Creating, collecting, and sharing thoughts and ideas. And learning along the way.
Of Taxes, Mortgages, and Easements in the Year 1945
Raising the Bar in Charlotte, Michigan
“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.”
Failure to believe. Â That is why, and only why. Â Not because of anything else — certainly not because of the weight of guilt and sin that we enter into this world with when we are born, and certainly not because of the burden of guilt and sin that we accumulate over the course of our lifetimes. Â Nay, it has nothing to do with any of that at all. Â If we find ourselves facing the eventual prospect of death and no hope beyond death, it is only because of our failure to believe. Â To believe in the plan of redemption that has been made freely available to all through the sacrifice of the one who knew no sin but was made to bear the sin of the world so that the price for redemption might be acceptable to the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God Almighty; and whereby the act of belief and acceptance in this gift signals a contrite spirit of confession that recognizes that one cannot save oneself with acts of righteousness, but that salvation lies in the acceptance of the grace of God. Â Where do stand on this matter, gentle reader?
“Mommy, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me!”
“It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.”
Ephesians 2:1-6: MSG – A verse of the day from the Bible presented in Eugene Peterson’s contemporary version called The Message. Accompanied by a personal reflection below.
“Immense in mercy and with an incredible love!”  That is how God is being described here by Paul.  This is truly a love that is incomprehensible, don’t you think?  This is not just a God who is immense in mercy, but on top of mercy — which is huge in and of itself — there’s love too?  I mean, who does that?!  But that’s what’s unique about this God, don’t you see, gentle reader?  This is a God that loves you to the point of taking upon Himself all your sin — which is both forgiveness and love in action  — and then assures you of eternal life.   I hope and trust you will take a moment to consider this.
Competing with the Setting Sun
“Mommy, it’s Thursday already, where are you?!”
