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people around us these qualities of incomprehensibility and transcendence are why it can be so hard to reconcile what seem like contrasting attributes of god how can he require complete justice for sin yet be merciful how in the world can he be self sustaining and self existent and infinite our minds will never fully comprehend these qualities so how do we interact with god and others in light of his incomprehensibility and transcendency first we must accept that we are not god we will never understand everything about god or even about the world and his creation no amount of googling is going to fill in all the gaps and that s what keeps us looking forward to heaven where we will see and understand god in a much deeper way second we need to keep seeking it is the search for answers that draws us closer to god each time we question each time we struggle through doubt we must look to him as the answer and allow him to reveal the truth of who he is in that situation when we look at our interactions with others we must remember that we aren t all knowing but we might seem incomprehensible to the person we are connecting with i think the phrase seek first to understand then to be understood steven covey 7 habits of highly effective people could be a principle to hang on to what if instead of trying to push our own view we sought to understand the view of the person with whom we were speaking or better yet what if we invited the person to seek answers with us what if we prayed on our own and with the person for god s help in understanding a difficult or controversial concept and then we sought to show god s love and patience as we searched for answers together finally let s take encouragement from the fact that although god is too great for us to fully comprehend he still knows us personally and desires to be known by us and then let s endeavor to know him and reflect him better each day leave a comment our self existent god january 22 2023 attributes of god beserkerlife imagine a day where you don t stop to eat drink or even rest sure you might accomplish a lot more in that 24 hour timespan but what condition would you be in at the end of the day what if you had no air during that time it s silly question because we all know no one can live without air for even a few minutes in addition to air food drink and rest humans need shelter and clothing to survive and to have a healthy and happy life you can add things like medicine safety relationships and resources to the list of must haves while we in our american culture often like to think of ourselves as independent it s clear that we require a wide assortment of necessities for survival and health on this planet but god needs nothing have you ever really thought about that god sustains himself there s nothing that he needs nothing he didn t even need to be created because he has always existed check out john 5 26 csb for just as the father has life in himself so also he has granted to the son to have life in himself we call this attribute self existent and it s one of those incommunicable attributes that can t be imitated or demonstrated by people and yet somehow we try we try to appear self reliant and invincible brushing off hurts and covering up vulnerabilities in a way we try to be god and we fail repeatedly because we aren t god and we can t be we were created with needs created to need god we need him to sustain us throughout each day as the worship song says he s the breath in our lungs he is necessary for every moment of each day he is the supplier of everything we could ever need so how does our interaction with god change when we admit our lack of self existence and choose instead to rely on him well when we realize that god needs absolutely nothing from us but still chooses to pursue relationship with us that s a pretty big thing we can learn to enjoy our relationship and interactions with him instead of feeling like we need to somehow earn it we can begin to be vulnerable with god and learn how his strength meets every one of our weaknesses even when we think he isn t meeting those needs quickly enough or to the extent that we would hope we must trust his sustenance for us in addition as we remember that he is the very breath in our lungs the supplier of all of our needs our constant response should be to pour out praise to him we praise him for what he has given us for what he has done in our lives for what he has done despite our sinful desires and actions and how about our interactions with others how are they impacted by the self existence of god i think this is where it is important to acknowledge how each person has needs and failings weaknesses as it were and as we interact with others those weaknesses can lead to hurt or offense but god s grace can fill in those spaces if we re willing we can learn to depend on god when others fail us to offer his grace to them and when we fail those around us we can let our response to that situation point to god and the work he is doing in our lives we aren t self existent but we have a god who is and we can depend on him to meet all of our needs to be everything we can t what a great reason to praise him one comment so far training up our children january 15 2023 parenting beserkerlife during a senior recognition night this year 9 graduating seniors were asked what person ha the most influence on their spiritual formation without exception each teen mentioned 1 or both of their parents this reminded me of the importance of the role that parents play in the lives of their children parents are called to train up a child in the way he should go proverbs 22 6 kjv a huge responsibility we may not fully realize the responsibility that comes with that calling we may feel inadequate to fulfill it but the calling doesn t change and what is our responsibility to the children in our lives to provide spiritual training for their mind and heart it s a tricky thing we must fulfill this responsibility while somehow till depending fully on christ s work in their and our mind and heart we must ensure that they hear us as we teach them god s principles and that they see us living these principles out and correcting our walk when we fail so how do we do this god gives us two gifts to enable parents in this undertaking first we are given a vast amount of time with our children and we must choose to use it wisely every moment every interaction is a chance to lead our children down the path towards a life that honors god it s true that it isn t feasible to somehow leverage every single moment for teaching and modeling but if our hearts are geared towards seeking those moments out we will be less likely to waste them as they come when we choose to engage with the kids in the car instead of zoning out to our favorite spotify list when we feel little eyes on us and determine to respond to a challenging situation in a god honoring way when we set our phones down and look into the eyes of our children while they tell us something long and drawn out in each of those every day situations and in so many more we build relationship that serves as the foundation for bigger spiritual influence the gift of time ties closely with the gift of formative hearts god gives us the most time with our children when they are young we must intentionally choose to spend time with our children and then take the next step of engaging with them in conversations about spiritual matters even the youngest toddler can demonstrate the actions from a sunday school song and and chat about the meaning of the words an elementary school student can converse about whether their actions honored god and what they might do differently in a future situation middle school kids can discuss hard cultural topics and search with you for bible passages to back up their stance and we can walk with our teens as they question and seek to make their faith their own each encounter of this sort leverages our spiritual influence for god s kingdom so if you have children take a moment today to consider how you might more fully utilize the influence god has given you and if you don t have children or if your children are grown consider if there is a child in your life that needs a godly influence then in either situation take a new step to train up the child ren in your life leave a comment god isn t a fairy godmother december 16 2022 general beserkerlife it has occurred to me today that i ve been treating god much like my children treat me sometimes there s this thing i really want and so i ve been bringing it to god as often as it enters my mind i think i ve had that story of the persistent widow in my mind almost as if i think that if i just ask god for it often enough he will realize just how much i want maybe even need this and grant my wish like a sparkly fairy godmother really all i want is a few more hours at the ball at the same time i ve been spouting this line about trusting god and the plans he has for me but begging him for this thing i want every time i turn around and i m realizing how that doesn t work when my kids do it to me no matter how many times natasha asks for a sucker right before lunch i m not going to cave because i know it isn t in her best interests but she still keeps asking now i know my kids trust me to meet their daily needs and make sure they get dinner in their tummies and all that but they still try to wear me down every once in a while and here i am doing the same thing with god the question isn t can i trust god with my future and rest in his provision for me but rather will i originally written 2009 one comment so far the fragrance of our lives april 12 2022 general beserkerlife a couple of years ago the main character in a book i read learned to make perfume while reading the book i learned that every perfume is comprised of 3 main fragrances top middle and base notes top notes tend to be smells like citrus light florals or lavender and last for up to 15 minutes this is the first smell your brain registers and can be the sharp feeling scent that makes you sneeze if you inhale too much at once middle or heart notes are scents like cinnamon or jasmine and evaporate more slowly meaning that their fragrance lasts for 20 60 minutes they complement the top notes while deepening the experience with new notes and the bass notes scents such as musk or vanilla have the longest duration lasting 6 hours or more they form the foundation of the scent these notes actually sink into your skin and stick with you for the day each combination of notes will evoke a specific feeling or experience for the user sometimes a scent will bring back a memory from childhood or a significant holiday all of this information came back to me when i came across a note marked in my bible above john 12 the chapter tells the story recently covered by troy in his series about the last week of jesus of mary anointing jesus with the contents of a jar of oil the note above the section says what s in my jar what kind of fragrance does my life make it got me thinking what are the fragrance notes of our lives what do people notice first about us are we approachable or wrapped up in ourselves does the initial scent of our lives draw others in or cause them to grimace and step away what about when they spend a little bit of time with us does our conversation turn to things of god or pop culture is there a lasting and genuine connection with the savior or just a reliance on rescue prayers in time of need how about when they really get to know us do they see peace in difficult circumstances or constant anxiety and comparison do others smell a deep abiding faith or something less substantial paul often commands christians to be a pleasant aroma philippians 4 18 ephesians 5 2 to those around us as we present ourselves to him as a living and holy sacrifice romans 12 1 our aroma becomes more pleasing to him and to those whom we encounter and here s the kicker the more we learn to know christ the more we become smell like christ perhaps the fruit of the spirit on display in our lives become the fruity and floral top notes someone notices first maybe our consistent connection with him and our desire to spend time with him show our heart middle notes and the trials that can rock us to our very foundation but that also cause us to rebuild our foundation on christ they form the base notes of our lives so the next time you wander past the perfume counter or catch a whiff of cookies from the oven or enjoy the scent of the first lilac of spring use that as an impetus to consider what fragrance is your life making leave a comment unaffordable generosity july 27 2020 uncategorized beserkerlife a couple of years ago a friend went on a walk with me it sounds like no big deal but the knowledge that she is a busy home school mom who also works part time and volunteers made it very meaningful to me i knew how precious time is and she had given generously perhaps beyond what she could truly afford that day it reminds me of the biblical widow who gave her last two coins as an offering to god luke 21 1 4 she was surrounded by people more affluent than her who gave larger offerings than she did and yet she gave everything she had in contrast to those who gave out of their abundance luke 21 4 nkjv what really strikes me about this story is that we don t go on to read that she went home to discover that a friendly neighbor had paid her heating bill and left a box of groceries on the front stoop we don t read that she was offered a job as she left the temple and eventually became a wealthy business woman we never hear another word about her because it wasn t important what happened to her as a result of her actions but rather what her actions showed about her heart she was willing to give everything literally everything she had in order to honor god the whole concept of generosity is a recurring theme for me i see generosity modeled in the way those around me choose to spend their money time and talents how they set their priorities one year i felt like god impressed upon me a need to be more generous i committed to do at least one generous thing each month to try to grow this characteristic and the first couple of months were pretty easy a gift sent to a friend a donation to a good cause but soon i was challenged to be more generous with my time i gave away my time in new ways and that was hard sometimes i felt like my gift had been wasted or unappreciated there were no thank you notes or parades held in my honor but somehow i felt like i was growing i was learning to be generous for the sake of pleasing my savior rather than for the accolades i might or might not receive and these last couple of weeks as i have mulled over this idea i have often thought of the greatest example of generosity our lord jesus christ after all he gave up his only son gave him as a gift to us and mankind routinely rebuffs that gift even those...