Pastor Dan's blog

Life is so fragile. Things can and often do change in an instant. We are subject to crazy times.

 “You remembered!” are the words of a grateful heart when a friend or loved one expresses thoughtfulness over a special occasion or memory. Whether it’s a friend giving a card on a birthday, or a lover bringing flowers to commemorate a special day, or a husband making a date to mark an anniversary, or one saying, “I’m sorry” on the memory of a day of grieving: these are all ways of saying that you are not forgotten.

 Last week I headed to NYC to spend 5 great days with one of my best friends and 2 of his grown sons complements of my oldest son who absolutely knows how to treat his dad to a wonderful gift for his birthday.   As I boarded the train at BWI on my way to NY Penn Station, I was full of anticipation of a most wonderful time.  My team, the PITT Panthers, were favorites to win the Big East Tourney and to sweep into March Madness with strong momentum.

Most followers of Jesus that I talk with about intimacy with God have difficulty thinking of God as One in Whose presence we can be comfortable. Anxiety begins to rise when we think about being in God’s presence. We are much like the Israelites of the Exodus who told Moses, “You go up on the mountain and talk to God for us. We will stay here.” But it is in those times with God that we learn to hear His voice and understand His ways.

It’s a funny thing about miracles, they are done by God, but He often involves people in them.  We tend to think that they are “God things” and in one sense, everything that God does is “miraculous”.

One of the great joys of walking with Jesus is to realize the influences that He uses to shape our lives. God has used a trio of influencers in my life to shape my thinking about Jesus and walking with Him as His follower. This author blessed me this week, even though he's been dead for @90 years. Enjoy what Oswald Chambers said to me this week. . .  

 So, I kept on thinking about God’s DNA and realized some pretty big implications for those of us who are Christ followers. As Followers of Jesus, we have this DNA, this genetic code of a servant heart, and it causes us to see things from His perspective.

I never really thought about God having DNA, since He has no beginning. But when I got to thinking that all life comes from God [John 1:3] and that nothing exists that wasn’t created, I realized that God has been passing along a lot of His nature in His creation. After all, we are called the “children of God and such we are—[I Jn 3:2].”