Indagatio Veri

"To God be the glory", says the pastor in a deep, rich voice. The glory of God carries with it certain emotions, ideas, and connotations. Tall cathedrals, reverent voices, harmonious choirs, and solemn attitudes are just a few that come to mind. The glory of God sits in our minds as an amorphous concept, an idea that carries with it weighty words such as 'reverence, honor, and holy'. Glory brings to mind bright colored lights, gold, jewels, and football players pointing to the sky after they score a touchdown. In all, our understanding of glory seems to be rather insubstantial and undefined. We see it as something above and beyond ourselves, something unsearchable, undefinable, and above our earthly existence. In some charismatic circles I have found that the glory of God is preached as something to be experienced, but maybe not understood. It is amorphous, vague, and set apart from our ordinary lives. I have had an understanding, that if we want to experience the gl...

“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love (Galatians 5:13).” We are called to be free. That is good news, but what is freedom? One definition is, ‘the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.’ So in this sense, freedom is the ability to captain your own ship, to steer your own course, to make your own decisions. This is the freedom children discover, desire, and fight for as they grow up. “I don’t need help.” “I don’t want to go.” This freedom is built into the bedrock of what makes America an amazing country. Our Constitution, Bill of Rights, and government system are designed to protect individual freedoms. What a wonderful thing! It is our God given right to be able to make our own decisions and not be controlled by the wills of other people. In the verse above, Paul writes that yes, we do have freedom to choose, but then enco...

Culturally, when we talk about ‘love’, we are talking about the feeling we have in relation to something. For instance, I love dessert! I really do. Well-made pastries, cakes, pies, and cookies are so delicious! Unfortunately how we ‘love’ dessert is also how we interpret our love for people. My love is based on how I feel about them. In other words, my love is measured by how well another person meets my needs for belonging, identity, or affection. When I feel good around them, when they are meeting certain needs inside of me, I love them. If they are not meeting those needs or expectations, if I don’t feel good around them, I don’t love them. Do you see how twisted that is? Now I don’t want to throw feelings out the door, they are a wonderful, and just as much a part of our lives as they are of God’s. But when we define love primarily through a lens of feeling we are not only being self-centered, but we have given the well-being of ourselves into the hands of others. They are re...

Miriam Webster Dictionary defines favor as a kind or helpful actthat you do for someone; approval, support, or popularity. The preference for one person, group, etc., over another. Favor is confusing because we know that God 'loves' the whole world. His love doesn't change from person to person, and yet scripture reveals that God does view, treat, and even prefer some people over others. The scriptures show that He showed preference to Noah and His family, to Abraham and Sarah, and for Israel. He shows favor to Able over Cain, to Jacob over Esau, to believers over unbelievers. God favors the poor, the broken, the weak, the humble. Why is this? How can we view God showing favor or preference for some people over others without taking away from the fact that He loves everyone? Imagine a husband and wife that are fully and completely alive! They are full of compassion and good-will. They love life, are creative, fun, and spontaneous. They love adventure and love to learn ne...

We tend to project our experience of justice, revenge, and anger onto the face of God. His wrath, we decide, must look and feel like our wrath. His justice must be carried out of the constructs of right and wrong that we have personally adopted.  In so doing we have blinded ourselves to the goodness of God, and painted Him as a schizophrenic deity that sometimes loves and sometimes hates. God's wrath is other centered, while ours is self-centered. His justice is carried out with love for every individual, while our justice is retributive towards those we hate. Our anger generally revolves around personal or ideological offense; 'how dare they!' It therefore revolves around hate towards individuals or groups, and our sense of justice is rooted in our objectification of others. God is very unlike us in this way. He is love, therefore His wrath and justice need to be understood as an expression of His passionate desire for our freedom and benefit. He is for us, not against us...

It’s the age old question, the heart cry of disappointment, the confusion after unmet expectations, the frustration when facing injustice; what is the meaning of life? Answers to this seem to be as innumerable as sand on the sea shore. People around the globe wonder why we are here, what our purpose is, and what brings fulfillment to life. These deep longings pull at our hearts and lead us to find answers in religion and philosophy. The disappointment and failure to fulfill these longings lead us to search for success, self-actualization, competitive victory, or ideological confidence.   Many decide that life’s meaning is subjective, relative, and individually defined. What do we learn from Jesus about why we are here? Can we find in Him an answer that is relevant to our hearts desire? I think so. The desire for fulfillment is a powerful longing; and although it is where we all begin, it is actually a misguided pursuit.  Desiring fulfillment begins with the belief that th...