When parents tell their small children, "No, no! Don't touch the stove. You'll get burned!" it comes from their love and protective concern. They are not saying, "Don't touch the stove because if you do I will punish you by burning you." That's ridiculous and we never would assume otherwise.
How strange that we judge the commands of God from a different point of view. "...you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (Gen. 2:16).
This was not the rash threat of an angry, hard-to-please God; this was the plea of a loving Father who knows what is best for us. His warnings are to protect us, not to spoil our fun or look for reasons to be mad at us.
No command of God is unkind or irrational--although, we sometimes judge them to be. Each expressed command of God was carefully designed to be a blessing to our lives if we would but obey.
Psalm 33:5
The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Monday, February 3, 2014
Tip for the Day
Do not schedule your passport renewal appointment right before your orthopedic appointment for a cortisone injection in your knee.
This may be an irrelevant piece of advice for most or you, but for those to whom it applies, let me explain. The proximity of the regional post office where I could renew my passport is a stone"s throw (so to speak--not that I throw stones) from my doctor. Efficiency dictated that I make these appointments back to back. (I habitually think shortest-route, best-organized-procedures).
I pulled into to the post office parking lot to discover that whatever architect had laid out exterior plans had placed the parking lot approximately a half-marathon's length from the front door. This may have been a San Diego idea to promote physical fitness with a vigorous walk, but if your fitness is already on the demise, it constitutes punishment.
Then I discovered that having an appointment in no way guarantees that you will be seen at your scheduled time. I know the federal government is not rolling in dough these days (in spite of my tax bill and the hefty fee they were charging me to renew my passport), but it seems a chair or two would have been a worthy investment, given their frequent and, probably predictable, delays. Maybe having us stand is designed to give us the illusion that the wait will be a short one. On the other hand, if standing on a concrete floor for a length of time produces any kind of discomfort, it has quite the opposite effect: minutes seem like hours.
I will spare you a description of the pain in my left knee.. Unfortunately, by the time I was in front of the camera for a photo for my passport, the closest I could come to a smile was an agonized grimace.
The result was a picture in which I closely resembled an angry terrorist. This is not going to be good when I next try to get through security at the airport. I'm rethinking all trips abroad.
This may be an irrelevant piece of advice for most or you, but for those to whom it applies, let me explain. The proximity of the regional post office where I could renew my passport is a stone"s throw (so to speak--not that I throw stones) from my doctor. Efficiency dictated that I make these appointments back to back. (I habitually think shortest-route, best-organized-procedures).
I pulled into to the post office parking lot to discover that whatever architect had laid out exterior plans had placed the parking lot approximately a half-marathon's length from the front door. This may have been a San Diego idea to promote physical fitness with a vigorous walk, but if your fitness is already on the demise, it constitutes punishment.
Then I discovered that having an appointment in no way guarantees that you will be seen at your scheduled time. I know the federal government is not rolling in dough these days (in spite of my tax bill and the hefty fee they were charging me to renew my passport), but it seems a chair or two would have been a worthy investment, given their frequent and, probably predictable, delays. Maybe having us stand is designed to give us the illusion that the wait will be a short one. On the other hand, if standing on a concrete floor for a length of time produces any kind of discomfort, it has quite the opposite effect: minutes seem like hours.
I will spare you a description of the pain in my left knee.. Unfortunately, by the time I was in front of the camera for a photo for my passport, the closest I could come to a smile was an agonized grimace.
The result was a picture in which I closely resembled an angry terrorist. This is not going to be good when I next try to get through security at the airport. I'm rethinking all trips abroad.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
OUT OF CONTEXT
Ephesians 5:25-27
...Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
In the context of this scripture these words are simply a backdrop illustration for the kind of love God intended for husbands to have for their wives. I have never heard this scripture used except in a lesson on marriage and that is certainly appropriate and the import of the text. But it is interesting that these words stand powerfully alone. When taken out of context, they summarize the context of the entire Bible.
...Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
In the context of this scripture these words are simply a backdrop illustration for the kind of love God intended for husbands to have for their wives. I have never heard this scripture used except in a lesson on marriage and that is certainly appropriate and the import of the text. But it is interesting that these words stand powerfully alone. When taken out of context, they summarize the context of the entire Bible.
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