Tag: <span>love</span>

Published October 18, 2011

Wisdom-Knowledge-Understanding-Insight

by John Grant

“Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God“. Acts 19:8

We walked through the ancient city of Ephesus, in Southern Turkey, once a large Roman city of military and commercial significance. When Paul walked these same streets nearly two thousand years ago, it was already a big city with a population of more than a half million. It was a great seaport, a focal point of land transportation and the doorway to the East.

Today, the city lays in ruins, a monument to the past and a reminder of lessons to be learned for the future. I could just imagine the challenges faced by Paul and Silas. Here they were, ministering to a small band of believers and preaching a religion totally foreign to those of the city who worshiped economic prosperity and commercial power.

Ephesus was a city in search of wisdom and worshiping gods made by hand and by man. I was particularly struck by the library, one of the buildings in reasonably good shape. On the front portico, there are four statues representing the four points of intellectual life, wisdom, understanding, knowledge and insight. Truly they were a culture in search of truth.

Question: Where are you seeking for wisdom, knowledge, understanding and insight?

You can comment on this devotional online at:
https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2011/10/18/jg_wisdom-knowledge/
John Grant is a former Florida State Senator and is a practicing attorney

 

Thoughts by All thoughts by John Grant Thoughts by Men

Published October 9, 2011

Friends of God

by John Fischer

What Jesus said: “Whoever is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:39). Or: Unless a person is an outright proclaimed enemy of the gospel, he can be considered a friend. That means there are lots of friends out there waiting to be claimed.

What it seems like we heard: “Whoever is not for us is against us.” Or in other words, anyone who is not one of us is our enemy. That would mean the world is populated mostly with our foes.

These are actually statements of differing worldviews. How you think about the world determines which reality is true for you. Personally, I like the worldview where I assume friendship instead of anticipating enmity.

I think as Christians in this culture, we have made lots of enemies we didn’t have to make. We have drawn lines in the sand that were not there in the first place, and accused people on the other side of the line for the crime of being over there when we drew it. (We never gave them a chance, in other words.) It’s almost as if we have had to create and maintain a good supply of enemies in order to fulfill this self-proclaimed animosity with the world that incorrectly defines us.

This is not a good way to behave when representing the God of second chances—the God who, if He had not been abundantly gracious would never have called us His friends, and would never have given us even a first chance. I think it best to assume there are a lot of friends of God out there, just waiting to be found.

The writer of Hebrews wrote: “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it” (Hebrews 13:2). That’s truly giving the benefit of a doubt to those who are not “of us.” It’s a good place to begin.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2011/10/09/jf_friends-of-god/

Thoughts by All thoughts by John Fischer Thoughts by Men