Personal Reflections on the Study of God's Word

Who Is In Heaven

In: Personal Reflections on the Study of God's Word
Published:
Many years ago when I was in Respiratory Therapy school we were studying the interpretation of pulmonary functions testing (PFT's). This was one of the critical topics for the class and failure to pass this module meant failing the program. One student was struggling to understand the concepts that had been presented in class and could not successfully interpret PFT's. The instructors had spent many hours with him one-on-one and he still just did not understand it. As we approached the deadline for the exam that would make or break his career one of the instructors approached me and said, "Jon, you understand PFT's very well and can interpret them correctly consistently, would you spend some time with Sean and maybe he will be able to understand your perspective better than he is understanding ours." Sean and I spent one entire clinical day just working with and interpreting PFT's and by the time the day was over he was interpreting them successfully every time. This was not an issue of the instructors not knowing what they were talking about (teachers, you know what I'm talking about here!) It was an issue that Sean wasn't able to understand it from their perspective, but seeing it from a different view point made all the difference in the world.
 

Viewing God as Our Father

In: Personal Reflections on the Study of God's Word
Published:

Several years ago while on vacation with my family in Myrtle Beach, SC I broached the topic of God as our father with my extended family (all of my brothers and sisters were together for the first time since my mom's funeral a little over a year before). My focus on these words had been on "father". What does it mean that God is referenced as father? How has my relationship with my earthly father informed and directed my understanding of what it means for God to be called father? As I brought this topic up my youngest brother Peter wouldn't let me get past the word "Our". He commented that Jesus didn't say "My Father..." or "Your Father...", but "Our Father...." What does it mean that he is "ours" and not "mine" or "yours"? How does that change the way I see people? What about those people that I don't like very much - the ones that have hurt me? Is He their father too? If He is, how should that influence the way I view (and more importantly TREAT) them? Each one of us has been wronged by someone (and each one of us has wronged someone else!) Recognizing that God is their father as well as ours should direct the way we treat each other. (We could broaden this to include all those people who have different religious, social, or political views than us.) How can we become ONE family with differing views but the SAME father focused on HIS will

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Friday Blog

A number of years ago as I was attempting to understand God's methodology and His timing I came to the realization that from my perspective God is always a day late and a dollar short, but from His perspective He is right on time with just enough. My challenge is to stop seeing it from my perspective and start seeing it from His! These past few weeks as Lisa and I have been preparing for and implementing our move from Texas to Tennessee it has been essential for us to NOT view this move from our perspective but from God's.

Friday Blog
50 years ago this evening I was impatiently waiting for the new day to arrive. I had spent several weeks visiting my grandparents in Loma Linda, California and on July 4 we were going to Disneyland! It wasn't actually my grandparents who were taking me (although they went along) it was my uncle Ken and Aunt Ruthie and it was a reward for helping Aunt Ruthie with her daycare (it was called baby sitting back then!) while she took her children, Heidi Ranalla and Adam Turk to swimming lessons. I still don't know what possessed us to think that it was a good idea but on July 4, 1976 we went to Disneyland!
Friday Blog

In the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Chekov and Uhura have beamed into the reactor room on the aircraft carrier Enterprise to harvest radiation from the nuclear reactors. Due to failing power on the Klingon starship Scotty must beam them back one at a time. At 1:14:27 into the movie as the guards on the Enterprise are closing in Chekov makes an effort to contact Scotty to be beamed out of the reactor room making a desperate plea "Scotty, now would be a good time!" How often when things aren't going the way we think they should do we ask God to resolve the issue in the way that we think would be best. Like Chekov we declare "Now would be a good time!" for God to solve our problems.

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