Laura Marie is definitely my girl. She did two things today that proved it:
Sigh… I couldn’t be prouder!
This morning I was reading Leviticus and discovered something pretty interesting.
When Jesus was asked what was the most important commandment, He actually gave two: love God and love people (see Matthew 22:37-40). He cited Leviticus 19:18, which says to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Looking at that phrase in its context provides some insight. Leviticus 19:18 in its entirety says: “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.”
Since we’re coming out of a three-week series on forgiveness at CrossWay, this really jumped out at me.
Sometimes we tend to categorize biblical truths as Old Testament or New Testament, as though they’re not consistent with each other. The whole concept of forgiving others because God forgives us seems very New Testament. But it’s right there in Leviticus in the Old Testament! We’re not to carry grudges or seek revenge. If we do, we’re not loving our neighbors. And we’re to practice this kind of love because Jesus Christ is the Lord.
It’s stuff like this that reminds me why I love the Bible… and even more than that, why I love the God of the Bible.
It was one year ago last night that Laura Marie started walking! Since that day, she has put some serious mileage on those precious little feet!
“And so Moses finished the work.” This statement from Exodus 40:33 jumped out at me this morning. In the second half of the Book of Exodus, God gives Moses a lot of detailed instructions on building the Tabernacle (a tent that was like a portable church sanctuary) and all the tools and instruments that went along with it.
We’re told that Moses carefully and diligently obeyed God and did everything just as he was supposed to. And then near the end of the book it says: “And so Moses finished the work.”
I love that statement! Something I pray for is that God would help me to finish the work, to complete the plans and fulfill the purposes for which He created me. Although I sometimes fear failing to finish the work, a couple passages in the Bible tell us about tools God gives us to help:
Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” I’m not left alone to finish the work. God prepared these “good works” long before I was even born, and He has “created (me) in Christ Jesus to do” them. He is shaping my character and He gives me His Spirit so I can finish the work like Moses did.
More specifically, the Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” God gave us the Bible so we would be not just ready, but “thoroughly equipped” to complete the work He’s called us to.
Maybe this is one of those things that can’t be explained in a way to convey the “a-ha!” moment. But when I read this morning about how “Moses finished the work,” it hit me what an enormous statement that is.
I think that’s what I want my tombstone to say: “And so Nathan finished the work.”
Lord help me!
Carolyn just called and said that Laura Marie wanted to sing a song from Snow White for me. So she handed her the phone, and I heard a little baby voice singing, “Hi ho, hi ho!…. Hi ho, hi ho!”
Love that kid!!!!
Last night during our family prayer time, I asked Laura Marie what she wanted to say to Jesus.
She sang “YMCA.”
Today we registered Laura Marie for preschool. I can’t believe the day has finally arrived!
I’m pretty sure that Carolyn and I are raising a teenager in a toddler’s body.
This morning Laura Marie kept going in her room and closing the door. I kept opening it, and she kept shutting it.
So I opened it, walked into the middle of the room, and stood there to see what she would do.
She went to the door and put one hand on it, looked at me, and forcefully pointed to the hallway outside her room.
Is this normal behavior for a one-year-old???
If you’re looking to write a book on one of the toughest possible topics, you can’t find one much tougher than the often discussed and debated question: How can God be good, loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing since evil and suffering exist?
In a book that’s remarkable for its readability and clarity but also its scholarship and depth, Randy Alcorn tackles this whammy in If God Is Good.
In a work that constantly weaves in pertinent Scriptures, Alcorn addresses the question in a way that covers apologetics, philosophy, theology, and evangelism. Loaded with interesting stories and packed with fantastic one-liners, Alcorn’s effort at addressing this huge question is surprisingly satisfying.
For me, the most important section comes on page 41 (where Alcorn is really just getting warmed up in this 500-page volume!). Here, Alcorn points out that this whole question rests on the premise that God cannot have good reasons for allowing evil and suffering. Alcorn challenges this assumption: “We may not understand why a good God would allow terrible suffering. But this merely establishes that if there is a God, we do not know everything he knows. Why should this surprise us? Suppose we add only one premise to the argument that God is all powerful, all knowing, and all loving, and yet evil exists: God has a morally sufficient reason for permitting evil.“ In a book that is very well-organized and extremely thorough, this one point stood out above everything else. If God has a reason for allowing evil and suffering, a reason that makes sense from an eternal perspective, then it’s perfectly consistent with His being good, all-knowing, all-powerful, and loving!
Even for its size, If God Is Good is highly readable from beginning to end. It’s also so well organized that I’ll keep it on the shelf as a reference tool.
If you’re going to buy one book to help you wrestle with this big question, this is definitely the one I would recommend.
Note: I received a free copy of this book for review from Waterbrook Multnomah. But they didn’t tell me what to say. That would’ve been a lot easier, though, since this book was almost as long as the Old Testament.
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