This blog is about a journey.  It’s hard to pinpoint where it started. Sometimes it’s hard to even know or say where we are. We don’t even know that much about the destination.  Where is “With God”?

Here’s the truth: I don’t know, exactly.

I hope you’ll travel nearby as we look for signs that point to that place where our lives and God’s path finally and completely merge. As we walk together, I think you need to know what values guide me and my writing.

I look forward to the journey and the conversation along the way.

Best regards,

Michael

Faith

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. (Mt. 22.37, NLT)

In these pages and in life, my first value is to live in relationship with God. I don’t mean “using God to support my premises or as a tool for advancing my agenda.” The relationship hierarchy is the other way ’round.  It’s about letting God be the guide.

People

Love your neighbor as yourself. (Mt 22.39, NLT)

Read that quote, again.  There are really two commands within it.

• Love yourself.
• Love others the same way.

“People matter” isn’t an “I’m okay – You’re okay” line of thought.  It is simply acknowledging that people — all people — are important. Yes, they are more important than results.  The ramifications of this statement are HUGE.  Imagine the changes in our business environment and in our churches if we all followed this one simple statement.

As a corollary, I will not express hatred of others in these pages nor will hateful speech be condoned in any comments.  Disagreeing with positions, ideas, and actions is part of a vibrant conversation. Devaluing others, bullying, and hatred are a totally different story.

After all,

God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. (Jn 3.17, NLT)

Character

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (Rom. 12.2, NLT)

Character isn’t about perfect actions acted out perfectly.

Character is about

• Establishing a pattern of behavior that says “I will strive to do the right thing.”
• Owning our own mistakes.
• Offering forgiveness.
• Asking for forgiveness.

RE-Connection

The RE-connection between God and his creation is

• God’s eternal desire as revealed in his loving work of creation, redemption, and reconciliation.
• The healthiest state in which the creation could exist.
• The fundamental longing within the souls of humanity, even if we tend to mis-name it.
• The highest purpose toward which we can expend our energies.

Everything in these pages will, in some way, be related to facilitating, understanding and  strengthening that connection.

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Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.