A Natural Progression

 

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope…

—Romans 5:3-4

We Americans have become quite proficient at taking certain philosophical concepts and “secularizing” them for our own purposes. Here’s one example:

karma: In the religions of Hinduism and Buddhism, karma is the belief that the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence will decide his or her fate in future existences.

Even though the word “karma” represents the belief of two particular religions, we Americans have secularized the philosophical concept represented by this word, so that we may use it to explain what we either observe, or hope to observe, about the behavior of the humans who inhabit the spaces around us. Said another way, we hope against hope that the phrase “what goes around, comes around” will prove true for us, but particularly for those who may do something to harm us.

We even apply this somewhat distorted concept to the “bad things” that may happen to us in our lives. When we suffer, we may believe that our suffering has come because of something we did that deserves punishment. Likewise, when we have great success, we often believe that we are only getting what we deserve because of the good we have done.

Scripture does not support this distorted view. In contrast, we have this example from the writings of the Apostle John, found in John 9:1-3:

“Who sinned that this man was born blind?” asked the Disciples.

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”

In this life, suffering comes because of the sin nature passed down from Adam that affects every aspect of our life on earth. This includes the substance of the earth itself, as well as every aspect of human life. Much to the chagrin of many individuals who do not understand the impact of the sin curse, climate change—if, in fact, there really is climate change instead of a normal cycle of climate variance—comes as a result of the sin curse. Humans do not cause climate change. To ascribe to humans the ability to cause a change in something so profound as the climate would minimize the creative power of the God who made the climate. But, that’s likely a discussion best left for another day.

Suffering comes into our lives because we live in a sin-cursed world. When we experience suffering, it is not necessarily because of our actions—although our actions can make our suffering worse. A person who smokes two packs of cigarettes every day, from the time he or she is thirteen years old, may well succumb to lung cancer. But, there actually are other lifelong smokers, who do not die from this dreaded disease.

Suffering is a part of our sin-cursed lives on this sin-cursed earth. The real question is what we will do when suffering comes into our lives. The answer lies within the Scripture verses at the beginning of this blog post.

The Apostle Paul writes to the Christians gathered in the church at Rome. Paul insists that suffering starts a chain reaction for believers—a natural progression—that carries them into a place of rejoicing. Suffering produces endurance. Endurance produces character. Character produces hope. And, best of all, hope will not disappoint us. Why? Because hope draws us into the fullness of God’s loving embrace.

Can we rejoice when we face suffering in our lives? Yes, we can! And, we had better do so. After all, the very Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, sufferend on the cross of Calvary to bear the punishment for our sins. His suffering was the greatest suffering a human could ever endure. As a result, our sins have been forgiven, our relationship with God restored, and our life everlasting is just over the next hilltop.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Welcome One Another

 

Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

—Romans 15:7

During the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020 and 2021, many of us had to forego worshipping together in order to maintain social distancing and try to bend the curve of transmission of this dreaded virus. As the “king of social awkwardness,” I did not miss seeing my fellow believers as much as many of you may have missed this weekly experience. But, I am not so selfish that I do not understand the importance of meeting togther for worship. In fact, I am one who champions the absolute necessity of Christians gathering together for worship. Fortunately, the church that I am privileged to attend began meeting for in-person Worship Services as soon as the local government permitted it to do so.

The warmth of fellowship we feel when we meet with other believers is profound. That is exactly the spirit within which the Apostle Paul writes to the Christians in Rome in the verse at the beginning of this blog post.

“Let me give you a word of advice,” Paul writes. “Welcome one another in the same way that the Lord Jesus Christ has welcomed you into His Kingdom. His gracious, loving, and enthusiastic welcome for you has come about as a way of giving glory to His Father, God. In this same way, when you welcome each other, you do so to bring glory to God.”

We need to keep this admonition always in mind. When we welcome each other with tender hearts and great joy, we bring glory to God. He is our Father, and He delights in the joy of His beloved children. We welcome each other as brothers and sisters, bonded together by the blessed hope that God has given us, through His dearly loved Son, Jesus.

So, when you see one of your fellow believers this day, greet that one warmly. Welcome them in the same way that Christ has welcomed you. If you do, you will bring glory to God. And that, dear ones, is a very, very good thing.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Receive this Blessing

 

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

—2 Corinthians 13:14

A dear pastor friend of mine, who graduated to heaven many years ago, once told me that the most enjoyable part of a worship service for him as a pastor came when he could pronounce a Benediction over the people at the end of the service. Having told me that, I began to notice the increase in energy and the great joy that I sensed in his voice, as he spoke words of God’s blessing each week.

I have found that this pastor’s words have proven true in my own life. One of the reasons I decided to start this blog, way back at the end of March in 2008, and have continued to write nearly 1,900 blog posts, is that I wanted to do something that would encourage my fellow believers. For the most part, my blog posts have intended to offer encouragement to those who follow the pathway God has laid out before them. So, in a sense, I have wanted my blog posts to speak words of encouragement and blessing into the lives of those who might read these posts.

Blessing others is one of the tasks of obedience God has given us that will please Him and also have a profound effect on others. I do not know a single person for whom the words “Well done!” do not have a significant meaning. We all need encouragement. We all need a blessing. We all need to know that we mean enough to someone else that we can receive a blessing from that one. Notice what the Apostle Paul writes to his fellow believers in the Scripture verse at the beginning of this blog post:

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

These are certainly potent words. And, as we begin a new day, we should take note of what Paul has done and do it for our fellow believers. Just as Paul wrote words of benediction—words of blessing—to his fellow believers, we should write or speak the same.

This day, dear ones, may God fill you with the fullness of His divine presence and encourage you to share His blessing with others.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Me! Me! Me!

 

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

—Philippians 2:3-4

No clear-thinking individual can watch a child grow from infancy into young adulthood without observing the stark reality that each of us has an in-born sin nature that we inherited from our parents, and they from their parents, all the way back to Adam’s original sin. Infants focus totally on themselves. Toddlers focus totally on themselves. Parents have to teach young children to focus on someone other than themselves.

By our very nature, we focus on: “ Me! Me! Me!” We have to learn and then motivate ourselves to think about and focus on others. What a joy exists when we observe someone who has put himself or herself so totally in the background of his or her thinking that he or she seems to have concern only for others.

During this time of worldwide strife, we find outselves surrounded by individuals who have chosen to focus only on the needs of others. All of the individuals who serve us during this tragic time—military men and women, public safety officials, medical professionals, service industry employees, and a host of others—countless numbers of individuals have put aside their own safety and well-being in order to make certain we have what we need to continue living in as much safety as possible.

The Apostle Paul instructed the “Christ’s-ones” gathered in the church at Philippi with the words contained within the Scripture verse quoted at the beginning of this blog post. “Make humility your guide,” Paul declares. “Do not let your own self-interest motivate your actions. Rather, put the needs of others first.”

As we begin another new day of life, these words should penetrate our consciousness and motivate us to follow the Apostle”s teaching. Let’s not allow our own selfish wills to set the pathway of our lives. Rather, let’s determine to push ourselves to learn the needs of others and do our best to meet those needs. Whether such action occurs within the boundaries of our own families, or within our own churches, or within our communities, or within whatever circumstances we find ourselves, we will do well to live in such a way.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Children of Light

 

… for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

—Ephesians 5:8-10

If you have chosen to read very many of my nearly 1,900 blog posts, by now you realize that I am generally writing to individuals who, at some point in their lives, sensed the convicting power of the Holy Spirit pushing them to believe in the life-transforming power of God’s precious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Said another way, for the most part, I have aimed these blog posts at believing “Christ’s-ones” or Christians. By so doing, I prayerfully hope that my words will encourage Christians in their daily walk along the pathway that God has laid out for them.

The teaching of the Apostle Paul, found in the verses at the beginning of this particular blog post, describes exactly the condition in which each one of us followers of Jesus found ourselves. “At one time,” Paul insists, “you were in darkness.” Truthfully, each one of us entered this world in darkness—the darkness of the sin-curse that we inherited from our parents, and they from their parents. Then, at some point along the pathway of our lives, the Holy Spirit began to speak words of conviction to the depths of our innermost being. Those words of conviction prompted us to recognize that we were trapped in sin—the original sin we inherited, and also the sins we had committed on our own.

The revelation of the Holy Spirit didn’t stop with that conviction. He spoke to our inner beings in such a way that we became fully aware of the great gift that God had given us in the redeeming power of the blood of His Son, Jesus. That sacrifice of Christ on the cruel cross of Calvary became a once-and-for-all covering of our sins with His precious blood. We had previously been condemned before the holiness of God. But now, we were redeemed! God had chosen us to belong to Himself. In fact, as we would soon learn, God had chosen us to belong to Himself before the foundation of the earth.

No human reasoning could explain why God chose us. We were not worthy of His choosing. Nevertheless, God did, indeed, choose us to belong to Himself. Having chose us, He drew us to Himself through the convicting power of His Holy Spirit. Once we began to understand what God had done for us, we became increasingly aware that we belonged to Him. We passed from the darkness of sin into the glorious light of His holiness.

The Apostle Paul proceeds from this revelation—that once we were children of darkness and now we are children of light—to urge us to walk the pathway of our lives as children of light. Paul urges us to live as children of light by discerning which decisions we make and actions we take will please the Lord.

So, the question that each of us must ask ourselves, every moment of every day: “Am I living in such a way that is pleasing to God?” I cannot answer that question for you. I can only answer that question for me.

I can and do encourage both you and me to walk as children of light. In this moment and the next and the next, let’s determine, with help from the in-dwelling Holy Spirit, to live as children of light.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Good Conduct Shows

 

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

—James 3:13

Growing up in the 1950s in a very strict, Fundamentalist Christian environment, I was told that some misguided churches taught that an individual could “earn” his or her way into heaven. Those who taught me insisted that such thinking was gravely in error and that people who believed this were seriously mistaken. In fact, or so I was taught, such individuals are likely not “true” Christians at all.

I was also taught that accepting Christ as my Savior was a decision that I, alone, could make. When I reached Houghton College—now Houghton University—in the fall of 1965, I was shocked to learn that other devoted followers of Jesus believed in Reformed theology, which taught that God had actually chosen them before the foundation of the earth to belong to Himself. It wasn’t really their choice at all. It was God who chose those individuals who belonged to Himself.

At the same time, I learned that those who believed God had chosen them did indeed also believe that God had given them the free-will choice as to whether or not they would follow the pathway God had laid out for them. In other words, while these believers had no personal choice in whether or not they belonged to God, they did very much have a choice as to whether or not they would follow God in loving obedience.

It wasn’t that so-called “free will” had no part in their belief system. It was just that the exercise of their free will came into the equation after they came to the understanding that God had chosen them.

The interesting part of this revelation arose from the fact that Houghton University existed as an institution of higher learning sponsored by the Wesleyan Church (originally called the Wesleyan Methodist Church) and actually embraced the same theological position as the denomination in which I grew up—the Evangelical United Brethern Church, now merged to become the United Methodist Church. This theological position was called the Arminian position of Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609), as opposed to the Reformed theological position of John Calvin (1509-1564).

It was rather interesting that I would become exposed to the Reformed tradition while attending an Arminian college. But, that’s what happened, and largely because of the belief on the part of the Bible professors at Houghton University that students needed to understand the full breadth of Evangelical theology.

Having now embraced the Reformed tradition, I have come to understand that such teachings of the Apostle James, as illustrated by the verse at the beginning of this blog post, made sense, in light of the fact that my personal obedience, and the exercise of my free will, would come into play as I allowed my good conduct to show my good works in the meekness of wisdom. God has chosen me to belong to Him. Now, it was my responsibility, out of love and obedience to God, to live in such a way that my good works would testify to His having chosen me.

I have many, many dear friends who fully embrace the Arminian theology of Jacobus Arminius and believe that humans need to make a purposeful decision to follow Jesus as their Savior and Lord. I also have many, many dear friends who fully embrace the Reformed theology of John Calvin and believe that before the foundation of the earth God chose them to belong to Himself. But, each of these groups of friends also strive now to live in obedience, either to the decision they made to follow Jesus, or to God’s chosing of them.

Each of these dear ones longs to share what Jesus means to them with others. Each of them desires to see other men, women, boys, and girls experience the life-transforming power of the living Lord Jesus Christ. Each of them longs to see a great revival sweep across our land and bring profound change to our nation and our world. Each of them believes that good conduct stands as one of the strongest testimonies to the power of the love of God.

Theology has a definite place in helping us try to comprehend what it means to be a child of God. But, in the end, the way we live out our beliefs and show God’s love to others makes all the difference in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Abiding in God's Love

 

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

—1 John 4:16

Many years ago, I had a two-week series of business meetings in Las Vegas, Nevada. I do not place Las Vegas high on my list of places I would most like to visit again. Most of my visits there have overwhelmed me with the noise and so-called glamour of the gaming industry. I do not gamble. Thus, most of the excitement of Las Vegas is totally lost on me. Spending two weeks there offered a unique challenge.

One truly enjoyable benefit of that particular business trip was the Saturday morning drive over to the Hoover Dam. One of my colleagues had arranged a special tour for us that allowed us to explore the very depths of this amazing structure. I can still remember seeing the awesome power of the water that flowed through the hydroelectric generators. It was absolutely amazing to see the huge turbines rotated by the force of the water from Lake Mead flowing from the intake, through the generators, and out of the dam.

As great as the power of that water is, the greatest power in the universe is greater still. And, that greater power is the love of God.

A gospel song-writer, Frederick M. Lehman (1868-1953), penned these words: ¹

The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin.

Refrain: O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.

When hoary time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall;
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call;
God’s love, so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song.

Refrain: O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Refrain: O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.

As we “Christ’s-ones” move through this new day, may the love of God enliven and sustain us to obediently follow the pathway that the Holy Spirit opens up before us. Please listen, as the late George Beverly Shea sings this lovely gospel song:

 

 

 

______________________

1 Lehman, Frederick M. “The Love of God.” This is a gospel song in the Public Domain. This gospel song is also included in various Hymnals that themselves are copyrighted by the publisher of the Hymnal. Though this citation is noted to be in the Public Domain, in the case of someone claiming Copyright protection of this material, please note that in each case, whenever a citation of any Copyrighted material is made within a post on this blog, such a citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}