my careless contagion

Someone wondered aloud how a follower of Christ could be so continually a mess. It resonated. My life is that way. I can account for the years when I went away from God by saying, "It's on me." Much of what I endured was my fault. What about the rest? People look at a Christian's life and wonder why they would want to endure that kind of hardship. Hardships abound, no matter what. If you haven't tasted of it yet, you will. An unmolested life isn't what you think it is. It's God's mercy, giving you time and space to repent. All He has to do is take His hand away and you're in Job's position. Come to think of it, Job's wicked counselor "friends" said the same thing as the sentiment above. They said, "If you do well, your life will go well." Job was a righteous man, so why did he deserve what he went through? He lost literally everything (except his wife, but my guess is she went away too, for a time). Don't get me wron...

I'm a bad man. No, not Batman. Or any other superhero. I'm a bad man, and there is no other way to look at it. This blog is all about honesty, so let's be honest. I'm a low-down dirty dog. I've done some awful things for which I have no excuse or justification. God doesn't grade on a curve; what's wrong for one person is wrong for another. It wasn't wrong when I left my marriage; I talked it through with God, prayed about it, then acted. However, my choice to hurt my ex-wife in the process by having a relationship while still married was wrong. Yes, society says having a relationship while being separated isn't wrong, but I'm looking to a higher authority than society. After all, society says all sorts of bad things are okay. Society tolerates Justin Bieber. Need I say more? I'm kidding, of course. Is it okay to hurt someone who hurt you? What do I tell my son? I tell him to avoid that person and tell a person in authority what's g...

Psalm 32 sounds an awful lot like Psalm 51. They are considered companion chapters, as they deal with the same thing and were most likely written at about the same time. Psalm 32, however, shows us what happens after David progressed through the awful reality of Psalm 51. Psalm 32 is about forgiveness.  I own a study Bible from the 1970s. It's old, and it looks it. It's just one of a few Bibles I own. I would say it's mid-pack in the looks department. No matter, because I want to talk about what it says inside. First of all, go ahead and read the psalm here . You can see there is a familiar progression, with David saying this is a "teaching moment," so to speak. But where Psalm 51 dwells on the raw reality of David's awful predicament, Psalm 32 is a reminder of God's forgiveness. David screwed up bigger than at any other time in his life. I mean, this was a massive series of mistakes he was caught up in. If he had not admitted his sins to Nathan the ...