God Centered Dad

There is a theology out in the world that God has rejected Israel in favour of the church; that is to say that Believers in Jesus the Christ have taken the place of the nation of Israel in God's eyes, including inheriting all the promises to Israel. I am here today to state unequivocally that this theology is false.  Hebrews 13:8 tells us that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Jesus was born a Jew, raised a Jew, worshipped as a Jew, taught the Jews as a Jew, and He died as a Jew condemned under Jewish Law by jealous Jewish leaders who only had authority over the Jews. Jesus came to the chosen people of God, through whom God promised to send a Saviour for the whole world. Jesus' ministry was primarily to the Jewish people whom He knew would reject Him, as had to happen. There is absolutely no indication in Scripture that the new covenant church of Believers will ever replace the nation of Israel. In fact, in Romans 11 the apostle Paul argues ...

My daily routine includes a time of devotions and prayer in the mornings. Though any time is a good time to spend with God, the Scriptures appear to indicate that the morning is a good time to set time apart and spend time with God and with His Word. In Psalms 5 and 143, David states, "In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly." (Psalm 5:3); and "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life." (Psalm 143:8). We even see our Saviour going out in the early morning to have a quiet time of prayer by Himself in Mark 1:35; "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." I have been doing morning devotions for as long as I can remember, though I know that I have not always done them. I can state with certainty that the...

 I have been quiet this week.  I usually try to post articles on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but this week I have been struggling to write. On Monday morning I felt a dark cloud over me and a weight on my heart and mind that stifled my desire to write. I didn't want to produce something of lower quality than what I usually try to produce, so I decided that I would not force it. I felt very much the same on Wednesday, and now, today is Friday and I still didn't know if I would write anything for today. I have been writing these articles under a compulsion from God. The views on my articles have been lack lustre and the interaction has been non-existent, so I have had little encouragement to continue my writings except for the compulsion that I have been acting under. At one point, I saw a curious bump in my readership, but I had no explanation for it. Until now. As it turns out, I have offended some people. These are people that I know personally. These are people who kno...

 I have often mentioned the salvation from the penalty of sin that is available through Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. I have not, however, explained what it is and how to attain it. I want to change that with this article. To do so, I will need to start at the beginning of time at the creation, and walk you through the ways that God has revealed Himself to humanity over time. There will be some jumping back and forth through the Scriptures to grab proof texts, but the story of salvation marches from Genesis all the way to Revelation. There seems to be a misunderstanding among not only non-Christians, but even a lot of Christians, about how and when God's moral code was given to men, and how He has sought to encourage us to follow it. There are those who have rejected God who argue that the Bible is full of murder, intrigue, sexual indecencies and all manner of other things that Christians set themselves against, and they use this as an excuse to reject God. They are absolutel...

  I was offered the opportunity to go to a remote cabin with a man that I know from my church and his two young adolescent boys for this past weekend. The dad wanted a second responsible adult with him and his boys; but he asked me anyway. Besides the rough living and the ice fishing, this trip also gave me the opportunity to spend a fair bit of time on a snowmobile; something that I have not had the chance to do for around 20 years. With about a 45-minute trek one way across the frozen expanse of lakes and forest in order to get to or from the cabin, I got a good opportunity to brush up on my sledding abilities, especially since I got into minor jams on a number of occasions due to my inexperience on a power toboggan in combination with the conditions.  There were several places where wandering off the track by even a few inches caused the machine to tip over and you suddenly found yourself standing beside the machine in waist deep snow, which I did several times. This meant ...

We live in a world that is intent on tearing itself apart, with the best intentions. We are putting so much value on the individual person that we fail to see the long term implications that our decisions and actions will have on society as a whole. When we, as a society, see a person or a group of persons suffering, or as seems to be the case more often than not, appearing to be suffering, society wants to defend them. That's a wonderful sentiment! But we seem to have forgotten that actions and decisions should have consequences. The removal of consequences for bad decision making not only does, but already has created an environment wherein there is little thought given to the outcome of ones actions, at the personal, corporate and even the governmental levels of society. Without consequences and the related pains that come with them, we don't pay a price for jumping before we think things through, and there is no incentive to do better, to think things through and to consi...