Category: Level: Beginner

God is populating his kingdom with lovers until the day when he will fulfill all his promises of the kingdom and establish the perfect community of love with himself and his followers. Loving him is our greatest good, and for citizens of his inaugurated kingdom the King’s greatest commandment is to learn to fully love him. This keeps us on the trajectory that culminates in our future spiritual marriage with God on the New Earth. In this way we conform to the core of the image of Christ, for his highest priority is oneness with the Father and love is the bond of that oneness. These are the reasons that loving God is the supreme commandment and supremely important for all of our growth. God’s love for us is the foundation of his goodness to us. Our resulting love for him is the foundation of all our responsibilities toward him Continue Reading →

As unbelievers we may have tried to rationalize away our actions as not being wrong because if we admitted our wrongs then it would mean that our actions were not justified and so we would have to view ourselves as guilty. And in our minds guilt naturally required devaluation of someone as well as some sentence of judgment. This is why the great majority of unbelievers in the public eye present justifications for their actions. They do not want to admit that their actions are corrupt; they want to believe that they are justified and they want others to view them as justified. But we are free from all this. We are not afraid of honest guilt because guilt does not lead to devaluation, rejection or a sentence of judgment. Through faith in Christ, God justified us (accepts us) and adopted us as his children. The justification issue in our Continue Reading →

I confess anxiety about discussing the topic of eating. People easily feel condemned or embrace self-rejection, but we should be motivated to healthy eating by love for God and others. During the holiday season we are especially tempted to unhealthy eating. God cares about our bodies and wants us to take good care of them. He loves the physical world he created and the human body is the marvelous pinnacle of his material creation. When we eat too much and become overweight then we are harming our God-given bodies. The same goes for the habit of eating unhealthy food. You can find endless studies about the negative health effects of being overweight or eating unhealthy including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and an increased probability of neurological disease. Being overweight is also hard on the bodies’ joints and hinders needed exercise. Proverbs warns against gluttony (overeating): “A companion of gluttons shames Continue Reading →