One word

When Jesus was asked by the Pharisees, "which is the greatest Commandment in the Law?" The Lord Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your strength, and with all your mind. This is the first, and greatest Commandment. And a second, is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." -Matthew 22: 36-40

The Lord gave an answer with a hinge on it. There is a vertical aspect, and a horizontal aspect in His answer. In our understanding of our relationship with our Heavenly Father, and our relationship to our neighbors. You will find it very hard to truly love the Lord, and at the same time hate your neighbor. You might also discover, or ask yourself, 'if I feel the way I do about my neighbor, ...then, do I truly love God? And do I love Him because of who He is, and not simply for what he offers me?' And you would be right in asking that. 

In the words of John the Apostle, "Light has come into the world, and the darkness has not overcome it." Darkness cannot reside with the light. When we see, and know that God, who is Perfect Love, and Perfect Righteousness and the Perfect Judge, and Perfect Joy, and that He gives us all good things, because of who He is... running ahead of us, to prepare all of these wonderful gifts for us. And that He has given us a Perfect salvation, by the Perfect sacrifice. That is when we realize that to receive His Love, and gifts, is to love Him in return. Here is the important part that we MUST know, and remember. That our gain with Christ, is not because of who we are, or what we have done. But because of who He is. That we are His! And that it's His perfect Will. "His Good, Pleasing, and Perfect Will." And we know that our love for Him, does not come from ourselves, but is itself, a gift from the Holy Spirit! Knowing all of this, and having it transform us, is when we can truly love our neighbor. When we and our "self love" as Martin Luther has written about, is no longer part of the equation, we are free to love, both God, and our neighbor!

Ravi Zacharias has stated that "...Christ had reduced the Commandments down to the two most important, and the two that "on them depend all of the Law, and the Prophets.". Ravi has asked, if we had to reduce those two down to one word "...do you know what that word would be?" the answer, he says is "Sacred, because your life is sacred, your time is sacred, your worship is sacred, your giving is sacred, your property is sacred ...and so is your neighbors!"

Where does the idea of Sacred come from you might ask? From non-other, than the Author of Life, and the one who made everything. The very reason there is something rather than nothing. The Gospel of John, Chapter one, again beautifully tells us in four simple words. "In Him was life." If we pause and consider that statement for just a bit, we come to the knowledge of Who's we are!

"In Him was life, and that life was the light of men."  John 1:4

Powerful Statement

I have posted this before a couple of years ago. But I though it worthy of another viewing.

A powerful statement about science made by a scientist. A prize winning scientist.

“It was my science that drove me to the conclusion that the world is much more complicated than can be explained by science. It’s only through the supernatural that I can understand the mystery of existence.” - Allan Sandidge.   

Allan Rex Sandage was an American astronomer. He was Staff Member Emeritus with the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California. He determined the first reasonably accurate values for the Hubble constant and the age of the universe.

Science is wonderful, we can learn and test, and do so many amazing things with our science. But I agree with the professor here. It is limited! 

Thank you for reading! 

Still waters

"Be still and know that I am God" 

-Psalm 46:10 

inhale... exhale...

In the children's movie "Cars" the older, seasoned, and more experienced character known as Doc Hudson tells the young rookie race car that "sometimes, in order to go left, you have to turn right." I think there is a deeper truth within that statement.

One of the English authors I enjoy reading is G.K. Chesterton. He is notorious for being the "Prince of Paradox". He has written quite a bit about paradoxes in our world. I think this example helps us understand the truth that our world is full of paradoxes. One of them is this: Sometimes in order to go faster, you have to slow down.

In our culture, we often pride ourselves on being busy. We feel that when we are busy; we're being useful, or that people need us, and that makes us feel good. And this is very true in a lot of cases. But I will venture to say that my worth or usefulness has got little to do with how busy I am. In fact, I'm sure with enough pause, and reflection, a number of us could recall a time when we were too busy to make a valuable impact in a given situation, or in someone else's life. A time when we failed to stop, and with love in our hearts ...paused to 'do the right thing', for the right reason, and failed because we were too busy.

This paradox I have witnessed, and have to apply when I'm reading. Particularly when I'm reading Holy Scripture. In order for me to really have a chance at grasping what it is that I am reading, I do well to read slowly. Not because I am unable to read quickly, that is indeed my problem, I often read too quickly, and miss a many splendored thing. Not only that, but even before I start, I must stop. And I think many of us would say there is much to gain from stopping ...before you start a thing. There are many examples that could be brought to bare that reveal this natural rhythm. The Lord says in scripture that the land needs to lay fallow for one whole year, every seventh year. And we see the scientific evidence of the benefit of that period of rest for the soil. I know with painful awareness that when I attempt to write fine calligraphy, I must attempt to do so very slowly, and almost pause for every word, every letter if it is going to end up legible, let alone beautiful.

I believe it is apparent in life, that we often need to slow down, in order to be faster. Then we may realize that 'faster' is not the goal we ought to have. For it is better to be' set wright' or more efficacious than simply 'faster'. If we are rushing off to do this, or that, we often find ourselves having finished something that we could have done better, or gleaned a deeper truth from, or have helped another more fully. I could say I've read a hundred books, and not gotten as much as out of it as my older, and wiser neighbor, who read one paragraph, and was changed because of it.

The Lord beckons us by saying "come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,  and I will give you rest, ...lay down beside the still water, ...be still and know..." And that He has "seated us with Him, in the heavenly places" Scripture says of those who are in Christ, that they are "seated with Him".

My encouragement to you, dear reader, is to stop, to pause everyday as often as you can get away with it. Take the time to sit with Him, in the heavenly places, as you open His Word.

Sometimes in the most unexpected places, a beautiful truth can be found. Sometimes a children's story will reveal a profound truth that is easily overlooked in an adult's daily monotony. Much in the same way, Christ himself, left his majesty, and heavenly home, and came to earth with a simple humble mission to "seek and save that which was lost." The one who was fully divine, in humility, made Himself fully human. Encoding Himself into this world through a quite, and small beginning to do the most powerful thing in the universe. The thing, that only God Himself could do.