Christian Life with Michael

Steve - it is available on YouVersion; I just load...

2012-05-31T17:29:52.906-05:00

Steve - it is available on YouVersion; I just loaded the page and clicked where it said "KJV" and it came right up. On eBible, however, you can do something similar but you can't select NIV right now. It says they are in licensing negotiations with Zondervan.

can't see niv on either youversion.com or ebib...

2012-05-31T13:53:03.738-05:00

can't see niv on either youversion.com or ebible... am i missing something?

Exactly! You can't prove OR disprove God using...

2012-05-10T10:48:34.541-05:00

Exactly! You can't prove OR disprove God using things from the world around us, because God is not part of the world around us. Anyone who thinks they can conclusively prove or disprove the existence of God is fooling himself. Even people who saw the incarnation of God in person (Jesus) could choose to believe or not, and that's certainly as close as you're going to come to empirical "proof" of God!

This is a very nice analogy. My urge is to run out...

2012-05-09T17:34:20.822-05:00

This is a very nice analogy. My urge is to run outside shouting at all the atheists, "See! See?!? Your arguments are all flawed!"

Naturally, they would retort that, '...an argument for something in the absence of something else is not proof of the original something, blah, blah, blah...'

So, I'll content myself with putting a link to this on Facebook.

In reality, I think that your blog allows us to see the truth in that, if God exists - the God of the Bible - He is clearly so different from us that even with all the historical Theophanies/Christophanies and the thousands (millions?) of personal encounters with the Holy Spirit there will never be enough evidence to convince others of His existence.

Of course, that's not the goal is it? Jesus tells us to go and make disciples, not go and convince people to believe in Me.

Thanks so much, Justine! You are an amazing person...

2012-05-02T15:22:16.036-05:00

Thanks so much, Justine! You are an amazing person and a wonderful friend. :)

Congratulations!

2012-05-02T15:03:21.459-05:00

Congratulations!

Wow... thanks for that, Bro. Paul! That's beau...

2012-05-02T13:09:57.766-05:00

Wow... thanks for that, Bro. Paul! That's beautiful. When I first read it, I was literally speechless.

You're going to be an awesome grandpa, by the way. :)

Great story. Debbie and I are celebrating 30 years...

2012-05-02T10:46:07.317-05:00

Great story. Debbie and I are celebrating 30 years. It's been an interesting ride to say the least. But is there anything in this world greater than love itself? If there is I don't know it. I'm happy to know you found what life is all about and you celebrate it. I thought I knew love and then I got married. I again thought I knew love and then I had children. Around August 5th I'm sure to get an even deeper revelation as we will welcome our first grandson into this world.
Thanks for writing you story and I wish you all the best.
Paul Troquille

Thanks, Jeff! I certainly hope that word of mouth ...

2012-04-23T11:55:09.800-05:00

Thanks, Jeff! I certainly hope that word of mouth (or word of blog, or word of tweet, or whatever) brings lots of people to this movie, because it's got valuable things to say to Christians... and I'm guessing it's got a lot to say to people who aren't Christians, too. I might go to see it again with some Christian friends, and then go a third time with some atheist friends, just to see what they think of it. Might turn into an expensive few weeks for me. :)

It looks like you commented twice, saying roughly the same thing; I moderate my comments on the blog to reduce the chances of spam, and presumably you didn't realize that your comments "took" the first time. I only approved one of them rather than putting the same thing up there twice.

What a wonderful and powerful review of a hard to ...

2012-04-23T11:11:51.487-05:00

What a wonderful and powerful review of a hard to review film. I saw it Saturday night and saw myself in it. Thanks for your review and your thoughts on it. I plan to try and follow your blog.

Thorough thoughtful review, with good explanations...

2012-04-15T22:17:10.637-05:00

Thorough thoughtful review, with good explanations of the sections. Well done analysis of DCB's great final magnum opus -treats it as the massive work of art it is.

Just this week I discovered the NLT audio. LOVE I...

2012-04-14T15:14:46.967-05:00

Just this week I discovered the NLT audio. LOVE IT!!!! I can listen while I clean the kitchen.

Very interesting. I've been thinking about ge...

2012-03-19T16:56:21.735-05:00

Very interesting. I've been thinking about getting an NLT. Right now I use mostly the ESV and NASB.

Anonymous, what an interesting story and beautiful...

2012-03-14T09:52:15.190-05:00

Anonymous, what an interesting story and beautiful dream! My belief is that Jesus' sacrifice paid the penalty once and for all for the sins of each of us, so although Jesus of course does not want us to sin, I do not think He condemns us for it when we do. He experienced all of the temptations that we do as human beings, understands that we sometimes fall (although He never did), and has made a way for each of us to be with Him. I don't think He picks and chooses us; I think we pick and choose whether to accept His sacrifice for us. Some would disagree with me, but I don't think our access to Jesus depends on our performance; it all depends on His performance, and His performance was perfect.

I recently discovered Jesus in my life in my belie...

2012-03-11T15:46:14.213-05:00

I recently discovered Jesus in my life in my belief. I believe that God was always part of my life,in my early childhood I could say I overcame sicknesses and accidents, where i today believe that I had a protection angel, a messenger of God protecting me. Up to now, when I turned 46 years I feel a presence of God and his angels around me.
Not long ago, I had doubts in Jesus and his mission on earth. But I always wanted to get to the roots of this doubt, it was like itching me and I thought that this doubt was not satisfying at all. I started to search for Jesus and search for his purpose to make my belief in God complete, to gain complete satisfaction in my belief. I started to read the bible, and from there I started to gain knowledge and this knowledge made me more curious and with my curiosity I was like chasing Jesus in the holy bible, searching for Jesus and his most meaningful mission on earth. At any time in my free time, I almost rip off the pages of my bible and read and read and read, through the old testament and the new testament,repeatedly read texts as I am so eager to find Jesus and his purpose coming. I am from Austria, a little country in the heart of Europe, mainly inhabited by Catholics. This country went through tough times in history. Austria took part in the mass killing of the Jews, which has happened already in the middle ages. Then later in the second world war, Austria took part in the murder of millions of Jews sending them to concentration camps.
Coming from a post - war generation, I grew up with the perception, that those Austrians and Germans, who took part in the killing of Jews were devious and that some even were passive perpetrators. I developed a deep compassion towards the murdered jews. My mother tongue is German, thats why my English is not very accurate, but I try my best.

Anyway since I have occupied myself with Jesus and since my faith in Jesus grew and grew, I dream about him. My last dream was yesterday night. I dreamed that he came from heaven and he was all 3 in one. It was him, but it was also God himself and his appearence was so bright and full of a gleaming white light, shining like a star, blending and at the same time I could see his face. I remember i left the house. people were standing outside the houses as everybody was drawn to him by his appearence. I saw people standing there,staring at his bright glooming feature. Everybody was overwhelmed by God/Jesus/spirit, people were in awe. I saw his expression in his face, his face was shining like a beaming star with bright millions of varying lights. When I looked at him, I recognized, that he was angry,and I felt his anger was towards my sins. I fell on the ground and i felt so small and so meaningless, with so much fear, he could reject me. He started to point out at people who gathered around him.He selected the ones who he wanted to take to him, and some who he pointed at,I recognized, he did not want to take to him. Then he pointed at me and i was so much afraid, that i would be send away too. In the moment he pointed at me, I saw the anger and disappointment in his eyes. But the dream then continued when i felt a kind of relief as I was then all of a sudden on a kind of seating area on the top of an auditorium, sitting together with others, who got the same privilege. Then I saw people on the bottom of this auditorium who were like mourning and crying, holding each other,as if they had no chances anymore. Then i felt like that I maybe was not one of chosen ones who God will take immediately to him, but that i had a chance to come to him,but have to pass some more lessons he would give to me. Then I woke up,

Thanks for the shout out (although I'm not so ...

2012-01-17T15:45:50.254-06:00

Thanks for the shout out (although I'm not so sure that Jan. 8 was really "a few weeks ago," but it sure feels like it, so we'll let it slide.) :)

Totally agree that reading the Bible with an open heart really does change us from the inside out!

Haven't made it to Lamentations yet in my plan. Still on Jeremiah and rather enjoying it.

Love it! What a great idea!!!

2012-01-08T16:02:25.921-06:00

Love it! What a great idea!!!

I love Epiphany! We didn't do anything very s...

2012-01-07T00:20:11.431-06:00

I love Epiphany! We didn't do anything very spiritual this year, but we did make the day special (made treats then took advantage of this gorgeous weather and hit the park and Philbrook). The one thing my kids and I always talk about is that Epiphany should be especially meaningful to us as gentiles since the wise men were the first gentiles to recognize and worship Jesus.

One fun tradition we have is that our wise men from our nativity scene "travel" every day from Christmas to Epiphany, when the end up around Jesus (yes, the baby in the stable...haven't thought to make a house for them yet). I hide the wise men in different places every day and the kids have fun finding them. We prefer it to Elf on the Shelf. :)

Happy Epiphany!

Tomorrow maybe I'll take down our tree...

Fabulous! Really fabulous.

2011-12-22T21:57:02.065-06:00

Fabulous! Really fabulous.

Michael, Thanks so much for the great post and I&...

2011-12-16T00:34:07.595-06:00

Michael,

Thanks so much for the great post and I'm thrilled that you enjoyed NLDC.

And, just to be honest... I didn't learn how to spell my last name until first grade. They wouldn't give me a library card if I couldn't spell my own name.

We went there in July. It was a great exhibit!

2011-10-08T20:27:41.229-05:00

We went there in July. It was a great exhibit!

Very good. Along the same lines with a book I'...

2011-09-15T20:05:39.914-05:00

Very good. Along the same lines with a book I'm reading right now--Be Ye Transformed by Nancy Missler. Here is an excerpt that mentions the lamp/eye verses from Luke - http://www.khouse.org/articles/1996/280/

Thanks, Shannon and Justine! I've been lax on ...

2011-08-31T15:11:05.440-05:00

Thanks, Shannon and Justine! I've been lax on following the blogs I read, too... I have them in Google Reader and eventually I'll get back to them, but it's been a busy couple of months and it temporary has fallen by the wayside. Thanks for coming back! :)

Good stuff...and many thanks to my friend Shannon ...

2011-08-31T14:53:28.124-05:00

Good stuff...and many thanks to my friend Shannon for sending me back here. Somehow I had stopped "following" or maybe just caught your posts when you posted them on FB. I haven't been on FB much lately so I missed a lot of good stuff.

Wonderful! Loved it!

2011-08-25T22:19:37.135-05:00

Wonderful! Loved it!