Skip to main content

A Morning View By the Wood Stove

I really struggle with what I see and experience in our world today.
I say this and am really not sure it is the world as much as it is our country. 
I guess it is not so much our country, but with those who proclaim and profess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. I realize in my setting I am making blanket statements, so this is not intended as an attack on anyone, but as a thought provoking moment for everyone. 

My heart has been impressed with proclaiming what it means to be a Christian. I grew up with a checklist and if I did not check the proper blanks, I was not a good Christian. I have found out that living that way is full of a bunch of lies and a dangerous understanding of perceived salvation. I believed that there was no way God could ever forgive me for what I have done and who I have been. Again a dangerous lie. I see and read comments people make about issues, government, religion and their faith in Jesus Christ and I cross reference what is said with how Jesus lived and I often see two different ways of living. I see people projecting their own image and likeness on who Jesus is and not allowing themselves to live into the image and likeness of Jesus projected into who they are. 

I have been through a lot lately. I woke up today thinking of the following scripture. “This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” - John 15:12-13 NLT 

I wonder what friend would lay down their life for me? I also wonder what friend would I lay down my life for? 

Bottom line is that we put too much emphasis on the things of this world and we are missing out on building our future and the future of all we encounter with our Jesus. Jesus lived, Jesus loved, Jesus challenged and rebuked, but Jesus offered grace and redemption. Jesus loves me more than I can ever deserve. I so badly desire to be like Jesus.

By the way, did I mention that Jesus laid down his life for his friends? It just happens to include the whole world, even me. 

So, Christian, are you ready to die for your friend? It may be easy to love them...... 

Peace,
PB


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Morning View By the Wood Stove

If you proclaim Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then I must ask you a question. Are you seeking the deepest possible intimate relationship with God that you can ever experience on this earth? Because I know what I am about to say to be absolutely true. If you are not and if you are pursuing anything other than God you will not ever be satisfied and ultimately any other relationship will fail. It does not matter how deeply connected with another person you are without God it will fail. Failure may not mean completely walk away, failure can mean that a relationship will not be what it is intended to be and you settle for it because at least it is there, it's the best I can do, it could be worse and for many other reasons.  We are created to be in relationship with one another. We have many relationships and many depths within those relationships. We have social relationships. We have relationship with many forms of addiction and substitution. We have friends and we have FRIENDS...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Morning View Near the Patio

I believe Christians are called to live a different life in the world than those who are not Christian. I believe that no matter the circumstance of the world, the government and all the just and injustice we are called to be different. Jesus handled the Easter journey much differently than I believe the modern Christian in the USA would have handled it. The Apostle Paul lived as best he humanly could to model the path and life of Jesus Christ during the difficult times of persecution and injustice of his journey. A lot of thoughts are swirling in my head during our difficult time we are currently experiencing and all of those thoughts come back to my life as a Christian, believer and follower of Jesus Christ, and do my thoughts, actions and words model Jesus on the Easter journey to the cross? In Matthew 16:24-26 Jesus told his disciples to "take up their cross and follow me!" I am believing that Jesus is telling us to live like, act like, be like and love like Jesus did....
Post a Comment
Read more

A Morning View Near the Patio

Sabbath - to rest from labor, set aside as holy. Because we have less to do in our current situation, perhaps as Christians we can redefine what Sabbath looks like for us. I wonder how many of us traditionally go to church in our weekend routine, have lunch then get right back at it? After all, we have so much to do and so little time. It has been nice to sit and be. On the nicer days, when the weather cooperates, it has been so nice to sit on the patio and just be. I have sat and contemplated there more this year than I did all last summer. Perhaps a new normal of Sabbath can take place in our lives. As a child I remember going to church on Sunday morning and on the way home being dropped off at Grandma and Granddad's place. We would have lunch and quite often go for a ride. Usually the ride would end somewhere with ice cream! The routes must have been develops around the ice cream establishments in Northeast Ohio! We did very little, but for me as a kid we did a lot. I remember...
Post a Comment
Read more