O, How Man Goes Wrong: Let Me Count the Ways!

I often think about the two greatest commandments in the law: love God with all of your being, and love your neighbor as yourself. Each of these two commandments encompass an entire list of commandments. Most notably, the first 4 of the Ten Commandments instruct us on how to have love for God, and the last 6 of the Ten Commandments instruct us on how to have love for each other. Furthermore, there are two ways that you can fail to keep any commandment:

1. You can practice it outwardly, but not be sincere in your heart.
2. You can fail to practice it.

Rejoice in Suffering

The New Testament takes quite a stand on the attitude that we should have towards trials. There is a familiar scripture in James that says:

James 1:2-4

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 

We are supposed to rejoice whenever bad things happen to us because it helps us develop perseverance. Furthermore, this verse indicates that by persevering, we are made “mature and complete, not lacking anything.” But how does perseverance make us complete? Paul’s letter to the church of God in Rome describes this process in more detail:

God’s Solution to Food-borne Illness

This is yet another idea that I got from the food safety forum last week (it sort of made an impression on me). One of the main causes of food-borne disease is improper sanitation, which I discussed a little bit in a previous snack (How to Change Your Mind). You could say that the point of that discussion, as it relates to sanitation in foods, is that people need to have a compassionate heart so that they care about the people that they are growing/packaging/preparing food for, and that this is the only way to ensure that they will observe proper sanitation standards. Another point accentuated in that post was that when God gives us His Spirit, He transforms our heart so that we will keep His laws. Of course God will ultimately eradicate disease of every kind, but the aim of this snack is to make the case that the current burden of food-borne disease could be greatly reduced if everyone would simply follow God’s law today.

The Golden Calf – Which Kind of Idolatry?

As I was doing my latest article at The Voice of One Crying Out in the Wilderness (The Second Commandment - Is it Different from the First?), it occurred to me that the account of the Israelites making a golden calf in Exodus 32 is a violation of the 2^nd commandment rather than the 1^st (see the introduction to that article for an explanation of the difference). Let’s carefully review exactly what happened in that story (you may want to read it yourself first in Exodus 32).

How is God's Government Different?

This is yet another Spiritual Snack inspired by the food safety conference that I attended the other day. At this forum, there were speakers from the food safety agencies of the federal governments (FDA, FSIS, and CDC) as well several from state food safety agencies. For those of you who are not aware (as I wasn’t), the state of North Carolina has pretty much the best food safety program in the country, so it was kind of a big deal. Anyway, as I was learning about all of these different government agencies and how they were structured, some important points of God’s government came to mind.

How to Change Your Mind

I was at a food safety seminar recently, and the subject of how to get people to practice better sanitation standards came up. The remark was made that in many cases people know what good sanitation standards are and can easily pass quizzes on the most important points, and yet so many food-handlers don’t practice them. The speaker remarked that indeed we all do this sometimes – we know that we should wash our hands after going to the restroom, but sometimes we just don’t. Why is that, and what does it have to do with God?

God Will Have Mercy on Them All

If you’ve ever read Exodus, you may wonder whether or not it was fair for God to harden Pharaoh’s heart, especially when Pharaoh got to the point where he wanted to let the Israelites go. Is God fair? Did God condemn Pharaoh by hardening his heart?

What does the Bible Teach about Women in the Church?

Paul made a few statements about women in his letters which have often been misinterpreted to either suppress the role of women in the church or to label the bible as sexist. For example,

1 Corinthians 14:34-36

Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.

The context of the chapter here is vital to understanding what Paul is actually saying here.

Malachi 3:6 - "I, the LORD, Do Not Change"

God’s law is no exception to Malachi 3:6 – God does not change! Contrary to popular thought, Jesus did not come preaching a “new” religion of love. Instead, He came declaring that the Israelites had never truly embraced the love that God had commanded through the law and the prophets. This is clearly seen in the following passage from Zechariah:

Zechariah 7:9-11

 This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.' But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.