My Thoughts and Reflections

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.  And what does the L ORD require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  - Micah 6:8 (NIV) As Christians, we often tout the Bible as God’s handbook on life, but all too often find ourselves at a loss as to where the sections that show us how to live are.  All throughout the Old Testament, God’s people relied on the Law (the first five books of the Bible, also known as Torah) to know how God wanted them to live.  This was a great gift from God to show them how he intended them to be holy people and to show them that they did not measure up to God’s standards for holiness.   The problem, however, was that they often got caught up in the intricate details and ignored the true priorities that God had for their lives.  They thought that the most important thing to do was to make sure that their sacrifices at the temple were done properly and they also made sure that they s...

“Instead, we are God's accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives.”  - Ephesians 2:10 (CEB) Our salvation is not a result of anything we have accomplished. Our salvation is God's accomplishment. It was accomplished because of God's love and by Jesus' willingness to die on the cross for our sins. Because we have accepted the free gift of salvation, we also accepted the change in our lives that salvation brings. Jeremiah reminded his listeners that God has a good plan for our lives and Paul reemphasizes this reminder. God has planned good things for our lives and good things for us to accomplish in our new lives as Christians. This new way of life, though not always easy, is the surefire way of living a life of joy. Our joy comes from knowing that we are honoring our father in heaven and showing him gratitude for the great mercy that he has bestowed on us, the fact that we ...