Curtis's Blog
The World From My Point Of View
By My Own Strength
I've been thinking a lot about the message I heard in church on Sunday. Pastor Mike continued his messages through Galatians. This week was on Galatians 5:7-15. The message was a good one, and like so many times when I feel like God is trying to get through to me, it touched close to home. Galatians chapter 5 is on the freedom, or in some translations, the liberty that we have in Christ. Paul, writing to the church at Galatia, was concerned that legalism was working it's way back into the gospel. Legalism, was the attempt of the church to gain righteousness by its own merit. In question here was the act of circumcision. Paul essentially says in verse 3, "If you insist on …
[Read More...]
New Site Design
It's that time of year again. It's time that I get bored with the look and feel of my blog's layout and update to something a little more fresh. It's actually been almost 3 years since I've last updated this site. The new theme isn't so "blog-like". It's more of a personal homepage theme. It's from studiopress and is based on the genesis framework for wordpress. I figured I'd try it out. Let me know what you think. Like? Don't like? You won't hurt my feelings. …
[Read More...]
Mark 4:26-29
Mark’s writings tend to be to the point. The book itself is the shortest among the gospels. And while not one of the twelve disciples himself, Mark offers some valuable insight into the life of Christ including this little gem of a passage, recorded only in the gospel of Mark. After the parable of the sower and the telling of its meaning to his disciples, Jesus goes on to further explain what the kingdom of God is like. 26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then …
[Read More...]
Lightroom 3
On my list of things to do for the past... oh... 11 months now has been to play around with Adobe Lightroom 3. I finally broke it out this past week, and had some fun. This is what I ended up with: …
[Read More...]
To Peace or not to Peace
In the book of Matthew, Jesus says what appears to be two very opposing statements: "Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God." (5:9) "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." (10:34) So how can Jesus, on one hand say that those who promote peace are blessed, while he himself did not come to bring peace? It's actually pretty simple. On more than one instance, the beatitudes reveal God's will for how we should act is a peaceful one: "...anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgement" (5:22) "...if someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also" …
[Read More...]
There Is No Fear In Love – Part 2
This is an extension of the last post that I made. This past Sunday my pastor caught up with me on the verse I last wrote about (1 John 4:18). It reads: "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." I've been struggling with this verse for the past few days, trying to understand it fully. It seems simple enough, right? "There is no fear in love." The surrounding passage clearly indicates that John was writing about judgement and punishment. But what about other aspects of life? God made the answer very clear to me last night. To better understand what I learned, you …
[Read More...]
About Me
"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it."
~Mark 8:35