Great Word to Ponder

I was reading in Mark 6 this morning and found a fascinating word about Jesus. I don't know if there is anywhere else in the Bible that uses this word when it comes to Jesus.

Mark 6:6 - "And He was amazed..."

Now, think about this. What would it take to amaze the Son of God? He's the Author of the Universe, the Creator of all things, the Anointed One ... what would make Him amazed?

"...at their lack of faith."

Now, ponder this: the one thing that could completely amaze Christ is the lack of faith of people in the face of everything that God puts before them! And I see this truth more clearly each day. God has given us so many good things each day - some small, others large - and yet there are people who will explain it away to "luck", "good fortune", "Nature", "the Fates," or some other invention of the mind.

Yes, I suppose that would be enough to amaze Jesus.

CS Lewis' conversion

At one time a hardened atheist, writer C.S. Lewis learned of a benevolent and loving God who cared about him. Lewis was able to overcome his terrible childhood memories and come to Jesus. he said, "In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed . . . . The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation."

Then Lewis made a specific step to accept Jesus as the God/man, the Savior. "I was now approaching the source from which those arrows of Joy had been shot at me ever since childhood. . . . No slightest hint was vouchsafed me that there ever had been or ever would be any connection between God and Joy. If anything, it was the reverse. I had hoped that the heart of reality might be of such a kind that we can best symbolize it as a place; instead, I found it to be a Person."

Possible L'Abri?

Here are a few photos of our new home. We move in on Friday! THank you, Lord for this beautiful home. It's 4500 square feet. We'll take time to fix it up and then we will start our student reception ministry as the Lord leads.

Our New Home

I can't even begin to tell you how excited we are about the new home God has given us. For almost 20 years, Jill and I have been praying to have a home that would be large enough to welcome groups, lead Bible studies for young people, and take in a missionary on furlough or an international student needing a place to stay overnight.

God has graciously made it possible for us to purchase a home on the west side of knoxville. This house is 4500 square feet and is everything we have ever dreamed of. True, it will need updating, but it is virtually all cosmetic - the structure is as sound as the day it was built.

I will post some pictures later on this week to let you see it. We are dedicating this home to honor the Lord in all we do.

The Omnipotence Paradox

I was recently asked if God could make a rock he couldn't move. It's a pretty cliche question coming from people who want a quick answer about God but don't want to stop and study the magnificent Lord.

There are some who strike a pose within the intellectual community to attempt a complete summary of the subject. J.L. Cowan wrote "The Paradox of Omnipotence Revisited" and proposed the following:

(1) Either God can create a stone which He cannot lift, or He cannot create a stone which He cannot lift.
(2) If God can create a stone which He cannot lift, then He is not omnipotent (since He cannot lift the stone in question).
(3) If God cannot create a stone which He cannot lift, then He is not omnipotent (since He cannot create the stone in question).
(4) Therefore God is not omnipotent.

Yet Mr. Cowan's assumption is that his proposal is the absolute, with no variance. Thomas Aquinas, however, would question Mr. Cowan's theory based upon the fact that he does not fully grasp what omnipotence truly means.

I like CS Lewis' words, stating that just because a person invents a preposterous statements and tries to affix authority about God to it, it must be true: "not because His power meets an obstacle, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God".

God is not the author of confusion, nor is His might limited to our small fantasies and bauble-type thinking. The God of the Bible is beyond comprehension, giving us but a glimpse of Hios majesty in the Bible.

Since I have never seen the far side of Venus, do I invent questions to doubt its existence? Science cannot explain fully the makings of gravity, and can actually write many journals on the doubts of its existence; does that make it so? I myself could give you hundreds of reasons - very digestible ones at that - on why a Boeing 747 could never lift off the ground. Yet the truth is there.

And so is the Truth, known as God.

Stunning Truth about Ability

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" ( Philippians 4:13 )

I always thought that the Philippians verse referred to the ability to do the great, noble and mighty. I can preach before great crowds; I can understand deep truths in the Koine Greek; I can endure trials and succeed where few have succeeded before...

But the WHOLE truth of this passage hit me this morning.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me..." Not only the high and mighty and heroic, but the humiliating.

Through Christ, I can take correction without losing my temper. Through Christ, I can do the mundane jobs without becoming impatient. Through Christ, I can turn away from the embarrassing sins that pester me and try to bring me down. Through Christ, I can lose my pride and truly serve Him.

This verse explains that I can have the power to be abased as well as be exalted.

Amazing.