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Showing posts from November, 2010

Giving Thanks to the LORD for His Everlasting Love…

Psalm 136 begins “Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.” As the psalm progresses there is this refrain “for His lovingkindness is everlasting,” in other words, “His love endures forever.” What wonderful words to sing. In this song, the psalmist looks to his own history and sees the love of God being demonstrated from one event to another. God delivered His people from Egyptian slavery, parted the Red Sea, fought for them in desert battles, and brought them to their promise land, proving “His lovingkindness is everlasting.” We can give thanks to God because His love endures forever. The everlasting love of God is also demonstrated throughout the whole of Israel’s history. Vishal Mangalwadi, in his lectures entitled “Must the Sun Set on the West,” shares of his struggles reading through the Old Testament, from Genesis to Chronicles, but one day he had an epiphany that the books being read offered a glimpse in Jewish history from God’s perspecti...

Giving Thanks to God…

Now is the season to give thanks. I think it easy these days to get a bit cynical and lose our sense of gratitude for what we have. I find the Psalms 100 puts things into perspective, and offers some real reasons to give thanks, its two stanzas, short and sweet: Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His loving kindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations (Psalm 100:1-5, NASB). The psalmist calls people into worship with shouts of joy, glad service, and joyful singing (vv. 1-2). He reminds them that God “has made us, and not we ourselves” (v. 3), or better yet, “It is he who made us, and we are his” (ESV). How great it is to know that w...

Time, Space, Matter, and God

I remember someone mentioning a conversation with a skeptic on the existence of God, wherein the skeptic essentially asked, “If God does not exist inside time or space and is immaterial, then in what way does He exist? Is God made of nothing?” At first glance this question certainly seems pretty difficult but nothing about it really creates a problem for a theist. The question presumes a materialistic world. In other words, the one asking already accepts the idea that the only thing that exists in the universe is material stuff, and apart from that there is nothing else that exists. All that can be physically detected, measured, quantified, and categorized is all that can exist in this universe. Since God does not fit into these categories, the skeptic questions in what way can there be a God. The skeptic’s strict materialism ultimately becomes a stumbling block from which he falls upon his own sword. What the skeptic fails to realize is that there are things which he too believes ...

Does the Bible Have Anything to Do with Having a Relationship with God?

Does the Bible have anything to do with having a relationship with God? Some might think they can get in touch with God by getting in touch with nature. I can understand that. I enjoy getting out and talking walks on the greenway. Out there I can see the beauty of God’s creation, and all that I see in nature dives my soul to sing, “How great Thou art!” There is something about observing the handiwork of the Creator. Trees, flowers, birds, deer, squirrels, snakes, fish, tadpoles, bull frogs, and butterflies all in their own way pay tribute to the Maker. Yet, one can get in touch with God on an even deeper level through meditating upon the Scriptures. God also has spoken to us through Moses and the prophets and Christ and the apostles, and through them God has share things about Himself that could not have been known otherwise. God the Father sent the Son to be incarnated in the person of Jesus Christ. He is Living Word, who has declared to His followers the good news of salvation. Thi...