“And if you are seated in your high chair, or in a chair such as a greater person might use, keep your legs and feet below you as they were. Neither raise up your knees, nor place your feet upon the table, for that is an abomination to me. Yes, even when you have an interesting bandage to show, your feet upon the table are an abomination, and worthy of rebuke. Drink your milk as it is given you, neither…
I was looking through my most recent sketchbook today and realized something. I like it. It’s fun to remember where I’ve been, seeing the sketches, reading what I was thinking about or listening to. The way I draw and layout the pages of the sketchbook has come a long way since I first started. The reason that the feeling of liking it stood out to me was because I don’t always like it as much. Sometimes I’ll look at other people’s…
It would seem much easier to be known for your greatness in the way the world thinks about greatness than it is in the way God sees greatness. There’s always been a big part of me that has wanted everyone to see how great I am according to all the “great” things I have done, the talents I have, the lack of anything bad in me. But this desire causes me to put myself before others. To make myself look good at…
Who am I trying to be? Am I trying to be like a certain movie star, athlete or entrepreneur? Am I trying to be more like Mother Teresa or Billy Graham? Am I trying to be more like Jesus? I don’t think we should try to be like any of those people. What does trying to be someone else gain me if I’m not that person? I think that anytime we’re trying to be any certain way, it’s a sign that something…
I’ve got a feeling that while what I posted in “Part I” may make some sense, it may still leave a lot of questions unanswered. Perhaps questions like: “If God’s desire is for us to be so comfortable, rested and pleasured, how do you explain the torture, jailing, and gruesome killing of Jesus’ first disciples? And the promise that we’ll experience persecution and share in his sufferings? And the fact that life is painful and difficult?” It does seem like…
Food. Sex. Pleasure. Comfort. Rest. Ruling. Does this sound like a list of things that some preacher somewhere should preach against? Does this blog title sound like some hedonistic reality show? I admit that my knee-jerk reaction might be something like that. But I’m learning something entirely different. Early this year, I began to see a new theme emerging. That all of these things come as gifts from God. He thought them up himself and then rained them down as gifts for the…
God has always been well aware of the shame problem and it’s affects. Adam started passing shame potatoes like a pro right off-the-bat after eating the forbidden fruit. God asks: “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” Adam’s immediate response was an advanced double-potato-toss: “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit, and I ate it.” One potato at God. One at Eve. He seems to almost be saying…
There have been times when I really felt the love and presence of Father God. It seemed as though I was the most special person in the world to him. He and I were going to do great things together. There have been times when I stopped feeling that love and presence, but saw other people experiencing it. This was upsetting and evoked jealousy. It felt like God had moved on from me, and now he thought someone else was the…
