Category: Faith

A Sure Fire Way to Know and Follow God’s Plan

Wouldn’t you like to get a hold of God’s plan for your life?

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This blog post is inspired by today’s sermon: God Has A Plan. As I was listening, my mind took off in different directions from the various points that were being made.

To begin with, I need to note that I am an attorney, and I do estate planning. That is relevant because it explains the first place my mind went. Probate.

Ok, sorry. Let me explain, and I beg your indulgence not to jump off at this point. I know that it may seem a bit boring!

The thing is that I often tell people when explaining estate planning that, “If you don’t do your own estate plan, your estate will be controlled by probate.” That may sound more ominous than it really is (only because most people don’t know what probate is), but the point is that estate planning puts you in control of your estate, rather than leaving your estate to the default rules of the probate statute.

Enough of the legal stuff! (It’s Sunday after all) The reality is this: even when people do estate planning, things don’t always go as they planned. I’m here to testify that they don’t. We don’t foresee changes in circumstances, and we don’t always accurately assess the way things really are. One of the worst family fights I was ever involved in began with a family meeting in which they told me how close their family was!

We put a lot of time, effort and confidence in our own planning. We don’t want to trust that planning to anyone else – not to the state, not to others, and not even to God.

Did you know that God has a plan for you? Don’t you wish you could know what it is? Have you considered that it might be helpful to row with God rather than against Him?

It turns out there is a pretty sure fire way to know and follow God’s plan.

Continue reading “A Sure Fire Way to Know and Follow God’s Plan” →

The Importance of Relationship, Trust and Commonality

The Gospel isn’t primarily a what, but a Who – Jesus, who transforms people who follow him.

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This morning I have listened to a podcast and read an article on the same theme: Christians who desire not to be defined by the things they are against. I didn’t go searching for themed material today, these things came together organically as I went about my daily habits of listening to a podcast first thing in the morning and reading throughout the day.

Early this morning, I listened to Justin Brierley interview Christian evangelist, Kevin Palau, and Sam Adams, the gay mayor of Portland, OR, on their unlikely friendship.  Later in the morning, as I was waiting on hold on the phone (for along time I might add), I read an article in Relevant Magazine: Don’t Be Defined By What You’re Against. I will add that the verse of the day on the Bible app is Psalm 90:12 (“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”)

While these three sources of material may not seem like thematic material, I assure you they are. Beginning with the interview, the evangelist, Palau, explained the motivation for engaging with the City of Portland in civic service. Palau recognized that Christians were known in the community primarily as people who were opposed to certain things, and not anything positive – let alone as followers of Jesus.

Palau also recognized that Christians were distrusted by the community, and so he set out to regain the community trust. The first thing Palau and his church did was to respond to the needs of a local public school that was failing. Not only did they show up; the showed up in such force that people took notice. What was supposed to be a day of work turned into an ongoing labor of love.

Palau and his church were so successful in making a positive impact that they inspired churches around the community to adopt schools, and the schools, in turn, embraced the church involvement. The involvement caught the attention of the mayor of Portland and his chief assistant, Sam Adams, who would later become mayor himself.

Palau and Adams are an unlikely pair to become friends, but that is what they are today. Adams is the first openly gay mayor of Portland. Palau is an evangelical evangelist. Adams confirms Palau’s concerns by agreeing that he previously only knew evangelicals for what they stood against, but now, he says, there are more things they agree on than disagree on.

Adams recognizes that they have some fundamental disagreements on key issues for both of them, but those areas of disagreement are no longer the defining characteristic. They now join hands on addressing areas in which they agree and have formed a long-term friendship as a result.

Palau has built a bridge without compromising his faith. As a result, Adams and the community no longer view evangelicals only for what they stand against; they also see what evangelicals stand for.  The community now knows that the Gospel means more than calling out sin. It means meeting peoples’ needs, loving people and offering hope. The Gospel isn’t primarily a what, but a Who – Jesus, who transforms people who follow him.

Continue reading “The Importance of Relationship, Trust and Commonality” →

From Abandonment to Acceptance

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Abandonment

I began posting the stories of people whose lives have been dramatically changed from a myriad of different backgrounds when they entered into a personal relationship with God. That was 2015, and I have continued to post these stories from time to time as I came across those stories thought to seek them out.

I haven’t really thought much about it, other than the fact that these stories are compelling, and I felt they needed to be shared. In 2018, however, for the first time one of these pages of stories was the most “read” page on the site. For that reason, I think it makes sense to began sharing the stories as part of the regular blogging that I do.

If there is one thing that stands out to me it is this: There is an amazing consistency in all these stories. Though these stories literally span the gamut of human experience, of people with widely divergent backgrounds in almost every imaginable way, they all ring true to the same theme.

The common denominator is the person of Jesus Christ. These stories are personal evidence that Jesus rose from the dead two millennia ago, and lives on through the Holy Spirit, whom He promised, who continues the work Jesus began in the flesh.

The apostle Paul told a crowd of Greeks and Romans at the Areopagus in Athens many centuries ago that God desires that we would seek Him, reach out for Him and find Him, “though He is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.'” (Acts 17:27-28) These stories are evidence of the truth of those words that are as vitally true today as they were in Paul’s time. 

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews said, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) John, the apostle who was perhaps closest to Jesus of any follower, said that Jesus was in the beginning with God (John 1:2); all things were made through Him (John 1:3); and that all who receive Jesus have the right to become children of God. (John 1:12) Jesus, Himself, said, “Before Abraham was, I Am!“

He lives today, and the stories of people who have encountered him continue daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. The stories on the page linked below are of people who have experienced abandonment in their lives but found acceptance in God through Jesus Christ.

via Abandoned

Finding Quiet in the Holiday Noise

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wooden cabin and christmas tree

Another Holiday season is almost past tense. We anticipate it all year, all the more as we rush through Halloween and turn the corner at Thanksgiving, as we careen toward Christmas, and then a mad dash to New Year’s Eve, before skidding to a sudden, unwelcome stop on the day after New Year’s day. So the Holidays can seem.

The Holidays can be a great time in the midst of the busyness for quiet reflection, but many a Holiday season has come and gone that I wish I had taken that time to reflect.

We need that time to reflect, not just in the Holiday season, but throughout the year on a regular basis. God ever urges us to be still, to seek Him in the quiet of our hearts when the clamor of more insistent voices is kept at bay.

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The Christian world rushes head long into another holiday season. The horses were straining at the gate weeks ago. Christmas sales were advertised before we threw out the pumpkins. The turkey population has been reduced to survivors. The holiday season has been in full on assault. It will climax at midnight on New Year’s Eve.

How many holiday seasons have I experienced that came at me like a garish parade and left me with nothing but the sound of ringing in my ears? Too many.

My sincere hope is not to miss the deep meaning of our celebration this holiday as the clamor fades into the cold quiet of winter. The trite but true “meaning of Christmas” is not found in the holiday rush, but in warm quiet reflection on what hope arose with the birth of Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Lord of…

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Top 10 Navigating By Faith Articles in 2018

Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment. Have a great 2019.

kevingdrendel5 Comments

Another year is in the books for Navigating by Faith. I started this blog in 2012 in response to an inner conviction that I should use whatever writing and analytical skills I have developed as an English Major, law student and attorney for over two decades in the service of God, exploring and testing the boundaries of faith and its relation to the world in which we live. As the name of this blog suggests, the endeavor has been a journey.

The most popular (which is a relative term I realize) blog post in 2012 did not focus on faith, but on politics, following the election of Barack Obama to his second term as president. (Political Decompression) That article was cathartic in shedding the slough of my skepticism about the value of our two-party system (something I have not been completely able to shed to this day), but it affirmed my faith in the sovereignty of God – something in which I continue to find solace.

The number of readers has never been my focus, though it is one measure of success in fulfilling whatever purpose God might infuse into my writing and thinking. From 287 views in 2012 to 1093 views in 2013 to over 11,000 views in 2018, the readership has grown, albeit modestly.

Somewhat contrary to my intuition, the most popular writings in each year are not always the “timeless” ones. The most popular article in 2012 focused on the 2012 presidential election. The most popular article in 2013 (The Face of Evil) was about the Boston Marathon bombing. The most popular article in 2014 was a summary of the Hobby Lobby case. Finally, in 2015, the most popular article focused on something a little more eternal – The Bible That Makes You a Scholar – though it is about a new Bible, rich in its resources to aid in the study of that ancient collection of writings.

I suppose the popularity of writings that focus on current happenings is revealing of our preoccupation with our current circumstances that pull us away from more eternal things. One of the very purposes with which I write is to encourage a bigger view of life, to see the forest in spite of the trees, to lift up the gaze from the feet in front of us to the heavens above to reflect on God and His Kingdom as it intersects with our daily lives.

In the last two years (2016 and 2017), the top three (3) blog articles were exactly the same in exactly the same order. They were The Ebla Tablets Confirm Biblical Accounts (written in 2015), It is Well with My Soul: The Story (written in 2014) and C. S. Lewis on Individualism, Equality and the Church (written in 2015). Remarkably, those blog articles are still three (3) of the top four (4) most popular articles in 2018, though in different order.

Without more introduction, here are the top ten (10) blog articles on Navigating by Faith in order beginning with the most popular: Continue reading “Top 10 Navigating By Faith Articles in 2018” →