NowTHINK!AboutIt

Avoiding Hackneyed...Making Sense

God’s Place In Your Life

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Spiritual growth, people say, is evidenced when an individual puts God in their life but what does that mean, really?

According to Scripture, God is everywhere already (omnipresent). There is no door we can open through which He hasn’t been. There is no place He doesn’t inhabit by nature, constantly.

Therefore, God is already “in” every person’s life and the Bible leads us to understand He knows everything about each one (omniscient). Even your heart isn’t off limits to Him. He knows what’s on your mind and in your heart.

  • The Psalmist said God knows the secrets of the heart (Psalms 44:21)
  • David confessed that God knew his thoughts from afar (Psalm 139:2)
  • David also said God observed him in his mother’s womb (Psalm 139:15-16)
  • Solomon said “the eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good” (Prov. 15:3)
  • The writer of 2 Chronicles said “the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him” (16:9).

That last reference implies that God is sufficiently knowledgeable about each heart to determine which are blameless and which are not. That’s more than proximity, its personal. [Read more…] about God’s Place In Your Life

Observe The Handiwork Believe In The Hands

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On a recent flight from London to New York – 7 1/2 hours – I saw something that made me think of God’s relationship to the universe.

A lady sitting one row in front of me and one seat to the right was knitting.  I could see her hands through the space between the seats and to keep my mind off flying I watched the needles and tried to figure out exactly what she was doing.

No luck.  She went so fast and the patterns changed so frequently I could never quite get the movements right.

But, the outcome was amazing.  At the end of the flight – she knitted for seven hours straight – the finished product was beautiful yet complex. I couldn’t understand the finished product either – it would take a lot of time and investigation to figure it out – but I couldn’t deny the intelligence and precision that went into producing it.

I never really understood what she was doing with her hands and a brief look at the knitted results couldn’t help me understand how the strands were woven together but it really made me think. [Read more…] about Observe The Handiwork Believe In The Hands

Take Up Thy Cross

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One of the most consistent influential elements in human society over the past three plus millennia is the Bible. It has been the longest lasting, most copied/printed, most read and most taught book in history and its influence grows rather than fades in spite of significant detractors.

It is a classic. It is universal. It is foundational to many disciplines: literature, literacy, logic, art, law, hygiene, justice, social order and has been used to encourage many personal virtues the greatest of which is love. Those who refuse it are frustrated by the vast recognition it receives even across many diverse cultures.

  • Schools of thought, along with enduring educational traditions, have developed in response to the Bible.
  • Governments have shifted philosophically under its influence.
  • Wars, inevitable due to the basic nature of humans, have been fought directly as a result of biblical influence.

Yes, unnecessary conflict, abuse and rivalry have been initiated in the name of the Bible but we can hardly blame the Bible for the fallacious thinking of those who spawned it and quoted the Bible for justification. If anything, we learn from this that the Bible forces us to think. The experience of others helps us see that reading the text and understanding it are two vastly different things.

But, one piece of evidence demonstrating the Bibles influence – closer in time and more easily recognized – is the many English language idioms developed from it. You can find a long list of phrases taken from the Bible, almost verbatim, here. [Read more…] about Take Up Thy Cross

Book Review: “Father Joe”

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Father Joe is a religious book with a very human side, a biography of sorts whose main character comes in late and only dots the printed landscape intermittently but is the one person who makes the story worth reading slowly and more than once.

If you are denominationally minded but disenchanted by sectarianism you will love this book. If you are on the outside religiously but maintain a distant interest, you’ll find Father Joe compelling. He gives new hope to those still looking. He clarifies the issues, brightens the image of religion and puts a human, yet truthful face on truth.

He’s universal. Whatever your background you will relate to Father Joe.

This book illustrates the difficulties of combining divine and human realities. In true satirical manner the technicalities of Christian theology is juxtaposed with human frailty demonstrating the discord between the two but without the insult.

Lots of humor and very entertaining – at times Monty Python-ish – but mostly an honest, sometimes humble look at the struggle to mesh bare truth with experience. Although written from a Catholic perspective, verities embraced by all Christians are featured: selfishness is sinful, forgiveness is needed, penance has many forms, sex is a healthy reality and so on. [Read more…] about Book Review: “Father Joe”

Email Etiquette

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Computers and the advent of the internet have literally changed the way we do everything: business, research, watch movies, manage music, play games, create and socialize.

Communication has never been easier. We can call (Skype), instant message or email anyone in any part of the world from any place we might be at any moment in time. Thanks to IT, information is more accessible, life is more convenient and the pace of progress has been accelerated dramatically .

There are, however, a few downsides to all these conveniences. For one, in regard to mores, all the good this technology enables can be matched equally with bad. [Read more…] about Email Etiquette