Checked the headlines lately?

Israel is front-page news again. Israel, the cup of trembling, once again has the ire of the world at large concerning their blockade of Gaza.

I don't worry about Israel. The whole world can go ahead and condemn them. I'm not the least bit worried nor concerned about Israel. You know why?

Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever. --Psalm 121:4-8.

The Creator of all things keeps Israel. Do you hear me all you enemies of God's chosen? God keeps Israel, and He will neither slumber nor sleep! And for how long? Forever!

That is security.

Discern the signs of the times (Matthew 16:3): Israel's Messiah is returning soon: which side will He find you on?

May He Increase!

Hello my friends, brothers and sisters.

I've been lax in posting in the past few weeks. I suppose you could say I've succumbed to the challenges of life of late.

I'm very well aware that we battle not against flesh and blood, but against forces that we cannot see (Ephesians 6:12). Unfortunately, too often, those forces work within families and people that we know. I'm not saying that I know people who are possessed, in the classical sense of the word, but I'm fully aware that Satan and his demons use people all the time to accomplish their evil plans.

While my blog is a very public thing, I still need to be careful with what I explain here when it comes to my family. But I also want to share things with you in the event that God has brought you here to learn something from someone else.

A verse that has manifested itself right in front of our faces is from Proverbs:

He who troubles his own house will inherit wind, and the foolish will be servant to the wisehearted. --Proverbs 11:29.

The other one is:

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. --Ephesians 6:4.

Having said this, I'm fully aware of my short-comings as a father and a stepfather. But these verses aren't directed at my wife and I. No, my wife and I have been struggling with these verses as they relate to another parent that is part of our family.

Our situation is frustrating and disheartening, especially during those times when we forget that God is in control and sees everything. I told my wife this morning that if God is all-powerful, all-knowing, sees all things and knows the beginning and the end, then the question is: do we trust Him? Do we really trust Him?

If we do, and if we are living for Him and for His will to be done, then all we need to do is to trust Him.

Easier said, than done I know. But one thing I am finding is that the more you give to God in terms of your problems, worries, concerns, and fears, the more you realize that He is in control of everything.

Am I tap-dancing around the issue here? Yes, sort of. It would be the easiest thing in the world for me to just put the ugly story down here. I will say that blended families are challenging under the best of circumstances. My personal situation has been really great until the past few years (pre-teenager years). Not perfect, but it definitely could have been a lot worse.

What makes blended family situations intolerable at times is when the parents have two different moral compasses, and one is wise and the other is a fool. I'm blessed that I'm married to the wise one.

To the fathers out there: I've seen the results of not following Ephesians 6:4 first-hand. Speaking for myself, when I've lost my temper with my own 2.5 year old, I see how I've provoked him to anger. Speaking on behalf of my stepson, I've seen it all too often. It's heartbreaking when you see a broken spirit; when the light has departed from one's eyes. The heart grows cold and the spirit is crushed.

What I haven't been able to understand is how this sort of thing can go on for almost 17 years of his life and with increasing regularity. I'm not perfect, but it pains me when my own 2.5 year old is sad or hurt especially when I'm the cause of it. But then the answer comes to me: pride. For the first time in my life, I think I'm finally getting why God hates pride.

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling. --Proverbs 16:18.

If I could, I wish I could share Proverbs 11:29 with a certain someone. But Solomon gives plenty of eye-opening, counter-instruction:

The wise of heart will receive commands, but a babbling fool will be ruined. --Proverbs 10:8.

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel. --Proverbs 12:15.

A fool's anger is known at once, but a prudent man conceals dishonor. --Proverbs 12:16.

Leave the presence of a fool, or you will not discern words of knowledge. --Proverbs 14:7.

Excellent speech is not fitting for a fool, much less are lying lips to a prince. --Proverbs 17:7.

A rebuke goes deeper into one who has understanding than a hundred blows into a fool. --Proverbs 17:10.

Let a man meet a bear robbed of her cubs, rather than a fool in his folly. --Proverbs 17:12.

A fool does not delight in understanding, but only in revealing his own mind. --Proverbs 18:2.

A fool's lips bring strife, and his mouth calls for blows. --Proverbs 18:6.

A fool's mouth is his ruin, and his lips are the snare of his soul. --Proverbs 18:7.

If you would, please keep my stepson in prayer. My wife and I are in a little wooden boat with him that is taking on water. As fast as we are bailing out the water and trying to plug the holes, someone keeps making new holes. Our prayer is that God gives us an iron-hulled boat and sends a great fish to swallow the one trying to sink us.

Believe me, I'd much rather have this person start listening to God's wisdom than inheriting the wind of his own folly. But I leave that in God's hands and His will.

May He Increase!

It seems like it's been a long time since I've posted here.

One day turned into two and before I realized it, it's been over a week. Things have been quite stressful for me at work and family life has been hectic of late. I decided to change my routing up a little, put the blog on the back-burner for a little while and try to find some rest in the Lord.

In truth, I found myself really leaning not upon my own understanding but on God's promises (Proverbs 3:5). I also felt a lot of spiritual warfare and lies whispered in my ear. Then one day last week, I heard a message on K-Wave 107.9 from 1 John. I believe it was Chuck Smith who was giving the message. The passage that struck me was:

We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. --1 John 3:19-20.

Friends, God is so good. I love it when God speaks to me right when I needed it most.

For God is greater than our heart and knows all things . . .

Amazing. But it continues:

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because keep keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. --1 John 3:21-22.

When Satan tries to lie to you and tell you: "Wow, you really screwed up your testimony there, buddy," God knows all things, He is greater than our heart. When your heart tries to tell you, "You really aren't doing all that much for the Kingdom," God knows all things, He is greater than our heart.

Really. What are we made of? Dust. What do you expect from dust? Nothing. God knows our frailties and God knows we are sinners. But in spite of this, He loves us. He knows how many hairs you have on your head! (Matthew 10:30) I know that, this side of heaven, I will never understand the depths of God's love for you and I.

God is greater than this wicked heart, out of which flow so much evil (Matthew 15:18-19). God provided Himself (Genesis 22:8) as the propitiation for my sins, my frailties, my wicked heart. That is the kind of love that I will never understand. But that is the kind of love that I can put my complete trust and faith in, that no matter how hard I may fall, He is there to pick me back up and get me on the path back to His home.

May He Increase!

In the news this past week, there have been some stories about Noah's Ark having been found.

I've also done a few posts on Noah's Ark in the last month or so.

Whether this latest installment turns out to have true artifacts or not, we'll have to wait to see. But I think this brings up a question that everyone needs to ask themselves:

What if the ark of Noah was found?

Don't just casually dismiss the question. Think about it. Think about its implications.

If the ark was found tomorrow in the mountains of Ararat:

• it proves there was a global flood;
• it confirms the Biblical account;
• it confirms the location specified in the Bible;
• it confirms that God judged the entire world at that time.

But even more so, what did the ark represent to the people of Noah's day? It was a symbol of judgment. It was a demonstration of a loving, just God who had to punish sin.

Think, too, about where the ark was supposed to come to rest according to Genesis 8:4. We have to assume that nothing happens by accident. Everything happens for a reason according to the will of God. Why would God choose to have the ark come to rest on Ararat, a remote location 17,000 feet above sea level?

Remember, the entire world was destroyed by the flood except for the family of Noah and the animals that Noah brought into the ark. That means when the ark came to rest on Ararat, Noah and his family had no useful natural resources to start over again, right? Had the ark come to rest at a lower altitude, some place where Noah and his family could settle, they could have dismantled the ark and used it to build houses for themselves and barns for the animals.

No, instead God chose to rest the ark at such a high altitude that Noah and his family would have to migrate down to settle. The ark is left at 17,000 feet where it would eventually become frozen.

Along those lines, there is something interesting, too, that God tells Noah in the building of the ark.

"Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch." --Genesis 6:14 (KJV).

"Pitch it within and without with pitch." Why?

In the days of wooden boats, you pitch the outside to keep the water out. Why would you pitch the inside of a wooden boat? Is it perhaps that God wanted the ark to be preserved? Preserved for several thousand years in order to reveal to a later generation? A generation such as ours that has become so antagonistic toward the things of God?

Again, I ask you: "what if Noah's ark was found?" What would you think? Would it change your life? Would you suddenly realize that God surely judged the entire world for sin several thousand years ago and will do so again when Jesus returns? Would you suddenly realize that Jesus is who He says He is and you would repent and give your life to Him?

Think about it.

May He Increase!

Paul wrote two letters to the Corinthian church. In the first letter, there is a chapter on the doctrine of the resurrection, specifically in chapter 15.

But I wanted to look at just a small portion of this chapter that recently stuck out at me.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. --1 Corinthians 15:3-4.

In this passage, the phrase "according to the Scriptures" appears twice. I think a lot of us gloss over this without realizing what Paul is saying. At the time Paul was writing this, what were considered "the Scriptures?"

The answer is: the Old Testament.

So that brings up a question: where in the Old Testament does it prophesy that Jesus would die for our sins, would be buried, and would be raised on the third day?

The most common answer that people would probably come up with would be Jonah. After all, Jesus said:

"An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three night in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." --Matthew 12:39-40.

But did you know there are at least three other places in the Old Testament where Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection were prophesied? And not just His death (Psalm 22), not just His burial (Isaiah 53:9), but death, burial, and resurrection!

• Noah's Ark
• Abraham and Issac
• Rahab and the Spies

We've looked at each of these at some point, with Noah's Ark and Rahab being the most recent. The story of Abraham and Isaac we looked at in January 2009.

One thing I didn't really expand on in the post about Abraham and Isaac last year was that Isaac was dead to Abraham from the moment that God told him to "offer him there as a burnt offering" in Genesis 22:2. In Genesis 22:4, the specific, three-day interval is described.

You have to understand that God promised Abraham that He would make him a great nation. So when God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac--the son of God's promise--Abraham knew that God's promise depended upon Him resurrecting Isaac!

A Little Extra

Continuing on the theme, I accidentally ran across the Holy Spirit lead me to this passage in my study.

From the book of Hosea:

"Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him." --Hosea 6:1-2 (Emphasis mine).

I love God's Word. The more you dive into it, the more He reveals to you!

Has God revealed something new to you recently?

May He Increase!

I love football, especially my Denver Broncos.

Like a lot of sports, football has a period during the game called "half-time." It's where the players and coaches go back to the locker room and huddle and set strategy for the second half of the game to either put it away or figure out a way to win.

Yesterday was my 40th birthday. I spent the evening with family who welcomed me to this new decade of life.

The past six to twelve months have been turbulent at times and also the best of my life yet thus far. I was laid off last year. I was trying to go back to work for a former employer and manager, but instead God lead me to a competitor. The job has been a struggle and for a long time I wasn't sure I made the right decision. Yesterday morning I found out that that former employer was just acquired. I know what that usually means: layoffs. And so it would seem that I needed to thank God for unanswered prayers.

And yet, as I enter this new phase of my life, I'm trying to stand back and go into "half-time." I need to get back into that locker room with God and let Him tell me what He wants me to do in the second half. He has been putting things on my heart that I have forgotten about. He also allowed me--and maybe pushed me into--a few things that would seem to be practice for something yet future in my life.

My wife has a book by Billy Graham called Day by Day with Billy Graham which are little daily devotionals. She handed it to me yesterday morning and told me to read the one for that day, my birthday, April 22.

Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything; tell God your needs and don't forget to thank Him for His answers. --Philippians 4:6 (TLB).

Historians will probably call our era "the age of anxiety." Anxiety is the natural result when our hopes are centered in anything short of God and His will for us. When we make anything else our goal, frustration and defeat are inevitable. Though we have less to worry about than our previous generations, we have more worry. Though we have it easier than our forefathers, we have more uneasiness. Though we have less real cause for anxiety than our predecessors, we are inwardly more anxious. Calloused hands were the badge of the pioneer, but a furrowed brow is the insignia of modern man. God has never promised to remove all our troubles, problems, and difficulties. In fact, sometimes I think the truly committed Christian is in conflict with the society around him more than any other person. Society is going in one direction, and the Christian is going in the opposite direction. This brings about friction and conflict. But God has promised, in the midst of trouble and conflict, a genuine peace, a sense of assurance and security, that the worldly person never knows.

May He Increase!

There have been a lot of new TV shows about the Shroud of Turin lately. Seems like it's a new wave of Shroud interest which I find exciting.

My bro Jeff over at Jeofurry's Jesus Journey did a post recently on "Shrouded in Mystery." I've been interested in the Shroud for years, even before becoming a Christian.

You cannot just casually dismiss it. That's the key to this. Consider:

• The scientists still cannot explain how the image was made.
• It's not paint.
• There are no pigments nor dyes.
• There is blood.
• The wounds match what the Bible says happened on "Good Friday."
• Contrary to popular artistic renderings, the nail wounds are not in the hands but the wrists.
• The Shroud has holographic traits.
• It appears to be a 2-dimensional image of a 3-or-more dimensional object: could the image have been made as the cloth passed through Jesus' body as He was resurrected?

What say you? Interested to get your thoughts.

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter. --Proverbs 25:2.

May He Increase!

So it's confession time.

But it's also a praise report for what God showed me so vividly this past Saturday.

It was my wife's birthday so I wanted to take her to a nice breakfast. She didn't care where we went, as long as it had a patio. She likes eating outside and so I quickly though of a local restaurant that has a nice patio area.

As we pulled up to the restaurant, I saw a group of men sitting at a table in the patio section. It appeared to be a business meeting as I saw at least one open laptop. I grumbled under my breath and got irritated because if there was even a table left, I was bugged because I figured my two year old son would be a distraction to their meeting. All I wanted was to have a nice, relaxing birthday breakfast for my wife and this group of guys was spoiling my plans!

So we walked to the restaurant and I was still irritated at what was going to await us. When we got inside, I told the host it was a party of three and we wanted to sit on the patio. At this point, I didn't care if we disturbed their meeting because after all, this was Saturday morning and it was my wife's birthday, darn it!

One of the waiters peeked out and said there was a table available but they'd have to clean it off. I thought to myself: "Get busy, buddy." After a few minutes, our table was ready and we followed the host outside to the patio.

The gentlemen--I think there were about six or eight of them--were quietly discussing something but I didn't pay any attention. I just wanted to get to our table and ignore them. I was hoping my son wouldn't cause too much of a commotion at this point.

Then, God showed me what HIS plan was!

I don't recall exactly what was said, but it had something to do with a church and . . . the Gospel! Yes, this group of men sitting at this table appeared to be pastors of a local church!

I was brought to tears as I told my wife how bad I felt that I would be that selfish. I told her that I was recalling that passage in Proverbs that went something along the lines of:

For you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you. --Proverbs 25:22.

I was the aforementioned head in this passage and I was being showered with burning coals! Shame on me, I told my wife for acting so wickedly!

After repenting of this, I thanked God for loving me so much that He would not let this behavior go unnoticed by Him. Thank you, Lord, for correcting me.

For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son who He receives. --Hebrews 12:6.

What about you? Has God disciplined you in an obvious way? What has been your experience?

May He Increase!

It's been "one of those weeks."

After taking some time off to celebrate my ninth anniversary, I came back to a ton of work at my job. All week it seems I've been going from crisis to crisis with the waves crashing over me. It's been a difficult week.

And so, when I go through times like these, I like to dig back in to the Psalms, especially those of David.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread? --Psalm 27:1.

Wham. There it is. The Word just cuts, like a two-edged sword, right to the heart of the matter. Isn't this the only thing that truly matters? No matter what happens in this life, the Lord is my light and my salvation!

When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. Though a host encamp against me, my heart will not fear; though war arise against me, in spite of this I shall be confident. --Psalm 27:2-3.

While I wouldn't say I have outright--earthly--enemies, nor earthly hosts encamped against me, we still have been feeling the weight of my time of unemployment still. Just yesterday morning we got some bad news. And yet, I simply took refuge in God who knows all things and sees all things.

As things are coming against us, I see God simply pruning away what needs to be cut back and cut out from our lives. My faith and hope rest in who Jesus is; in who my Father is.

I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord. --Psalm 27:13-14.

Wait for the Lord: seemingly easy but oh so difficult in practice! The flesh would rather take over and act on its own will. May I remember to put my life into His hands and His perfect will.

When the going has gotten tough in your life, what has been your experience? Have you waited for the Lord? What happened?

May He Increase!

After considering the things that God hates, it would seem that He reminded me that it is good that we keep in mind our sinfulness and recognize that we indeed have a sin nature.

He also reminded me that once we recall our sins, He is more than willing to forgive us.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. --1 John 1:9.

I love this verse. Some of the most profound passages in the Bible are also the most simple. In this single verse--commonly considered "the Christian's/Believer's bar of soap"--we are shown both God's justice and His abundant love for us.

The key to remember is that the only way this verse works is by the blood of Jesus. Only through that vehicle can God have fellowship with us. Only by God shedding His own blood and paying the penalty for our sins can He once again have communion with us.

I find so much comfort in this. God went to unbelievable lengths to draw me back to Him. He loves me! He loves you!

Is He calling you into a new relationship with Him?

May He Increase!