God is love! The elementary school answer that I admittedly used well beyond elementary school. But hey, in my defense, the older I grew and the harder I tried to understand Christianity, the more I realized this simple statement carried heavier weight than it seems at first sight.
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A New Look at an Old Truth
Every now and then, I read a passage in the Bible that touches my heart in a way that leaves me speechless. Literally speechless – nothing at all to say. And that isn’t an easy task considering I’m someone who makes a living out of talking - and talking specifically about the Bible!
But recently I found myself at that exact point as I was reading and meditating on the story of the Prodigal Son (see Luke 15:11-32).
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When You Fall Over
Have you ever felt like you ran ahead of God and then made a “big” mistake?
Like a small child when learning to run in the momentary joys of running with the wind, inevitably trips and stumbles over his own feet and falls grazing his hands and knees. This pain inflicted causes him to cry out with many tears for his daddy to help him.
This is the very picture of us.
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If You Knew the Punishment of Sin…
“We must be certain that just as God is merciful – and there is no limit to His mercy – He is also just, and there is no limit to His justice. Just as He is compassionate and forgives, He is also holy and hates sin.”
I’m continuing my discussion of A LIFE OF REPENTANCE AND PURITY by the late Pope Shenouda III and today I’m talking about Part 2, Chapter 4: If You Knew the Punishment for Sin, You Will Be Afraid
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On Selective Compassion
I recently saw a documentary called “Life in a Day.” It’s a film that compiled thousands of hours of footage from people around the globe going through one particular day. The film had some light-hearted moments – like when a young boy asked his dad why he was filming him and nervously veered his head out from the camera frame – but mostly, it was sobering.
It showed destitute people in Nepal, a helpless family in a hut in Egypt, a young boy carrying his wooden stand through streets till he arrived at his designated corner for his shoe shine operation. The juxtaposition of those images with a man giddily driving his Lamborghini, a teenage girl obsessing over her iPhone or a man in a restaurant watching sushi pass him by on a conveyor belt were naturally jarring. The idea that some people have so little while others (us) have a lot is a subject of which we are aware. And to see such images is heartbreaking.
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Forgiveness: What Lent Is All About
Two days ago I posed a question to my blog readers: what do you think God wants us/you to focus on during Lent?
If we are going to get the most out of Lent and we are going to reach the destination we are aiming for (remember Lent is a journey, not a season), then what do we need to take with us along the way?
We agreed already that fasting is a key element, but there is certainly more. Much more! God is always more focused on the attitudes of the heart more than on the actions of the body. As the Scripture says in 1 Samuel 16:7, “For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (see also Matthew 5:21-22 and 5:27-28).
So what heart attitude do we need to focus on at the start of this Lenten journey? Where should our emphasis lie?
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