Tag: peace

Light, Life, Goodness & The Fight Against Evil

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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.

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Hosanna in the Heartache

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I am deeply missing a dear friend today who passed away last month and I am heartbroken for all who love her so much. I am thinking about what a tender gift it was from the Lord to take her home on Purim and to be able to celebrate her on Passover and Palm Sunday this Sunday. God writes the best stories.

The Bible’s Honest View of Suffering

I recently saw a clip of Tim Keller explaining how there’s nothing saccharine or Pollyanna in the Bible’s view of suffering. And it struck me again how grateful I am for that.

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Holy Grief

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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” →

God is strong. God is loving.

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Previous posts in this series:
Suffering
Choosing Joy
Jesus Wept
Walking with God through Suffering

Life on earth really can be so hard. There’s such deep heartache, the ever-demanding rat race we are bombarded with, suffering in so many forms. Questions swirl – about theology, doctrine, society, politics. There’s so much chaos, misunderstanding, disunity, division, dysfunction… things really do feel out of order. It’s easy to get weighed down, to feel overwhelmed by all that is happening.

But this morning, the Lord encouraged my heart with a simple yet deeply anchoring reminder:

“One thing God has spoken; two things have I heard: that You, O God, are strong, and that You, O Lord, are loving.” – Psalm 62:11-12a

Continue reading “God is strong. God is loving.” →

Jesus Wept

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Previous posts in this series:
Suffering
Choosing Joy

I know that Choosing Joy is not a denial of hardship – it’s a declaration of trust in Jesus. Joy is a supernatural gift from Him, rooted in His grace. The joy of the Lord is our strength! But if joy is more than an emotion, how do emotions fit into all of this?

In my ponderings with the Lord this morning (and through Tim Keller’s writings), He has been reminding me again that we do not deal with suffering by simply suppressing negative emotions – it’s so much deeper than that. We must allow ourselves to feel emotions deeply so that we can release them, entrusting them to the One who can carry them fully.

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Choosing Joy

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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.

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Suffering

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My summary & response from a section of Tim Keller’s Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

Christians don’t believe in karma. We recognize that suffering in this world is often unjust and disproportionate. For now, life on earth is under dark forces, and things simply aren’t fair – people living well and living godly lives suffer greatly. Christianity tells the truth about this reality. Even in America, one of the most privileged places to live, we see suffering that defies logic.

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Side by Side

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My Grandma Evelyn had a poem, “The Bible & the TV Guide” sitting on her TV stand for most of the ’90s and it has always stayed with me. It is true that “there’s nothing new under the sun”: the temptations are the same as they’ve always been from Adam & on, the forms just change. I struggle constantly trying to figure out how much technology should be a part of my life and I constantly have to repent from getting “caught up” in bad habits of turning to the phone first or most… and every time He convicts me, I must confess and ask for help in turning back, knowing He is so gracious and loving and simply wants what is best for me – Himself! Here’s an updated version for our day….

The Bible & The Phone

They lie on the table
side by side,
The Holy Bible,
with light inside,
And the smartphone,
with its glow so bright,
One shines truth,
the other artificial light.

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