Posts Tagged with ‘christianity’
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MacDonald on Monday: Abba, Father…
22 Apr 2013The hardest, gladdest thing in the world is to cry Father! from a full heart. I would help whom I may to call thus upon the Father. There are things in all forms of the systematic teaching of Christianity to check this outgoing of the heart—with some to render it simply impossible. Such a cold wind blowing at the very gate of heaven—thank God, outside the gate!—is the so-called doctrine of Adoption. When a heart hears—and believes, or half-believes—that it is not the child of God by origin, from the first of its being, but may possibly be adopted into His family, it's love sinks at once in a cold faint: where is its own father, and who is this that would adopt it?
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Fireflies, fear and a fingernail moon…
04 Apr 2013In the nearly dark, fireflies cast tiny specks of light as they deftly dodged swooping bats. A tiny sliver of a fingernail moon pushed aside wisps of grayish cloud high in the western sky. Hand in hand we ventured up the hill near home, one last foray into the summer day now ending. And in the hush and the heat, fear slipped its arm around me in a most unwelcome embrace.
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Forgiveness: What about…
04 Mar 2013In a recent post, I described forgiveness as “love towards the unlovely”. Forgiveness is love in motion, finding expression in acts prompted by the Spirit of God—even if limited to prayer. In talking about it with a friend, he raised some worthwhile questions that I thought might be helpful to share here followed by my own thoughts.
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The imperative of forgiveness…
08 Feb 2013Formerly, I was of the opinion that forgiveness towards others meant that I didn’t want God to exact punishment on my behalf for any wrong done to me by someone else. Now I clearly see that I was but on the first rung of truth’s ladder and that the forgiveness Jesus spoke of is far more wonderful than the meager, passive form I had so proudly fashioned.
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Priorities
29 Jan 2013The four gospels found in the New Testament are replete with words spoken by the lips of our Lord Jesus. Like myriad others, I find Him to bear us many a hard truth. As Jesus is Himself the visible, living expression of The Truth, we do well to heed what He says. This taking heed requires more of us than a mere willingness to listen. With our Lord it is always a matter of receiving and responding. Of hearing and doing. Godliness in men and women is an affair of constant practice. We learn from the Master and He gives us ample occasion to put what we have learned to the test. Likely, we find ourselves stumbling through the divine lesson. No matter. There is plenty more practice afoot! And let us not think that when we have “gotten it right” at last, such shall serve to be the end of it. Practice is needed not only to learn, but to retain and perfect.
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Melting sin…
28 Jan 2013I was clearing the driveway after a snowfall. Although the temperature was in the low teens the bright overhead sun, offering his welcome rays, was making quick work of melting winter’s traces left behind, reminding me that the key to a lane free of snow and ice lay in exposing the blacktop to the light of the sun. And so it is with sin...
