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God wants you to have lots of children

Try to think of a way in which God could communicate that he wants you to have lots of children. What would he say? What words could he use and what imagery could he employ?

Maybe he would tell you what a blessing children are. He could give examples of how having many children will improve our lives. He could contrast that with the devastation which comes from not having children. Maybe he would remind us of the joy we experience when we hear someone is pregnant, and the anticipation we have for the birth. He could promise that having many children is a direct result of our faithfulness and loyalty to him.

It seems to me that if God did everything in the above paragraph, it would be pretty clear that he is in favor of you having lots of children. And you probably guessed it already: that’s exactly what he did.

Be filled with the Spirit

Here’s a transcript of a sermon I gave a few years ago.

I’m going to talk about a special day today. Besides being Mother’s Day, it’s Pentecost in the Christian calendar. Pentecost is a Greek word that means “fiftieth day.” It’s the fiftieth day after Easter, which begins a new season in the Christian calendar, and it lines up with the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. There are three big Jewish pilgrimage festivals in the Old Testament, and they are times when all the Jews who can come to Jerusalem and have a big party.

Rethinking Spiritual Gifts

I’ve been thinking about spiritual gifts recently. I have been through several spiritual gifts courses and listened to a lot of teachings on it, and now I’m beginning to wonder about what I’ve been taught.

I have two questions which haven’t been answered:

Some “spiritual gifts” are present in those who are not Christians, ex. teaching. Are we to say that a Christian has the spiritual gift of teaching, and a non-christian has….what? also a spiritual gift? Or some other kind of gift? Or maybe the non-christian is just good at teaching. Does that mean the Christian wasn’t good at teaching, but only became good when he or she converted? How is it that this is a spiritual gift for Christians, but just a skill or talent for non-Christians?
Some “spiritual gifts” are (or should be) present in all Christians, ex. faith. The teaching I’ve received is that Christians with the “spiritual gift of faith” have what amounts to a lot of faith; they can trust God for big things. So is a spiritual gift just more of what we should all have? At what point does it morph from a characteristic of a mature Christian (see Gal 5.22) and become a gift?

Ok, that’s way more than two questions.