What’s Coming Up…

A quick post about subjects I’m working on:

The Bible is full of proverbs – little tidbits of wisdom about life and how to deal with life’s events. Over time people have made up their own proverbs based on their experiences. Sometimes we borrow proverbs from other religions and re-make them to fit us. Over the next few months I’m going to do a series on some common sayings. A lot of them sound Biblical or churchy and are thought to be in the Bible. We’re going to look at some and determine if they speak Biblical truth.

I’ve really been looking forward to these. I’ve said before that there’s a whole lot of non-truth going around, even among Bible-believing Christians. Hopefully this will clarify what the Bible really says.

As for other subjects:  During the “Stuff We Say” series I’m going to post about subjects of a more critical nature. Issues such as sexual compatibility and idolatry in America are two things I’m working on now.  Concerning a personal statement of faith about what I believe… I’m working on that. Or, at least, I plan on working on that… My goal is to have one complete and up by the end of the year.

Feel free to share, repost, and link to anything in this blog you’d like. If there’s something you’d like me to write about drop me a line. Also, bear with me as I figure out how to do this blogging thing. Writing posts is one things. Figuring out the technical stuff on WordPress is something else.

Are there any subjects you would like to see covered on Freedom.Truth.Marriage? Leave a comment.

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What are we here for?

Why did God make man? What was the purpose of creating humans, apart from all other animals? Why us? What are we here for?

Some would say we are here because God wanted fellowship. That would imply God needed something and is not sufficient in and of himself. God is complete and whole. He’s not lonely. He doesn’t need us. Does he like fellowship? Yes. We are important to him, but  our purpose isn’t because God needs fellowship.

So what are we created for? Us, and all of creation were created to give glory to God – to worship God. In Isaiah 43:7, God says about us, “whom I created for my glory.” Who worships God when people don’t? Creation. God created humanity as a part of that creation. But he gave us more: his own breath of life. It’s from that breath that we obtain life.

There was a minor hiccup in that a man and a woman chose to be knowledgeable on their own and were tempted to be like God. Thousands of years later that broken relationship between humanity and God was reconciled through Jesus Christ. Now Christians are spiritually reconnected, once again obtaining life directly from God. And because of that we worship our God as living sacrifices, giving him glory. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God,” 1Cor. 10:31. In heaven we’re going to be worshiping and giving glory to God forever.

Because this is what we’re created for – glorifying God on earth and eventually in heaven – then our motives should be bringing glory to God. Also, we should be focused on how our lives here will bring him glory in heaven, later.

Truth takeaway: The purpose of all humanity is to glorify God and eventually be reconciled to him that we may glorify him there.

Overwhelmed with Vision

With everything that’s been going on at church, stuff I’ve been watching, stuff I’ve read, and stuff I’ve seen, I think “overwhelmed” is a good description of my head lately. And it’s a good overwhelmed.

God’s brought me through a lot, especially in the last couple of years. Now that I have some major issues no longer entangling me, I feel like I can run. Run towards what I’ve been called to do. Run further away from those entanglements. Run towards things I see that need to be done.

Between helping with Disciple Now at my church (which focused on apologetics) and stuff I saw about the Ken Ham – Bill Nye debate (no I didn’t watch it but I did watch this) I saw a need.  The upcoming generations need to know how to give a well-reasoned answer and defense to why they believe what they do.

I recently read two great books (here and here) that all speak about purity and teaching children the way they should go in regards to purity. One of them also addressed how the church has been lacking in teaching an important marital issue. There are needs that need to be addressed in the church. The controversy surrounding Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty and the Coca-Cola Super Bowl commercial added to my sense of urgency.

All of these have also helped me focus on what I need to be addressing here on Freedom.Truth.Marriage. Also, they’re helping me know where I may need to focus when I go back to school for my graduate degree.

I’d like to share these ideas with you. I share them, asking for your prayers on 1) if they are God’s will, and 2) if so, me being sensitive to knowing how He wants them executed.

• Teaching scientific and creationist apologetics in our home school co-op classes.

• Continued work with Freedom.Truth.Marriage.

• A marriage book for men I’m slowly cobbling together.

• Which graduate program to enter into, and God’s provision for funding it.

• Opening up my full testimony for these purposes.

• Ministry to children who’ve lost one or more parent tragically.

• Starting a local freedom ministry where people can come to learn about freedom from habits, addictions, problems; receiving healing in those areas; so they’ll be able to run with freedom as well.

Thank you to all of you who read this and have provided support and encouragement. It’s felt and appreciated.

What the Bible says about Truth

Based on what I’ve wrote about proving the accuracy of the Bible, we can know with confidence that the Bible is the Word of God. We can trust that the Bible speaks truth. Since we know it’s true, we can learn what else is true from it. What does the Bible say about truth, as a whole?

A lot is said about Jesus and grace. Jesus was also the Truth. “We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14b). Love of this truth is essential to salvation (2Thess 2:10).

We are to live by the truth. John 3:21
Love rejoices in the truth. 1Cor 13:6
God wants everyone to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1Tim 2:3-4
God is the God of truth. Psa 31:5

There’s been a lot of talk and debate about worship in the last 200 years. One thing that God definitely wants in worship: spirit and truth. John 4:23

Rom. 1:18,25 – The truth can be suppressed by godless and unrighteous people. From there they can switch Biblical truth for their own version of the truth (which is actually a lie and not truth at all). Is this not a description of our society today?

Eph. 6:14 – “Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest.” The belt holds the other pieces of the armor together. If you don’t have truth holding the other pieces of the armor in place, you become an easy target.

Truth = Freedom.
The truth sets us free from sin. If we’re set free, we’re really free (John 8:32,36). Also, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (Notice that it doesn’t say: “Where there’s lack of sin in one’s life, there is freedom?”) (2Cor 3:17). So freedom comes from truth, and the Spirit of the Lord. This makes  sense when you consider that the Spirit of the Lord, who is the God of truth, is truth.

Having a concrete, consistent source of truth is a blessing. There’s a lot of lack-of-truth going around. Some intentional deception, some just misguided information. That’s why I really felt led to start this blog: To dispel a lot of things that we think are true, but actually aren’t.