Our Lighted Path

Teach them to love like Jesus, not abuse!  

  The Box jelly is the only sea jelly that has eyes that come anywhere close to being like ours; but even given that fact, the box jelly doesn't really see. I'm no scientist. I didn't have high school biology - just a quick course in college. But I have faith. And I know scientists can be foolish like anyone else, sometimes. ** This past September, The New York Times published an almost silly article about a study that's misleading. The headline says, "Brainless Jellyfish Demonstrate Learning Ability." That took me by surprise, because I'd read enough to know that sea jellies, as they're called now, are soulless bundles of nerves. Sea jellies can't be made to chase any prey, can't know the worth of giving birth, have no idea what it means to be blessed with food. Instead, sea jellies lead a life of releasing venomous stingers at bullet-fast speeds any and every time their tentacles touch anything that does not have their exact same chemical bl...

I've struggled mightily with whether or how to write this post. I don't want to hurt feelings, anymore, of people Heaven has given me a heart for. But there comes this moment when I am brave and need to say something of what needs to be said. This post is about the confusion and practice of evil doing that has grown from the seed of something King David said. David (a man, and a flawed man, not God) made a "covenant" with a friend some time before the friend died a horrible death. That friend was someone who David, before being saved or anointed by God, put in place of a woman's love, the Bible says. David made many spiritual missteps. David's confessed spiritual wrongs, apart from salvation in Jesus, were never without consequence. David lost his first child. A son of David sexually assaulted a daughter. David's kingdom fell. And, long before all of that, David's friend died a terrible death -- and that death was not so that David would live a life o...

Tonight could have gone to my search for peace. For months, I've wondered about how unwise it might be to walk from work at church to the sanctuary of another church, for Wednesday evening services. But struggles prevented me from dwelling on the thought. Struggles prevented even prayers about it. So I've wondered whether God has been trying to lead to elsewhere, and I've gradually felt like I'm finding the way. Meanwhile, it's posts like this that sometimes take the place of Wednesday night Bible studies at church. And, while I know this isn't as should be, I'm thankful I can make posts like these, as Paul was led to write sermons while in prisons, and as MLK did, also - for a reason, and not notoriety. I'm writing tonight, because I'm not struggling as usual, and because I feel like serious problems have a fighting chance at leaving us, if I say a few brief words while I'm able to. What I want to say comes from Bible studies at home. But I'...

  I could think of no other heading for this post, than "Oh. My. ... !" Oh, my word. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my God. John 12:24  puzzled me, but I left it in God's court and didn't try to understand. For years, I've wanted to garden well. And for years, I've dug into God's word. So it puzzled me that our heavenly maker, creator of the universe, the one who waited billions of years and counted it all as only a "day" to birth mankind and supply us with everything needed for living (including millions of years in dinosaur fuel) — that He would just up and say a seed dies in order to produce. But that is not what He has said. Of course, seeds do not completely die before taking root. Seeds only sleep. Seeds hibernate, so to speak. And when temperature and moisture are right, they awaken and set down their roots. Yet, that's not all seeds. All seeds are not blessed to cosily nestle beneath the cover of good soil and optimal weather. All seeds don...

"While it was still night, a messenger of the Lord opened the jail, brought them out, and called them to tell of the new life." (Acts 5:19) Tomorrow, many people will celebrate not God's love, not love from Heaven, not everlasting goodness, but a kind of affection that can sometimes be not godly at all. When we were young, many of us understood differences between brotherly/friendship love, healthy spousal love, and agape/church love - all covered by Jesus. But we didn't know there were gray areas that seem like love but aren't. And that's something many of our young people are witnessing now. Globally, there is a push right now to define love in what the Bible describes as "reprobate" terms. And that just shouldn't be. If the woman at the well tells us no other lesson, we should at least see from her story, that living together sinfully, for example, isn't God's will. Nor is being intrusive any kind of love. ... How many times does Jesus...

  It's the one scripture I raised an eyebrow at, bewildered, but didn't ask God to clarify. It's the one scripture I didn't ponder. I didn't put a question mark in my Bible's margin. I didn't think twice about it. I didn't pray about it. I think I just felt, "Well, God has that verse there, and He must have a reason." But I did not go any further than that. The passage says this: And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. 1 Timothy 2:14-15 That's according to the Bible's King James translation. And glancing at all of 1 Timothy 2:11-15, more verses than those two are puzzling in Paul's note to a young preacher named Timothy. But one thing that immediately made sense to me about it, is that this note had to have been written on one of those rare days when Paul was outlining some ...