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 |  This contains entries to Take up Your Cross, Space Blog, Blog City PF and BC of Friends |
"January 3, 2019"      "Prompt: What does I Corinthians 13: 13 mean to you?"I Corinthians 13: 13 says "and now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these is love." Essentially the Apostle Paul is saying that out of all the things that exist, the three greatest are faith, hope, and love. Then out of these three love is the greatest. I have heard many sermons preached on this passage of scripture. The emphasis is always placed on love because Paul says it is the most important of the three. At times though I feel my fellow preachers undermine the importance of faith and hope in this passage. Without faith salvation would be impossible. We could have all the love in the world and still be dismally lost if we have no faith. I think we all know at least one person who is very loving but has no faith. Such people are to be most pitied. If love was sufficient these people would most certainly qualify. The have love coming from their very pores yet they have no faith. Most religions teach love as their basis and their love is genuine. However love is not sufficient in and of itself. Love must be coupled with faith. For a Christian love is the result of faith. Faith is the proof of the existence of God in our lives. While we cannot sense God with any of the five senses we know He exists because our faith tells us so. Faith is all the evidence we need. This faith results in hope. Hope keeps us going. It wakes us up in the morning, encourages us throughout the day, and protects us as we sleep. Hope is the mainstay of a Christian's life. It is our glorious hope, based on faith that we will one day raise from the dead just as Jesus raised from the dead, and live with Him forever in heaven. All of this results in great love and stems from even greater love. "Faith, hope and love. The greatest of these is love." "Prompt: "Every man should be born on the first of January. Start with a fresh page." Henry Ward Beecher What would your fresh page to say? "I would want my fresh page to say "Here walks a man who resembles Jesus Christ." Being Christlike is very important to me. It is the command of God's word that all of God's children be like Christ in our behavior. I know I fall well short of the mark so my prayer every day is that God forgive me a sinner. I pray for God to live within me, control my actions and guide my steps because I do not know how to do so on my own. The word of God refers to man as "sheep". Believe me when I say that this was not meant in a complimentary way. People usually think that God is saying that like sheep humans are meek and mild. What God is saying is that like sheep humans are stubborn and senseless. Sheep are not smart animals. In fact they are quite brainless. A sheep will not resist if it it is attacked. It has to be led to water. It has to be led to food. It has to be coddled and protected at all times. If you step on a lamb's hoof it will not pull away from you. It will simply stand there. They are not intelligent creatures. Humans are like sheep. We don't know what is best for us nor do we have the slightest idea how to do what is pleasing in God's sight. God gave us ten little commands and we screw them all up! (The Ten Commandments were actually given to the Jews but they screwed them up.) Now He gives us two commands: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself." You would think that man being the intelligent creature we claim to be we'd be all over that. However we are no where near to carrying out these two commands. We reject God and try to usurp our authority over Him. We cheat each other and constantly look for ways to take advantage of each other. We are sinful and rotten to the core. Even on my best days I fall well short of the mark. So my fresh page would be a page that has "Jesus" written all over it. Prompt: "I read a comic strip cartoon about New Year's Diet Resolutions lasting 3 days and exercise ones lasting a week. My question to you is what the shortest and the longest resolution you've made. Did you see this as a failure or just another social norm? How do you think you can overcome the hurdles of resolution failure?"I try not to make resolutions and if I do make resolutions I try to make them realistic and achievable. I made a resolution one year that I was going to write a book. I made no resolution about publishing, just writing because I knew that publishing would be unrealistic. I managed to do both that year. The worst resolution I ever made was moving to another state to get married to somebody I met online. I saw an old Facebook memory of this resolution recently. She must of been very important to me because I absolutely do not remember who she even was! If I was going to marry her you'd think I would remember it. So... Resolutions are made to be broken. Just try to be realistic and set goals that are attainable.    |
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