From the Editor

By Jonathan Ho

“Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary.” Sherlock Holmes, the fictional detective, used to say this to his partner when asked how he could solve something so complicated and complex.

Sometimes we see the world as more complicated than it is. And it’s the same thing with walking with Jesus. Like a Rube Goldberg machine, we often pile on rules and steps to being holy and miss out on the simple truth of the good news of Jesus.

The theme of this issue is revisiting “God in All Aspects of Our Lives” and the articles here address the two problems mentioned in the above statements.

First, we often make Christianity about a million rules when “only one thing is necessary” (Luke 10:42a). We complicate what is not so complicated. Recently, I kept running theories of what made a good community with my friend and he responded to me simply, “You don’t have to be smart to follow God and love others.”

Second problem: we sometimes assume what is not true.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the Sherlock Holmes novels. Nowhere in his writing do we find the phrase, “Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary.” The phrase likely came from some re-creation of the novels through either a play or movie.

What if we have begun believing something which is based on the truth but not true at all? What if we have learned from others but not from Christ himself?

Rather than cover how sky diving, skin care, and board games can glorify God, I want us to start from within. Our outward actions are made of whatever is at the core of our hearts. The Lord looks not at the outside but at the heart. My prayer is for God to use this issue to shape our hearts so that we are fertile ground for his creative power exhibited in faith and love.

In this magazine issue, my friend Scott shares the wrestling in his mind between understanding and being loved, Elizabeth touches on the importance of truly following Jesus, Matt writes about the culture of God‘s Kingdom, and I write about what it means to walk with God. I pray God uses these articles to touch your heart as he has used them to touch our own hearts as we worked on them.

Again, please contact us at [email protected] with any comments or ideas. I’d love to hear from you!

Jonathan Ho