"Love God; love the brothers; don't love the world."
This is a summary of the Christian life as Pastor Phillips mentioned tonight. It is interesting that most forms of Christianity seem to go astray on one of these three points. We usually remember to love God. But we often forget to love our brothers. And if we remember that, we may well forget that we must not love the world system in which we live. For my particular slice of Christianity, I think, we struggle most with the middle proposition, while we usually remember to love our God and not be so fascinated by the world.
Complete devotion to God, full familial loyalty and service to the believing community, and abhorrence of that which seeks to distract and detract from these first commands... that is a good look at Biblical Christianity.
30 April 2009
Thoughts from tonight's service
18 April 2009
3 Thoughts for the day
A picture from the Junior/Senior banquet last night... we enjoyed the banquet and then games with friends afterwards.
A link to an excellent article on a blog I don't follow... (this article speaks to much that is awry in Christianity today.)
A link to the back articles from "In the Nick of Time", a weekly publication usually from the pen of Kevin Bauder... follow the link down to the bottom of the page and read the current series on "Understanding Conservative Christianity." This series has been outstandingly beneficial to me personally and has made some things click. It is well worth reading
17 April 2009
Meditations from the Second Psalm
This semester I have been taking a class on Revelation; Psalm 2 applies immediately to the time period dealt with in that book. Read in the context of the last days...
ponderings from the first Psalm
Divine blessing will come upon the man who doesn't take wicked advice about how to live, or join in the lifestyle of sinful men (though he may still join sinful men, he is separate from their sin - as Christ was with us), or settles into the seat of those who scoff at God. Rather this blest man receives his joy from searching in the words of God, and he ponders his Lord's instruction continually.
Thus it is that his life is full and rich; and in his Master's time, he sees harvest and reward and multiplication. Still, it is not always harvest day even for this profitable and blessed man.
Unlike this stable, healthful one, the wicked's life lacks substance and endurance or even real profitableness. They will not measure up or remain when the tests of reality and authenticity are applied because that blest man's God recognizes him and his way, but the wicked will be utterly rejected and removed.