Strife in our World

 As I write this today, our country is facing some of the worst times.  There is rioting going on in the nation’s capitol - and a woman was killed in the capitol building.  Why do people turn to violence when they feel angry?  I have seen it over and over this year.  Our hate has boiled over.  

The answer is simple.  We are people.  We have a sin nature.  Read the Old Testament of the Bible.  God placed so much hope in his chosen people, the nation of Israel.  He gave them strict rules to follow and a means to atone for their sins.  As long as they stayed obedient to the Law, God would bless the people abundantly.  However, if the people turned away and started following after idols and other gods, God would allow calamity to fall upon the nation.  Read some of the horrible things the people did.  Fathers gave their daughters to be raped.  Men murdered other men to take their wives.  There are more stories like this in the Bible.  Some of it truly makes my stomach turn.  

This is the sin nature of all people.  The chosen people of Israel knew the laws of God and knew of his goodness and his justice.  If they could fall so low, it stands to reason, so can we.  We do this when we forget who our savior is.  We do this when we forget to pray.  We do this when we stop reading the Bible and thinking about the things of God.  

So, what is the solution?  We turn to Jesus.  We stop what we are doing and we pray.  We pray for our sins and beg for God’s forgiveness.  We ask Jesus to stand in our place and take our sins.  We ask for Jesus to take his place in our lives.  

“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” ~John‬ ‭1:4-5‬ ‭(NIV)

‬‬Won’t you let Jesus be the light in this dark world? The more of us to become like Jesus, the better people we can be.  

Practice love.  Be kind.  Change the world.  Jesus did.  

2021 - Time to Write Again?

 It's 2021.  I haven't written a blog post since 2015.  

Why?  Multiple factors led to my desire to walk away from the page.  Let's just say life got in the way, and I never returned.  It would seem 2021 would be a good time to revisit this.  

In 2015, I went through a divorce and this really shattered my world as I knew it.  I had to learn to be independent and to enjoy it.  I am happy to say that I did learn many lessons that year, and wound up becoming friends with a great man who would later become my husband.  We learned to appreciate each other's gifts and talents, and he is now working in ministry and writes books.  Maybe I didn't think we both needed to be writers, so I stepped back.  

I'm ready to write again, but I am lost as to what to write.  I had started a post about a Netflix series, Cobra Kai, but the material wound up so cheesy I deleted it.  Of course, anything about that series would seem a bit cheesy, given the source material, but I will reserve my judgement, in case there are some fans of Johnny Lawrence or Daniel LaRusso.  

So, I just am starting by writing down thoughts and thinking about how life today can line up with Jesus.  That's really the message I want to learn and then convey.  So much of my time is spent just thinking of my own things, and not thinking about heavenly things. I do hope that I can find my way back to thinking of Jesus and learning to see the world through His lens.  

Jesus asked an expert of the Old Law what a man must to do to inherit eternal life.  The man was asking Jesus, but Jesus just turned the question back to the man who did know the answer.

"He answered, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" ~Luke 10:27

The way is simple in theory.  Love God.  Love People.  This is not so easy to do in life.  It is way more difficult to love people and show mercy when a person deserves punishment, but that is exactly what Jesus taught.  He showed us all mercy in that He died in our place when we deserved to die for our sins.  We must in turn show that kind of mercy to others.  

Read more about Jesus's definition of mercy in Luke 10:25-37.