Desperate Joy

  When I was growing up, my mom kept a number of oil lamps around the house. As we used the lamps the glass that shielded the flame would slowly get covered with soot from the smoke. As the soot built up the light from the lamp would gradually grow dim. If that glass were not cleaned then eventually the glass would grow grey or even black and the lamp would give little, if any, light. Many times, the only reason you could see the soot on the glass is by lighting the lamp. If the lamp was never lit, you might never even know it was dirty. It is the light that shows the lamp is dirty. It is the light that reveals the darkness. When Adam and Eve ate of the Forbidden Fruit, they became aware of their nakedness for the first time, and then attempted to sew aprons of fig leaves to cover themselves. God came looking for them in the cool of the day, but they had hidden themselves. "And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou?” And he said, “I heard thy voice in...

  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 am fearfully and wonderfully made."  The Psalmist declared. Each and every one of us has been hand-crafted by God. He shaped us and formed us while we were in our mother's womb. We are made in his image and likeness. We are like scale models of God, we don't quite live up to the original, but we can see the similarities. This is one of the most important and amazing truths revealed in the Bible. In a previous post we discussed that this image has several aspects, we looked at just three: we are moral, relational, and rational. Underpinning these three is another important aspect that is just as important, if not more important. Because we are created in God's image, we possess a free will. The other three aspects do not work unless the engine of our free will is driving them. We are the only creatures on earth that God made with a free will. We can choose. We may choose to obey him, and we may choose to disobey him, we can choose to do right or to do ...

  Kintsugi is a Japanese art form in which broken pieces of a vessel, like a vase or bowl, are glued back together with lacquer or enamel that has gold or silver powder mixed into it. When the restored piece is finished, where there were dark cracks, now there is brightness and light. Where there was once brokenness now there is value and glory. If possible, the vessel is made even more beautiful and valuable than before. The vessel is not just restored, it is made into something new, something better. When God created Adam and Eve, he made them perfect, they were flawless and without a trace of blemish. They were completely without sin or corruption. God had made them in the likeness of his Son. Adam and Eve were not exact replicas, carbon copies, of Jesus Christ. They were unique, but still similar. Adam bore the image of God perfectly in the Garden of Eden. Then he sinned when he ate the Forbidden Fruit, and the world was plunged into chaos. The universe was wrecked because ...

  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...