April 13, 2013 by Frank King Photos
If you’re over 40, you might get a chill as I resurrect a shadowy name from the 1970s: Son of Sam.
This was the nickname David Berkowitz gave himself as he terrorized New York City, killing six people and wounding seven in 1976-77. In prison since then, he claimed during his trial that he was under the influence of a demon who possessed his neighbour’s dog.
Berkowitz was in the news not too long ago, responding to a 2011 Fox News reporter’s inquiry to reveal he would no longer seek parole because his faith has already made him free.
“I am not saying this jokingly,” he wrote. “Jesus Christ [who many people believe is the Son of God] has already forgiven and pardoned me, and I believe this. He has given me a whole new life, which I do not deserve. I am forever grateful for such forgiveness.”
Before you begin protesting, Berkowitz has expressed remorse for his crimes, dating back to 2007 when he issued an apology on his website. He expressed remorse again in his Fox News letter, writing “I have deep regret and sorrow over my past criminal actions.”
But that’s not the point of this essay. The point is more controversial. Has the Son of Sam been forgiven by Jesus? Has he been given “a whole new life”?
The answer, if Berkowitz is sincere, is YES. If he came to believe that Jesus died to pay for his crimes, and as a result asked for the forgiveness Jesus made available to every person on this planet, then YES. If he’s committed himself to following Jesus, then YES.
Isn’t this outrageous? That’s the scandal of God’s grace (unmerited favour) through Jesus. It isn’t just available to you and I for those times we exceeded the speed limit or lied to our supervisors or paid for some service under the table. It’s available for everything. For everyone, including the Son of Sam.
Our culture may not consider this a good thing. But it is. In fact, I regard this grace as one of the things that most separates following Jesus from other faiths. And it is based on a complete lack of what some cultures call a “caste” system that ranks people’s value.
When Paul, one of the earliest Jesus followers, wrote in a letter that “all of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory,” he didn’t include a footnote that singled out some people or groups as having sinned more (or less). That statement is the great equalizer for all humanity. See? No caste system.
So, if you’re carrying around something that pesters you like a persistent backache, do what David Berkowitz has done: place your trust in Jesus, ask for forgiveness with complete sincerity, then receive it. And believe it, because that forgiveness is as real and enduring as death, taxes, and annoying reality TV shows.
Even if you’re not burdened with guilt, give some consideration to this faith that goes beyond our wavering ability to forgive. It provides permanent grace, an extraordinary gift to a broken world.
What do you think? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.
Posted in In The News | Tagged Bible, Christianity, Christianity blog, David Berkowitz, Faith, forgiveness, Frank King, Frank King blog, Frank King Christianity blog, Frank King religion blog, Frank King spirituality blog, Frank's Cottage, God, Jesus, Jesus blog, religion, religion blog, Son of Sam, spirituality, spirituality blog, theology | 15 Comments »
April 6, 2013 by Frank King Photos
“People go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine themselves, for a few minutes anyway, free and happy.”
Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876)
Wow; how’s THAT for a shot across the bow of anyone with a faith life? I stumbled upon this provocative quote on the internet the other day and it definitely caused my mental wheels to spin.
While I’m sure some of you agree with this Russian philosopher and revolutionary (he was a contemporary of communism co-founder Karl Marx), how about taking a moment to be open-minded and read something from the “other side”?
Going to church is like going to a tavern? Well, there are similarities. Both are social activities, since they include interacting with others in a confined space.
Forgetting our miseries? Yes, there’s some commonality there, too. Just as there is between attending church and going to a rock concert or a play or a movie. For those hours, we leave our lives at the door and enter into a new experience.
“Imagining” myself free and happy? Bakunin, who never saw a revolution that he didn’t like or try to encourage (no matter how pointless or violent), might dismiss church like this, but he certainly didn’t have all the answers to life. No one does.
But I will say this: I AM free and happier as a church-going man.
I am free from the guilt associated with all the bad things I’ve done and all the good things I’ve failed to do, because of the death of Jesus of Nazaareth (who many people believe is the Son of God).
His sacrificial death, for anyone who believes in Him and follows Him, means my “sins” have been wiped from the books. Want evidence? Then consider these words from an ancient Jesus follower’: “Jesus is the way our sins are taken away. And he is the way all people can have their sins taken away, too.”
Knowing what Jesus has done for me (and for you too, if you want it) makes me happier. It also makes me want to invite Him into my life so I can become more of the person He knows I can be.
The way Bakunin saw it, going to a tavern and going to church are equally useless. But attending church has transformed many lives for the better — and for eternity. Can you credibly make the same case for any tavern, pub or bar? Post your response and let’s have a conversation.
Posted in Me & The World | Tagged 1 John 2:2, Bible, Christianity, church, Faith, Frank King, Frank's Cottage, God, Jesus, Mikhail Bakunin, religion, spirituality, theology | 16 Comments »
March 30, 2013 by Frank King Photos
I’ve never heard a note by the Grammy Award-winning British band Mumford & Sons, but an interview leader Marcus Mumford did a few years ago with Rolling Stone magazine caught my attention.
Lyrics on the band’s recordings have many references to God, prayer and struggles with faith. But Mumford told Rolling Stone he doesn’t like the word ‘Christian’.
“It comes with so much baggage, so no, I wouldn’t call myself a Christian. I’ve kind-of separated myself from the culture of Christianity.”
I get where Mumford is coming from. Mention the word Christian to the average person – maybe even you – and the first thing (heck, often the ONLY thing) that comes to mind are words like “judgmental,” “negative” and “ignorant”.
You might also think of the sexual abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church, the hate-filled protests of a certain tiny U.S. congregation (it’s not worth naming) or bizarre statements by a few televangelists.
The media loves highlighting this stuff. And that means the life-giving good news of Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the Son of God) is harder to find than a government surplus.
But, as one of the ancient writers passed on to us, “When you get serious about finding Me [God] and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.”
What does this mean? It means doing something our culture stridently opposes: asking questions like:
- Why am I – and the rest of humanity – here?
- Is there more to life than 70+ years of toil, taxes and failing health?
- Am I snuffed out of existence after my last breath, or is there something else?
Maybe you’re brave enough to ponder these BIG issues. And if that’s the case, then consider these answers:
1. “If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God,” wrote Rick Warren in his bestseller The Purpose Driven Life. “You were born by His purpose and for His purpose.”
2. “Those who trust in their wealth are headed for great disappointment, but those who do right will sprout like green leaves in the spring.” That’s from an ancient and very influential writer. And it means you can escape the drudgery of life when you leave behind the “he who has the most toys when he dies wins” attitude encouraged by our culture.
3. There IS something more after this life ends. The question is, what do YOU want it to be? One of Jesus’s earliest followers wrote: “If you openly say, “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from death, you will be saved.”
Saved from what? From judgment. When you become a follower of Jesus, God no longer sees all the bad things you’ve done and the good things you’ve failed to do. He sees you like he sees Jesus: perfect, without a single blemish.
Does this makes sense? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.
Posted in In The News | Tagged Bible, Christianity, Faith, Frank King, Frank King blog, Frank King Christianity blog, Frank King faith blog, Frank King religion blog, Frank King spirituality blog, Frank's Cottage, God, Jeremiah 29:13, Jesus, Marcus Mumford, Mumford & Sons, Mumford and Sons, Proverbs 11:28, religion, Rick Warren, Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone magazine, Romans 10:9, spirituality, The Purpose Driven Life, theology | 16 Comments »
March 23, 2013 by Frank King Photos
The good news around Easter – Jesus of Nazareth, whom many people believe is the Son of God, dying for the moral crimes of all who believe in him, then returning to life three days later – are beyond the sort of simple, quick understanding our culture demands.
Indeed, for a long time, Easter was a great mystery to me. But now, as a relatively new Jesus follower, I can see what is surely a welcome revelation for every human being who believes in a creator.
Consider the death of Jesus. It’s a death that could have been stopped. To the religious and Roman authorities of Jesus’ day, God could have said words to the effect of “Don’t you touch my boy”. But He didn’t.
As Philip Yancey writes in The Jesus I Never Knew, “I have marvelled at, and sometimes openly questioned, the self-restraint God has shown throughout history … but nothing — nothing — compares to the self-restraint shown that dark Friday in Jerusalem.”
The good news here is the gift of free will is for real. We can go to war against each other; we can spoil our nest through pollution and greed; we can even kill the Son of God. Still, God won’t take that gift back. To me, that means He wants a relationship with real (read: very, very imperfect) people, not robots.
Now ponder the moment where Jesus, on the cross, asked God to “forgive them (His killers); they don’t know what they’re doing.” In his book For Christ’s Sake, Tom Harpur saw that moment like this: “Jesus revealed there are no limits to God’s willingness to forgive and pardon. In a real sense, we can even stand there with those who nailed Jesus to the cross and, in our rage or despair, join in hammering the spikes. God still forgives.”
All this can be – and often is – written off quite logically by saying, well, Jesus was just another cool preacher who was killed by nasty people. End of story. But it’s not the end. The resurrection celebrated each Easter is as real to me as the computer I used to write this blog.
Nothing else could explain how apostles cowering in fear for their own lives could be transformed into world-changing evangelists and martyrs; they must have met the risen Jesus.
Furthermore, a Middle East missionary named Paul (one of the men telling people about Jesus in the Mediterranean) cites living witnesses to the resurrection. As Harpur writes, “Paul is saying those who do not believe him can go and find out for themselves.”
For me, then, the death of His Son is God making a case for complete forgiveness and free will to the court of humanity. Bringing Jesus back to life is the overwhelming proof – how better to forgive someone than to reverse their wrong altogether? Case closed.
Does this make sense to you? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.
Posted in Special Days | Tagged Christianity, Easter, Faith, Frank King, Frank's Cottage, God, Jesus, Philip Yancey, religion, spirituality, theology, Tom Harper | 12 Comments »
March 16, 2013 by Frank King Photos
Easter makes me smile.
It probably makes you smile, too, since it’s the reason so many people have a long weekend with Friday off.
But I have another reason. Whereas Christmas — as a spiritual holiday — was long ago bought, packaged and cleverly marketed by the Retail Council of Canada, Easter still carries the whiff of something spiritual that our culture can’t quite remove.
All the bunnies and painted eggs in the world don’t change the fact Good Friday isn’t called that just because a majority of us get the day off. It, and the weekend that follows, stands like a sentinel of something important and mysterious.
For people of faith, Easter is the dramatic climax of how God reached out to a broken world. It marks the time when Jesus of Nazareth, considered by many people to be God’s Son, is transformed through death and resurrection. Around the world, the story is sung in ancient hymns and new pop songs, explored in sermons and re-enacted in plays.
Ancient biographical evidence paints Jesus’ death on a Roman Empire cross as a sacrifice to make up for all the past, present, and future wrongs committed by anyone who follows Him. Wrongs that imperfect people like me simply can’t make up for on our own.
For pastor Warren McDougall, who I chatted with about Easter, that amazing act can be seen as a metaphor for giving ourselves away — to our neighbor, community, or world. To set aside our egos and selfishness for a greater good. That is what many people believe Jesus did on Good Friday.
“The instinct is to preserve yourself and, yet, the counter instinct is generosity, with your life and soul,” said Ken Davis, another pastor I spoke to about Easter.
“Jesus said if you want to be great, serve. And the people we consider truly great are those who truly serve.”
The resurrection takes us from the enormity of service-through-sacrifice to the joy of renewal.
“It’s about good overcoming evil, life overcoming death and that transformation is possible, even from negative things,” McDougall told me.
For Mark Giancola, a third pastor I chatted with (these folks are almost always great conversationalists), the entire weekend can be seen through the lens of “hope for a new relationship with God and a new future.
“So if someone’s searching beyond eggs and bunnies, Easter offers that. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been in life, this offers a new start.”
Agree? Disagree? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.
Posted in Special Days | Tagged Bible, Christianity, church, Easter, Faith, Frank King, Frank's Cottage, God, Jesus, religion, spirituality, theology | 10 Comments »
March 9, 2013 by Frank King Photos
While in Toronto (Canada’s largest city), I visited the Ontario Science Centre and discovered an exhibit on Stanley Milgram (1933-84), a psychologist best known for a controversial 1960s human behavior study.
The science centre exhibit was all about Milgram’s study and I couldn’t leave until reading all the information panels and watching the video.
In his experiment, participants were instructed to “teach” students in an adjacent room who were supposedly hooked up to electric shock machines. Students were asked questions and every time they answered incorrectly, the participants were told to administer a corrective shock.
In reality, no one was given a shock, but pre-recorded sounds were played that made it sound like the students were reacting in pain to the shocks. And those sounds (screams, pounding on the wall) grew in volume and intensity as each incorrect answer was given and the resulting voltage level of the “shock” was increased.
How did participants react? If they asked to stop the experiment, they were requested (at first), then told they had to continue. If they still said no, the experiment ended, but if they continued, the experiment often didn’t stop until the student was given the maximum 450-volt “shock” three times.
What’s amazing is most participants continued when assured they would not be held responsible. In fact, in each version of the experiment, between 61 and 66 per cent of the participants went all the way to administering what they believed were life-threatening shocks.
How would I react in this situation? Would I trust in the authority figure and potentially kill someone, especially if I believed I wouldn’t be held responsible?
History is rife with evil people claiming what they did wasn’t their fault. Some of the most infamous Nazis used this “I was just following orders” defence when they were put on trial. Would I do the same thing? Or, as a serious follower of Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the Son of God), would I realize that I had no business handing over authority to people who are as hugely imperfect as I am?
In the end, I believe you and I can confidently give the power of authority over our lives to the same person that Jesus gave authority to: God.
Jesus prayed to God just hours before he was taken into custody on false charges, sentenced to death, then hung on a Roman cross between two criminals. Knowing what was about to transpire, he prayed “Father, if you are willing, take away this cup of suffering. But do what you want, not what I want.”
The result of Jesus giving authority to his creator – the same creator responsible for you and me – was not just death. It was resurrection. It was the gift of forgiveness of all moral crimes offered to every single person on this planet. And whether you accept it or not, what Jesus did changed the world forever.
So, whatever’s going on in my life, I’m going to follow Jesus and give ultimate authority to the only person who is absolutely, completely trustworthy. How about you? Post your answer below and let’s have a conversation.
Posted in Me & The World | Tagged authority, Bible, Christianity, Faith, Frank King, Frank's Cottage, God, Jesus, religion, spirituality, Stanley Milgram, theology, trust | 7 Comments »
March 2, 2013 by Frank King Photos
The online article is called “My Argument With God: How I went from Jesus-loving Christian to fun-loving infidel…in one afternoon”. Written by Ricky Gervais, it details how the British actor/comedian rejected his faith.
Fascinating reading? Definitely. The pivotal moment came when Gervais (who created the mega-successful TV comedy The Office) was just eight years old and was asked by his 19-year-old brother why he believed in God.
Here’s what happened next, straight from the article:
“(It was) just a simple question. But my mum panicked. ‘Bob,’ she said, in a tone that I knew meant “shut up”. Why was that a bad thing to ask? If there was a God and my faith was strong, it didn’t matter what people said.
“Oh…hang on. There is no God. He [Gervais’ brother] knows it and she knows it, deep down. It was as simple as that. I started thinking about it and asking more questions and within an hour, I was an atheist.”
That’s it. Gervais made a decision as a child, apparently without talking about it with his mother, brother or anyone else (the article doesn’t say to whom he asked his questions, so I’m assuming the ‘conversation’ took place inside his head). And the rest of the article makes it clear that he never bothered to revisit it.
Astonishing? From one point of view, not at all. I don’t think I’m being paranoid when I write that in most of Europe and North America, Jesus followers are held in contempt by a majority of the media, by the entertainment industry and by most atheists. That’s definitely the case in Canada, where I live. So Gervais made his life easier by joining the majority.
On the other hand, what leaves me stunned is that Gervais has apparently never reconsidered a decision made when he had pretty much no knowledge or experience about anything. Heck, his brain wasn’t even close to fully formed yet. And it’s a decision that even the most militant atheist or agnostic will probably agree is very important.
I wonder; are there any areas of my life where I’ve made important decisions as a child and have been too proud or ignorant to review them? How have these decisions made my life poorer? How have they closed off my mind and my heart to making changes?
Thankfully, one of those areas hasn’t been my spiritual life. I wrestled with questions about God, Jesus and faith for many years. I debated Jesus followers, read several books and finally decided (at age 41) that despite not having all my questions answered, the best thing I could do with my life and future is to follow Jesus, now and for all eternity.
What about you? Did you reject God and His son years ago and never revisit your decision? Are you humble enough to admit it might be worth reconsidering? Post a comment below and let’s have a conversation.
Posted in Me & The World | Tagged atheism, atheist, Christianity, Faith, Frank King, Frank King blog, Frank King Christianity blog, Frank King faith blog, Frank King religion blog, Frank King spirituality blog, Frank's Cottage, God, Jesus, religion, Ricky Gervais, spirituality, theology | 27 Comments »
February 23, 2013 by Frank King Photos
I think all us email users can agree on this: often, there is no better button on our keyboard than ‘delete’.
“Earn your degree while you earn a living!” DELETE.
“Browse local Asian singles near you!” DELETE.
“Prepare for a job in law enforcement!” DELETE.
(Ever notice how these spammers are addicted to exclamation marks?)
“Don’t pay your next cable bill without reading this!” DELETE.
As we go through this routine, it occurs to me that most of us probably wish we could whack a delete key on some things that we’ve done and said. Or things we should have done & said, but didn’t.
- I’d love to erase the hurtful things I’ve said to my wife.
- I wish I could delete those times I’ve cut off other drivers.
- I’d sure like to wipe out all those negative thoughts I’ve had about my abilities.
- I wish I could delete those times when I’ve reacted hastily without getting all the facts.
- Wouldn’t it be great to erase that dumb thing I did at work last week?
For people like me, who’ve decided to follow Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the Son of God), there’s a great thing to know and make a part of our lives: God’s favourite button is also DELETE.
The mistakes I’ve made? Gone. Those times I should have said something helpful to a co-worker, but simply walked away silent? Wiped out. That relationship that went sour because of me? Eliminated.
How about you? The contractor you paid under the table to avoid taxes? It could be gone. Those nasty things you’ve thought or said about your relative? They could be wiped out.
How far can this go? If you believe in a creator who cares about everything that goes on in our lives, then all the way to something this trivial: all the occasions when I carelessly deposited perfectly recyclable things into the garbage? Deleted.
How do I know this? Well, consider these words from an ancient Jesus follower: “Jesus was offered as a sacrifice one time to take away the sins of many people.”
One of those people is me. And it could be YOU, too.
If you accept this sacrifice, another ancient Jesus follower wrote “There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”
As a pastor friend, Adrian van Giessen, told people once, “When you belong to Jesus, then all the stuff that God can look at and say ‘you did this and you did that,’ he wipes it away and says, ‘I see you as I see Jesus’.”
I looooooove having God see me, with all my glow-in-the-dark imperfections, just as He sees His Son: perfect, without a single blemish. It empowers me to do better, to try to live up to how God sees me – even as I know that when I fall short, He hits the DELETE key, because, as Adrian put it, I “belong to Jesus”.
What do you think…does this make sense? Post a comment below and let’s have a conversation.
Posted in Me & The World | Tagged Adrian van Giessen, Bible, Christianity, Faith, Frank King, Frank King blog, Frank King Christianity blog, Frank King faith blog, Frank King religion blog, Frank King spirituality blog, Frank's Cottage, God, Hebrews 9:28, Jesus, religion, Romans 8:1, spirituality, theology | 8 Comments »
February 16, 2013 by Frank King Photos
Now this is a curiosity.
I wrote a Frank’s Cottage essay about a survey indicating the promise of Heaven is far more motivating than the fear of Hell in encouraging church attendance and prayer.
Kinda makes sense, right? The tasty carrot is better than the nasty stick, goes the thinking.
Then I heard from an old friend, Tim Callaway, who’s doing university research and stumbled upon statistics that indicate a very different story.
These stats are by no means a definitive indicator, but they are consistent. In the 1930s and ’40s, surveys of 100 to 200 students somewhere in North America (sorry, this ancient stuff has no further details) consistently indicated fear of Hell was far more motivating to become a follower of Jesus of Nazareth than the love of God. In many of those years, the numbers were so lopsided that the love motivation was less than 10 per cent.
Huh? The huge difference between then and now is so puzzling that I bounced this disparity off a pastor buddy, Ross Carkner, to get his feedback.
“I wonder if the change has more to do with the nature of society at large,” Ross emailed me. “I think in the 1930s and ’40s, there was a different mindset. The world had just come through one war and was posturing or in the middle of another. The planet was covered in gloom.”
Between the wars and the ruined dreams of the 1930s Great Depression, Ross wondered, “If there was a sense that all you could do was make the most of what you had. This was the builder generation. Work hard and you might get by. This is very different than the baby boomers … the builders were set on making the most of what they had, the boomers were about getting more.”
This makes sense to me. As Ross put it, “I think against that kind of a backdrop, perhaps the builders were open to hearing that ‘things could get worse’ [i.e. the nasty stick of Hell], while the boomers wanted to hear about how ‘things could get better’ [the tasty carrot of Heaven]”.
If this assessment is accurate, then it comes with a subtle suggestion: many people’s ideas about God depend on the world around them. That’s not surprising, but then I remember something an ancient follower of Jesus wrote: “Jesus doesn’t change—yesterday, today, tomorrow, he’s always totally himself.”
I also think of a story about Jesus defending a woman who was brought up on charges of adultery. He told her accusers, who wanted to stone her to death (fooling around on your spouse was serious business in the ancient world), that anyone who’d never done anything wrong could go ahead and throw a stone.
Eventually, all of the woman’s accusers walked away. That left Jesus to do nothing more than tell the woman to go home and don’t commit adultery again.
For me, this event is a powerful example of who God is. And when I realize that he doesn’t change, I see that the ultimate picture of God is incredibly positive. And that’s a picture I want to keep, no matter what happens to me or to the world.
So if you believe in God, what’s your ultimate picture of him? And does it motivate you to do something about your spiritual life?
Posted in In The News | Tagged Bible, Christianity, Faith, Frank King, Frank King blog, Frank King Christianity blog, Frank King faith blog, Frank King religion blog, Frank King spirituality blog, Frank's Cottage, God, Heaven, hell, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus relationship, religion, spirituality, theology, who is Jesus? | 2 Comments »
February 9, 2013 by Frank King Photos
February 14 is almost here and that leads me to asking all the guys out there a question: how many of you like Valentine’s Day?
Now that I’m a happily married stepdad, I don’t mind the day. Much.
But when I was single — and most of the time that meant unattached — Valentine’s Day was something to be endured and ignored. Like a split lip or a bunion.
I felt as if I was walking around with a neon beanie that screamed “I’m alone! I suck! I’m not good enough for anyone with two X chromosomes! Even the neighbour’s cat hates me!”
And feeling left out? Let me tell you about that. On February 14, guys like me stood outside, peering in the window at all the attached people inside the grand Valentine’s mansion. They all seemed to be floating on happy pills. I was still hobbling with that bunion.
The day can be treacherous for attached guys, too. The marketing world works hard to convince women they need and deserve certain gifts (or ‘experiences’) on Valentine’s Day. And in some cases, if they don’t receive those gifts, the guy gets a couple of nights to share fleas with Fido. In other words, the best some attached guys can do, is NOT get into trouble. And they can sweat away several pounds thinking, consulting, and shopping to make sure they don’t fall short.
If you consider these scenarios carefully, you’ll probably come to the same conclusion as me: they all address the need for acceptance. Male or female, most single people want a relationship — or at least the opportunity for one — and with that, the collective voice of society assuring them they don’t suck.
For attached people, there’s the desire for acceptance from their mate. And often, this world suggests that acceptance — and, therefore, value — depends on what they received compared to their attached friends. Did they get a singing card and Toblerone bar, or 48 roses and an expensive night out?
All this certainly seems fraught with peril, like walking through an emotional minefield waiting for something to blow up in your face. Then I remember a pretty cool thing written by one of the earliest followers of Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the Son of God): “In Jesus’s family, there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us, you are all equal.”
In other words, God accepts us exactly as we are, with all our imperfections, fears and life stories.
We don’t have to give, or receive, gifts or ‘experiences’ to be accepted. In fact, we don’t even have to have a special loved one to be accepted. That’s not what our culture may tell you, but it’s already happened with the most important person you can ever know: Jesus of Nazareth. So if Valentines’ Day brings on decidedly mixed emotions, this may be good to keep mind.
Posted in Special Days | Tagged Bible, Christianity, Faith, Frank King, Frank King blog, Frank King Christianity blog, Frank King faith blog, Frank King religion blog, Frank King spirituality blog, Frank's Cottage, Galatians 3:28, God, Jesus, religion, spirituality, theology, Valentine's Day, who is Jesus? | 27 Comments »
« Newer Posts - Older Posts »
If you’re over 40, you might get a chill as I resurrect a shadowy name from the 1970s: Son of Sam.
Frank's Cottage 