All Things For God's Glory

September, 2016 May, 2015 We've spent the last four years remodeling our house that we moved into in December, 2014.  Part of that renovation was to enclose a screen porch to house a therapy pool so we could do warm water exercise year 'round. At the time of the incident about which this article is being written, we'd been plodding along on the porch for about seven months, since early May, 2015. After removing part of the decking, we came up with the bright idea to dig down about a foot and bury the pool in the ground a bit so it would be lower to climb into. Our kids helped dig the hole, and then we got information online on how to make a platform on which to set the pool. We had the platform all built (no small feat for us amateurs!), struggled to get the pool inside the now enclosed doorway, got the legs all leveled, and were ready to fill it up. We could just feel that warm water and could envision the end of our project. What we didn't know was that ...

Mark 10:17-23   Jesus loved this rich young aristocrat.  But, did Jesus love this man the same as He loves His own kids ?  I would contend that He did not.  God cannot even look upon sin, let alone love it.  And if we truly believe that we are born dead in sin (Col. 2:13), then we must admit that we are dead through and through - heart and body, and that there is nothing else about us to love.  We are actually called the enemy of God in Romans 5:10. This means God is at war with us, and we are at war with Him and His kingdom.  Jesus' love for this man was the love He tells us to have for our enemies, the love He had for the "world" in John 3:16 - meaning it is a love that is a choosing to do good in spite of being despised, rejected, scorned, mistreated, misunderstood, and murdered.  It is a love based upon the grace of God and not upon the recipients' worthiness.  But did Jesus' love for that young man signify his acceptance into God's ...