Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Craig Groeschel, from his book, The Christian Atheist: When You Believe in God But Live as if He Doesn’t Exist (p. 136). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Is there something about you that you know you need to change but you are making all of these excuses about why you can’t so you don’t?   So, do you need to change?   Craig says, “Paul said, ‘We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor. 10: 5). Grab any thought contrary to God’s, overtake it, and replace it with truth. He goes on, “When you are tempted to think, Both of my parents are heavy, so I’ll always struggle with my weight, stop. Remind yourself that you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength (Phil. 4: 13). With God’s help, you can lose weight. You think I’m just not good with money. I’ll always be in ...

A thought by Craig Groeschel, from his book, The Christian Atheist: When You Believe in God But Live as if He Doesn’t Exist (p. 105). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Have you ever been tempted to do that?   You don’t understand something that has happened and you discredit or blame God for it?   It is easy to do. Craig says, “My friend Andy Stanley said, ‘You don’t have to understand everything to believe in something.’ In John 9, Jesus met a man who was born blind and forced to beg just to get by. Jesus’ disciples wanted to know whose fault it was that the man was blind: Was it his fault? Or his parents? He goes on,  “For some reason, it’s human nature to place blame. For example, if someone gets cancer, some Christian Atheists might wonder, What do you think they did to deserve cancer? If someone’s wife walks out, insensitive churchgoers might think, If he had been a better spiritual leader, his w...

A thought by Craig Groeschel, from his book, The Christian Atheist: When You Believe in God But Live as if He Doesn’t Exist (p. 101). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) You might say, that doesn’t make sense.   That’s not good news.   But it is. Craig says, “If you’re like me when something bad happens, you often feel like your pain is unjustified. It’s just not fair. I’m a good person. I didn’t do anything to deserve this . There is one major problem with my defense: I’m not good.” He goes on, “ But the good news is that God is not fair. Psalm 103: 10 – 12 says, ‘[ God] does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.’ If the wages of sin is death and we’re sinners, then we deserve death. We’ve brok...

A thought by Craig Groeschel, from his book, The Christian Atheist: When You Believe in God But Live as if He Doesn’t Exist (p. 60). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) But doesn’t the Bible say that God so loved the world?   Yes, but for so many, they don’t believe that means them. Craig says, “Oddly, our disbelief doesn’t necessarily question whether God can or does love people. We… can easily believe that God loves other people; we just can’t comprehend how or why he’d love us. We hide our real selves from other people to ensure they won’t reject us. How much more we hide from God! There’s just no way God could love someone as undeserving and evil as I am. ” Ok, ok, I know that may be how you feel but here is a fact.   Craig says, “Love is not something God does. It is who God is. And because of who he is, God loves you. Period.” He goes on, “According to 1 John 4: 8, God is love. That means God d...