Marching Forth!

Resurrection Sunday is a glorious reminder of Jesus conquering sin and death.  During visits to Israel I have gone to the Garden Tomb as well as the Tomb of the Holy Sepulchre, purported by some to be the place where Jesus Christ was crucified and buried.  It is difficult to prove whether this or another site is the actual place where Jesus was buried because He is not there; He is risen!  Even if the place of Jesus' death and resurrection could be authenticated, it is not a place to be venerated:  the only One worthy of worship is Jesus Who was received up into heaven and sits enthroned. Many people witnessed the death of Jesus on Calvary, and hundreds of people affirmed the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  For 40 days after His resurrection Jesus walked, talked and ate with His disciples.  During this period the empty tomb and corpse-free graveclothes could have been inspected by locals and travelers to Jerusalem.  The best evidence of the resur...

While it costs us little to say "Nobody's perfect," our pride takes a hit to say "I am a sinner."  Many people have grown up hearing and believing they are basically a good person, yet the Bible makes the case in the view of the holy God the exact opposite is true.   Psalm 14:2-3 says, " The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, t o see if there are any who understand, who seek God.  3 They have all turned aside, t hey have together become corrupt;  t here is none who does good,  n o, not one ."  Though mankind has been created in God's image, we have been irrevocably corrupted with sin.  Spiritually speaking, we are only fit for the fire. By itself this would be incredibly terrible news, yet this is only part of the story.  The Bible also teaches God loves all people and thus was not content for mankind to be doomed without hope or help.  God's compassion moved Him to action, even as the father in the parable Jesu...

In his book Renovation of the Heart , Dallas Willard made astute observations of humans concerning our reliance upon feelings to direct and govern our actions: " Often they cannot distinguish between their feelings and their will, and in their confusion they also quite commonly take feelings to be reasons.  And they will in general lack any significant degree of self-control.  This will turn their lives into a mere drift through the days and years, which addictive behavior promises to allow them to endure. Self-control is the steady capacity to direct yourself to accomplish what you have chosen or decided to do and be, even though you "don't feel like it."  Self-control means that you, with steady hand, do what you don't want to do (or what you want not to) when that is needed and do not do what you want to do (what you "feel like" doing) when that is needed.  In people without rock-solid character, feeling is a deadly enemy of self-control and will alw...

Since moving to Australia, my daily life has changed in many ways.  My family and I have adapted well to living in New South Wales despite not being born and raised here.  There is one thing, however, I am particularly hopeless at:  remembering to carry an umbrella in the car when rain is in the forecast.  Growing up in southern California, I never needed to plan for rain.  As an adult I have never owned an umbrella!  Perhaps this is one reasonable explanation why I do not think to bring a household umbrella with me, and when I do I am apt to leave it behind and lose it.  Living in Australia I still do not plan for rain--and thus am usually unprepared when the rain falls. Jesus called out the hypocrisy of people who were observant of the weather and took appropriate action yet were negligent of present spiritual preparation for the future.  They were like people who never were caught in a downpour without an umbrella, waterproof jacket and shoes....