Jun P. Espina 1 min read
Updated on November 22nd, 2022
Mother Teresa once said that “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love,” while Erich Fromm taught that “Immature love says: ‘I love you because I need you.’ Mature love says ‘I need you because I love you.’” Between men and lovely women, however, a love requiring reciprocal affection is more natural and human. I don’t think the marriage will last without such chemistry at home.
G
ood parents are rare, just as obedient children are rare. This thought is very debatable, for the evil in children is sometimes learned from the evil that is in their parents. But can we be a good parent? I believe there are tons of brilliant ideas concerning good parenthood out there, but I would want to focus on four things.
God’s fellowship with man is one compelling truth. Every passing moment God is interested in our closeness to Him. Intimacy absorbs Him as He called Adam to fellowship with Him even during Adam’s first ever disobedience. “Where are you?,” (Gen. 3:9) was God’s language of concern when Adam and Eve rebelled against Him. “We will come to him and make Our abode with him,” was Christ’s teaching on God’s designed union with humankind. (John 14:23b) It is God’s blueprint for the loving Creator-man relationship: making our body God Spirit’s temple. (cf. I Cor. 6:19) Wrote the apostle Paul: “Christ liveth in me.” God’s fellowship with humanity starts here in this life.
The term born again is prone to wild misuse. Its meaning is almost always clothed with mockery. Our Lord Jesus, seeing its future distortion by His enemies, spent eighteen long verses with Nicodemus in John chapter three in order that His teaching concerning man’s salvation through the second birth be made crystal clear.
The Lord’s church needs Spirit-appointed, Spirit-filled, and “poured-out” leaders who are considered faithful and more interested in Christ than in “Greek.”
I am resigning—am a Christian . . . I find the entire system of our company shamefully corrupt. Bribery, immorality—I don’t want to be identified as one of its employees.” It was the statement given by Moab, a highly respected officer of a certain company, before he left his job. Few months after his resignation he found himself penniless; his family having no more food in the fridge and his children quitting school. So huge was Moab’s financial downfall in the guise of his Christian principles. But, if you were in Moab’s place, for instance, would you dare such an enormous decision to defend your Christian beliefs? Or will your employment with such a company make you less Christian?