Mission Faithwalk

               The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. (I Corinthians 2:14)                 I’ve talked about this idea before. It’s not some magical thing that only works in the spiritual realm. If you are shown an optical illusion, like the crone and the young woman, you may only be able to see it one way. Try as they might, those who see it the other way may not be able to teach you to see it the way they do. It’s just the way the mind works. A technical term for it may be “cognitive bias.” Of course, one of the problems with cognitive bias is that those who have it attribute it to others, who eagerly point out the speck in the eyes of others, while ignoring the “log” in their own eyes. What we “know” to be ...

                   Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?  Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:11-12)                 This passage was one mentioned during my Sunday School class, in which the topic was loneliness. I’m not sharing this to get pity or to make others feel like they have to do something for me. I’m sharing it to explore and to invite others to explore as well. But these verses hit a little close to home. I don’t tend to think of myself as lonely. I’m used to being on my own.                 At the same time, I’ve written before about recognizing the benefits of community. Some of them are included in the passage above. As we discusse...

                 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:30-31)                 This passage can be confusing. Throughout Scripture, we’re told how loving God is. Jesus came and died to save us. He commanded us to love one another. If God is nasty, it’s the Old Testament God, and Jesus basically made Him irrelevant, didn’t He? The answer to that is “No,” but within that line of thinking, why would it be dreadful to fall into His hands? What does it even mean to “fall into the hands of” someone? We might think in terms of falling into someone’s arms, which involves an embrace. That’s not the same as falling into someone’s hands. Generally speaking, falling into someone’s hands means that one is in the grasp and control of ...

                 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. (I John 2:1)                 Advocate: one who defends or maintains a cause or proposal : one who supports or promotes the interests of a cause or group: one who pleads the cause of another ( ADVOCATE Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster )                 “And how does the defendant plead?”                   We might plead “innocent” because what we did wasn’t wrong in our eyes, or because we didn’t know we were doing something wrong.  We might plead “guilty” but with extenuating circumstances. While we’re stammering, offe...

                 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. (Hebrews 10:35-36) The theme at BibleGateway.com seems to be endurance, and it’s a good theme, because it goes against everything we want for ourselves, even if it is precisely what we hope for lots of other people. We don’t tend to want to keep going when the going isn’t pleasant. “Good” people should only have to endure good things. For the rich, those with whom we disagree, and other and various sundry wicked people, we tend to think in terms of repent, endure, or perish. It’s the whole idea behind karma. The problem is that reality doesn’t work that way. In fact, part of the proof that a person is good is that they remain good even while enduring pain, difficulty,  and injustice. That’s what Jesus did, and as His disciples, we’re supposed ...

                 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Romans 5:3-4) I’ve said what I’m going to say before, but sometimes, we need a reminder. We like to think that anything that happens to us that we don’t like is evil. And, we might be right, but the thing about evil, or even about hard things that aren’t evil, is that they build resilience. They build perseverance, which builds character, which gives us the capacity to hope. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know this. At least, we think we know this until something tough or evil comes along. Yesterday, I went to the doctor’s for a check in more than a checkup. As a result, I ended up making a phone call to set up another appointment. Yep, the medical merry-go-round. Both the people I talked to congratulated me on making the decision to get my knee replaced. I know it’s a good dec...