Whispers of Truth

I’ve noticed that when God asks questions in the Bible, He isn’t asking for information so much as pointing out man’s sin. The first question God asks is in Genesis 3:9: “Where are you?” He says.   The setting is the Garden of Eden and God is walking in the cool of the dat seeking fellowship with His creation. Adam and Eve have hidden themselves from Him due to fear after they doubted Him and defied Him by eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God rapidly fires off three more questions as Adam and Eve appear naked and trembling before a righteous God: First He asks, “Who told you that you were naked?” (vs. 11); He then follows up with the obvious: “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (vs. 11); and last He asks,. “What is this you have done?” (vs. 13).   I don’t believe for a minute that the sovereign, omnipotent God of the universe would be truly seeking the answers to any of these questions. He knew the answers to the que...

Celebrating Easter brings nothing to mind if not Colossians 1:27, which reminds me that Christ dwelling within me is my only hope of glory. It is a mystery I cannot fathom, but at the same time, it is a concept I can totally understand. God is holy; I’m not. Yet the Son of God chose to die in my place—a blood sacrifice for the sin that separates me from God the Father. While I totally cannot fathom the depths of His love for me while I was still a sinner, I can totally understand that it is only through the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world that I have any hope of glory as a saint saved by His grace. Easter is totally a celebration of His sacrifice for sinners—for his suffering, for his death, for his burial, and for his resurrection and ascension to His Father in heaven. We have tried to raise our children with an understanding that this is what Easter is totally about, and we’ve tried to resist the pull of the world that tries to make it more about the Easter bunny an...

Sometimes it seems as if getting rid of the sin in our lives is like walking through a labyrinth when in reality it should be more like opening a door. A labyrinth is a complicated system or a place with many passages, which we Americans often call a maze. Some of the synonyms for it may make the comparison between sin and a labyrinth a little more clear: a warren, web, tangle, jumble, or muddle . . . and the list goes on. A labyrinth is a Greek invention, often referenced in mythology, the purpose of which was to hold the Minotaur, a dangerous creature said to be half man and half bull. The labyrinth winds upon itself to a center in a complicated pattern. In Greek mythology, Daedalus is credited with the invention, and he is said to have made the labyrinth so complicated that he barely found his way back out of it. It is the same with sin in our lives. We begin down a path and make decisions that complicate our journey through this life. Unfortunately, instead of turning around and he...

It is a paradox of unparallel proportions that peace can come through the pain of a cross. I love the title in my Bible for the second part of Chapter 1 of Colossians. It reads: “The Incomparable Christ” (NASB, 1995, published by World Publishing), and truly there is none like Him. In these verses, the Apostle Paul offers believers a picture of what happened when “the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” and creator of all things chose to “reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross ” (vs. 15-20). The cross meant a painful, humiliating death that none would willingly pursue, but God put on flesh and chose to hang there in order for us to have an opportunity to be considered holy and blameless before God (vs. 22). It is only through His blood sacrifice that I can be a fragrant aroma—otherwise, the stench of sin and death hang upon me and make me repugnant to Him. It is a paradox, but it is one I willingly embrace during this Easter season ...

Ever have one of those eye-opening experiences where you see yourself as you really are? I’ve had several lately. God keeps dropping circumstances and people into my life to show me who I really am. It’s really not very pretty. At this point of my life when I should be well grounded and rooted, I find that I am a miserable failure at living my life in a way that consistently points to God through loving people. What caused this analysis you might ask (and rightly so if you want to avoid running into the same problem as I have)? Several things, but it is all coming to a head as I read (and attempt to lead) a study by Kelly Minter called No Other Gods . The goal of the book is to confront the modern-day idols that women today have embraced. Minter challenges women to identify the idols/gods we serve. Sounds easy enough for any Christian to do—after all, we claim to serve the one, true God—but what we often fail to realize are the other, little ‘g’ gods we serve with our time, our talent,...

I think I’ve lost my mind. You’ve heard the definition—insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. We insanely chase after things that have no value, and in the chasing, we ourselves become worthless (II Kings 17:15). For example, if I value education above everything else (and I have in the not too distant past), I will pursue it. To pursue more education, I must have money. To have money, I must work. To work requires my time and a great expenditure of energy. The dedication of my time and the expense of my energy leaves me exhausted and drained with only fumes left over for not only God, but also my family AND what I set out in pursuit of that displaced him from the place he deserves in my life. I’m left with a deficit instead of a surplus, and I’m worthless. I’ve become like what I’m chasing. See the irony? The irony of a thing pursued Leaves much to be desired, For in the desiring much is lost And life soon gets mired In the pursuit of th...

God designed us to have a personal relationship with Him. According to Genesis 3:8, the LORD God was in the habit of walking in the garden each evening when the cool breezes began to blow. As He walked through the garden each evening, Adam and Eve heard His voice. Genesis gives us a picture of the closeness they experienced with God in the garden as they walked and talked with Him. After they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God drove them from the garden and no more communications between Him and Adam and Eve are recorded in the Bible. Instead, the Bible records that they began to talk about God. The change shows as Eve says with the birth of Abel: "I have had a male child with the L ORD 's help” (Gen. 4:1, HCS). Sin shattered the intimacy they had experienced with God in the garden. After Cain killed Abel and Eve gave birth to Seth, Eve spoke again about God and said, “God has given me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him” (Gen. 4:25). ...

In late winter and early spring, a school can become a breeding ground of contagion. Viral infections often sweep through the student body as one person after another comes into contact with the germ(s) causing the sickness. Until the virus is contained or runs its course, sickness will continue to be a problem.   Likewise, bad attitudes can also become viral, and as teachers, we need to ask ourselves if we are the source of any infection in our school.   I am afraid that if we do not pull together, we will pull apart at the seams as the pressures of change and a lack of funds press upon us. It’s very easy to lose focus and shift the blame for the new demands placed upon us, but the truth of the matter is that we are ultimately responsible for dealing with these pressures in a way that glorifies God. As much pressure as meeting the demands of rigorous testing, new syllabus requirements, larger class sizes and fewer teachers to share these burdens places on us, those things are...

The apostle Paul realized that a believer’s joy in the Lord is a safeguard, and he was willing to teach believers even if it meant saying the same things over and over again (Philippians 3:1). His willingness to patiently repeat himself forces me to examine how I react when I and other Christians don’t get “it” the first time. Our culture quickly demands perfection of anyone who bears the label of “Christian,” and we in the body of Christ are not much better. Get a confession, slap the label on and voila! Perfection! Unfortunately, that’s a totally unrealistic view of a Christian’s walk with God. Leaving behind the past and the sins that trip us up is not so easy, as the writer of Hebrews points out: “. . . . let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (NASB, 12:1b). Running a race or a marathon is hard work, and Paul uses this analogy comparing a Christian’s walk with a race several ...