This one will take a little while to watch trough, but it is well worth the time. I challenge you not to find yourself somewhere in this video. Watch through this video and rejoice in the unending love of God that transforms us.

I never cease to be amazed at how God teaches me and convicts me through my kids.  This is another one of those stories.

Here’s the background on the situation.  These days I find myself struggling through some pain.  Late last year, I woke up one morning with some lower back pain.  Within a couple of weeks, that pain had spread into my leg and hip.  I went to a chiropractor a couple of times, and it seemed to be getting a little better.  Then, over the Christmas vacation, including a trip in a mini-van to and from North Carolina, the pain increased substantially.  Over the last couple of weeks that we have been back, I have continued to see a doctor regularly and do some physical therapy to try to alleviate the pain.  Following a session with the physical therapist this past Thursday, my pain level increased significantly (hopefully that is actually a sign that it is getting better).  Well, Saturday was a particularly bad day.  In addition to everything else, I came down with a bad cold and sore throat to boot.  At times the pain in my back and leg was so severe that it bordered on excruciating, and I’ve been told I have a high threshold for pain.  Whether I sat, or stood or laid down, the pain would not get any better.

At one point in the afternoon, Jacob (my 8 year old) told me:

“Dad, I hope your leg gets better soon.  Remember, God has a reason for everything.”

(more…)

This is the prayer my two year old says every night before he goes to be.  It’s actually kind of a second prayer as his bedtime prayer usually goes something like:

Thank you Jesus for this day.  Amen. You Rock. Amen.

I don’t specifically remember teaching it to him.  I may have at some point, but he has adopted it as his standard way of ending prayers.  And, when he says it, it is always with a smile and a giggle.  “You Rock, Amen!”  We were saying prayers last night, I was struck by how simple and profound those three words are!  How often in our prayers as adults do we focus on the problems of our lives and our day to the exclusion of the glory of God?  How often do we plead with God for those things we want in our lives without stopping to reflect on hoe great the God is that we serve?  How often do we pray just because we feel like we should rather and not realize that prayer is a gift given to us by the grace of God?  How often do we miss out on the joy of prayer because of our misperception of God?

Yes, God – YOU DO ROCK!  And, I pray that we would never forget it!

When I started the “Questions Kids Ask” series a couple of weeks ago with the question, Who made God?, I didn’t realize how popular that post would become.  Indeed, in less than two weeks, it has become the most popular post ever on my blog.  It has also sparked some interesting discussion including one commenter who asked, “So what made him up and decide to create the planets and life?”  I don’t know how old this person is, but the question seems like a logical follow-up question in the “Questions Kids Ask” series, so I thought I would deal with it in a separate post.  In short, I suppose the question is:

Why Did God Make Us?

This question has been asked over and over throughout history.  In fact, King David asked essentially the same question in Psalm 8:

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”  [Psalms 8:3-4]

The fact of the matter is that the Bible does not give us explicit details about why God chose to make us as opposed to not making us.  Genesis 1:1 clearly tells us that God created the world, and Genesis 1:27 tells us that he created man (and woman) in his own image.  Beyond that, it does not talk much about the why of creation.  Accordingly, this question rightly falls under the umbrella of the “secret things” discussed in Deuteronomy 29:29:

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” [Deuteronomy 29:29]

Fortunately, the Bible does give some insight even if it doesn’t come right out and directly answer the question.  Let’s start with some of the mistaken theories that are often offered for why God created us.  Let’s look at some of those notions and see why they are not true.

(more…)

One thing I have learned, both as a Dad and as a volunteer in Children’s Ministry, is that kids ask some of the deepest and most profound theological questions.  In the answers, they are not looking for a demonstration of your profound knowledge but a clear, concise and satisfying response to their inquiry.  The purpose of this series of blog posts titled “Questions Kids Ask” is to answer some of the questions I have received both from my own kids and from the kids I work with at church.  Although I always try to answer every question in as scripturally grounded a manner as possible, I do not always have the appropriate verse ready at my fingertips.  One of the things I hope to accomplish with these posts is to ensure that the answer I did give is scripturally sound by inserting verse references where appropriate.

I decided to start this series with a question kids, and most adults, usually ask at some point either in investigating Christianity or in their walk with God.  I know it was one of the questions I had when I was investigating Christianity.  That question is:

Who Made God?

This question was posed to me recently by a fifteen year old boy struggling with his faith.  He lives in a Christian home and has been exposed to Christian thinking for years.  This is the one thing that he is really still struggling with.  The way he posed the question was, “if everything is created, who created God?”

(more…)

On July 8, 1741, Jonathan Edwards preached his most famous sermon ever at Enfield, Connecticut.  That sermon was based on Deuteronomy 32:35:

“Their foot shall slide in due time.”

In a day and age when one wells known preacher refuses to talk about hell because he doesn’t want to offend people, Edwards’ sermon seems particularly relevant.  As you read the sermon, replete with wonderfully written prose and the conviction of the Word of God, you can feel Edwards’ love for the people he was preaching to.  You sense that he is, with a great deal of urgency, pleading with his audience to embrace Jesus Christ as savior.  Perhaps we need more sermons like this in our day and age when so many people:

“…will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” [2 Timothy 4:3]

I will not post the entire text of the sermon here (I have included a link to it at the bottom of this post), but I will provide an outline along with some of the more memorable quotes from the sermon beginning with Edwards’ introduction:

(more…)

Michelangelo's Finger of God

In the beginning…God.  The first four words of the Bible sum up the rest of divine revelation.  In the beginning, God created.  In the end, God recreates.  In the middle, God redeems and God saves.  The Bible is a book about God.  It is a book about how he created man who rebelled against him, and how God in his infinite grace and mercy sent his son to redeem and justify man so that they may be reconciled to him.

Much has been written about Genesis 1:1, and I have included excerpts from some better know commentaries below.  In these first ten words of our English Bibles are many of the foundations of the Christian faith.  Take note of the following: (more…)