Among the many paradoxes we find in Jesus’ teaching is this: whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
When we think of the things we love, we automatically think of things we want to keep, not lose. And when we think of the things we hate, we automatically think of things we wouldn’t mind losing, or giving up altogether; things we certainly would not consider keeping for eternity!
So what are we to make of this teaching?
New Year’s Resolutions. A phrase you read and hear often this time of year. But the connotation this phrase relays to you depends on the kind of year 2019 has been for you. Do you look back with a sense of accomplishment and look forward with a sense of hope? Or does 2019 carry its share of pain and despair, casting a gloomy shadow upon 2020?
But what is it that we look for when we look back to “grade” 2019? Could it be that our grading scale is off scale? How do we define accomplishment? What would make us “feel good?” And is it about “feeling good?” I’m sure you’d agree with me that feelings often go as quickly as they come, leaving us empty, so what does a “good year” look like? For those of us who are Christians, we may define a good year as one that is in accordance to God’s will. But that brings us back to a similar question: What does a year in accordance to God’s will look like?
The omniscient omnipotent uncreated Creator of the universe, eternally unconstrained by time and space, entered into time and space as a baby born in a manger, steadfastly setting His face towards the Cross and dying the most gruesome of deaths for us while we were yet enemies… because He loved us!
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
(Isaiah 9:6 )
Have a glorious Christmas!
Faith against all odds.
Hope in the face of despair.
Love in response to contempt.
This is but a glimpse of the transformation that God undergoes in the utterly sinful human heart… and it is nothing short of miraculous!
Isn’t it ironic that one day we celebrate our gratitude for what we have and the next we’re frantically looking for the best deals for what we don’t have? Only He who fine tuned the universe can tune the distortion we have wrought upon human nature!
Who am I?
What makes me me?
Am I valuable? If so, what is it about me that gives me value?
These are the types of questions we ask early on in our lives and spend virtually the rest of our lives trying to answer. What makes our search for identity so difficult? Are we looking in the wrong places? Where are we looking? Allow me to suggest the four most common places we go to in our hunt for identity: beauty, ingenuity, activity, and prosperity.
Is God as revealed in the OT tougher than in the NT? Many have mistakenly thought so. I believe that if God had not revealed Himself as a consuming fire, we wouldn’t have grasped His hatred of sin, the necessity of the cross, and the magnitude of His love, humility, and sacrifice.
Timothy Keller has often said that anything we consider to be “ultimate things” are idols in our lives. While it’s often tough to get rid of the “ultimate things” which we falsely believe our life hinges upon, giving them up results in unspeakable freedom!
It seems like one of the games that kids have played across cultures and ages has been Hide and Seek. In a child’s mind, hiding is fun, and the level of amusement seems directly correlated with how difficult it is to find them, and is followed by some level of disappointment when they’re eventually found.
Yet the scenario drastically changes when this same child is lost in real life. Hiding ceases to be a game. They no longer want to be clever at hiding, they want to be clever at being seen! Their entire being seems geared towards only one thing; to be “found” by their parents… And when they are found, joy and peace supplants their agonizing fear and insecurity.
As adults, our intrinsic need to be “found” remains, yet we seem to find a certain level of “safety” in hiding.
عند دراسة التخطيط الدقيق جدًا الذي رسم به الرب خيمة الاجتماع لتكون مسكنًا له، انتابني تساؤل: هل نهتم نحن ببناء وتشكيل ورعاية مسكن الله اليوم كما اهتم موسى وشعب الله ببناء خيمة الاجتماع؟ هل نسمح لله أن يرسم ويشكّل فينا لنكون نوع المسكن الذي يليق بسُكنى القدوس؟