NextGenKent

In my devotional this week I was confronted with some thoughts I believe had their basis in unfounded truths. So I did some digging into what the Bible has to say (as well as a devotional guide I am reading). Some initial thoughts: 1. The Sun stays the same ... yet changes. How much can an object change yet still be referred to as unchanging? Time a factor. Scientists believe our sun could burn out in 5.5 billion years. So it is not in a big hurry. Shoo! Relatively speaking, the sun will be constant in my lifetime. 2. The Garden of Eden is said to have been perfect, yet it needed tending. To what extent does perfection not reach and still hold its meaning? Can things be perfect yet incomplete? Can the qualities of perfection still need to be maintained and be perfect? Can a garden not be perfect without the addition of a caretaker? Could the continual maintenance by God's first created human of a garden created to be incomplete add up to perfection? Perfection was not i...

  Perhaps you have heard the group DC Talk sing the remake of Larry Norman’s’ song, “I Wish We’d All Been Ready”? There is something tragically deceptive about the lyrics though. As we sing along, we find ourselves participating in a couple instances where we wish we had been ready to be taken instead of left behind. But that is not how Jesus tells his side of the story. The words are inspired by Matthew 24:40-41. But let’s look more closely, shall we? MATTHEW 24:37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away . That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. ...

I just had a board meeting where I went over a study on the word "unity" and "divisions." The question that immediately came up was, "Well, Christians don't have to agree on everything...right?" My response went something like this, "Well, wouldn't we want to?" It hit the fan like a lead balloon, which is not at all what I had expected. I thought all of the other board members would be shouting, "Yes!" and giving me high-fives and chest bumps. Well, maybe not chest bumps at this age.  There were some other ideas, thoughts and opinions expressed, and I was like, "We just went over this study of like 25 verses that state we are to be unified and have no divisions among us. Why don't you get it?" Seems like I was the one who actually didn't get it. It wasn't that I thought my interpretations were wrong, the weren't. The question centered around their application. "How in the world are we to agree on e...

  https://thehustle.co/originals/why-you-almost-never-see-a-clock-at-the-mall The word “whore” may have different definitions to some, but I want to use it as a woman who markets herself for the sole purpose of robbing men of their life for her own gain--whatever her “gain” is: monetary, lust, or otherwise. She is the reverse-consumer and profiteer at the same time, a vampiress, a luxurious drunk, functioning alcoholic. Her appeal is a marketing scheme based on not just years of study, but an exquisite composition of research and development where she is both scientist and evidence, psychologist and client--in an endless cycle and sinister feedback loop of trial and error, hypothesis and investigation, feeding and consuming. All the while tricking you into believing you are the main character. But it isn’t about you. You have entered her Nirvana constructed for you to “remain inside” her. Once her legs are wrapped around you, she is sure to suck your life away. And as titillati...

 You might be getting The Pour Over into your inbox each day as I do. As I read one of the highlighted articles, Why are cafes, restaurants, and even towns banning influences ?  I thought of two things: A popular video game and the Church. The [Galactic Civ] video game action arena is space and utilizes exploring with several different tactics. One is cultural expansion deploying techniques for taking over the galaxy using mods to influence other traveling species with your culture and therefore "quietly" take over the galaxy and win the game. You could also win by buying up all of the other planets (economic takeover--think China?), or by hostile takeovers and warfare (think Russia?).  I like to use the cultural takeover mostly these days. The article lists the reasons for the ban, one is logistical (small-town shops cannot handle triple+ visitors due to a rise in popularity resulting in more harm than good). I imagined a small church of older people spiking due to a pop...

I recently read an article's title that caused me to think, "What could that mean for leadership in realtime?" I was not disappointed as I took some moments to reflect on wolves, packs, what has been shown in cartoons about them, and on the 'what ifs' of all I know about wolves not being true. Can you say, "epiphany?" The subheading summed up the article quite well,  " The idea that wolf packs are led by a merciless dictator, or alpha wolf, comes from old studies of captive wolves. In the wild, wolf packs are simply families." [ Scientific America - Feb 2023] Wait. Wolves in captivity or in a setup environment are different than those in nature? Hierarchy emerges when the same old members are the same old members in a closed community. Not unheard of as this is how cults make things work--authority is ... well now I have an open-ended question: is it needed or is it a false natural? A false natural in that if the group had a choice hierarchy ma...

I asked my thirteen year old son if he had any stories of a time when he wished some other kids would have shared what they had with him. He said, "Tons of them." What kid wouldn't. I was reading in Leviticus today about God's instructions to how offerings should be made, how the priests were to give special attention to what was being offered, and how to present it. Then I read something that literally made me cry.  God is telling about how the grain offering is to be given and eaten by the priests. Half of this grain offering is to be mixed with oil and frankenscence and burned as it belongs to God as "a thing most holy." But the other half, God says that Aaron, the high priest, and all 18 year old male priests can eat it saying, "I have given it as their portion of MY food offerings." Wow. God shared. Think of it. Our GOD shares ... HIS stuff ... with us ... with me.  So I wondered that since our God is a sharing God, what else does the Word say...

I had a coworker who was a very-likeable person, but seemed in competition with everyone. He was a funny guy, I'll give him that, but most of the time engaged in rather shallow conversations. He knew a little about everything, which caused him to have an opinion about . . . well, everything. And his wit made you want to listen. Most of the time, it is a fun, light-hearted space to work in. Likeable people, are just that: likeable. There are several people I have worked with over the years like this--very friendly, likeable, fairly easy to talk to, yet never really wanted to go deeper. In fact, if conversation turned that way, they became uncomfortable and either remained silent, tried to change the subject, or simply left the circle.  We all need someone we can go deep with. This is the kind of person you'd want to tell others you know or ask if they do. They are not the kind of person you'd call if your spouse ended up in the hospital, or your parent died, or your kid was ...

  About 94 times this word is used in the Bible, but it was the first time my teenage son asked me about it. We were randomly listening to someone talk on the radio and the word was used in a sentence. So my son asked, "Dad, what does perversion mean?" A couple of days before this conversation, I was meditating (day-dreaming?) when an image came into my mind--a long, thin piece of metal hung in the air before me, the back was black and the front was white. I observed as, like a bread bag tie, the top of the piece of metal turned. Now when I looked, it was still a thin piece of metal, but on the frontside, the top part was black and the bottom was white, twisted at its center. At times, this word can be found to simply describe: roads, pathways, crown of thorns, braids of hair or thread, or a body in pain or possessed. I love the verse that says, "three cords twisted together are not quickly broken" (Ecc 4:12). However, it is used negatively like when Peter describes...

I was reflecting today (5/1/2018) about the SPACE between being a Christian institution (say a local church or a Christian University in the USA) and being responsible citizens--and what happens when the two are in conflict. Do we go the legal route or do we handle things internally--as a separate and distinct body governed by Christian rules of conduct.  What happens in this SPACE? Is there room to talk about what truly governs us (the Bible, the Holy Spirit, the denominational writings like The Discipline, etc) and what the world's legal system asks of us. The problem to me is when the places like your local church or a Christian University take the position of a City Court governed by laws instead of governed by love. We know Jesus didn't obey all of Man's laws. We do know he was subject to his parents (post 3-day tweener campout in Jerusalem), and paid taxes (that render to Caesar comment--totally cool!), and spoke through Paul to the Romans to obey the governing a...

I was once going through the book of Romans with a group of junior high boys (a task worth at least one extra jewel in anyone's heavenly crown) and learning alongside them about what faith is. As you probably know, the word "faith" in the NT can mean faith, belief, and trust, depending on the context. Paul tells us why he is not ashamed of the gospel, "for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes "--that is, has faith. " Faith comes by hearing the Word on Jesus Christ" and leads to calling on the Lord--how can they call on him if they have not first believed, and how can they believe if they have not first heard . Faith undoubtedly leads to salvation in Jesus. But what of faith after salvation ? Does faith continue to work in the same way? Or is there a growing aspect for someone in his or her faith? Or does faith stay the same, but one's capacity to hold it and wield it become greater? Wow, so much like spinning a wheel t...

Under the skin. That is the phrase that has been used and misunderstood for years. Since the days the Beatles used it in a popular song that I sang as a second-grader, "remember, to let her under your skin..."  What is under the skin cannot be seen, but is real and could manifest at any time. This is a source of many books and movies seeking to highlight the mysteries we all have run into. And now, the manifestation is happening within the community we call the Church. An article's title recently caught my eye about how the evangelical church is breaking apart and that Christians needed to reclaim Jesus from his church . "Hmm. Who would write such a thing?" I thought. So, leery-eyed I took the bait and read... nothing I didn't know, and felt for the past 24 months or so. But the following quote caused me to pause and reflect more than the rest of the article: "But there’s more to the fractures than just COVID-19. After all, many of the forces that are s...

There are several things worthy of reflection today but I want to gloat and bloat on a conversation I had with my daughter ... in my head. My daughter and I are very similar in several ways, at least I can see that. I can own up to it where there are weaknesses and definitely do in her strengths. My daughter came to me for advice on spiritual matters, which is not uncommon for her. I began my response to her with, "I love you, daughter, I love you so much it hurts; I wish at times my love for you could do so much more than ... just be a feeling for you."  And I stopped right there with an epiphany = a God-incidence = that incidence when God shows up but you have yet to recognize Him.  "What if God feels the same way? What if God has actually made a way for love to be more--more for His children ... and I could hack into that?"  And, What if the Word of God in the Bible actually gives guidance on how to do that? If all of these postulations are true, and I believe th...

I am continuing to chew on something one of my ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship): What if in our praying for revival it has actually brought us to a sphere of where reconciliation must be exercised? I see this is a wonderful discovery and in my heart I hear, DO NOT MISS THE TWO! They are part of each other. friends said about revival and reconciliation, which has brought me to ask:  Revival and Reconciliation.  Let me dig into this more with something simple: a triangle. There are three points to every triangle, but if you have it flat side down, two points go up to ONE point to meet.  There has to be ONE point we all see for revival to happen as we pray for it; ONE point that draws us all together and I believe that ONE point is GOD as revealed through JESUS CHRIST and attested to by His Word given to us in the Bible. As we all come from whatever point we are currently standing (two points of a triangle) we need a ONE point to bring us together. Jesus said, "If I be lifted up...

My devotional today from Ravi Zacharias stated, “The blindness to the sacred is the cause of all evil.” I see that as blindness to Christ of course. After all, he is the light of all.   Spiritual blindness is the refusal to see the glory of God our Creator for what it is—in its truth and love. The pride of humanity doesn’t want to be shown what it doesn’t know and that it doesn’t know. After all our forefathers and mothers  have tasted the fruit from the tree of Knowledge of good AND evil. What is there not to know? That is where our blindness lies.  But Jesus didn’t leave us in darkness or in our blindness. “ His cure was to help them see what they were really blind to, yet refused to see.” John wrote that men loved darkness rather than light. Jesus said that we are the light of the world and that a city set on a hill cannot be hidden not can a little lighted candle is it is lifted up in the room. Light is hope. Light in the darkness. That is what the e...