Connections

Is God A Three-letter Word For Love Or Is Love A Four-letter Word For God?

Life is full of questions ... some quite silly, some quite serious and some significantly profound!

My friend Lorenzo gave me one of the 'profound' ones recently!

Lorenzo is a gifted pianist who is part of our church community in Malmo Sweden (his testimony is another story all by itself), who joyfully shares his gift and talents with us. 

During my last visit he showed me the sheet music to a song that had been written around a very interesting and important question, 'Is God A three-letter word for love or is love a four-letter word for God?'.

Great question huh?

Is God A three-letter word for love or is love a four-letter word for God?

In reality the answer to the question is just simply, 'Yes'!

God does define love and love does describe God ... perfectly and completely!

In a world like ours that is full of so many questions, most of which go unanswered, it is great to know that all the questions relative to God's love will never change ... we have His Word on it!

The biblical declarations are clear!

We can know the depth and the demonstration of His love, the purity and the power that it produces, as well as the constancy and the covenant that it establishes between our loving God and His beloved!

Is God A three-letter word for love or is love a four-letter word for God?

One of the questions that I can answer ... FINALLY!!

How wonderful to know that the answer is an eternal yes!

I am set on this one now ... and forever!

 

Fear, Haste & Deceit ... Damage Computers And Life!

This week my computer & I officially had Round #2!

In late January I had my first 'crash' and this week I endured my first 'virus invasion'! Both were terribly frustrating and I was really challenged ... to say the least!

Out of the anguish I learned a very important lesson ...

Fear, Haste & Deceit ... Damage Computers And Life!

All of my problems with the computer were born out of these things!

• Fear - a message appeared on the screen prompting me to make a decision
• Haste - out of the fear of not knowing what to do I quickly moved forward
• Deceit - when it is too late to turn back I realized the message was a lie ... but the damage was already done!

In the very same way we can do great damage to our lives!

Fear, in an array of expressions, prompts us to make a decision and in our haste we rush forward, driven to react to the problem rather than waiting to respond to His presence. Then, having already made our move, we discover that we have believed a lie!

 Fear, Haste & Deceit ... Damage Computers And Life!

This experience is too tragic to repeat ... with computers and certainly with our lives, so we must learn the lesson well!

So, are you ready students?

Repeat after me .... Fear, Haste & Deceit ... Damage Computers And Life!

*** Thanks to my friend Mats and his friend Rui my computer is now back in service!

Rehearsing Failure - Ridiculously Real!

Rehearsing failure seems like such a ridiculous thing to do ... but it is ridiculously real for too many of us!

I first heard this phrase while reading a devotional by H. Norman Wright.

He tells the story about Dr. Norman Vincent Peale who was preaching to his church at 86 years of age! At the end of the sermon someone thanked him for his message and said that it had been so helpful & full of hope.

Dr. Peale said that he was in fact, often criticized for sharing so many positive stories and promoting hope but he continued to do it because he said that he could find no biblical mandate to, 'rehearse failure'!

No mandate indeed and yet ... we continue to revisit places of agony, rehash painful memories and very effectively rehearse failure!

Rehearsing Failure - Ridiculously Real!

In this week just after the celebration of Resurrection Sunday we can live knowing that in Christ everything is a possibility!

We have been powerfully reminded that, 'If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come! The old is gone, the new is here' (II Corinthians 5:17).

So ... let's rehearse that!

Excuse me ... a new kind of rehearsal is calling me!

I wonder if you hear it!!

A Crushing Celebration!

 

This week is always one of great contemplation and celebration for me as I consider the reality of what Christ endured! His week began with honored coronation, which eventually led to horrific crucifixion and culminated in holy celebration!

Recently, a friend sent me a devotional by Dave Egner that featured a sermon by Pastor Maynard Belt, entitled "You Can't Drink Grapes".

In it he refers to the poignant reality that I have been pondering this Easter season - 'A Crushing Celebration'!

Here is what he says:

  "In the Lord's Supper, two symbols are used: bread and wine. The bread symbolizes Christ's body; the wine His shed blood. But where did that juice come from? It came from grapes, luscious and ripe, harvested from the vine. And what had to happen for those grapes to become liquid? They had to be crushed so that all of the juice would flow out of them.

  Do you see the parallel in the life of the Lord Jesus? To fulfill His purpose for coming to this earth, He too needed to be crushed. He came to pay the penalty for our sin. That price was death, a sacrifice He paid when He died on the cross. Even though Roman soldiers carried out the execution, the penalty was exacted by God the Father Himself. Isaiah wrote,” Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise [crush] Him."

  It's true, you can't drink grapes. They must be crushed to give forth juice. And that is exactly what happened to Jesus. He bled and died that we might have spiritual life. That's why we drink the juice when we celebrate communion. It symbolizes the blood of One who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities".

The victory that Christ won for us was indeed a crushing celebration for Him!

May this reality be awakened in our hearts during this Easter season and cause us to live higher and love deeper than ever before!

This week is always one of great contemplation and celebration for me as I consider the reality of what Christ endured! His week began with honored coronation, which eventually led to horrific crucifixion and culminated in holy celebration!

Recently, a friend sent me a devotional by Dave Egner that featured a sermon by Pastor Maynard Belt, entitled "You Can't Drink Grapes".

In it he refers to the poignant reality that I have been pondering this Easter season - 'A Crushing Celebration'!

Here is what he says:

  "In the Lord's Supper, two symbols are used: bread and wine. The bread symbolizes Christ's body; the wine His shed blood. But where did that juice come from? It came from grapes, luscious and ripe, harvested from the vine. And what had to happen for those grapes to become liquid? They had to be crushed so that all of the juice would flow out of them.

  Do you see the parallel in the life of the Lord Jesus? To fulfill His purpose for coming to this earth, He too needed to be crushed. He came to pay the penalty for our sin. That price was death, a sacrifice He paid when He died on the cross. Even though Roman soldiers carried out the execution, the penalty was exacted by God the Father Himself. Isaiah wrote,” Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise [crush] Him."

  It's true, you can't drink grapes. They must be crushed to give forth juice. And that is exactly what happened to Jesus. He bled and died that we might have spiritual life. That's why we drink the juice when we celebrate communion. It symbolizes the blood of One who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities".

The victory that Christ won for us was indeed a crushing celebration for Him!

May this reality be awakened in our hearts during this Easter season and cause us to live higher and love deeper than ever before!

There Is No Bad Weather ... Only Bad Clothing!

One of my great joys is making new friends & then introducing them to old friends!

 

Michael Manuel is a new friend from Ghana who is now living in Malmo, Sweden where he is completing his doctoral studies. Michael is a bold Christ-follower and he often speaks at our international fellowship.

 

He has written himself into my personal history in so many ways. I was staying with Michael the night I got the call that Caleb and Luke had been born and were in crisis. It was Michael who God used to speak peace and faith to my heart in that moment  ... and I will never forget that!

 

Michael is a fellow blogger!

 

In his recent blog Michael shared this thought,

 

'From the window of our house in Sweden, you can see the ocean. The view is beautiful. In the last year, a number of windmills (the new kinds that generate electricity) were constructed in the sea a few miles off the shore. These too you can see from our window, slowly turning or spinning smoothly depending on the weather condition (wind speed).

The wind mills have become a weather indicator for me. Every morning they give me a quick indication of how strong the wind is and together with the clouds etc., I can make a quick assessment of what to put on before I step out.

 

As the Swedes say, "det finns inte något dåligt väder; det finns bara dåliga kläder"; to wit, "there is no bad weather...only bad clothing".

Which brings me to the issue I want to share today.

 

That Swedish aphorism suggests that, in life what really matters is not what is happening around you, but how prepared you are for it and how you respond.

 

There is no bad weather...only bad clothing'.

 

Our friend Michael has given us a great word!

 

In Sweden and in our spiritual development the fact remains,

 

'There is no bad weather ... only bad clothing'!

 

Excuse me while I take a good look at what I am wearing!