God Centered Dad

   What follows is another of my thought exercises that I sometimes like to undertake. There may be some references to Scripture, since I base my thought processes on what Scripture says, but I will not assert that what follows is strictly Scriptural. In the beginning, God created (Genesis 1:1); in the beginning of what? It can't be in the beginning of time, because, as I will discuss a little later, time as we know it only came into existence through the creative process. It also can't be in the beginning of God's existence, because the Bible tells us that God has always been. We understand from astronomy that the universe is constantly expanding, and though some scientists may not acknowledge this, the implication of this is that at some point in time, the universe had to have a beginning. If the universe is constantly and consistently expanding, then it cannot have always been. If we reverse the expansion back through time, there will come a point at which the ...

I have been witnessing and observing the methods and results of a style of parenting that is referred to as "gentle parenting". According to a summary of an article by Cleveland Clinic, "The goal of gentle parenting is to raise confident, independent and happy children through empathy, respect and understanding, and setting healthy boundaries. This parenting style focuses largely on age-appropriate development." This method of parenting is contrasted with traditional parenting with a "focus on punishment and reward." I was raised traditionally. As were my siblings. We all turned out well. We are all functioning members of society with friend groups and social circles. We all avoided the teenage and young adult traps of cigarettes, drugs, alcohol and sex. And most importantly, we all loved our parents and had good relationships with them. I think this is a fantastic outcome of a parenting system that has been around since the start of time. There are, of c...

Humanity has always had an interest in the afterlife. We all know that we are alive on this earth, and we also know that everyone eventually dies. What we don't know for certain is what happens after our life on earth is done. The Bible gives us a pretty good understanding of what the afterlife looks like, but as with many subjects, there is an element of interpretation involved in understanding it. This is why there are several ideas about what one will experience once we leave this mortal coil. But what the Bible is very clear about is that there is a life after this one. There are a lot of verses in the New Testament that talk either directly or indirectly about the afterlife, but this understanding of life after death did not come about only in the New Testament time. The Jews have a very intricate teaching and understanding about what things look like when one dies. I do not claim to have a full knowledge or understanding of these views, but we know from Scripture that Sheol ...

  Do you know that Christianity is the only faith system that offers us assurance of our eternal destiny? I am talking here about true Christianity; Biblical Christianity. This statement does not apply to all sects of christianity. I am making a bold, generalized statement here. I admit that I do not know all of the ins and outs of the different sects of Christianity, but those with which I am familiar fall safely within the bounds of this statement; the rest fall under the umbrella of assumption, based on the understanding that there is only one true faith, and everything else is anathema. Catholicism is not included in this statement of assurance. Mormonism does not count either. Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism...these definitely do not offer assurance. As far as I have been able to determine over the years, only Biblical Christianity does not require some type of works to appeal to or appease God. Works are a byproduct of true faith, not a requirement for eternal life. As James states...

Sometimes, when I'm reading my Bible, a single verse might jump out at me and offer a new understanding of a tenet of Scripture. I hope that you find that happening for you sometimes too. It can happen out of the blue, and sometimes, like today, it offers me a topic for an article.  Today, my daily devotions brought me to read Psalm 50. Psalm 50 is entitled "God the Judge of the Righteous and the Wicked", and in it, Asaph, the author of this Psalm, compares the ways in which God will deal with those who are righteous and those who are unrighteous. As I was reading, verse five jumped out at me. It reads, "Gather My godly ones to Me, Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice." In my latest article, I made a mention about the importance of the Old Testament sacrificial system that God instituted in order to bridge the gap between Himself and His chosen people. That gap exists because of our fallen human nature, which, by necessity, separates us from God...

 I recently watched a clip from an interview with a man in which he shared a part of his testimony which should serve as a warning to all of us. In this clip, he tells of his experience after an accident that he had in 1979 at which the paramedics proclaimed him as dead. They transported him to the hospital, and some time after he got there, he came back to life. This man was clinically dead for about 15 minutes, and he tells of what he experienced during that time. While he was dead, he had the opportunity to watch the harvest of souls from the earth and see them as they found out their eternal destiny. This man states that in those 15 minutes in 1979, there were 2000 souls that left the earth, and the vast majority of them were met with rejection from Heaven. Only 50 of 2000 people gained access to Heaven; only 2.5%.  That was in 1979, when there was still a significant Christian heritage in this country. We have since wandered far from God as a nation, and that occurs one...

  Christianity holds that God is the ultimate power and authority in this world, and even this universe. Christianity also holds that God is the God of Love, and an expression of that love is that He made a way for us to be with Him in eternity, but He will not force Himself upon us; the choice is ours to make. God created humanity for relationship with Him. As such, He has given us free will to exercise whether or not we want that relationship. God does not force His will on us, though He does want the best for us. It is on this basis that I want to look at Jesus' short time that was spent in Nazareth after His ministry began, and examine why it is that we read that He was unable to perform many miracles in their midst. Realizing that eye witness accounts seldom line up perfectly, and never should, let's look at this story through the eyes of both Mark and Luke at the same time. While Luke's account indicates that Jesus went directly to Nazareth after His baptism and tempt...

  I have been engaging with people in discussions about God for decades. It began with conversations with coworkers and, with the advent of social media, those conversations moved online with strangers. A common argument that I have heard from unbelievers is that a loving God would not send His creation that He claims to love to Hell, so either God does not exist or He is not loving. Of course, in the hearts and minds of those who do believe in Him, neither of these is the case.  I am not sure if these two arguments are a reason for someone to not believe or simply a convenient excuse for their unbelief. I have long believed that the main reason that people choose not to believe in God is simply that they do not want to submit to someone outside of themselves. This is obviously not the case for those who are caught in the lies of other religions; they have just chosen to submit themselves to the demons who created the doctrines that those people have chosen to believe. I have ...

 I am going to be completely honest with you, this article is not what I originally wrote on this topic. When I wrote my first version of this article, I felt like I was writing under inspiration and it flowed out of me with fluidity. Unfortunately, thanks to the wonders of electronic writing, that article got lost to the black pit of the ether. While trying to recreate that which once was, I have felt like I have been writing under obligation rather than inspiration. That first article was so much better than this one. Alas, what has been cannot be undone, and as a result, we are all subjected to an inferior cogitation on a subject that deserves better. I have written previous articles talking about my aversion to and concerns about artificial intelligence (AI) and how much people are diving into it. This is a concern that will never go away and will likely only grow as time passes. Besides the ways in which people seem all too eager to give away their God-given responsibili...