God's Fatherly Love

I've been thinking about this massive God who touches the tip of the universe and monitors the structure of the molecule; He's so vast as to see all of creation yet so personal as to care about me. It's hard to comprehend until I bring it down to earth a bit more...

I think of my watchcare over my three year old Julianne. I cannot begin to describe my love for her. Every joy she has is a joy replicated with me. When she cries, I am in agony. When she delights, I sit back with a contentment that nothing else can match.

I think of Jesus, God in the flesh, who likens Himself in Luke 13:34 to a hen that willingly gathers her chicks under her wings for warmth, protection and a phyical display of love. The hen will sacrifice herself but she'll use every strength to protect her loved ones.

Jesus proved that on the cross. And the kicker is, He didn't have to.

That's a love that astounds me.

Jer 32:17

"Ah Lord GOD!

behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power
and
stretched out arm,

there is nothing too hard for thee..."

"eucharistia"

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. - Philppns 4:6

Tomorrow's the day! We're gathering at the Ponderosa (the current name for our new home) and celebrating God's goodness. I mean it. Yes, we're going to stuff ourselves with all sorts of turkey, pudding, bread, gravies, and especially mashed potatoes, a personal favorite of mine. (I truly believe that one corner of Heaven will have a factory for making mashed potatoes. I'll bring the butter and seasonings somehow.) But most of all we are going to celebrate God's goodness with a true time of thankfulness.

Look at the word thanksgiving in the verse above. The word is "eucharistia" in the Greek and means the giving of thanks from outside and from within. The heart is involved as well as the hands. Bible scholar David Guzik says: "We really can be anxious for nothing, pray about everything, and be thankful for anything."

So, for what are we thankful? Hey, it's easy for me to thank the Lord for my wonderful family, our new home, good friends and neighbors, and a wonderful city in which we live.

But I also am reminded that it is good for me to thank the Lord for the challenges in life.

When I found out a dear friend had slandered me last month.

When I lost my job years ago, and having to scrape in finding other odd labor.

When we realized that Jill had fibro myalgia, and my thyroid was dropping me into deep periods of depression.

When I was hospitalized.

...and many many other seemingly "disappointments" in life.

Let's face it... I obviously don't see the Big Picture, but I do realize God prepares me for the greater steps in life by training and exercising parts of my life that may hurt.

And for that, I can honestly say "thank you, Lord Jesus."

A Best Friend

"A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity." - Proverbs 17:17

Yesterday as I was about to start the work week, I was approached and hurt deeply by some very sharp words.

You know the feeling.

The bottom fell out on me. I sat at my desk and asked myself "Why? Why were these words used in such a thoughtless way? Why was I the target of such an attack - especially at the beginning of the week?" Great way to start a Monday, let alone the rest of the Thanksgiving week...

I worked through the morning to try to calm my anger and restore peace. I realize that my best way of doing so was to turn to the Savior and have a quiet time. That's what is so fascinating about this Lord - He really does love at all times. In fact, He is ready for the battle.

I'm not saying that all of the frustration went away. But I can say that without my Friend to turn to, it would have been a road that I don't think I could have walked.

Back at UT

It's great being back at the Sunday night Bible study at the University of Tennessee campus. Meeting such great students as Matthew, "Frodo", Amy, and others is a real boost to my spirit each week. We meet in Reese Hall for an in-depth look at world religions, philosophies, theories, and the Bible's answers to their many questions. This is a ministry that I have wanted to do for years, bring to mind the verse in the Psalms: "Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart." (37:4)

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The words of preacher Charles Spurgeon:

In Job's uttermost extremity he cried after the Lord. The longing desire of an afflicted child of God is once more to see his Father's face. His first prayer is not "O that I might be healed of the disease which now festers in every part of my body!" nor even "O that I might see my children restored from the jaws of the grave, and my property once more brought from the hand of the spoiler!" but the first and uppermost cry is, "O that I knew where I might find HIM, who is my God! that I might come even to His seat!" God's children run home when the storm comes on. It is the heaven-born instinct of a gracious soul to seek shelter from all ills beneath the wings of Jehovah. "He that hath made his refuge God," might serve as the title of a true believer...

"O that I knew where I might find Him!" —Job 23:3

Powerful words from a London preacher of years past. Just as Job did, crying not for physical healing but for God's nearness, I want first and foremost of all to see His gentle closeness and mercifuil ways to me whenever the sky grows dark in my life.

The Question of Absolutism

I like this reflection by Matthew Slick of the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. He gives a straightforward answer to the challenge of relativism vs. absolutism:

"I was once challenged to prove that there were moral absolutes. I took up the challenge with the following argument. I asked the gentleman whether or not there were logical absolutes. For example, I asked if it was a logical absolute that something could exist and also not exist at the same time. He said, no that it was not possible.

Another example is that something cannot bring itself into existence. To this he agreed that there were indeed logical absolutes. I then asked him to explain how logical absolutes can exist if there is no God. I questioned him further by asking him to tell me how in a purely physical universe logical absolutes, which are by nature conceptual, can exist. I said, they cannot be measured, put in the test tube, weighed, nor captured; yet, they exist. So, I asked him to please tell me how these conceptual absolute truths can exist in a purely physical universe...without a God. He could not answer me.

I then went on to say that these conceptual absolutes logically must exist in the mind of an absolute God because they cannot merely reside in the properties of matter in a purely naturalistic universe. And since the logical absolutes are true everywhere all the time and they are conceptual, it would seem logical that they exist within a transcendent, omnipresent, being. If there is an absolute God with an absolute mind then he is the standard of all things as well as morals. Therefore, there would be moral absolutes.

To this argument the gentleman chuckled, said he had never heard it before, and conceded that it may be possible for moral absolutes to exist."

For more of Mr. Slick's excellent work, see www.carm.org