Snapshots and Synapses

When I met my wife, I was recently separated from the Navy and she was an intern for a congressman. Within a year, I proposed, and 6 months later, we were married. There was so much that we didn’t know, that we were trying to figure out. We had both recommitted our lives to Jesus shortly before meeting, and although I had a bachelor’s degree and experience as a naval officer, finances were tight. I was trying to figure out a vocational path and praying for God’s leading. He led me, but didn’t give me the answer I wanted to hear. I clearly heard Him tell me that it didn’t matter what I did vocationally so long as I took Him with me. I asked my spiritual mentors at the time if that sounded right, and they all affirmed it. On one hand it was freeing and on the other hand it was frustrating. I wanted a clear answer, and instead I was given freedom and along with it: responsibility. At that time, Dr. James Dobson, a christian psychologist, had a radio ministry called Focus on the Family, an...

I believe we have largely forgotten what authentic manhood looks like. I’m not referring to the physical or biological attributes of being a man. Those are obvious regardless of how someone wants to “identify”, and I’m not planning to waste words on that topic. I’m referring to masculine behavioral attributes. The truth is that behavior can be positive or negative, and some behaviors are simply toxic. But I’m also not going down the rabbit hole of toxic masculinity in this short blog other than this: toxic behavior has no gender even if we have the tendency to associate a behavioral trait as belonging to a specific gender. So there is no “toxic masculinity” or “toxic femininity”; there is simply toxic behavior. These toxic behaviors are like counterfeit money; regardless of the gender associated with a certain behavior, the action itself is a poor imitation of the behavior that godly men and women should exhibit. So continuing with the analogy of counterfeit money, we should study the ...

War is sometimes necessary but never desirable.  What we see in Iran is a failure to reconcile. No matter who started this conflict or what narrative you listen to, when the conflict becomes physically violent and when one or more parties in the conflict continues to be committed to the utter destruction of its opponent, the only way to peace is victory, removing your opponent’s ability to harm you.  The government in Iran is committed to the destruction of both Israel and the United States. It has oppressed the people of Iran. It has funded global terrorism and continues to seek nuclear weapons capability. What would it do with that ability? It’s not hard to imagine. So I am praying for a quick, effective and complete resolution to this conflict, for protection of innocents inside and outside of Iran, and protection for the military members of the multinational forces assembled against the Iranian government.  This is not just a war that affects Israel. It is stopping a ...

There’s a story in the Book of Acts about an Ethiopian man who is reading from the Book of Isaiah. The man was a court official, representing Queen Candace, so he would have been both intelligent and educated, considered competent to represent his kingdom, but he was unable to understand the Scripture until God sent Philip to explain it to him. Phillip, led by the Holy Spirit, approached the man and asked: “Do you understand what you are reading?”. The man replied: “How can I, unless someone guides me?” We can often feel that way, and people can blindly accept the teachings of a so-called Bible expert, looking for someone like Philip to explain things to them. In the process, we can lose sight of Who should be our Teacher. Now I’m not saying to disregard what others have to teach us; Proverbs tells us to seek many counselors  in the pursuit of wisdome. However, I’ve spoken with more than one person who sounded like that Ethiopian man, not knowing how to understand because they hea...

When I review how some popular AI platforms responded to my query , I wonder what the current state of AI truly is, and if it poses an “existential threat” to humanity. In other words: does AI pose a threat to the very existence of mankind? The short answer to the second part of my question is: absolutely not.  The longer answer is that while Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to completely destroy mankind, it will never succeed. I know this because I can trust the Bible. I can see how God has fulfilled so many prophecies and have confidence that He will ultimately fulfill all Biblical prophecies and in a literal sense. A hundred years ago, Biblical scholars believed that unfulfilled prophecies about Israel were more figurative than literal because they could not see a world where the nation of Israel could be reborn. That misunderstanding still persists in some churches today. But the Bible foretold both the diaspora and the re-establishment of Israel, and we can look...

How should we pray? Before answering that, I believe we should ask ourselves why are we asking? Do we want to know the best format or the best formula for prayer? Or maybe we desire to make our prayers more powerful. Perhaps we want to know why some people's prayers are answered but ours are not.  Some people may quickly respond: we should say the Lord's Prayer! Once Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he stopped praying, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.” Jesus told them, “When you pray, say this: Father, let your name be kept holy. Let your kingdom come. Give us our bread day by day. Forgive us as we forgive everyone else. Don’t allow us to be tempted.” Luke 11:1-4  But some people looking for just the right formula may question this. Should we say the Lord's Prayer like we do in church or like Luke showed us in the passage above? Or should we follow the pattern in Matthew below? “When you pray, don’t be like hy...