opinions and musings

 It seems there is so much confusion these days about national disasters like hurricane Sandy and whether they are God's judgments or simply the results of years of sowing sin as a nation and reaping the effects of that.   Here are my thoughts.  This is where I am presently in my journey of understanding the Lord and His ways.  You may disagree and I would love to hear your take on it. I think the Father heard our prayers and that the storm was weakened and He did take death out of the storm.  Even though many people died and that is a terrible tragedy, I think that our spiritual enemy intended the death and destruction to be much, much worse.   We read in the gospels that Jesus rebuked the storm on the sea that was about to destroy the lives of his disciples.   Jesus told us that everything He did was a reflection of what He saw His Father God doing.  (see John 5).   So th...

This month I have a guest post from Frank Viola.  Frank is the acclaimed author of "Reimagining Church" and several other titles.  This is a great article from Frank on leadership and how it functions in the Body of Christ.  Let me know what you think: http://frankviola.org/2012/07/17/christianleadership/

This post is going to a bit different than my usual theological comments.  I wanted to share with you a bit about my two recent trips out of the United States.  I was able to travel to Bangalore, India in September 2011 for two weeks and then my wife and I traveled to Sydney, Australia for 10 days in May of 2012.  Both trips were huge gifts from the Lord.  I love to travel and so to me, this was God showing me how much He loves me by allowing me to travel to both of these beautiful places.  He loves all of us the same of course.  His love is amazing.  I’ve titled this post “There and Back Again”, and yes I realize this is overt plagiarism from J.R. Tolkein, so just call me Bilbo.  :-) Bangalore, India I’ve wanted to travel to India for many years now.  One of my best friends is a fellow from Hyderabad named John Golconda.  John was my mentor when I first started in the software industry back in 1997 and he really encouraged me ...

There are many passages in the gospels where the term “eternal life” is mentioned.  One of the most famous is John 3:16.  In the New King James translation it reads like this: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life .” What does the phrase “eternal life” mean?  Does it mean to live forever? Here is another famous passage:  A man runs up to Jesus and asks him,  “Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life ?” (Mark 10:17) And another: “And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life ?” (Luke 10:24-26) Most Christians when reading these passages automatically associate the phrase “eternal life” with “living forever with God in heaven.”  This is the way this phrase has been explained, taught and preached for a few hundred years now, so no wonder…. However, is this really wh...

I’ve been sharing some thoughts on the Kingdom of God in my last few posts.  The primary message of our Lord Jesus, as recorded in the gospels was that the Kingdom of God was present and available in the world.  The Kingdom of God is the active rule and influence of God in our world.   Many Christians tend to think of the rule of God happening sometime in the future – perhaps after the second coming of Christ or after the final judgment. However, Jesus plainly said that the Kingdom of God was present and operative in 1 st century Palestine (Matthew 4:17,23).  Matthew’s gospel records that after His resurrection, Jesus told His followers that He had been given all authority in heaven and on earth. (Matthew 28:18) If Jesus was given all authority on earth around 32 AD, then what more authority will he have in the Millennium or at his second coming?  The answer, of course, is zero - He will not then possess any more authority than He does now. ...

Guest post today from Frank Viola: Click this link to read the unedited interview: http://frankviola.org/2012/01/23/ntwright

If the central message of the gospels is that God in the person of Jesus of Nazereth has come to earth to be King, then what does that Kingdom look like as it develops in our lives and in society?  Mark in his gospel records that Jesus announced that the time was fulfilled and that the Kingdom of God was now a present reality (Mark 1:15).  However, in contrast to that, Matthew’s gospel records Jesus giving an example prayer in which he prays that God’s Kingdom “would come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  (see Matthew 6:10) So it seems that even though the Kingdom of God was present in first century Palestine, Jesus wanted his followers to pray for it to arrive.  Perhaps the Kingdom proclaimed by Jesus is something that will grow over time?   One of the parables that Jesus told about the Kingdom speaks of a small seed growing slowly over time until it becomes a large tree for all the birds to nest in.  (Matthew 13:31-32) ...