What’s Your Reason?
In the picture I chose, why do you think this person is positioned the way he is? We can speculate that he’s praying, but maybe he’s just tired and resting, and what would be his reason in either case? We don’t know for sure unless we asked him and he told us – the truth.
I have a goal in my life, and this is one I’ve shared with a few, but not even all 30 of the Mighty Men have heard me articulate it yet. This goal is two fold, and I’ll describe it as quickly as possible – (after all, those re-posts were taking just as long as an original one, and I’m still pretty short on time these days…) The first part of my goal is simply to have a reason for everything I believe and do. Secondly, I want those reasons to be founded on Scripture.
Is this possible? If it is possible, should every “Bible believing Christian” also have this goal? I’m not 100% certain on either question. But this is where I am right now, and since having Biblical reasons makes sense to me in so many areas, why wouldn’t I seek them in ALL areas?
I could go on for a long time listing examples of how I attempt to put this in practice, but I’ll just give one from last night that came out of no where and really moved me… For some reason, I was reminded of this concept as Maria told me it was time to say prayers with Gideon. As usual he asked me, “Daddy, can you lay down with me for 10 minutes?” and instead of just saying, “sure buddy” like always, I asked him, “Why do you want me to lay down with you?” and he gave a muffled, face-in-pillow, but perfectly reasonable answer: “Because I love you.”
Isn’t that what God says to us when we ask Him why? And don’t you think it would bless Him if we said we were going to obey for the same reason: because we love Him? And the fact that the reason we love Him is that He first loved us amazes me even more! That reason also makes me feel like Blaise Pascal who said “The heart has it’s reasons that reason knows nothing of?”
I may not be able to explain all the reasons, but I pursue them because they help give meaning to life. There are people out in the world with a million questions why, and if we don’t have reasons for what we believe, and why we live the way we do, then how will we answer them?
“Come let us reason together,” God says, “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow…” (Isaiah 1:18)
Peace,
Adam
Full Disclosure: I got this book a long time ago and still haven’t read it… I should have gotten the audio book… But I think I’ll move it up on my list; I’ve just been focusing on books to be a better husband and father recently. But I think this will probably help out in both areas – any suggestions???
Last “oh by the way” – I wanted to mention this in case anyone thought I was intending to justify my actions by scripture, which can happen if it’s taken out of context – BUT NO WAY!!! The purpose is to find what God’s Word says, interoperate Scripture with Scripture, and then match my actions to what the Scriptures say.
God’s Facebook Posts
So I took yesterday off to focus on my wife because it was our 8th anniversary, and it was AWESOME! Although I posted a lot on Facebook yesterday – how I’ve learned marital BLISS because of her, (Beautiful Life Involving Someone Special) – I really can’t say enough about my beautiful bride! Check out her blog for a couple photo’s of our evening, we start our 9th year together today and it just keeps getting better.
I also started “ground school” yesterday to get ready for the next phase of my flight training syllabus, so I probably won’t be posting every day, which will make some posts (like this) more lengthy – sorry!
Anyway, I sent out this message to a few Mighty Men this morning, and I wanted to elaborate on the idea here: “If God wrote a “Facebook post” on “the tablet of your heart” would you click the “like” button? would you comment on it? Would you even read it?”
Anyone who has read my posts before or who has talked to me will understand my perspective on Facebook. As Chris and Kerry Shook say in their book “Love at Last Sight,” “technology is neutral, it’s how you use it that makes it good or bad.”
I’ve got a friend, however, (& not a Facebook friend) that considers Facebook “the F-word!” I totally respect his opinion and hope he doesn’t feel like I’m trying to push him in a direction he doesn’t want to go by bringing up topics like this. I only want to offer people the Gospel – not technology – after all, Paul said “we preach Christ, and Him crucified…” However he also believed in being all things to all people to win some, and also said “all things are permissible but not all things are profitable.” So refraining from Facebook use is definitely a good course of action for many, and to those I say: Keep it up!
My simple point in posing questions like this is that many people don’t read the Bible. Every time I am challenged on the validity or authority of the Bible I ask this question in response: “Have you read the whole thing?” Without exception the answer is “no.” The conversation doesn’t go very far from there, because the point isn’t what everyone else says about the Bible, the point is what IT SAYS. And believe me, I know there are some tough sayings! But you gotta keep reading to understand them – scripture is interpreted with scripture – not by cynical skeptics!
I’m concerned about the growing Biblical illiteracy in the Church today. We send kids to school for 8 hours a day for 12 years and then they go to 4 years of college in some cases. Add it up and you’ve got about 21,240 hours of instruction by age 22. If the same individual goes to church an hour a week and reads their Bible for 5 minutes a day “like a good Christian,” they’ve spent a mere 1,587.5 hours in the Word. That’s 19,652.5 hours less time spent studying the things of God by the time many are starting careers, getting married and having kids!!! How’s that working out for us?
I post verses on Facebook and I ask questions like this to encourage Believers to read what God says more than they look at their own posts… Yeah, I do it too: read what I write sometimes without reading what anyone else writes. But you can be sure, I’m getting my daily dose of His Word – especially when you see me share it on Facebook.
Peace,
Adam
Verses to link:
God’s Facebook post: Psalm 67:1 80:3, 89.1 and 119:135 (AMP)
“Written on the Tablet” Prov 7:2-3 (NASB)
“click Like”: Psalm 119:16
“comment” Psalm 145:5 (KJV)
“even read it” Joshua 1:8 (GNT)
Preach Christ: 1 Cor 1:23
All to all: 1 Cor 9:19-23 – esp. vs22 (NIV)
All permissible: 1Cor 6:12; 10:23 (HCSB)
Understand Jesus
I’m reading through my “World Magazine” and I have more books on my reading list than I can count, but this one interested me enough to write a blog post about it and talk about Jesus some more. I didn’t write yesterday because I was hanging out with some other pilots on this trip that I’ll write about next week – maybe, but it’s good to take a day off from blogging, as I’m sure all bloggers know!
So in this book review, the author Christopher Wright says that the best answer to the hard questions in the Old Testament concerning God’s command to wipe out the evil people is to “emphasize seeing Christ in the OT”… Joshua (Jesus) – Yehoshua in Hebrew – means “Yahweh saves.” He mentions the book of Joshua in the Bible and how it foreshadows the Gospel of Christ.
One of the problems I see in our society and in the church is a lack of understanding Jesus. We say things like WWJD, and I even heard someone ask the question “What Would Jesus Eat?” when talking about how some Christians don’t eat healthy… While I think that considering what Jesus’ response would be in every situation is a very good goal, I don’t think it can be done well without much study on Who Jesus IS. (notice I didn’t say was) But in order to get this understanding, a person has to be willing to consider that Jesus is included throughout the Old Testament, that He really lived and died and rose again for you, and that He’s coming back some day soon!
I believe that unless you’re at least willing to consider those things, it’s basically pointless to consider what He might do in any particular situation… Whether it’s an entrée choice, or a business decision, or a relationship to pursue; unless you know Jesus, how can you really know what He might do? And why ask the question of what He might do unless you really want to know Him? Paul had this in mind when he prayed for the church in Colossians. And the wisest man Solomon encouraged understanding when he wrote to his son as well. (Proverbs ch 2 & 4)
And anybody who is married, and trying to do This, knows that it doesn’t happen over night… it takes time and effort and patience!
I pray more people who think about Jesus will desire to understand Him as well; He wants to be known so that we can know His Father, and I want what He wants too, even if I fall short in doing what He would do!
peace,
Adam
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