I Hate Hate

I am overwhelmed by how I feel concerning what happened by a murderous group of people claiming to be motivated by their god.

I don't have the answers. But I know this: Hatred is learned, and the people who thrive in their hatred of others will come to and end—because we will all come to an end.

Life under the sun is tragic. Thankfully, there are glimpses of beauty, kindness, and gentleness—these are the glimpses of heaven.

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:2-4)

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1:17)

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. (Titus 3:3-8)

When we see someone new, or come across a new idea—what do we immediately consider? Do we think about differences or similarities? If you're like me, you quickly go to the differences: whether we're talking about the color of someone's skin, their language, how they walk, what they drive, etc.

Making Crooked What God Has Made Straight

Paul said to Elymas the magician: "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?" (Acts 13:10 ESV)

Not everything in the Bible is difficult to understand.

There are those who know the truth, but simply refuse to comply with it; and therefore, they do whatever they can to make the simple truth seem hard to understand.

In the first century they were identified as Gnostics, and 1 John addresses it. There were many forms of Gnosticism, and quite honestly not all of the forms were anti-truth or anti-God; but most of them were because they sought to elevate man by means of himself rather than elevating man by means of God (see Colossians 2:20-23).

There's a difference between self-righteousness and true righteousness. Self-righteousness is based upon what "self" thinks, and can be unreliable; true righteousness is based upon the reliable standard of what God our Creator—whose ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9)—thinks.

Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness
because of my enemies;
make your way straight before me.
For there is no truth in their mouth;
their inmost self is destruction;
their throat is an open grave;
they flatter with their tongue. (Psalm 5:8-9 ESV)

Predictable Unpredictability

It's been interesting watching the development of the storm trackers tracking TS Erika.

It just goes to show that no one really knows what's going to happen with it — the forecast has changed a lot in the last 24 hours, and will probably change even more as it gets closer to us.

Jesus said, "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today" (Matthew 6:34 NLT).

Come what may, God is good and we must trust in his promises —

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust (2 Peter 1:2-4 NASB).

The Gospel of Jesus' Wife

Here is the link to the Internet article which generated my thoughts: Gospel of Jesus' Wife.

There is much to debate and think about over the discovery of a business-card-sized papyrus which is put forth to be a fragment of a Gospel of Jesus' Wife. Interestingly, an entire document is missing, but we have in this fragment key words: Jesus, wife, and Mary.

Our postmodern world will celebrate this "find" as indisputable proof that Jesus Christ was nothing more than a mere man and married; denying entirely the Gospel of Jesus Himself (Mat 28:19-20; 1Co 15:1-5).

Jesus claimed to be more than a flesh and blood man (John 10:30 | 17:21). Unlike the apostle Peter, Jesus accepted worship (cp. Acts 10:25-26 with Mat 14:33; 28:9, 17). And unlike Peter, Jesus did not have a mother-in-law (Mat 8:14).

It is sometimes disgusting how far people will go to blaspheme the name of the Son of God. They do not want the truth, they do not seek the truth, and will do anything to make others disbelieve too.

Doubt is celebrated while the truth is maligned.

And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed — for our testimony to you was believed. To this end also we pray for you always that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power; in order that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2Th 1:9-12).

Perfekt Imperfektion

The older I get, the dumber I feel about nearly everything. Like King Saul, my self-assessment is pretty simple: "I have played the fool" (1 Sam. 26:21).

I actually hate myself because of how insecure I am.

I know that I'm not perfect, but there are days (or moments) that my imperfection is really known by all.

I wish better for my girls: thankfully, they have their mother to help them deal with life. I feel sorry for them sometimes that I'm there to undo what she's accomplished in them.

I am also very thankful for God's longsuffering (2 Pet. 3:15).

Google Scared Me On My Birthday

So, getting up this morning I did the usual - after getting my Costa Rican coffee from Joffrey's of Tampa (excellent, by the way) I opened my Chromebook to get online and do what I usually do: drink coffee and read.

Well, today is the day I came into the world fat. I've just gotten fatter and slightly taller. And Google's home page let me know too much about it - and yes, that kinda scared me . . . to the point that I almost misspelled "scared" as "scarred." Maybe the extra "r" makes it extra scary!

I realize why Google did this - they can. Their intention isn't to scare, but to make me feel that this is "neato espisito." But I don't feel that way - again, it's intimidating that they know so much about me.

Maybe it boils down to the bone of advertising. So, I'm going to buy something . . . for my birthday.

I wonder what Google recommends . . .

Pluto in High Definition

Modern technology has changed vastly in the 9 years the New Horizons ship was launched into deep space. It has traveled over 3 billion miles from earth!

The standard has been the Hubble space telescope which sits above earth's atmosphere taking some awe-inspiring pics of the known universe. But the digital detail that the New Horizons cameras are taking and sending back to us is amazing. And they're being shared on Instagram!

The following link is one of the multitude of online articles to look through dealing with the New Horizons pics of Pluto—again, the detail is amazing when compared to the Hubble telescope orbiting the earth … http://www.wired.com/2015/07/nasa-teams-instagram-debut-pluto-surface-photo/