Living Unfiltered for God

Earlier today, while straightening up and rearranging our library a bit, I came across one of my favorite books,  The Call by Os Guinness. It's been nearly ten years since I first read it. It was then that I was introduced to this idea of "the Audience of One." In the chapter dedicated to this concept Guinness writes, "Most of us, whether we we are aware of it or not, do things with an eye to the approval of some audience or other. The question is not whether we have an audience but which audience we have."  So who is your audience? Who are you trying to please? At some level most of us would say our family (spouses and children) is one part of our audience. And it is admirable to try to please them. Also, as Christians, the Bible gives us direction as to how to do that in such a way that it honors God. Many might also say that their employers or their careers in some way provide the audience. Regarding this, the apostle Paul suggests that we are to "......

Have you ever really thought about this question? I suspect, that as Christians, we spend a lot more time thinking about God's love for us, than we do about how we actually love Him? Perhaps during worship at church or elsewhere, we praise Him and offer our love to Him through our words and singing and so forth, but day to day, hour by hour, how do we express our love to the One who created us, beyond just telling Him? Jesus makes it very clear that we are to, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." ( Matthew 22:37 ) He tells us in the very next verse that this is the first and greatest commandment, so it's a big deal! But how do we do that? What does that really look like? Fortunately, Jesus makes it similarly clear in the 14th chapter of John, in several different ways that, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching." ( John 14:23 ) So then, it appears that to love God is to obey God. In essence then...

“Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55)   I'd like to share a little story. A little story that actually took place a week ago. My Dad had just passed away and my wife and I were taking a walk around the grounds of the beautiful country motel at which we were staying. It was the night before his memorial service. You can imagine the emotions - the sadness of losing a loved one; the poignancy of being back in the small town where I grew up; that realization that we are all mortal. We were enjoying the smell of the fresh air, the sound of the water gently running through the winding creek and looking at some flowers that we don't usually see...  "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. 15:56-57) Then my wife saw it. There, seemingly "hiding" underneath a flower that was hanging down, was the most amazing moth...