In my own fantasy world, I’d be able to eat all the chocolate and not get fat or turn into a diabetic. But even in that fantasy world, I’d probably get as sick of chocolate as of anything else that I ate exclusively for days and days.
Chocolate is so good because it’s a treat. It’s rare. It’s not an every day thing. That’s what makes it good.
You could take that and apply it to anything spiritual.
It’s like sex within marriage versus all the time with just anybody.
It’s like being financially responsible while allowing yourself to splurge every now and then versus impulse buying all the time and disregarding your bank account.
Discipline is a dirty word in this culture, but it can be a beautiful thing if you can learn delayed joy instead of always caving in to instant gratification. Good things do come to those who wait indeed.
Now if I could only train myself to crave salads instead of chocolate all the time.
This is a borrowed post that speaks not about Mary, the mother of Jesus but about Mary’s mother. We know absolutely nothing about her other than she obviously existed — no name, no lineage, no story, no angel visit, no nothing. But yet her faithfulness led to Mary’s faithfulness, which led to the Incarnation.
It’s a post from December 20, so we’re not quite to the time of year to be talking about the nativity just yet. At least for most people. I think this is something that works all year round. What follows is amazing:
“This time of year, we talk about Mary a lot. But what about Mary’s mother? Someone had to raise Mary to find favor with God. Someone had to raise Mary to treasure purity. Someone had to raise Mary to honor Joseph. Someone had to raise Mary to know the voice of the Lord, even though they were living in the silent years.
Mary’s mother, we don’t know her name. We don’t know what her life looked like. We don’t know who she was married to, or what he was like. All we know is, she raised the mother of Christ. She raised a daughter, highly favored of the Lord. She raised a daughter to fear the Lord, when the Lord was silent. This is what we know.
Mary’s mother didn’t have an encounter with Angel, telling her to raise Mary carefully because of how the Lord was going to use her.
Mary’s mother chose to raise Mary wisely so that the Lord could use her.
Mary’s mother didn’t have an encounter with Angel, telling her to honor her husband, because Mary would need to honor Joseph when he told her to travel to Bethlehem while she was great with child, when he told her to flee Herod’s wrath (before it came to pass) in the middle of the night, Mary’s mother just honored her husband, obeyed, and submitted to him because she knew that’s what she was called to do.
Mary’s mother didn’t have an encounter with an angel, giving her a word to cling to in those dark, silent years. But she clung to the word of God that she had. She trusted his word, even during his silence.
And her home shone with divine favor, because she made choices in the dark, that affected the whole world.
Mary did you know?
She knew some, she knew what the Angel told her.
But Mary’s mother? She had no idea. But she chose to raise a daughter that the Lord could use. And that choice still affects us all today. Who you raise can affect eternity. The example you set in marriage, can affect eternity. Your home can make the gates of Hell tremble. But it starts with you” (Sarah Trent).
“Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles” (Proverbs 24:17).
I don’t like it when people post about Donald Trump and how they wish the assassination attempt had been successful. I’m equally not a fan of people making fun of Joe Biden for his apparent dementia. Neither one suits a child of God or a disciple of Jesus.
The current political climate has created an us versus them mentality. We can be tolerant toward the views of our people, but not theirs. We will try to be civil and humane with our people, but when it comes to their people, all bets are off and all sorts of name-calling of them and their families are fair game.
We’ve even decided that the whole made in the image of God thing doesn’t apply to them. They’re evil and not human because they are them, not us. Typically, the view we have of them is the most distorted and exaggerated caricature of the person and not the actual person.
When Jesus said to love your enemies, He didn’t stutter. He said to love them whether you like them or not, whether you agree with them or not, whether they deserve love or not. As I’ve said repeatedly, Jesus chose to love and forgive those who were in the very act of murdering Him.
I don’t think it’s good to celebrate when a political opponent suffers. In fact, if your theology allows you to hate “them,” then it’s not of God and not of the Bible. And disagreeing with choices or lifestyle doesn’t equal hate. In fact, the more you love people, the more concerned you will be when they make unwise choices or behaviors and the more you will want the best, i.e. God’s best, for them.
Perhaps the best way to learn to love your enemy is to pray for them. And not in pray for their destruction or comeuppance. But pray for them as you would for yourself or a loved one. Pray that God can change their heart and give them wisdom — not Democratic or Republican wisdom but Godly wisdom. You can pray for their salvation. You can pray that they will find the same joy and peace that you have found.
This is not how fall was supposed to work. It should be cold enough for flannel. There should be an abundance of pumpkin spice everything, as well as apple cider and all those other colder weather beverages that just don’t taste right when it’s above 80 degrees.
But there I was, mowing the lawn in 85 degree heat, sweating like the pig that’s about to become bacon and wondering why it was so hot. I didn’t sign up for this. I want my seasons.
I understand how seasons work in Tennessee. They never arrive when they’re supposed to. Only summer seems to get here early and doesn’t want to leave even when he’s clearly outstayed his welcome. He’s like the houseguest or relative that comes over to stay and simply won’t leave (which thankfully, I nor my family have no experience with).
I am delighted and grateful to see all the festive Halloween decorations going up in yards, but it feels wrong to be setting up spooky decor in a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals. It takes away a tiny bit of the mystique.
Supposedly, actual honest to goodness fall weather is coming next week. I for one can’t wait to put on a jacket for the first time since April and possibly even turn the heater on in my Jeep. Then I can play my Charlie Brown Halloween record and feel right about it.
Summer, you’ve had your time. You need to move on and let Autumn have a turn. You get to come back next year and be just as hot, so quit being a nuisance and go away. I need some crisp fall weather, stat!
“Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
That’s the worst part about anxiety. We spend so much time obsessing over so many things that won’t last so that we forget about what’s lasting and eternal. We fret over so many temporary circumstances that we lose sight of that Kingdom that lasts forever and can never be shaken.
Most of what I’ve worried about in my life didn’t matter a year later. Sometimes even a month. I can’t remember what I worried about in the past, and if I did, it seems not worth all the effort now. Why can’t I remember that when the temptation to be anxious arises?
My hope is in what will never pass away. Even the worst that can come my way is but a light and momentary affliction compared to the eternal weight of glory that awaits in heaven and seeing Jesus face to face.
Yet I still worry. We all do. It seems to be the human default setting that’s almost impossible to turn off. We’re prone to wander and to worry. It’s what we do. Jesus is prone to forgive us for worrying and to grant us peace that passes understanding if only we’ll ask for it.
Maybe memorizing that first little prayer might help to alleviate some of the anxiety. Better yet memorizing Scripture helps when the fear and worry try to sneak in. Focusing on God in prayer is always an appropriate antidote for anxiety.
Lord, forgive us for fretting. Help us to remember that what matters is what is eternal. You are eternal. Heaven is eternal. Everything else that keeps us awake at night will pass.
Technically, since I’m enjoying this book through Audible, it would be a good listen rather than a good read. But the narrator is really good and the story has a pace that’s just right and neither too slow or too quick.
Surprised by Oxford is right up my alley. It’s set in Oxford among the ghosts of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien and the like. Actually, there are no ghosts, but the fingerprints of Lewis and Tolkien are all over this story.
It’s a story about a journey to from unbelief to faith told in a riveting style that reads (or listens) like a novel rather than a memoir. I can visualize just about everything in my head despite never actually having been to Oxford.
I know there’s a movie based on the book that I want to see, but I also don’t. I know the movie will leave out significant portions of the book and condense other parts to make it fit into the 90 or so minutes that comprise the average length of a typical film. But also it will show Oxford in all its glory and make me want to go there more than I already do at the moment.
There are so many cultural and literary and musical references that are right up my alley. There are lots of mentions of U2 songs and of course lots of nods to Lewis. It’s set during the 90s when I myself would have been a college student, so I get that timeframe pretty well.
It’s definitely a book I’d recommend either listening to or actually honest to goodness reading out of an actual physical book. I know when it ends, I won’t be ready and will be a bit sad for a day or so. Then I will start my next grand audio adventure.
“Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:17,ESV).
I think the time is coming when true followers of Jesus will have to “come out from among them and be separate,” as the old King James puts it.
I think for some of us, it will mean leaving churches and denominations that no longer teach the Bible or the true gospel of Jesus. It might mean distancing yourself from a political party (or both of them) that no longer follows biblical morality.
I have to tread carefully here because I don’t want to be judgmental, but I think America has a lot of people who identify as Christians but a lot less who actually follow Jesus. Many are spiritual or religious but far fewer have been truly born again and are regenerate new creations.
The answer to the moral free fall the country is in is not to get “our” people elected or to get “our” platform made into law. It’s not even to get lost people to act right. It’s to get Christians back to believing and acting like Christians. It’s to get churches back to the whole gospel of Jesus and the whole Bible, teaching those old-fashioned concepts like hell, sin, atonement, and salvation.
We probably need to learn how to believe in the gospel again apart from the American Dream that we’ve woven into the redeeming narrative of the cross. We need to return to being the prophetic voice of God instead of vying for political power. We could do with a present day John the Baptist or two to tell people to repent because the Kingdom of God is coming.
We need to get back to the gospel that is for all people. Not a gospel of God loves you just as you are and wants you to stay that way, but God loves you too much to let you live in anything less than His absolute best for you. We also need to love the least of these like Jesus did, remembering when we serve one of these, we serve Jesus Himself.
We need a true revival not of showy emotions and signs and wonders but of confessing sin and repenting and turning from our way and following God’s way. We need to stop conforming with the world and letting it teach us theology and return to being transformed by the renewing of our minds by God’s word.
At this point, I think it will take a miraculous act of God to turn us around. You did it in the past, Lord. Do it again, God. Do it again.
“‘Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 4:6–7).
That peace, that conscious calm, that divine serenity, which is described as the peace of God is not produced by prayer alone but by prayer with thanksgiving. If we bless our gracious Lord for the very trouble we pray against; if we bless him for the very mercy which we need as though it had already come; if we resolve to praise him whether we receive the boon or not, learning to be content in whatever state we are in, then ‘the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.’”
That’s what I’ve been missing. I pray with petitions but not always thanksgiving. I pray for what I need, but don’t thank the Provider. Maybe if I gave thanks in advance for God taking care of my needs, the peace would come.
Even with the disappointment of hope delayed, I can still pray with gratitude for something better that’s coming. I can declare the goodness of God in the midst of waiting. I can still worship.
Ultimately, God is enough. More than anything I want or need or pray for, God is enough and He is sufficient. He will always be enough.
I stole . . . I mean, borrowed this from a friend’s post because it speaks to when God comforts us in the midst of pain without removing the source of the pain or the actual pain itself. Sometimes, God does heal, but sometimes He gives a greater grace to endure so that we might be drawn nearer to God’s heart.
“There are times when God, in His infinite wisdom, chooses not to heal me but to hold me. In the depths of my pain, when every breath feels heavy and my heart is burdened with questions, I find myself wrapped in His arms, closer than I’ve ever been. The more intense the suffering, the tighter His embrace, and in the midst of it all, something sacred happens—I come to know Him in ways I never could before. I may not understand His reasons, and the healing I long for might not come in the way I expect, but there’s something profound in the way He stays with me. He doesn’t leave me to face the storm alone. Sometimes, the miracle is not found in the mending, but in the holding. And through every tear, every silent cry, I sense His heartbeat against mine, reminding me that even in the unanswered prayers, He is still good, still faithful. In the darkness, when I can’t see the way forward, I feel His presence more deeply than I ever have. Healing may not always be His plan, but I now know that the love in His hold is enough. It’s not always about making the pain disappear; sometimes it’s about knowing that, through it all, I’ve never been more held, more cherished, more loved.”
“The call of God in a person’s life may come like a clap of thunder or it may dawn gradually. If a man or woman is called of God, it doesn’t matter how difficult the circumstances may be. God orchestrates every force at work for His purpose in the end. If you will agree with God’s purpose, He will bring not only your conscious level but also all the deeper levels of your life, which you yourself cannot reach, into perfect harmony” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).
This makes me think of so many people called by God in the Bible who were just as flawed as I am. Or maybe I’m just as flawed as they were. Or maybe we’re all flawed and God uses us anyway.
Esther was one who happened to be in the right place for God to use her to save His people. She was by no means perfect, but she was obedient, and that’s what matters in the end. It’s not our ability but our availability that God seeks.
The key is God’s timing. I’ve learned it’s best not to anticipate what God will do or to rush His hand. God’s timing is always perfect, right on time, and never a split second late.
God uses flawed and broken people because that’s where He gets the most glory. It’s not the most popular or prestigious ones whom God calls but the nobodies and the also-rans. He chooses those no one else would ever choose and makes their lives spectacular because of His light shining through.
Ragamuffingospelfan's Blog 