Feb 132015
 

Lately, I have been thinking about intimacy.  I can’t say whether or not everyone longs for it, but I believe at least most people do.

When we hear of intimacy we often think of sex. That can be a part of it, but it is not its essence.  Real intimacy is that private bond two share when nobody else is around.  Nobody else is involved. Just me and one other.  The closeness of which nobody else can be a part.  One is alone, three’s a crowd, but two can be intimate.

Sometimes I long for intimacy. I want intimacy from true love. Love can provide intimacy to another because it loves. And love can provide intimacy to another because it wants to be loved. The best intimacy is both. I don’t think true intimacy can exist long without both parties providing both.

I don’t want my wife just to give intimacy to me because she loves me. I want her to desire intimacy from me because she loves me.

God does both. Imagine that.

Aug 182012
 

A few days ago, I saved a worm’s life.  He was wriggling like mad on the sidewalk, hopelessly removed from the comfort, safety, and security of the nearest dirt.  He must have crawled out there during a rain storm, got lost, and since he had no fingers with which to work his GPS, was doomed to wriggle around the concrete until exhausted and dried up.

Lucky for him, I came along and noticed his plight.  As I plucked him from the sidewalk, he screamed “Don’t eat me!”  I tried to assure him I was not an Early Bird, nor did I have similar culinary taste.  He was not convinced and therefore continued to wriggle frantically, trying to escape the discomfort of my pinching fingers.  It did not matter.  I tossed him to the dirt and continued on my way.  I saved a worms life.

I am sure if you were to discuss the incident with the worm, you would get an entirely different account of the events that occurred.  But then, he is a worm.  And I am a human being.  Our difference in perspective and capacity for understanding is vast.  Incomparable really.  Kinda like God and me.  Only God cares for me enough to die for me.  I would NOT go that far for a worm.

 

Aug 092012
 

I admit it.  I am a science geek.  So, it is no wonder that I have been watching the progress of NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover mission with great interest.  I’ve been checking web sites, watching videos, reading news and comments, and studying the earliest little grainy pictures.

A picture from Mars

Just a couple of days ago, I read a comment that was posted under a video of the Mars rover landing.  Most comments were very positive, praising NASA for a successful landing and an exciting mission.   However, one particular comment, negative in tone, caught my eye.  It was complaining about all the money that was being spent on exploring Mars when ” . . . all we need to know can already be found in the Bible.”  I think the comment was both sad, and wrong.

How could one book possibly contain all we need to know about an infinite God and His unfathomable expansive creation?  Sure, the Bible contains what we need to know about God, salvation, and foundational truth.  But it can’t contain everything we can know, because there is always more to know.  I am grateful for a medical doctor who reads the Bible, but I hope his knowledge also includes some details about the human body that have been discovered since the Bible was written.  On this hot summer day, I am thankful the chemists and physicists felt the need to understand atoms, molecules, and the principals of heat, cold, expansion and contraction.  Without that knowledge, no one would have invented my air conditioner.  The Bible is more than a book.  It is the foundation of knowledge and truth about our Creator.  However, the Bible itself says “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork .”

There is so much more to know.  So much more to be discovered.  I say, let us explore.  I am not afraid of what we may find.  Those with a godless world view may use the discoveries to invent theories, trying to erase their subjection to an all powerful God.  Where they are determined to find no god but themselves, they will see with clouded eyes, exactly what the are looking for, finding emptiness and meaninglessness in the process.

Those of us who eagerly accept there is something greater than ourselves, will find evidence of His existence throughout the universe.  Just as an artist endows a painting with a small bit of himself in every brush stroke, so our omnipotent creator has left His “DNA” throughout his creation.  The wonders of creation reveal the mysteries of the creator.  It’s out there.  He’s out there.  Let’s go exploring.

 

The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.
   – Psalm 19:1

 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead . . .
  – Romans 1:20

Feb 102012
 

On most Wednesday mornings I drag myself out of bed a little earlier than usual so I can meet with two or three other guys from church.  We sip coffee, discuss a book we are reading, talk about our lives, and pray for each other.  The other day, we started talking about jealousy.  If jealousy is a bad thing, then why does the bible say God is a jealous God?

I remember when I was in college, dating my wife.  We hadn’t been together very long, and she had a guy back home that wouldn’t give up.  Even while I was dating her, he would send her flowers.  I think he even asked her to marry him.  It made me jealous.  Who did he think he was, trying to steal my girl?  She’s MINE!  A few months later, she went home for the summer.   The guy had given up.  I was glad.   Even so, Tammy called one day to ask if I cared that she go out with a guy she was friends with.   It wasn’t a “date.”   Just two friends going to hang out together.    I told her . . . Yes . . . I mind.   She didn’t go.  I was glad.   And still jealous.

So what does it mean when God is jealous?  I think it means something different than when we are.  I was jealous for some of the right reasons and perhaps a few wrong ones.  I loved Tammy.  I didn’t want to lose her.  I didn’t want anyone else to have her.  I wanted what was best for her, but I also wanted to hang on to what I thought was best for me.  I was jealous because I didn’t want her to give to someone else the attention that I thought belonged to me.   I didn’t want to lose what was MINE.   I cared for myself, and my “possession.”   My jealousy has a since of selfishness in it.  My jealousy has me claiming as mine, another person.  Tammy is not mine.  She belongs to God.

God is jealous for all the right reasons.  He is jealous when other things pull us away from Him. He is jealous when we put other things above Him, not because He has some sort of ego, but because He loves us and wants what is best for us.  He loves us so dearly that He jealously looks after us.  When evil would try to stake a claim on us, He scoops us to Himself, jealously guarding His prized possession.  When Satan sends his evil on the attack, my Lord whose name is Jealous sweeps his arms around me and declares “MINE!”   He is jealous because we really are His.  And because what is best for us, is Him.

 

.  .  . for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God . . . 
               – Exodus 34:14

Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?   
               – James 4:5