Beyond Comprehension

Human consciousness and intelligence have a limited capacity for comprehension and explanation. Living on a planet that is surrounded by infinity, we’re like an ant on a beach trying to comprehend and explain the Pacific Ocean and everything it contains.

The human mind can never understand the mysteries of life and existence. We can’t explain the origin of the universe, so we settle for saying that something we can’t comprehend spontaneously exploded without a cause. It made such a great big bang that, somehow, it created everything that exists.

As humans, we can’t even explain our consciousness, our self-awareness, or our ability to think and reason. However, materialists insist that they are nothing more than the movement of electrons and atoms that somehow gradually assembled themselves through billions of years of time and chance.

The unlimited, confounding, and unexplainable mysteries that surround us lead many people to the idea that an infinitely powerful and intelligent being must have created such an incredibly detailed, intricately designed universe. In English, He is called God.

One group of ancient people believed that God wanted to reveal Himself to them. They wrote about what God told them, showed them, and did among them.

Many of their writings were prophetic and were fulfilled many centuries later in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His followers also wrote and described Him as “Emanuel — God with us.” Those writings still exist today as the Old Testament and New Testament of the Bible.

Many people try to understand God by mentally analyzing the Bible or by listening to talks that simplify it into systematic theology. A few go beyond intellectual comprehension and seek to personally experience and directly interact with God. That is the straight and narrow way that leads to “peace that passes understanding” and “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

Step beyond attempts to merely mentally comprehend God. Humbly open your heart and ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Begin to read the Bible as if it is a personal love letter from God to you. If you will take the time to absorb the Bible and notice what happens in your heart as you do, you’ll be amazed at the insight, inspiration, and revelation that begins to flow from deep within you. Experience the revelation sensation!

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Thank, Compliment, and Say I Love You (The Power of Small Moments)

Daily writing prompt
What’s a small moment from your past that you still think about years later?

Thank, Compliment, and Say I Love You.

Life offers many opportunities to thank, compliment, and say I love you. The more you do those things, the more kindness you’ll spread. You’ll begin to notice that freely expressed thanksgiving, praise, and love make your world a better place.

Thank a stranger who helps you today. Compliment someone for a job well done. Tell a family member or a friend, “I love you.” Their responses will make you feel so good that you’ll be eager to express even more gratitude, appreciation, and love.

If you fill your texts, emails, voice calls, posts, and face-to-face encounters with those things, you’ll have a surprisingly beautiful day. You’ll receive encouragement and appreciation in return. You might even receive a handwritten thank-you note.

Dare to aim even higher. Learn to thank, praise, and adore God with words that overflow from your heart, not just silently, but out loud.

Say Thank You, Lord, for… Then list things He has given you. Personally express your gratitude to God for life, sight, hearing, food, clothing, shelter, health, a job, family, friends, etc.

Give Him praise. Tell God how marvelous He is. Say, Lord, You are the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

Worship and adore God. Say, I love You, Father! I worship You, Jesus! I treasure You, Holy Spirit. Let words of adoration freely flow from your heart. Experience the love, joy, and simplicity of early Christianity!

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Christians Either Stand Together or Fall Apart

Daily writing prompt
How do you define success in life?

When Christians allow God to knit their hearts together with His love, they stand. When they don’t, they fall apart. They “bite and devour one another.” They destroy each other and refuse to walk by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:15-16)

Jesus prayed that all His followers be united as one, as He and the Father are one, so that the world will know that He was sent by the Father. (John 17:21). Paul told the early Christians to “keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). The more Christ-followers are united as one, heart to heart, by God’s love and by Christ living in and working through them, the more people will recognize that Jesus has been sent from God. (John 17:20)

Unfortunately, we Christians have devoured and destroyed the unity Jesus prayed for. We have shattered ourselves into tens of thousands of denominations and many hundreds of thousands of fully independent churches headed by merely human leadership instead of being directly led by the Spirit under the true Headship of Christ.

When will we learn that we will never be united by church attendance or obedience to religious institutions or politics? We can only be united by surrendering our thoughts, opinions, desires, and feelings to the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57) and to the Holy Spirit’s direct inner leading. (Romans 8:14)

People who love and obey Jesus more than their pride, their opinions, their church, their family, their friends, and their country discover amazing heart-to-heart unity with one another. Their intense adoration for and surrender to the risen Jesus living in and through them (Colossians 1:27) keeps them connected by great love and compassion for one another. (John 13:34-35) It’s not an institutional or doctrinal unity. It’s family unity.

Christians have allowed American politics to divide us and make us hostile toward one another. It’s time to ask God and one another for forgiveness and move beyond that divisiveness. Although I strive to speak the truth with love and compassion, I’m sure I slip up sometimes. Please forgive me if I have ever made you feel belittled or disrespected.

Learn how to discover supernatural unity. Google: The Joy of Early Christianity.

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Beyond Intellectual Opinions to Power

The Bible is the book about how God has acted in and through human beings. It contains more testimony, examples, instructions, and exhortations than explanation or theology. One book in the Bible is even called “The Acts of the Apostles,” not “The Theology of the Apostles.” Theological knowledge should never replace daily discipleship.

The Bible is more about having a relationship with God than about trying to figure Him out. It describes what God has said and done throughout history. It praises Him. It testifies to the ways He has sought to reveal Himself to people, heal them, lead and guide them, restore them to an intimate relationship with Him, and unite them heart-to-heart with one another.

The Bible reveals Jesus Christ as Lord, as “Emmanuel — God with us.” It focuses far more on experiencing, surrendering to, and obeying God than on explaining Him. It even explicitly states: “Knowledge puffs up while love builds up,” (1 Corinthians 8:1) and “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

The purpose of the Bible is to train people to continually rely on God and to love and obey Him wholeheartedly. It’s not a book designed to be analyzed and picked apart. It’s a book that brings awe, adoration, and transformation to those who persistently read it with a humble, open heart. It leads them into an eternal relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

I affirm, believe in, and rely on the theological truth presented in the Bible and ancient Christian creeds. I strive every day to align my thoughts and actions with those truths and be led by the presence of the resurrected Jesus living in and through me.

Creeds without Spirit-led deeds are dead religion. (James 2:17) Most Christians embrace the theology behind Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. They say that they believe Jesus is risen. However, many live like He’s still shut up in His tomb. Instead of relying on the living Jesus to personally lead and direct them throughout each day, they passively trust in church attendance and hearing a preacher’s weekly sermon. How we, who call ourselves Christians, need to move beyond theology into daily following and obeying “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)

Man holding a book titled Matthew Henry's Bible Commentary in a library
A scholar holds Matthew Henry’s Bible Commentary in a warmly lit theological library.
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To Those Who Are Scared

My Thoughts on Seeing the USA Mid-Term Election Results

Christians are called to live by the Spirit. Living by the Spirit means walking by the Spirit, not by human desires. (Galatians 5:13-26) It means being aware of, sensitive to, and obedient to direct, inner revelation from God the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)

To walk by the Spirit is to be personally guided, directed, and led by the Spirit’s inner promptings that always align with the Bible. It is continually choosing to do what God wants rather than what we want.

When we truly live by the Spirit, we will overflow with the fruit of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) We will experience the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1-11) humbly working in and through our lives. Rather than being overcome by evil, we will overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21)

Many people prayed for the mid-term elections in the USA. Now, they are disappointed with how their prayers were answered. Now is the time to rely on the living God, not on government.

It’s time to turn away from fear, anger, domination, and unkindness. Instead, let’s embrace the courage to obey these Bible commands: “Bless those who curse you,” “Love your enemies,” and “Overcome evil with good.” It’s time to “Walk by the Spirit,” not by the flesh.

Make Americans Kind Again! (MAKA)

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Jesus is my Ticket. The Bible Leads me to Him

Jesus told His first followers to announce His good news worldwide and to train and disciple people to live and love as He taught. One way they did that was by writing. Gradually, their words were collected, called the New Testament, and added to the ancient Jewish writings that Jesus often called the Scriptures. Together, they are called the Bible.

The Bible is much more proclamation than explanation. It wasn’t written and collected so we can use it to explain, debate, and justify our religious opinions about theological details about God.

The Bible was written to announce what God has done and is doing. Its purpose is to invite us to experience and surrender to His presence and reality. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8)

Let the Bible lead you to the tree of life, not to the tree of knowledge. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Bible analysis and systematic theology won’t save and satisfy your soul. “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” will! (Colossians 1:27) Let the Bible train you to experience, be aware of, and obey the risen Jesus throughout each day. (Matthew 28:20)

Refuse to treat the Bible like a religious textbook. Instead, continually read, absorb, and let it consume your heart like a love letter from God to you. Let it always keep you focused on experiencing and being led by Christ’s presence and love.

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Live Lightly

Let your eyes fill up with light
Bringing sight to your darkness,
Rays breaking through storm clouds,
Warming your heart
With healing incandescence,
Guiding your footsteps with hope
So you can walk in the light.
And be a guide for others.
Step out of the shadows
Where darkness lurks,
Into radiant insight.
Open the eyes of your heart.

Color-Blind?

Too many white people choose to be color-blind to the history of racial injustice. As a Christian, I’ve spent decades seeking the truth about skin color. If you want to live in the light of what I have found, google: Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind.

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An Apology Can Set You Free

We need to realize
It’s so much better
To apologize
Than it is to blame
And to call someone
An insulting name.
When we criticize
And attack nonstop
We start to despise
Those who disagree.
We shut down our eyes
To God’s love for them
And don’t recognize
Their humanity.
We start to tell lies
About who they are.
Look beyond disguise.
See pain in their eyes.
Let compassion rise.
Go apologize
To someone today.

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My Philosophy

Daily writing prompt
If you had to sum up your life philosophy in one sentence, what would it be?

Here is my philosophy in one short poem:

You’re only around
For a little while
The least you can do
Is offer a smile.
Life’s about kindness.
It’s not about style.
Spread love everywhere.
Life’s not just a trial.
It’s a calling to
Let God’s light shine through
All you say and do.

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Unanswered prayer?

Daily writing prompt
Share a few recent shots from your camera roll, no context needed.

When Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, He told them to ask God for this: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) Christ-followers are supposed to pray for what God wants, not just what we want. We are called to align our desires with His so His kingdom can come within us and rule us from the inside out.

To do that, we need to believe that God exists and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6) We need to continually absorb the Bible and let God the Holy Spirit reveal His will to us. With that kind of faith, we believe God answers our prayers.

Even as we struggle with disappointment, suffering, and brokenness, Christians are called to persist in praying, believing, praising, and thanking God. When we make requests to God, He gives us peace that passes understanding. (Philippians 4:8)

We learn to rely on the promise that “all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:24) No matter what, we continue to trust in and depend on the goodness of God. We’re learning to be content regardless of our circumstances. (Philippians 4:11) That’s how we are called to live. That’s true faith in God.

“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus and His righteousness.” Is yours?

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