Uncommon Logic

Life is not easy, it is hard.

Through the hard, sad, painful & difficult times of life though, God will not leave you.  He knows those times are going to come, and being in His presence does not prevent them from coming, but His presence during those times is the source of strength to push through and endure.  If He is that source and we do not rely on our own strength, we will experience a joy even in the midst of the trouble.  That joy is called hope.

Then, when we come out on the other side of the struggle, we are stronger because our faith in God will increase.  We will feel more ready for the next struggle & go into it stronger because of the increase in our faith.

If, on the other hand, we rely on our own strength, we will begin to see our struggle as futile and lose hope.  Once we lose hope we will fight less.  When you fight less, the opponent (in this case whatever the trouble is) begins to overcome you.

Even if you succeed in overcoming the struggle on your own, it is an empty victory.  You have gained nothing.  What have you gained that will help you when the next struggle comes?  It will come, and when it does, you may remember the last struggle & feel emboldened that you have the strength to overcome this one as well.

The problem is that when the first struggle is finished and we have overcome, we feel strong for having done so.  As time goes on, we brag (even if only to ourselves) that we are strong.  We use the experience of the last struggle as proof.  Every time we think about it we remember it as the struggle being  bigger & our strength stronger than it really was.  We are actually “puffing up” our own strength.  Therein lies the other problem.  Our strength is fake, it is full of hot air with no real substance.

When the problems arise again that strength gets deflated and we start thinking the last victory was just coincidence or luck.  At some point in your life, if you depend on your own strength, the confidence & hope gained from other victories, will leave you doubting that you ever had any strength to begin with.

But God, God will never leave you.  When you rely on Him for your strength it is easier & infinitely more trustworthy for the next battle than the exaggerated confidence of your own strength.

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The liberals slipped one by on God???

I am still hearing so much about how sad it is that Barack Obama has become president and people saying that they cannot support him.  That is sad to me.

While I understand that he may stand for things that we as Christians do not, he is still our president.  The Bible tells us to support those in authority over us.  1 Peter 2:13 says “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king as the supreme authority or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.”  An interesting thing about this is that when Peter wrote this, Nero, the “Persecutor of Christians” was emperor.

Barack Obama becoming president did not suprise God.  He did not watch the polls on election day and exclaim “I didn’t see that coming”.  He knew it all along.  God is in control.  He can use President Obama to accomplish His will.

And . . . if we pray for it, President Obama may even have his heart softened on some key issues that are very close to our hearts.  The point is, God either put him there or allowed it to happen.  Either way, God is in control.  To think things are now out of hand is to lessen the authority, sovereignty, and omnipotence of God.

Support is not blind allegiance or ignorant “rah, rah”.  And submission in the context of Peter’s letter is not meant to be primary over obeying God.  On issues that are Biblical we need to let our voices be heard through communication with our representatives.

He was duly elected, and rightfully sworn in as our leader.  As a Christian following the inerrant word of God, we must support our president.

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Great book

I just finished reading a great book, “The Wager” by Judson Pearce Morgan.  The story is one that you will have to go back and read again just to think through the different applications of the messages.

The jest of the story is a modern life application of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount.   If you want to really study the Sermon on the Mount, this book may give some ideas as to the application in your life.  It is a short book and very worthwhile.

I understand that it has also been made into a movie with Randy Travis in the lead role.  I haven’t seen it yet but intend to.

If you have read it, or seen the movie, share your thoughts . . .

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