L. Edward's Blog at The Worn Keyboard
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WE NEED TO take seriously our dependence on God. Here is what Paul told the Christians in Colosse:
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. (Colossians 1:15-17 NLT [emphasis mine])
God brought all things into existence, and they continue to exist today only because He is still holding them all together. But what would happen if God were to loosen His grip on things? Has He ever done it? Will He do it? I have more to say about that. But first consider the following.
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IN JANUARY OF 2001 I saw an interesting picture that appeared in the ReACTion newsletter published by David A. Womack. In our national fellowship, David was known as a well-respected evangelist and author with wide experience as a former missionary, pastor, and publishing house administrator.
I came to know David personally in 1997, shortly before he started a publishing agency to represent authors. I had finished a five-year project of annotating and updating the language of John Bunyan’s, The Pilgrim’s Progress (originally written and published in 1678). David became my literary agent and editor on that, my first book to be published—The Pilgrim’s Progress in Modern English.
David continued to preach and write, and by the year 2000 the main thrust of his personal ministry was to call the Church to revival. The newsletter he developed was informative, and the picture I saw in his recent issue of ReACTion was thought provoking.
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SURELY YOU’VE HEARD the old, worn-out test of whether or not we are either pessimists or optimists: “Do you see the glass as half empty or half full?”
That test is about dispositions and attitudes. I’m going to put a little twist on that.
Let’s say things aren’t going too well for you lately. Your cabinets and refrigerator aren’t as well stocked as you would like. You’re getting by, but it’s not a time of plenty. You’re out of money, and payday is several days away.
You look in the fridge, pull out the milk carton, and pour into a glass all the milk you have. And sure enough, the milk—about one cup in quantity—fills the glass only halfway. Suddenly there is a knock on the door. It’s your neighbor.
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I WROTE THREE blog articles before giving any thought to using a hashtag to help promote my work on social media and possibly gain a reader here and there. I then started trying to come up with a word or group of words that might be good to use in a hashtag.
Two words eventually came to mind that appealed to me and actually fit in with a slogan I use for my web site: “Proclaiming Truth (John 14:6).” And after a little more thought on what the hashtag means to me, I decided to go with it.
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AFTER NOT JUST recent weeks but years of observing the results of people acting out the hatred that fills their hearts, a question about hate recently entered my mind. And I suppose that’s because I am finally actually shocked by the degree to which hate is fueling strife, division, and destruction today in America.
The question that I began considering—one that lately continues to stir in my thoughts almost without ceasing—is this:
“Where does hate end?”
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The old, godly way—"It's simply passé," they claim.
But "No way," I say, and correcting that's my aim.
WE WERE CELEBRATING the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of our local church. We held a banquet on Saturday evening and conducted special services on Sunday. At both the banquet and the weekend services, there was plenty of opportunity for members of the congregation to reminisce about the church’s many years of fellowship and ministry.
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WE DO WELL to ask ourselves what is most important to us—our views of the world or God's.
When Paul wrote to Timothy—his younger protégé and partner in ministry—he told Timothy there would be troublesome times in the last days. In addressing those times, The New Living Translation of the Bible calls them “difficult.” The translators of the King James Version used the word “perilous.”
Mankind has been living through troublesome times for many years. But as years continue to pass since Paul wrote to Timothy, the time in which you and I live is becoming increasingly perilous.
Note some of Paul’s words written long ago and how they relate to today’s world: