In Word or Deed

We don't like to be out of control. Generally speaking, humans are very control oriented creatures and when things begin to slip out of our grasp we quickly become irritated, uncomfortable, and concerned. This is easily proven by examining nearly any random individual you care to look at deal with many of the minor inconveniences that assail us on any given day. Imagine, for example, that you are driving down a two lane road that does not allow for passing and you find yourself behind someone who -for whatever reason- has decided to drive five or ten miles below the posted speed limit. If you are anything like myself you will last perhaps five minutes before your opinion of the person in the car ahead has dropped drastically and in another few minutes you'll be devising all manner of creative nicknames for them. We don't like to be out of control, we don't like things simply happening -to- us, we don't like not being in charge; and I can't ...

Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash The world often seems to be in a constant state of turmoil and distress. Opposing factions struggle for power in every corner of the world and our various world-views and ideologies combat for supremacy from the water cooler to the world wide web. People everywhere seem to be either searching for real truth or loudly proclaiming that it doesn't exist. Many have simply given up on a life that is meaningful; some of them cutting it short. Where can we go for any sense of reality, any solid foundation of real truth? We can argue back and forth about science and philosophy, we can debate theology and atheism, we can discuss anarchy vs. order, but let me propose that there is one thing at least that no can effectively deny. Humanity is flawed. It doesn't take much observation to prove this simple truth, you don't even have to look outside of yourself. You and I can look inside of ourselves and see selfishness, greed, li...

Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash This is part two of a two part series, please read part one before you read today's post! I apologize that this a week late, I was super busy last week and the post just slipped through the cracks! Continuing where we left off last, it is important -even crucial- to understand that though we share some of the qualities of God we do not possess these qualities in the same way or to the same degree that God does. Just as a mirror that reflects our face is merely a flat image and not a whole other person so too are we representative of God but lacking in the depth and fullness of what He is like. We can be intelligent but not like God is intelligent, we can be creative but not like He is, we can love but not nearly as much as He does, we can be strong but our strength is as nothing against His. To take this a step further, the fact that God made us male and female doesn't have any reflective meaning on the nature of God ...

Photo by Nine Köpfer on Unsplash I just read an article today -and no, I'm not going to share it- that proposed that Christians need to stop saying that Homosexuality and other LGBT/Gender Identity concerns are a sin.  The articles author ran through a series of not unintelligent sounding but ultimately inaccurate claims to support their perspective but the one that I want to talk about is this: God is gender fluid. The argument in a nutshell was that God created mankind “in His image” and since God created them male and female than God is not just male nor even just female, right?  God created both genders in His/Her/Their image and thus must encompass and contain the whole 'spectrum' of gender identity. Well, if we're going to talk about this let's start by looking at the verse in question. “ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and ...