WELCOME TO "THE BIG PICTURE"

The content on this page is an attempt to share with you what I have come to see in the Bible after studying for many years—a vast panorama of what is happening in this world, including why it's in the mess it's in, how it began, and how it will all be resolved. In short, I am taking off the worldview "lenses" through which I view life in order to give you a chance to try them on.

Each statement is a link you can click on that takes you to a page where that concept is explored in greater detail.

There are a great many primary and secondary subjects that impact (or have implications for) this view. I have tried to lay out the ideas in some sort of helpful and logical order, so feel free to start at the top and read to the bottom, or jump around if a certain topic grabs your eye. I hope you'll take the time not only to read, but to respond with your comments or questions at my email address or on my Facebook page.

May God richly bless you as you read.

Creation

1. GOD IS THE ONLY SOURCE OF LIFE. We must start here. Everything, absolutely everything, in the universe can be placed into one of two categories: created and... read more

2. EXISTENCE REQUIRES CONNECTION TO THE SOURCE. The living room in our house is dingy. Thanks to the rich, dark wood, the placement of the windows, and the paint color of the one... read more

3. GOD EXERCISES UNILATERAL CONTROL OVER HIS CREATION. I love the story of creation. Every time I read it, I close my eyes and try to imagine what it must have been like... read more

freedom

4. ONLY GOD'S INTELLIGENT CREATURES HAVE FREEDOM. If #3 set your wheels turning, you have probably realized that the critical implication of this special power we have been given... read more

5. FREEDOM IS GOD'S HIGHEST PRIORITY. God created us in freedom, for freedom. He created us that way so we could choose to freely give ourselves to Him in a relationship, if... read more

6. NOBODY CAN OVERRIDE YOUR FREEDOM. I love these words of Jesus—nobody can snatch us out of His hand. What this means is that no other person, no other entity, no third party can come along and... read more

7. FREEDOM MEANS GOD DOESN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT HE WANTS. If God has made us in freedom, for freedom, and if our connection to Him is truly a two-way street, then freedom means... read more

8. FREEDOM MEANS GOD WON'T RETALIATE AGAINST YOU. My husband and I have a running joke about picking a restaurant when we go out for a date. At some point, early on in our relationship... read more

9. IF YOU CAN'T CHOOSE AGAINST GOD, YOU CAN'T CHOOSE FOR HIM EITHER. In order for there to be real freedom, it must run both ways. Freedom means not only the power to opt in, but also... read more

love

10. GOD NEVER ACTS IN SELF-INTEREST. God is looking for love with His intelligent creatures, because He is love, and this means that in His very nature, He is totally... read more

11. LOVING ACTIONS ARE DEFINED BY SELFLESS MOTIVES. At the beginning of 1 Corinthians 13, Paul lays out in explicit detail that none of our good words or deeds matter if we... read more

12. LOVING ACTIONS ARE NOT NECESSARILY NICE. On October 14, 1987, 18-month-old Jessica McClure fell down a water well in Midland, Texas. For the next 55 hours, the entire world watched... read more

sin & THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR

13. SIN IS SELF-CENTEREDNESS. At its heart, sin is an attitude of rebellion, a way of thinking that considers first what is in the best interests of self and then determines to act accordingly... read more

14. IF GOD CAN WIN OUR TRUST, HE CAN HEAL THE DAMAGE DONE BY SIN. The ultimate problem with sin is in its distrust of God. Instead of listening to what God says, we try... read more

15. THE DISEASE OF SIN PRODUCES SYMPTOMS WE CALL "SINS." When you go to the doctor because you've had a high fever and vomiting for several hours, the doctor is not going to treat... read more

16. LUCIFER CORRUPTED HIMSELF THROUGH SELF-SEEKING. Believe it or not, sin didn't originate on this planet. It began in heaven with an angel named Lucifer. And Lucifer wasn't just any... read more

17. LUCIFER'S REBELLION IGNITED WAR IN HEAVEN. You wouldn't think war could break out in a perfect place where everyone is perfect and everything is at peace and God Himself is there... read more

The garden of eden

18. GOD HONORED FREEDOM BY GIVING SATAN ACCESS. So why, you may ask, would God allow His enemy to have access to the planet at all, let alone the garden?! If He had already... read more

19. GOD PROTECTED FREEDOM BY LIMITING SATAN'S ACCESS. But God doesn't just honor freedom, He also protects it. For God may have honored freedom by allowing Satan to have access... read more

20. SATAN LIED TO EVE ABOUT GOD'S TRUSTWORTHINESS. Satan, cloaked in the body of the serpent, lied to Eve about God and His trustworthiness. First, he claimed that God had lied when... read more

21. DISTRUSTING GOD WAS EVE'S SIN. By the time Eve ate the fruit, she had become convinced that everything Satan had said was true—that God was a liar, that He was holding them back... read more

22. DISTRUSTING GOD WAS ADAM'S SIN. When Eve gave the fruit to Adam, he also ate it. We don't really know if he heard and processed everything Satan had said, but surely, he knew that God... read more

23. ADAM AND EVE'S SIN IMMEDIATELY DAMAGED THEIR RELATIONSHIPS. The consequences of Adam and Eve's sin were immediate. Everything began to die, right then, right there... read more

24. ADAM AND EVE'S SIN DAMAGED THE ENVIRONMENT. Adam and Eve's sin didn't just have relational consequences, but environmental ones as well. If something as simple as eating... read more

25. GOD REMOVED ADAM AND EVE FROM THE GARDEN SO THEY WOULD NOT LIVE FOREVER. After Adam and Eve sinned and ate the fruit from the tree God had told them to stay away from, He... read more

death

26. IN THIS WORLD, THERE ARE TWO BIRTHS AND TWO DEATHS. When Jesus arrived, He began talking about a concept that the Israelites had apparently been either slow or unable to understand... read more

27. GOD IMPOSED SLEEP UPON HUMANITY. SLEEP IS NOT A NATURAL RESULT OF SIN. When God removed human beings from the Tree of Life, He was imposing what I call "Sleep" upon us... read more

28. DEATH IS THE NATURAL RESULT OF SIN AND IS CAUSED BY PERSISTING IN REBELLION. Have you figured it out yet? Do you know who has the power to totally separate you from God's gift of eternal... read more

29. JESUS CAME TO REVEAL HOW GOD IS INVOLVED IN DEATH. Before God removed human beings from the garden so they could no longer eat from the Tree of Life, there was no such thing as... read more

30. JESUS' DEATH REVEALED THAT CREATION CANNOT SURVIVE IF IT IS SEPARATED FROM GOD. Jesus never sinned. He never indulged a selfish attitude, never took matters into His own hands in... read more

31. JESUS'S DEATH REVEALED THAT GOD DOES NOT EXECUTE HIS REBELLIOUS CREATURES. Even before He went to the cross to offer the supreme demonstration of the Death that comes as a result... read more

32. FOR GOD, OUR SLEEP IS A TEMPORARY AND IMMEDIATELY-REVERSIBLE CONDITION. Since God imposed Sleep upon the human race, it should be no surprise that He is able to immediately... read more

33. SLEEP IS THE ULTIMATE HEDGE AGAINST DEATH. God has complete control over Sleep—but we don't. Yet have you ever noticed how much of our lives we dedicate to our angst over going to... read more

NECESSARY ACTIONS

34. LOVE ALWAYS DOES WHAT IS NECESSARY TO ACT IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE OTHER. If selfless-ness is the essence of Love, that means a person who is acting in a loving way in any given situation... read more

35. NECESSARY ACTIONS ARE TAILORED TO INDIVIDUALS IN SPECIFIC CIRCUMSTANCES. It has been said that all experts on parenting are people who don't yet have kids. And I would have to say that I... read more

36. THE BIBLE IS A RECORD OF GOD MEETING DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES WITH NECESSARY ACTIONS. The Bible, particularly the Old Testament, isn't an easy read. After the first two chapters, human... read more

37. OUR PERSPECTIVE LIMITS OUR UNDERSTANDING OF GOD'S NECESSARY ACTIONS. Recently, I read this headline on social media: "Mother Throws Baby Out Fourth-Story Window." Outraged, and... read more

38. GOD'S LOVE NEVER CHANGES, BUT THE NECESSARY ACTIONS HE TAKES MAY CHANGE CONSTANTLY. When the Bible says that God never changes, that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever... read more

relationship

39. GOD IMMEDIATELY FORGIVES AND NEVER HOLDS GRUDGES. One of the things we often wonder about God when we're reading those unsavory parts of the Bible is whether He is unforgiving, because... read more

40. GOD'S FORGIVENESS CAN DO NOTHING FOR US UNLESS WE ACCEPT IT. But, I can hear you asking, if God has forgiven everyone, then what's the problem? Why won't everyone be saved? These are such... read more

41. RESTORING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM IS GOD'S GOAL IN "SALVATION." As Paul put it so eloquently, the solution to our problem is not to find a way for God to be reconciled to us. God is seeking to... read more

42. GOD IS ALWAYS PURSUING US FOR THE PURPOSES OF RELATIONSHIP. As a Parent who loves His children with an everlasting love, God's desire is that our relationship with Him might be repaired and... read more

43. GOD IS LIGHT. The Bible begins and ends with God being light and bringing light to His creation. And all through the Bible, the references to God and light continue, perhaps with Jesus... read more

44. GOD'S LIGHT IS MORE POWERFUL THAN DARKNESS. Here's the thing about light. When it encounters darkness, the darkness disappears. In fact, while light is a physical property that can be... read more

45. WHEN WE ARE CONFRONTED WITH LIGHT, WE CANNOT REMAIN NEUTRAL. Here's the thing we sometimes have difficulty understanding: when God brings light that illuminates our darkness, we can... read more

46. THE HARDER A HEART BECOMES, THE HARDER THE SPIRIT MUST WORK TO PENETRATE IT. We have become quite adept at quieting our consciences when we want to, so I would imagine that... read more

47. THE PERSISTENT REJECTION OF LIGHT EVENTUALLY PRODUCES A HEART THE SPIRIT CAN'T REACH. As you might have realized by now, if a person who rejects light hardens their heart, and if a harder... read more

48. A TOTALLY-HARDENED HEART IS THE ONLY THING THAT CAN SEPARATE US FROM GOD. When Jesus said to be afraid of the one who could destroy both body and soul in hell, He was referring to you... read more

49. HEARTS ARE SOFT UNTIL THEY'RE HARDENED AND OPEN UNTIL THEY'RE CLOSED. If it is true that the only thing that can ever separate us from God is a totally-hardened, implacable heart, and... read more

life

50. A PERSON WITH A TOTALLY-HARDENED HEART IS DEAD, EVEN IF THEY'RE BREATHING. If God is the only Source of Life in the universe, then whether or not we are alive is a matter of whether... read more

51. THERE IS ONLY ONE FATAL DISEASE. After my father was diagnosed with ALS, whenever friends saw my mom and offered her sympathies on his plight, she loved to tell them that there was... read more

52. IF YOU HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD, YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE TODAY. These are the words of Jesus, describing in very simple terms what eternal life is: It is to know God, to have a relationship... read more

53. ONLY GOD KNOWS HOW LONG WE HAVE LEFT UNTIL OUR "PAUSE." If we could really grasp the truth about eternal life, would it make a difference in how we lived today in this world? Do you think... read more

54. TODAY IS JUST ANOTHER DAY IN YOUR ETERNAL LIFE WITH GOD. I love this verse from Psalms. It tells us to rejoice in this day because God has made it, and we're spending it with Him. It doesn't say... read more

55. EVERY DAY OF LIFE IS WORTH LIVING, EVEN IF WE ARE SUFFERING. Something inside me changed the first time I read Miracle in the Andes by Nando Parrado, the firsthand account of the young men who... read more

suffering

56. ALL SUFFERING IS ON PURPOSE. I have two little girls, so something I hear a lot when they're gearing up for a fight is, "You did that on purpose!" Nothing can escalate a fight as quickly as... read more

57. AS IT PASSES THROUGH GOD, ALL SUFFERING BECOMES RESTORATIVE. So, in case #56 left you feeling a bit overwhelmed and hopeless, take heart, because there is very good news! And the good news is... read more

58. GOD IS ALWAYS AT WORK IN OUR SUFFERING. Especially when we're in the midst of suffering, it can be hard to see and understand how God could ever transform it into something good, let alone... read more

59. GOD IS GOING TO GIVE YOU DOUBLE FOR ALL YOUR SUFFERING. But let's be honest, as much as we want to think light and talk light, sometimes it just seems like darkness is the only thing that... read more

60. YOU CAN'T HAVE LOVE WITHOUT THE WILLINGNESS TO SUFFER. But, I so often hear, if God is love, why does He permit suffering to continue? Wouldn't a loving God keep us from suffering? Well, it is certainly... read more

61. NOBODY WILL EVER SUFFER MORE THAN GOD. Since you cannot have love without the willingness to suffer, our God, who is Love, has suffered from the very beginning of Lucifer's rebellion... read more

the END OF THE WAR

62. SINCE THE BEGINNING, GOD HAS LIMITED SATAN'S DESTRUCTIVE POWER. For all the suffering mankind has endured, especially at the hands of Satan, from the beginning, it is nothing compared to... read more

63. THINGS ARE GOING TO GET WORSE BEFORE THEY GET BETTER. As easy as things are at present, they will apparently not stay that way forever. In the Bible, God has promised us that there will be a... read more

64. ALL OF GOD'S INTELLIGENT CREATURES WILL BE ALIVE FOR THE CLOSING EVENTS OF THE WAR. After Satan is allowed to unleash upon creation the most intense period of suffering ever witnessed... read more

65. RIGHT TO THE END, GOD WILL TREAT BOTH HIS WICKED AND RIGHTEOUS CHILDREN THE SAME. Perhaps the most often-used image for God in the Bible is fire. From the burning bush to the pillar... read more

66. THOSE WITH TOTALLY-HARDENED HEARTS WILL PHYSICALLY SEPARATE FROM GOD. Jesus said to love your enemies and to pray for those who persecute you. Paul said not to repay anyone's evil with... read more

67. GOD WILL SUFFER FOR ETERNITY THE LOSS OF THOSE WHO HAVE SEPARATED FROM HIM. When Christians talk about the end of the age, there's always the mention of hell and eternal, conscious torment... read more

THE NEW CREATION

68. THOSE WHO REMAIN CONNECTED TO GOD WILL LIVE FOREVER IN THE FIRE OF HIS GLORY. A lot of people have this idea that hell involves being alive forever in an everlasting fire. And, actually, the Bible... read more

69. AFTER THE WAR IS OVER, GOD WILL RE-CREATE THE EARTH. There will be an end to this whole mess, and once it has come to an end, God will give us all a new beginning. The consuming fire that... read more

70. THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER WAR, BUT THERE WILL FOREVER BE FREEDOM. In the hereafter, when God has made all things new, there will be no more tears and sadness. There will be no more... read more