Skip to main content

New Year, Old Challenges

With it being the beginning of a new year I’ve again decided to try the One Year Bible. I say again, because I tried last year and the year before that and I never actually manage to stick with it. Funnily enough the introduction points out that this is the perfect bible for consistent readers and that I am not, but I want to be. I love the Word and believe implicitly that I will never make a difference if I am not studying it all the time. I need to be swimming in it, feeding from it, drinking it in all the time. So I am on day 3. Yeah! Hopefully I will make it to the end. Emiel and I have made the decision to help each other out with sticking to what we are committing to, kinda like giving each other permission to irritate the other if need be. Day 3’s New Testament reading was Matthew 3:7-4:11, but what really whacked me was this from 3:7 to 3:10.
But when he (John) saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to watch him baptize, he denounced them. “You brood of snakes!” he exclaimed. “Who warned you to flee God’s coming wrath? 8Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. 9Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones. 10Even now the ax of God’s of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire”.
Wow, wow, wow!!!! Emiel and I are in this space that it is not good saying you are anything if the way you live is not saying the same thing. The idea is old, I know, but it seems like nothing really changes. What I get from the portion above is that I am as good as a Pharisee or Sadducee if I am not living out my faith in such a tangible way that others feel God’s love through me. What good is it really to be a Christian if I do not love and live as God has called me through the example of Christ? He even provided the Holy Spirit to guide us; the Holy Spirit loves as God loves. It is so simple, really, this faith thing. My life must reflect that I have repented of my sins and have turned to God and for me turning to God is this, Matthew22:37-39 Jesus replied, “’You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” I guess the best evangelism is to love as Christ does, as the Holy Spirit does, as God does. I guess if I’m loving my neighbor, whoever my neighbor is, I’m turned to God.
By the by and completely aside from the last thought I love the New Living Translation Second Edition. It is the Word in my language.
Ok, so I’m done. Off do some investigating on baby-led weaning .
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for commenting, I really love hearing from you

Popular posts from this blog

Longing for Winter

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are." — E.E. Cummings  "Unbeing dead isn't being alive." — E.E. Cummings "We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit." — E.E. Cummings   I had not intended to start with anything like the above quotes, but aren't they amazing?  What I had wanted was to find a poem about winter.  In the spider-webbed, cardboard-boxed-up mind of mine I remember something and I decided it was e.e.cummings but even though the internet is oh wow! I can't find it. Or maybe it's the dust.   My husband needs all of the credit for this post.  We discuss our life continuously.  We look at the good and the bad, what we are doing right and what is going horribly wrong....
6 comments
Read more

Hope and Mercedes Benz's

So my weekend went like this: My hope is not what it should be, hoplessness is starting to creep in Emiel leaves for camp I watch a stupid movie and feel scared My hope fades just a bit more I do my very best to keep my little people happy and content while their daddy is away Alexander is really not happy his daddy is away My hope continues fading I have plans to go my parents for Saturday Phone my dad who says my mom has had another allergic reaction to a medication I end up trying to clean and leave later then expected Get a text message from my dad saying I need to get there He needs to go out and my mom doesn't want to be left alone Suddenly it dawns on me that this reaction is quite serious My hope is fading fast I arrive at my parents' house with the littlies in tow I rush to my mom who has been trying to sleep She asks if her eyes are red Her face is swollen This is the third reaction And this time it was to Paracetamol (one of the components in the other meds) My mom...
2 comments
Read more

Grief

I have started without finishing more posts than I can count.  I have and still do find it very difficult to put down the words that will most likely open the sluice gates I am not sure I am willing to open.   We were living in Japan when we received the phone call from my mother telling me that my father had chosen to take his life.  My mother felt it necessary to tell me before I read it on Facebook.   I don't want to talk about suicide now or how damn angry I am with him, I will at some stage, I need to share what life is like for those left behind.  I do want to talk about how grief is like the scene of a train wreck.   For years I had prided myself in my ability to self-evaluate.  I new I was insecure, or if I had treated someone unkindly.  I was able to prejudge my emotions and navigate them before they caused damage.  I have always been deep, but I had moved clear of the precipice leading to despair.   Grief comes l...
Post a Comment
Read more