The Bible NETwork Blogs

I like to visit blogs to see what other Christians are thinking. One of my favorites is Internet Monk because while I do not agree with everything he has to say, yet he makes me think. 

Christians in the Western world can no longer take their faith for granted,  we must understand both what we believe and why we believe what we believe because Christianity is more and more coming under attack.

Ever find yourself trying to reason around doing something God has told you to do? Maybe it was about healing a broken relationship and you reasoned there was really nothing you could do because it was the other person who had rejected you, and not because you had done anything wrong or because of anything you could change.

theresurgence.com/gospel_coalition_2009_keller_notes

There is something that keeps happening to me over and over.

I have conversations with people, they tell me they are having trouble understanding the Bible.   And we have a conversation, that goes something like this.

Them:  I can't understand the Bible, it doesn't make sense to me.

I: Well, the Bible can seem confusing sometimes but really isn't generally that hard to understand and get the fundamentals.  What seems to be the problem.

Them:  Well I can't understand this particular thing.

One Christmas, my Aunt Hazel, a dear, loving woman, gave me a pair of slippers that she had knitted herself. As a child, I never liked gifts of clothes. You couldn’t play with them. They didn’t stimulate the mind. They were boring. So when I opened this parcel in front of my aunt and saw these slippers, I turned to my mother and loudly proclaimed, “I told you I didn’t want any clothes for Christmas!” My mother was mortified at my rudeness.  

I tried writing an introduction for this poem to explain why I wrote it, but then I decided that it explains itself.  So here goes:

I CHASED MY HEALING 

 Last night I had a strange dream ...

I was in the surf. Now I am no great swimmer, but I love the beach. This great, big, absolutely enormous wave loomed before me - like, meters high. Go over it? Not possible. Through it? And get crushed under who knows how many tons of water. I am no world champion surfer, seeing such waves as a great adventure. Panic! Nothing I can do to help myself at all!

 I just thought I would quickly share one of those "Godinstances" we all experience now and then.

I was reading a book on spiritual growth yesterday ... and the question posed was: If God was with you in the room right now, would you flee from him or run to him? My heart's response was: I'd just curl up and rest in his presence.

Then, a little later, I picked up another book and read the verse on the book mark: "Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest."

Ten years ago (1998) David Wilkerson wrote a book entitled America's Last Call. It was a prophetic warning to the United States of America, calling the nation to repentance. In it he wrote, "America is receiving her last call to repent!"

Thinking about being thankful.

When I was in my twenties, I was a very stupid young man. I drank, smoked, slept around. I did all those things which the world told me a "fun-luvin'" guy was supposed to do. Growing up in a dysfunctional family didn't help. By the time I was twety three, alcohol and drugs had gotten the best of me. Homeless and alone, abandoned by familiy and friends, unemployable and unteachable I found myself in a desperate place in my life.