Matthew 5:44,45

"But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on {the} evil and {the} good, and sends rain on {the} righteous and {the} unrighteous."

But my usual actions are to love those closest to me.

I love those who make me comfortable.

The ones I care for are those who share the same interests ... the same reactions ... the same backgrounds ... the same dislikes ...

But, God, You are asking me to love those who go against everything I am? I am supposed to show a deep care for those who don't talk like me ... who don't like the same things I do ... who may not even love You?

This is a hard thing to grasp.

But I do see how You showed love to those who cursed Your Name, and who enjoyed showing an open mockery to the things that are sacred to You.

It's hard for me to love egomaniacs. Or racists. Or people who refuse to think. Or those who prey on the innocent. Or blasphemers. You know my heart, Lord, and how hard it is.

I will work on this, Lord.

Authenticity

What makes you, as a Christian, different from anybody else?

In this world that sees us and hears us, how are you different from a Mormon, Muslim, Hindu or even atheist?

Is it in title only?

What has established you as a Jesus-follower? How has it changed your behavior?
Can people really be drawn to Christ by observing you?

Is your worship of the Lord genuine...

.... even when nobody else is around?

Praise to God, Who is Worthy

Luk 1:49
For he, the Mighty One, is holy, and he has done great things for me.
Luk 1:50
His mercy goes on from generation to generation, to all who fear him.
Luk 1:51
His mighty arm does tremendous things! How he scatters the proud and haughty ones!
Luk 1:52
He has taken princes from their thrones and exalted the lowly.
Luk 1:53
He has satisfied the hungry with good things

A Brief Update on the Zockoll household

Nicholas is back from ETSU for the next couple of weeks, and Peter has finished his exams at Berean Christian School. We were amazed at his acting ability in the Agatha Christy play And Then There Were None. Jill is still walking about the house, trying to see how we can fill in the 4500 square feet we now own. She is doing an amazing job of decorating. We're going with a Tennessee country lodge look if we can design it right, but it will be a challenge. She's also doing a great job getting us all ready for Christmas. The tree is nine feet tall and covered with lights and garland. The pumpkin and cinnamon candles are giving the house a wonderful aroma. There are white lights along every outdoor gutter that we can manage.

The Lord is so good! We have looked forward to owning a home like this and ministering to people without having to crash into them because our house was too small. Even though we decided to take a year or two to properly prepare the home for this new ministry, we are already having people, young and old, coming to visit. Things are finally slowing down, and litle Julianne is a precious relief after the stress of the day. Our three year old entertains us constantly. Her favorite shows are Blue's Clues, Little Bear and Thomas the Tank Engine. Although we battle a nightly mealtime challenge (Julianne just doesn't want to eat at that particular time) the rest of the evening is spent chasing each other around the house or reading fromn any number of books in her room.

We have enjoyed hearing from friends old and new. We have been in communication with old acquaintances from Hollister CA; Canton OH; Charlotte NC; Pittsburgh PA; Austin TX; Phoenix AZ; Salisbury MD; Colorado Springs CO among other places.

Blessings

The Lord has been opening numerous doors for our family. One is the acquisition of a literary agent from Hartline Agency. The agent is interested in my latest manuscript, Crying Island - a whopping 102,000 words...my most exhausting fiction work since I had to complete my dissertation.

Focus on the Family recently bought my latest novel for their Brio magazine. The novel is called Incident at Jupiter Lighthouse and will be published in May of 2008.

Psalm 37 rings true, that as the Zockoll family been delighting ourselves in the Lord, He has been giving me the desires of my heart ... one of which is to continue to write professionally.

Please take a glimpse at my other novels on bradzockoll.com and please be patient as I continue to build the site.

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

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.

Thoughts on the Christian's Joy

From Oswald Chambers:

Joy should not be confused with happiness. In fact, it is an insult to Jesus Christ to use the word happiness in connection with Him. The joy of Jesus was His absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice to His Father— the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do— ". . . who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross . . ." ( Hebrews 12:2 ). "I delight to do Your will, O my God . . ." ( Psalm 40:8 ). Jesus prayed that our joy might continue fulfilling itself until it becomes the same joy as His.

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I had a great time at the Berean Christian School at Camp Ba-Yo-Ca. I spent the last two nights traveling over to Townsend, TN and spent the evenings sharing the Bible with the 100+ students...what a great group. Dr. Core is an amazing administrator.

The Holiness of the Lord

The Heavens are unclean before Him Job 15:15
The Lord speaks in His holiness Psalm 60:6
God sits upon the throne of His holiness Psalm 47:8
Habakkuk 1:12 are you not from everlasting O Lord my God mine Holy one?
Habakkuk 2:20 the Lord is in His holy temple

God’s holiness would not allow a man to touch the ark, specifically against His rules 2 samuel 6

God’s holiness would not allow people to mock the Lord’s Supper and live 1 Cor. 11
God’s holiness would not allow people to lie to the Holy Spirit even in the honorable action of giving money to the Lord, Acts 5

Today's prayer

We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin —Hebrews 4:15

Heavenly Father,

Please prepare my heart as I minister to the students at Berean Christian School this week. Please also make ready their hearts as we all find Your teaching at the Spiritual retreat.

Please assist Oscar Hyde in his quest to honor You as he makes decisions for college and his career here on Earth.

I pray you would continue to strengthen my wife Jill as she battles fibro myalgia, and continues to be a stellar mother and wife.

Please help me as I face the challenges of the day, knowing that You have also faced these very same roadblocks and trials. I pray that People would see You above all else.

In Jesus' Name I pray,

Amen