A WHOLE MAN

I should probably start off by saying that this blog is not meant in any way to serve as a guide for increasing your productivity/efficiency in life. So take these words with a grain of salt as I share with you a lesser motivation for why this blog exists. Enjoy! ******************************* 8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.  9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. Luke 16:8-9 Today marks the end of another quarter, the end of quarter 3 in the year 2019. I do not know if any of you take any time to just reflect on the past decade/year/quarter/week/day, but I have gotten into the habit of doing one every quarter. It has been a very positive experience for me since it forces me to really reflect on what it is that I have been ...

Droplet from Acts  2 And the chief priests and the principal men of the Jews laid out their case against Paul, and they urged him, 3 asking as a favor against Paul that he summon him to Jerusalem—because they were planning an ambush to kill him on the way  Acts 25:2–3  As we continue to track Paul’s tribunal, we may be getting a bit annoyed at the religious leaders of Paul’s day. While in chapter 23, we saw how they were willing to allow, and nearly endorse, a murderous attempt on the life of Paul, in the opening verse of this chapter we see that they have plotted a murder attempt of their own. Among several questions we could ask: 1) How is God sovereign over this situation? 2) Why is God so merciful and patient with these enemies of Him? and 3) How is Paul so calm during this very difficult time? The obvious answers are simply that God is sovereign through all things, working them for His glory and just as He was patient with them, we can rejoice in His mer...

Recommended Reading: Chapter 7- Conclusion (32 pages) Key Quotes:   Chapter 7 "[God] possesses an intrinsic moral right to rule, make judgments, exercise power…Human authority, however, is always relative and limited. It's not something we are . It's something we must be given …Our authority is borrowed from God, which means God always sets its limits and purposes." (136) "Good authority binds in order to loose, corrects in order to teach, trims in order to grow, disciplines in order to train, legislates in order to build, judges in order to redeem, studies in order to innovate." (142) "A good leader knows he or she is constrained by God's law, constrained by the rules of his or her office, constrained to the specified objectives of that office, constrained by a profound understanding of people as Gods-imagers." (148) Conclusion "…if you cannot figure out how love and judgment, or love and authority, or love and holiness work tog...

Droplet from Acts 13 Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” Acts 21:13   Perhaps as you were reading today’s passage in Acts, you could not help but let your mind wander to the martyrdom of Polycarp. His willingness to serve God in the face of personal, physical death was not one that they ran away from, nor were causes for wavering in their faith. Instead, Paul (and Polycarp) were both ready and willing to give of themselves for the name of the Lord. Which brings us to a very important question, “What will it cost to follow Jesus?” The simple answer is everything. We are too worldly minded at times and live each day with a singular purpose of advancing in our careers, fluffing our retirement account, or raising perfect children. We are reminded of the reality that having Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives means that our singular goal is t...

Droplets from Acts and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.  Acts 18:3  Given the mention of the proconsul Gallio, we can be fairly certain that this event occurs sometime around 51 AD. We also read that many of the Jews had been driven out of Rome, due to the decree of Claudius, and many Jewish Christians were probably needing to find work in order to support themselves. In this passage only do we find out that Paul was a tentmaker and of his willingness to work in order to support his ministry and the proclamation of the Gospel. One lesson I would like us to grasp from this reading is the principle that even secular vocations can be done for the glory of God. Too often, we think that ministry and service for God is only possible if we quit our secular jobs and work full-time in ministry. However, in this passage we see that service to Christ and secular activities are not mutually exclusive. We can ...

I know that we are going very slowly through this book. I have not had as much time as I would like to read this one (I am reading three books simultaneously), but do not worry we will always have a book guide each week. Recommended Reading: Chapter 6 (20 pages) Key Quotes: Chapter 6 "…it's the daily life of the average Christian that ultimately forms the world's perception of Christ and his gospel." (115) "All of God's judgments are good and right. Our fallen selves don't recognize the good because our fallen loves demand different judgments." (123) "We all make judgments all day. It's called decision making. We tell ourselves we don’t like the idea of judgment, of course, because judgment always involves excluding something, and someday that something just might be us. Therefore…we tear down whatever walls we can…We dispense with moral boundaries, blur gender, topple every authority we can find. What's left? Our tribes, our idols,...

Monday articles usually cover the New Testament Reading for the week. However, in the coming weeks we will be running through the minor prophets while staying in the book of Acts. So, for a short period of time, I will be covering the Old Testament books on Mondays in addition to Fridays. Don’t worry, we will have what I am calling “Droplets from Acts” at the beginning of each article. Droplets from Acts 11 And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. 14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, 15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like...

1 The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.  Amos 1:1 (ESV) Let's start with a bit of history. Amos, although in the middle of the prophetic writings in our Bibles, is likeliest the earliest of the writing prophets and is the first of four prophets who wrote during the eighth century BC. Amos, along with Hosea, prophesied in the Northern part, Israel while Isaiah and Micah both prophesied in the Southern part, Judah. We get a few clues as to when this book was written in the first verse, "two years before the earthquake", which may be a reference to the same earthquake that Zechariah mentions (Zech 14:5) and that it was in the days of King Jeroboam and King Uzziah. Being good Biblical scholars, we know that this would have been a time of economic, military, and cultural stability and pros...

Recommended Reading: Chapter 5 (22 pages) Key Quotes: Chapter 5 "God's saving love for us, then, is an incorporating love, a covenantal love. The Father loves the Son, and we are then incorporated into it by marital covenant. "I will betroth you to me forever." (98) "Biblical love always begins with the love of God, and therefore it will affirm only what is from God…Biblically, godly love takes pleasure in the other person's good, and that good is always God. Biblical love therefore gives itself to seeing God exalted in a person's life." (104) "If God-centered love seeks both to affirm that which is from God and to see God exalted in the lives of others, church members will increasingly view their gathered and scattered lives as opportunities to display God's glory." (109) Engagement Questions: Chapter 5 1. In what ways have we twisted God's love for sinners? 2. In what ways this week can you display God's glory...

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Acts 1:8 If you have never seen the movie District 9, I am sorry and suggest you go watch it now. While this movie does contain aliens from another planet, it is meant to depict real events which occurred in Cape Town, South Africa. An apartheid government began to relocate over 60,000 “undesirables”, in order to pave the way for whites-only infrastructure. Why do I bring this movie up? Well for one, it is a great movie. And two, it leaves us with sort of a cliffhanger. We want to know what will happen and if there will be a resolution in a sequel, but no sequel comes. In Luke’s gospel to Theophilus, we read in the last chapter of Jesus rising from the dead, visiting the disciples and then ascending into Heaven. The very last two verses in that Gospel tells us that they “worshipped him and returned to Jerusal...

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.  Joel 2:32  The book of Joel is a fascinating prophetic book, not just because it is three chapters in our English translations and four in Hebrew Bibles, but because this book is all about the Day of the Lord. The majority of this book focuses on a devastating event in the history of the Israelites when a swarm of locusts swept over the land and consumed everything. Verse 4 expresses vividly the event as Joel writes, “What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.” If there was any hope that anything was left for the people, this verse makes it very clear that all of the harvest has been e...

Recommended Reading: Chapter 3-4 (26 pages) Key Quotes: Chapter 3 Speaking of the love of a parent towards their child: "These are not Christian instincts; they are human ones. God has programmed them, in varying measure, into all of us. Why? Among other things so that we might know something about him." (60) "For Jesus the Son, love leads to obedience, and obedience is a sing of love. For God the Father, love depends upon obedience, and obedience is a condition of love." (67) "though we don't share one nature with the heavenly Father the way Jesus does…we can follow their example. Two human beings cannot "indwell" one another the way the divine Father indwells the eternal Son, but we can… share the same faith, the same ambitions, the same character, the same love. We can give ourselves to one another so that Christ might be exalted in and through one another." (68) Chapter 4  "This is how culture works. We love something and then...