prayed that she would gain control of her impulsiveness and that she would know that she isn't a bad person just because she did something she shouldn't have. Most of all I prayed that the person affected by her actions would find it in her heart to forgive her. In his song "Forgiveness," Matthew West describes it as "the hardest thing to give away and the last thing on your mind today." I completely agree with his assessment. In Matthew 5:44, Jesus calls us to "Love [our] enemies and pray for those who persecute [us]," but this is more easily said than done. Sometimes we feel like our "pain's owed apologies and then it will stop" (Tenth Avenue North, "Losing"). If they can't take the time to apologize and ...

I am currently starting the fourth week of an online Bible study based on the book Living So That: Making Faith-Filled Choices in the Midst of a Messy Life  by Wendy Blight. I was drawn to the study because of the title. When I first saw it, I thought, Living so that what? Where's the rest of the title?  I now realize that the title was referring to those verses in the Bible that have the words so that  in them. The book has five chapters, each split into five parts and having a memory verse tied to the topic of that chapter. In the study, we are doing one chapter a week, and can split up the five readings for the week however we want to. I choose to read them on weekdays right after breakfast so that  I start each work day with some time spent in God's Word. Chapter One is "Jesus Came So That," and the memory verse is John 3:16. I figured, I know that verse in two languages. I got this.  I didn't figure I would have any trouble with that week because I alre...