The intersection between faith, apologetics and culture
Imagine you are walking to a baseball game. Many times cities do not have adequate parking for their spectators, so the fans have to park all over the city. During the walk to the game, you see a lot of different things. First you might see a single man selling “PEANUTS! HOT DOGS! GET YOUR HOTDOGS!”. Second, you may see a couple selling their wares, probably a t-shirt or a 3 for 1 hat deal with your favorite team on them. Finally, you
Do you have a dog?
And now you’re all reading this asking if I mistakenly pasted that previous sentence. I really meant to ask “do you have a dog?”
I do have a dog, her name is Confetti and she is 6 years old. She is a mischievous, lazy border beagle that I absolutely adore. After however many posts analyzing the Bible, I figured I’d talk about my dog for a bit. She’s a good dog, and I absolutely love her. But she has some issues. She doesn’t sit when I want her to half the time unless I have a treat, she steals food off my counter when I’m not looking, and basically she’s just a jerk sometimes.
But every night, when I lay down, she’s the first one to snuggle up next to me and go to sleep.
I love languages, we can learn so much about our own if we look into the past to see where the word came from. For example, while this is disputed in linguistic circles, the term “walrus” most likely came from two Dutch words. The first word is walvus or whale in English and the second ros or horse in English.
Control. Our lives are all about it right? Advertisements tell us how to “control the way we feel”, “control our finances” etc. We are told in the corporate world to “Own [control] our career”. Which is all fine, we think we have control over it, until one day.....
Fame. Fortune. Power. These are the things humans fight for, strive for, and live for. Not only do we as Christians know who raises up kingdoms and discards kings, but we also should know what we are to strive for.
As humans, fallible beings and imperfect due to our own actions, we struggle with the truth. Now-a-days especially, our minds are constantly under assault by “Fake News”, “Alternative Facts”, Media Bias and our own peers. The truth holds no weight in this world anymore. Fortunately our King in Heaven is a just and righteous king. He loves the truth, and His Spirit and Son are truth incarnate.
Featured today is one of my favorite promises of God. It’s both terrifying and re-assuring as well. There are three types of sin, Unintentional Sin, Chronic Sin, and Presumptuous Sin. These may overlap; however Unintentional Sin can never be a presumptuous sin. Although the descriptive adjectives describe the type of sin, we can go over them real quick before I get to the purpose of this verse.
Peace, be still. It’s an interesting sentiment isn’t it? We are told all through the Bible that our God is the God of peace. As I’ve gone over previously, God wants us to be put in perfect peace because we trust in Him. But let’s look at this in another way, WHY should we put our trust in God.
As I have used as an analogy previously, our God is akin to a good father. As children we put faith in our parents to do things for us. Whether that is telling a bully off on a playground, to help us with our school work, or later on to maybe help us financially or with advice when we’ve gotten ourselves into something not so pleasant. Our father in heaven is the same way.
What can man do to us? This isn't rhetorical. It's very much so a question you need to ask of yourselves.
We’re quite accustomed to it lately. The pandemic, wars, relationships, legal issues. By definition, according to Merriam-Webster, Fear is “an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger”. We are also commanded not to fear. Multiple times we are commanded to not be afraid. Everyone that has ever encountered God or his messengers have always been greeted with the same expression “Fear not”. So why do we fear? Why is something so intrinsic, and so human, so wrong?