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THINKING “I LOVE YOU”
I am more and more fascinated by matters of “mindset” and how our thinking and beliefs shape our experience. They seem to determine what we call “reality”. A woman on a podcast said her therapist had suggested the following habit to overcome social anxiety: Just before you begin any interaction with another person – a family member, a co-worker, or a stranger at a cash register – silently think to yourself, “I love you.” When I heard that, I paused the podcast. Could making this simple thought into a habit influence a person’s relationships and interactions in a significant way?…
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SOIL EXPERIMENT PART 2: SOIL REHAB
In yesterday’s post I began to describe an experiment involving growing some plants in play sand and some in sand plus Soil Rehab. Before revealing the results, it might be helpful to let you know what makes Soil Rehab unique. Scott Laskowski, founder of OrganiLock, has spent years in research and development of Soil Rehab and the machinery necessary to produce it. What I am about to describe almost seems too good to be true – which is exactly why I felt compelled to test it out at home. Soil Rehab is a combination of biochar, organic wood waste, and…
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SOIL EXPERIMENT PART 1
A company out of Kentucky called Organilock is partnering with Mission Resource to begin testing their new product, Soil Rehab, in the depleted soils of Ghana and Haiti and elsewhere in the developing world. Soil Rehab has incredible potential to replace traditional chemical fertilizers in rejuvenating even the most depleted soils. And there’s a bonus: it is manufactured in a way that benefits the environment instead of harming it. OrganiLock has run multiple tests to show that you can create an environment in which plants can grow and flourish even in a container of literal sand – with the addition…
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FEARS AS LIMITS
Here is an idea and an image I found on Twitter from someone who calls himself @PeakTobi: The idea is profound. The image is simple and sticky. I have looked at it several times in the hope that this image will pop into my mind the next time I am confronted with a situation that arouses my fear. And then I hope to consider the territory further up the slope where I can never explore if I back away. God willing, I will make the leap instead.
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A FATHER’S PLEASURE
As a father, I find great joy in seeing my kids experience great joy. In recent weeks I have thoroughly enjoyed And lately … seeing photos of Caleb. Caleb is in Florence, Italy for a couple of weeks for a study abroad experience. He just finished a hard semester that was part of a tough year that was part of a difficult college experience so far. But now – for a short time – he is climbing the Tower of Pisa, touring the Roman Coliseum, and eating gelato. I simply cannot describe how elated I am to see these photos…
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SHARING LIGHT
In John Wesley’s treatise of 1775 called A Calm Address to Our American Colonies, he begins by saying he had supported the colonists’ “no taxation without representation” position early on, but after careful thought and reading, he had changed his mind. Over the course of several pages, Wesley then makes a powerful case against the legitimacy of the American protest against British taxes. (Considering the matter from England’s perspective makes for interesting reading.) And after writing it, he printed up thousands of copies and shipped them to America, at great risk to his own safety and reputation. The treatise begins with…
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BODY OF DEATH
Yesterday as I was looking at various published sermons online about Romans 7, I came across an interesting illustration used by several pastors in relation to 7:24 – “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” There was a hideous practice in ancient Rome wherein a convicted murderer was punished by having the corpse of his victim chained to him. The murderer was forced to live with this dead body strapped to his back and as the body rotted, death would slowly creep across his skin as well. And that – these preachers…
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DELIGHT IN GOD’S LAW
Yesterday I outlined the first part of a sermon by John MacArthur on Romans 7:14-24. To his credit, MacArthur lays out the argument used by those who say Paul’s “the good I want to do, I don’t and the evil I don’t want to do, this I keep doing” passage is meant to convey the experience of a non-believer. It’s an argument established by context. And MacArthur has to admit that the verses surrounding Chapter 7 “seem to say sin is dethroned” in the life of a true believer. Even so, he still teaches that the passage describes Paul’s actual struggle…
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A GOOD START
163,000 people beat me to a sermon from John MacArthur on YouTube regarding Romans 7:14-24 – Paul’s famous “What I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do … this I keep on doing” passage. MacArthur makes the case that these verses present a picture of Paul’s actual struggles as a Christian, not the internal dialogue of someone who is almost a Christian. (If you are not familiar with MacArthur, he is a prominent Reformed Baptist preacher with a wide following.) I appreciate the fact that MacArthur begins his sermon…
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IT MATTERS
How preachers teach Romans 7:14-24 can have serious repercussions. Either this is A) Paul using a rhetorical device, speaking as one who does not yet know Christ or B) Paul is describing his own on-going experience as a Christian. Take a close look. We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is…