Brazil, Day 12: Several Thoughts on Missions

I woke up and almost considered skipping a second straight day of exercise. I did not want to get up, and I had an almost unnoticeable headache that lingered from the night before. But I finally got up and ran a kilometer before doing some hill runs, tackling the hill on the seminary’s road eight times with minimal rest in between each one. Read Full Post

Brazil, Day 10: Giving to Brasil

When my alarm went off this morning, the last thing I wanted to do was get out of bed. I wasn’t necessarily tired although I definitely could have slept longer. Rather, I just didn’t want to get out of my really comfortable bed and go running. But I took a break two days ago, so after laying there for almost an hour, I finally got up and ran. Read Full Post

Conditional Love

For today I thought it would be appropriate to just receive a reminder of Biblical love- God’s love. Immediately I went to 1 John 4. I love this chapter and reading, studying, and meditating on it never grows old.

To keep from writing out a sermon, I’m going to focus on verses 7-11 even though I read the whole chapter: Read Full Post

Striving to Be an Abomination

Not the average goal for a born-again believer, huh? But why not? It’s a worthy goal on second thought, is it not?
Perhaps an explanation would be helpful here before you entirely tune me out. Proverbs 29:27 says, “An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous, and he who is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked” (NKJV). Does that clear up any confusion you might have had?
After reading this verse in my personal devotions with God one day, I thought to myself, “I want to be an abomination!” Of course, I want to be an abomination of the latter sort- “an abomination to the wicked.” Oh may I never be “an abomination to the righteous.” Those are the ones whom I wanted to be counted among.
For the past several months, I have been working on memorizing the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5-7. It has been slow going, but I’m learning from it, thus fulfilling the main objective. As I meditate on the significance of Proverbs 29:27, I can’t help but also think of Matthew 5:11-12 which says, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before me” (NKJV).
My desire is not to go around and to make everyone hate me, but rather to be so much like Christ and so much unlike the world that the world doesn’t like it. If Christ is repulsive to sinful mankind then I want the same to be true of me. At the same time, I want to be an abomination in such a way that the unsaved see their own sinful condition and the abomination that they are to God.
The bottom line? “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2, NKJV).
God, make me an abomination to the wicked so that I may expose others to your glory. Read Full Post