Desperate Joy

  Photo by Benyamin Bohlouli on Unsplash More than 700 years before Christ was born, Ahaz was king of Judah. The Prophet Isaiah delivered a difficult message to him, because of Judah's great sin and rebellion against God, they would be taken captive by the Assyrians and the land would be left desolate. But Isaiah also had a message of hope. Under Divine inspiration he told Ahaz to ask God for a sign. Ahaz refused, and here is how Isaiah responded (Isaiah 7:14-16), "Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings." This is one of the most clear and profound prophesies about the birth of Jesus Christ. Even though Ahaz was looking forward to some terrible days...

  Image by  Artur Pawlak  from  Pixabay When I was teenager, I had a Pug/Pekinese mix dog named Chad. He was hyper and ugly, in a rather adorable way. His favorite game was to pull on pieces of rope with knots tied in the end. I had a good time swinging him around with those. One night he was laying in bed with me, and he was drooling a lot, so I kicked him off the bed onto the floor. The next morning, he was unusually lethargic and had left a large puddle of drool on the carpet. I tossed him in the back yard and as I was going about my routine, I looked in the back yard and Chad was rocking back and forth, pushing his head in and out of some bushes. I pointed this out to my parents, and they decided to take him to the vet. Turns out, Chad had gotten into some "snail bait"(poison) my parents had in the back yard for the vegetable garden. Chad thought it tasted good and had his fill. The vet pumped his stomach and fortunately he survived to pull on the rope anot...

  Image by  Rain  from  Pixabay For a big chunk of my twenties, I believed that if my willpower were strong enough, I could break free from my addiction to porn. I thought if I were focused and determined enough then I could stop acting out. If I could summon the strength of will then I could wrestle that bear of addiction into submission. I believed that overcoming those mental and spiritual strongholds was a matter of power. The conflict was a simple matter of two forces meeting and the greater won. It was like sumo wrestlers colliding in the middle of the ring, if I were strong enough, I could force the addiction out of my life. This is not the reality that God has revealed in his Word. The apostle Paul reveals a far different perspective in Ephesians, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places." Our battle with sin and a...

  The Return of the Prodigal Son, c. 1669. Oil on canvas, 262 x 206 cm. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn (b. 1606, Leiden, d. 1669, Amsterdam) Courtesy of the Web Gallery of Art * As an addict in recovery, the topic of shame comes up frequently. Most of the time people consider it to be a bad thing that should be avoided at any cost. But I am also a Bible-believing Christian, and the idea of shame becomes problematic. Because the Bible is one of the most shame-filled books you can read. Here is what the Bible says in Romans 3:10-13, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:   There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips."   It goes on, but you get the idea, "We are all d...

  The hot, dry desert of Southern Arizona is where I currently reside, and it has been surprising in recent days to see several large toads hopping around in the evenings. Toads need some level of standing water to sustain them and lay their eggs in. As far as I know there is no standing water in the vicinity, no streams or ponds. But the other evening, I was distracted from a Bible study by a couple of toads hopping around who both ended up in a drainpipe filled with water that was in the concrete next to a building. It was a tight space, but they seemed happy enough. There must be enough standing water in these drainage pipes around the compound here for them to lay their eggs and survive the harsh desert heat. Toads have bodies that were designed to thrive in certain habitats. If it gets too cold or too dry, or if the water is polluted, they cannot survive. There are certain rules that a toad must live by if he is to survive and thrive, if he does not follow that plan, h...

  The first step of any spiritual journey is understanding that we need God. We cannot live our lives or make it to heaven without him. We have no hope without him. The Christian life begins and ends with full dependence upon God. This is why the devil does everything in his power to make us believe that, somehow, we can live independently of him. As beings created in the image of God, we have free will. We have the capacity to choose. We can love God or hate God; we can obey him or disobey him. We have some level of autonomy. We are self-guided and self-directed.   We can decide which direction our life takes.   In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve faced a similar choice, to choose the Tree of Life or the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They could determine their own destiny. (See Genesis 2:8-17)   The two trees represent two ways of thinking and believing. The Tree of Life represents surrender to God.   It showed that Adam and Eve loved God a...

  I have a young niece who has just entered the wild world of kindergarten. Watching her grow and mature over the years has been a joy. It is fascinating to see how she is like her parents in many ways. These sorts of comparisons are usually superficial at first, “She has her mother's nose."  "She has her father's eyes."  As she gets older and her personality develops more, we might notice that she enjoys reading like her mother and is really ambitious and hard working like her father. Sometimes we can even identify negative character traits children have in common with their parents. "She has her father's temper."  "She is melancholy like her mother." We can observe children and see the similarities they have with their parents. We can often tell a child belongs to a parent simply by his appearance and mannerisms. In the last post we started looking at this idea that humans are created in the image and likeness of God. This is one of the ...

  Like most little boys back in the day, I was fascinated with toy cars. I had the usual collection of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, and then a new fad came along of even smaller models, Micro Machines. I loved collecting, playing with and trading these tiny vehicles. In the imagination of a child these small cars had nearly as much charm as the full-sized originals they mimicked. When I played with these cars, part of the "cool" factor was how well they represented the real thing. This one looked like a Lamborghini, that one looked like a Corvette. And that one, that one is a monster truck! At times I would get my hands on more sophisticated models, they might have doors that swung open and a steering wheel that turned with the wheels in the front, and I would be amazed. Then there were the remote-controlled cars, what a blast it was to race those things around! All of these toys and models are just replicas. While the toy car may resemble the real thing and may have w...

  "My body, my choice!" Perhaps you have heard this rallying cry for the abortion movement. This idea is all too common in our culture. Most people believe that their body is their own personal property and they can do with it what they will, up to and including the ending of a precious, innocent life developing in that body.   But this attitude extends beyond abortion and is used to excuse all manner of sinful behaviors and lifestyle choices. "It's my body, I can have sex any time I want! It's my body, I can smoke, drink, or eat whatever I want! I can do whatever I want, and nobody can tell me otherwise! My body belongs to me and no one else!"   As long as we are not hurting anyone else, anything goes. Or at least that is what many believe. This is not the shape of reality presented in the Bible. Over the next few weeks, we are going to look at a few ideas about what the Bible teaches about our bodies. First of all, we need to understand that our bo...

  As you may or may not be aware, I am currently in prison. Prison, as you might expect, is filled with all manner of criminals. Of course, I am one of them, but my desire is to no longer commit crimes. Many of my neighbors have no such concerns, but rather are perfectly happy to continue breaking the law. This becomes an interesting dynamic. For the most part this law and rule breaking is not that serious. Usually, it involves using cell phones, drugs, or alcohol. These are clearly against the rules and if you get caught with any of these things you can get in serious trouble and either lose good time or have time added to your sentence. Then there are the smaller, less serious rules. Even among my Christian friends there are those who believe it is okay to break some of these rules. There is a policy here that we are not allowed to take any food out of the dining hall after meals. So even if we can't finish all the food on our tray either because we do not have the appetite o...

  Jesus was in the business of breaking down barriers and connecting with people that everyone else had cast aside. In John 4 we find Jesus travelling from Judea to Galilee. This journey would take him through Samaria. Samaria was where people of mixed descent lived. They were not the pure-blooded Jews that lived in the other areas of Israel. Many Jews despised these Samaritans and would take a longer journey around Samaria in order to avoid coming into contact with them.   Jesus made it a point to pass through Samaria. Along the way he took a break at a well around noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus asked her to give him a drink. She was surprised at this because Jews typically have nothing to do with Samaritans, but Jesus was there for the specific reason of talking with her. He preached to her of living water, the forgiveness and healing that he was offering. She took him up on his offer and well of water springing up unto eternal life up erupted in he...