To even speak of God's love is to debase it

It is well known that God, in His divine providence, chooses to entrust the most essential, lovely and eternal truth of His nature to the most dejected, ugly and ephemeral of all agents; namely, mankind. It is thus the most incredible of doctrines that, of all the forms Christ may have taken to reveal Himself, He chose the form of mankind to do so. How Satan must have licked his chops when he saw his greatest Adversary descend from His throne in heaven in the weakest form of man; a form which Satan had enjoyed almost free reign over from the time of Adam until the Great Coming. What a great mystery revealed in Isaiah 40:

And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
    and all flesh shall see it together.
    for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
A voice says, "Cry!"
    And I said, "What shall I cry?"
All flesh is grass,
    and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades
    when the breath of the LORD blows on it;
    surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
    but the word of our God will stand forever.

What greater mystery could there be than for the very Creator of the universe to come in the most humble form of His creation, the very form of which was said to be passing away as a mist when the sun arises? The flesh of Christ was imbued with the very essence of divinity so that every curse and blessing in the scriptures would be fulfilled in Him! He would bear both the curse of mortal flesh through nails and a crown of thorns, and the blessing of eternal life through His resurrection into a glorified body! As Acts 2 states:

"Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery."

It is good, Lord, that before our lips could ever utter praises to you, you knew them all completely. Who are we that you are mindful of us? Our flesh is not of your substance; how can we worship you? Our very words are base and defiled and fully incapable of praising your name; yet you accept them. They are fleeting yet you make your throne upon the praise of your children. You love our very frames and find pleasing our humble and tiny offerings. What can we give that you have not already given to us in full?

Thank you for your great love for us! Thank you for placing eternity into our hearts; for knowing us from eternity past; for engraving our names upon your hands and your heart; for writing your character onto our hearts! Such things are too great to comprehend. Eternity is not long enough to praise your holy name!

How should we remember 9/11?

September 11th holds a special place in my heart. It was a catastrophic day that changed the course of my existence. I give thanks to God for that day (not for the terror, but for the good that God wrought from the terror). I look back and think often of the story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers. God exalted Joseph, making him second only to Pharaoh in the kingdom of Egypt and eventually Joseph ends up saving his own brothers from famine. Upon finding out that it is Joseph whom they sold (the punishment for which is death) they seek his forgiveness to which he replies in Genesis 50:

"Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today."

My soul leaps at this statement because it fits me precisely. About a year after joining the Marines on October 4th, 2001 (because of 9/11) I gave my life to Jesus and asked His forgiveness for my sins and the way I had lived my selfish life. I saw that though wicked men had meant the terror attacks of that fateful day for evil, God had used it for my gain and saved my life.

The anger, fear and loathing I felt in those days has been replaced by a foundation of love, trust and hope in Christ so that I may now repeat after the Psalmist in chapter 91:

³ Surely he will save you
from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
⁷ A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.

I say all this to suggest that you remember 9/11 not for the violence of the day, but for the heroism of the human heart that was exposed in so many people. Search your heart for those qualities you saw that made you proud and emulate them: The sacrifice people made when they laid down their lives for their friends and strangers, the firefighters and police who climbed the stairs into the inferno, the military personnel who served, the ones who lined up for blocks to donate blood, money, teddy bears and anything else that would bring healing and comfort. Remember the flags that flew from car windows, off of bridges and out of windows. Remember the smiles, nods, handshakes and conversations we had with strangers in those following weeks when we all saw with clarity the importance and need of a loving community.

For you Christians, remember the call from 1 Peter 2 and be that community others would seek to join in the face of distress and calamity:

"...you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light... Keep your conduct among [unbelievers] honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God... For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God."

Keep the faith, do not be afraid and never lose hope. We do God's work and He has already won!

The God of reason.

While discussing the Divine Providence of our country's founding it was suggested that we are no more divinely inspired than any other country. While I agree that all nations are lifted up and thrown down by God, the difference in ours was obvious (just read the Declaration of Independence). Some differences I gave were:

1) The equal application of justice to all, 2) The right of one to enjoy the fruit of his labor, 3) The understanding that men are inherently wicked and should have checks upon their power, 4) The investiture of government's power in the people (and their right to overthrow it and institute a new one should it not protect their God-given rights).

A friend then gave a quote by Thomas Jefferson suggesting that this foundation was due more to humanity's ability to reason than to God who blesses. The quote reads:

‎"Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must approve more of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear."

It's a great quote and I agree with it to the extent that if mankind truly is made in God's image then we have the ability to reason, in part, as God reasons. Thus, the scripture is granted meaning when God proclaims to all men in Isaiah 1, "Come, let us reason together."

Still, the distinction between God as God and reason as god needed to be clarified. My thought process concluded that:

"Reason is a passionless god to serve. In any case, if not for man's depravity it would be reasonable to state that he would not be in need of redemption. Reason suggests that man, on the whole, is quite depraved, however. The truth is that reason is a quality of God and, like many of His qualities, we choose to serve it as opposed to the One who possesses it. Thus was Jefferson correct that we should serve a God of reason over fear but, more importantly, we trust that the unreasonable kindness of God in the face of our depravity is what leads us to salvation."

Regardless of what you think of our government now though, the promise that is to come is much better if you are His child! Isaiah 9:6-7 declares:

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing it and upholding it in justice and righteousness from that time on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this."

Don't be so open-minded that your brain falls out.

A tolerant, open-minded, non-judgmental attitude is publicly presented as the creme de la creme of progressive secular humanism and group think. It is often represented by those bumper stickers that leave a tickle of annoyance to squirm through the back of your mind: "COEXIST" and "TOLERANCE" being the main examples wherein the letters are scrawled out as major religious symbols (i.e. the "t" is a cross, the "c" is the star and crescent). While thinking about this, I ran across a quote attributed to G.K. Chesterton: "When a Man stops believing in God he doesn't then believe in nothing, he believes anything."

...And believing in "anything" can get you killed because having true wisdom tends to shut one's mind to foolish, man-made ideologies that have no capability to save or enrich (Consider this passage from Proverbs 1). Wisdom brings life but a belief in "anything" breeds foolishness. The image below conveys the fallacy of open-mindedness and tolerance between competing and wholly different ideologies and philosophies.


I have seen quotes from Muslims and atheists that fall along the lines of "We love death more than you love life." Such people will lord their authority over those who are not willing to sacrifice their life to protect what is good and holy. Where can we find such a person? I thank God that through Jesus Christ we have such an advocate and defender. Only Jesus has the strength to save us from our enemies in this life and our final enemy which is death. All those who put their trust in Him will by no means be put to shame.

Home buying as opposed to home making.

I believe it was back in 2004 when I first looked into buying a house for myself. Humorously, I thought that it would be good to "prepare for marriage" by getting myself a house which would provide for the eventuality of a wife and kids. I thought I had a great setup. One of the men at my church was my broker so I trusted him implicitly. After all, he was a Christian!

I learned very well that week that "Christians" are still subject to the same sins of non-Christians. The man spent no time teaching me about the market risks even though I was a first time home buyer. He thrust me into the market and my first offer was made in days with no knowledge or wisdom gained by asking for time to think. On top of that (and perhaps more importantly) I had only recently come to a saving faith in my Savior, Jesus Christ. Upon that fact, I should have realized that I was woefully unprepared to even consider marriage and therefore my motivation for buying a house was one of ignorance!

This man gave me the line that "there is not a better time to buy." I totally agree with his statement now that I realize he stood to gain up to a 3% commission on a $365,000 offer for a 970 sq. ft. house on a piddly plot of land. It would have been a GREAT time for HIM were I to have bought that house! The only reason I didn't get it is that God is gracious and my original offer of the above amount was not enough. I dropped out of the house hunt at that point on the advice of a good friend of mine who showed me how I had been taken advantage of. Certainly, I would have been forced to stay in the Marines had I bought that house only to watch its value tumble to what is probably $225,000 today.

All things considered, I find it absurd that the buyer's broker is given a commission on the total sale of the home. With such a system, a dishonest broker's incentive is to obtain the greatest commission possible at the expense of the buyer he is representing. A writer named "Partyboy" on a San Diego real estate blog I read put it this way:

"...As a seller, someone must scratch their head wondering why they have to pay for someone whose job is to low-ball them and negotiate a lower sale price.

Can you imagine having to go to court and your defense attorney is being paid by the prosecution and the longer the sentence you receive, the more your defense attorney gets paid?"

As a more mature Christian today, I am thankful to see more clearly that the home I will have at the end of all days will be built by Him who paid the price to gain my entrance into that home. The promise is even better than that though because not only has the price for my home been paid, but I have also been given the commission for that transaction as Christ desires to represent Himself through me! My Lord Jesus has no hidden motives or agenda in His relationship with me and He proves it by telling me all truths and calling me "friend."

As James 1:17 states, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

We have another testimony in Ephesians 1:3 where Paul writes, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ..."

Christ simply gives and expects only that His gift of unconditional love and forgiveness will transform us into creatures that love others in the same fashion. With that heavenly-mindedness, we can bring a taste of what is to come to this sad and broken vessel we inhabit and earth that we currently call home. C.S. Lewis wrote of this long ago in his pondering of heaven and earth:

"Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth thrown in. Aim at Earth and you get neither."