did we ever reach a conclusion on that whole "how many angels can fit on the head of a pin?" thing?

SO.MANY.QUESTIONS

Is this tissue as soft as an angel is soft?
Do we know that angels are, in fact, soft?

Or is this tissue as soft as angels prefer?

On a scale of  ZERO to ANGEL, how soft is this tissue?
Angelsoft, baby!

The product attempts to qualify the matter by stating it's "an ideal balance of Softness & STRENGTH."

How does that clarify things?

So does the "angel" part of "angelsoft" refer to how strong the tissue is?
If so, I was under the impression from before that they were soft.

If strength is what you're going for, I have better suggestions:

Oxsoft
Schwarzeneggersoft
Nailssoft

No, that clearly doesn't add up.

I think they were going for a double-dip akin to saying, "softsoft."

Because angels live on the tops of clouds and are the winged versions of our dead relatives, right?

Nice try Angelsoft!

Unless angels are, in fact, as strong as they are soft or as soft as they are strong, you've got yourself a dilemma.

put out to pasture‏

John 10:9

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

When we enter through the door of Jesus we find a fenced-in facility.

It is a gated community.

But we do not find a prison yard, we find pasture.

Not only are we saved, but we are set free.

The fences of God’s holiness do not keep us from doing what we want to do, they protect us from what we used to want to do. They define tangibly for us that which is pleasing to Him and since we love Him we long to do what He loves.

The pasture is for freedom.

1 John 5:3

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

Candeo Church Kids

 

Kids church at Candeo is a frolic in the Falls.

 

It is fun to see all the young kids who will get to call Candeo home in the coming years.

we prefer to worry

Mr. Oz is much better than Dr. Oz any day, hands down, no question.

See below.

What is the thing that not only disturbs you but makes you a disturbance?It is always something you cannot deal with yourself. “They rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried so much the more.”Persist in the disturbance until you yet get face to face with the Lord Himself;do not deify common sense.

Watch how we limit the Lord by remembering what we have allowed Him to do for us in the past: “I always failed there, and I always shall”; consequently we do not ask for what we want, “It is ridiculous to ask God to do this.” If it is an impossibility, it is the thing we have to ask.If it is not an impossible thing, it is not a real disturbance. God will do the absolutely impossible.

 

Our agony comes through the willful stupidity of our own heart. We won’t believe, we won’t cut the shore line, we prefer to worry on.

 

If you have faith in Jesus, it is stupid to withhold hope in God for things which seem impossible while leaning only on Him for things you feel you have under control.

It is also stupid to call that “faith.”

Do not attempt to cut the thickness of your pride with the water of self-deprecation. The problem cannot be that you are too far away. Who could be so far that God could not reach them? What problem could be so large as to stump its Creator?

Romans 8:38-39

³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You are included in the “anything else” category.

You cannot separate God’s love from you if by faith you have received and by grace embraced Jesus as Lord.

Stop trying to defy Scripture by becoming the one thing that God cannot overcome.

He can.

You can’t.

THE END.

not by generations, but regeneration

My wife was reading this blog the other day and forwarded me a note.

She indicated a point the author made that struck her:

God does not have grandchildren.

John 1:12-13

¹² But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ who were born,not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

You are not regenerated by being born to the right parents at the right time because your parents were believers and they really wanted you to believe too.

The will of man and pride and legacy cannot accomplish regeneration.

John 3:3

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

May I state the obvious in proposing a person cannot birth themself.

John 6:44

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

May I state the obvious in proposing a person cannot draw themselves up from the depths of their mire and no one can draw up another.

John 6:63

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

The flesh profits nothing.

Not a little something.

Nothing.

 

This truth is spirit and life.

 

It is life-giving to understand that you don’t have life.

It is refreshing to realize you are stale.

It is domesticating to understand you are feral.

 

Life comes in acknowledging death.

 

God does not have grandchildren.

 

It is by blood, flesh and men we are born to inherit an earthly life.

It is through faith in Jesus that we are reborn to inherit eternal life.

 

"Even the best church planter or pastor in the world can’t regenerate his child’s heart. You can’t parent a kid into conversion any more than you can pastor people into salvation. We affirm regeneration by the power of God, not by parenting. But we’re called to dazzle our kids with Jesus, delight in the Gospel, and train them faithfully, all while trusting the Spirit to act upon our kids.” ~Dave Harvey, Am I Called?

second verse same as the first: closing time edition

Today we close on our new home in Cedar Falls.
 
It is nice to have this second half of the moving puzzle box checked as "done."
 
Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you?
We've got some work to do now.
 
It is no small irony that Lauren is to this day called Scoob by her mother, my mother-in-law, and is, of couse, swooping in to assist us get the house ready to call a home for Team Van Voorst and baby Schaeffer shortly.

oh well: too deep, too far, too little and too hard‏

 

So Chambers took the past few days to pound this point into my skull
 

The woman said to Him, ’Sir, You have nothing to draw [water] with, and the well is deep’ —John 4:11

…beware of exhibiting religious deceit by saying, “Oh, I have no misgivings about Jesus, only misgivings about myself.” If we are honest, we will admit that we never have misgivings or doubts about ourselves, because we know exactly what we are capable or incapable of doing. But we do have misgivings about Jesus. Andour pride is hurt even at the thought that He can do what we can’t.

My misgivings arise from the fact that I search within to find how He will do what He says. My doubts spring from the depths of my own inferiority. If I detect these misgivings in myself, I should bring them into the light and confess them openly— “Lord, I have had misgivings about You. I have not believed in Your abilities, but only my own. And I have not believed in Your almighty power apart from my finite understanding of it.”

“Where then do You get that living water?” —John 4:11

“The well is deep”— and even a great deal deeper than the Samaritan woman knew! (John 4:11). Think of the depths of human nature and human life; think of the depth of the “wells” in you. Have you been limiting, or impoverishing, the ministry of Jesus to the point that He is unable to work in your life? Suppose that you have a deep “well” of hurt and trouble inside your heart, and Jesus comes and says to you, “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” (John 14:1). Would your response be to shrug your shoulders and say, “But, Lord, the well is too deep, and even You can’t draw up quietness and comfort out of it.” Actually, that is correct.Jesus doesn’t bring anything up from the wells of human nature— He brings them down from above. We limit the Holy One of Israel by remembering only what we have allowed Him to do for us in the past, and also by saying, “Of course, I cannot expect God to do this particular thing.” The thing that approaches the very limits of His poweris the very thing we as disciples of Jesus ought to believe He will do. We impoverish and weaken His ministry in us the moment we forget He is almighty. The impoverishment is in us, not in Him. We will come to Jesus for Him to be our comforter or our sympathizer, but we refrain from approaching Him as our Almighty God.

The reason some of us are such poor examples of Christianity is that we have failed to recognize that Christ is almighty. We have Christian attributes and experiences, but there is no abandonment or surrender to Jesus Christ. When we get into difficult circumstances, we impoverish His ministry by saying, “Of course, He can’t do anything about this.” We struggle to reach the bottom of our own well, trying to get water for ourselves. Beware of sitting back, and saying, “It can’t be done.” You will know it can be done if you will look to Jesus. The well of your incompleteness runs deep, but make the effort to look away from yourself and to look toward Him.

It is the sin of unbelief that produces the idea that we are too weak to be strong in Him.

It is the sin of pride to use your inferiority as a basis of demeaning His majesty.

It is the sin of gluttony to feast upon insecurity when He declares a fast.

It is the sin of morbid introspection that leads us to put immovable obstacles between Him and us in declaring Him too powerless to raze.

Do NOT look within.

It IS too deep.

It IS too hard.

It IS too far.

For you.

Do not refuse Him because you cannot get a bucket down far enough.

Do not reject Him because He does not come with a bucket.

Repent of your insistence on being saved a certain way.

It is deep.

But He’s deeper.

From its mouth to its mire, the well within you is seemingly bottomless.

He eclipsed the distance from heaven to earth, from God to man by a spotless life, sacrificial death and glorious resurrection.

He can handle the plunge to draw you out and up to God.