Light, Life, Goodness & The Fight Against Evil

I have been thinking about this verse all week:

Which had me thinking on life, building, being vs. destroying, destruction. Which led me to a great little rabbit trail. Follow along…

It started with the Hillsdale President (Larry Arnns) who spoke these words at Charlie Kirk’s Memorial,

“There’s a ladder that reaches up toward God. At the bottom are the ordinary good things around us everywhere. If we can call them by their names, they have being. The beings of the good things are figments of God… A good thing is a thing that has being.”

I found that Arnns’ conclusions are drawn from the works of Augustine (400 AD ish) and when I looked into his writings on this topic, I saw they could be summarized:

Evil has no life of its own; it is only the twisting or absence of the good that God creates.

See, we are in good Company as Truth Dwellers….because that summary led me to C.S. Lewis’ words in Mere Christianity,

“Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness. And there must be something good first before it can be spoiled. … Evil is a parasite, not an original thing.

These are such deep thoughts. I’ve been pondering them deeply. It’s hard to even put it all into words so I’m grateful other men have done it for me. 🙂

So, evil is a corruption of what is good. It cannot create . It doesn’t build, it destroys. It cannot stand on its own. Evil depends on good to exist.

This contrast is seen everywhere right now.

Continue reading “Light, Life, Goodness & The Fight Against Evil”

Holy Grief

Previous posts in this Grieving with God series:
1 – Suffering
2 – Choosing Joy

3 – Jesus Wept
4 – Walking with God through Suffering

5 – God is Strong. God is Loving

Thinking more on emotions today and how Jesus wept…

It is not accurate to say that believers shouldn’t grieve deeply. In fact, it is often God’s Spirit in us who is mourning when sorrow rolls in. He mourns with those who mourn. And many times His mourning is a beckoning – a holy invitation to go to Him. That feeling of longing that loss and sadness gives us…. is important to not ignore.

He IS the Father of all compassion and God of all comfort. There’s an entire book in His Word called Lamentations. So when Paul says, “don’t grieve as those without hope” — he is not saying do not grieve. He is saying grieve differently. Carry your grief right to the throne and let the Lord to minister you – filling you with LOVE and comfort and hope.

Continue reading “Holy Grief”

Choosing Joy

Yesterday I wrote about suffering

Today – I want to write about choosing joy.

For the past three years, the Lord has given me the honor of being a front-row witness to my dear friend Cory’s life – walking beside her as she has battled cancer. And she is still in the battle. The Lord is still writing her story.

And I want to share what I have witnessed. Through every step, she has faced this trial as she has lived her life – with grace, love, faith, and a steadfast choice to rejoice.

“Suffering, in and of itself, does not bring us nearer to God” as Tim Keller wisely points out (in Walking with God through Pain & Suffering). It’s who we turn to in the pain that makes all the difference.

Continue reading “Choosing Joy”