Well done, Nico Calabria!
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Expansive Love
Thursday, I was at Edinburgh Airport in the International Arrivals section to pick up someone returning from their holiday. I was sitting there, minding my own business, diligently doing my Sudoku, noting that this square doesn’t have a “2” in it, when suddenly the person next to me exploded out of his seat.
I looked up, surprised, and saw an older gentleman hurrying towards the arrivals. He went down on one knee in front of a baby buggy that had just come out. I watched as this joyous man, obviously a granddad, talked and smiled and caressed his baby grandson for more than two minutes, oblivious to the crowd around him.
Posted in Ambassadors for Christ, Grace and Forgiveness
Tagged Christian love, Fellowship, Jakes, jealousy, modalism, Trinity
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Pleading for a “god”
My God is strong enough that He doesn’t need me to throw a temper fit, burn down buildings, and kill people every time someone insults Him.
My God is just enough to keep justice in His own hands, rather than in mine, when someone insults Him, because I might mistakenly act against someone who is innocent.
My God is merciful enough to be patient even with those who insult Him, because sometimes those people foolish enough to do that have repented.
My God is wise enough to know that, if His people engaged in violence to uphold His honour, it would dishonour Him, making Him appear too weak to avenge Himself and too unjust to care about innocent victims.
***
Violence “on behalf of a god” is nothing new. When Gideon destroyed an idol, the followers of Baal wanted to kill him. Joash, Gideon’s father, was ready for them:
Judges 6:31
And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar.
Because our God is really God, we don’t need to “plead” for Him, to engage in violence on His behalf. Christians don’t need to burn embassies and kill people just because some evil Muslim imam burned a Bible, or threatened to urinate on the Scriptures. Our God is quite able to deal with that wicked man.
But if your god isn’t that strong, isn’t that just, isn’t that merciful and good, isn’t that wise, why then, you have to take matters into your own hands, I guess. But you just make it look like you don’t really believe he can handle it himself. You make yourself look like foolish, angry, unjust people, and you make your god look feeble, if he really needs you to behave in that way.
Romans 12:19
Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
If vengeance belongs to God, and we take vengeance, we are stealing something that belongs to Him. When we do that, we only bring His vengeance on ourselves. Something to think about next time you plan on killing an ambassador.
Just Because….
We all know the story of the boy who cried “Wolf!”
Just because you cry “wolf,”
that doesn’t mean there aren’t wolves out there.
- It does mean you personally are less ready to deal with the wolf when it comes.
- It does mean others won’t believe you, so you won’t have help with real wolves.
Thoughts on the Olympics — The Race Set Before Them
For twenty-five laps around the track, almost half an hour, they ran their own race. The Eritreans took the lead, pushing the pace, but they stayed in the pack. An Ethiopian threw in a surge, then the Kenyans took the lead and upped the pace for a lap or two. No panic when they were 10 metres, 15 metres off the lead. A 10K on the track is a long race, as much of a mental battle as a physical one, and they had their plan.
Posted in Olympic Thoughts
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Enough Paint?
My company has this great benefit that gives us a four-week sabbatical every five years, which we can use for personal enhancement / development.
Posted in Grace and Forgiveness
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So Everyone Could Use It
I would give up every book I own, including my first edition of the OED, my Civil War edition of the Merriam Webster’s Unabridged, etc., etc., etc., so everyone could use it any time they wanted rather than that only I or my friends could use it . . . and obviously I could use it too.
–Michael Hart
Posted in Bibliology, NT Textual Criticism
Tagged Michael Hart, NTTC, oldest and best manuscripts, textual criticism
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Mind Renewers 