Category: believe

Repent and Believe the Gospel Again

This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience—it looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive: it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance.
(1 Corinthians 13:4 J.B. Phillips)
 
 
 
Shake off your routines like bedcovers

Plant your feet on the ground
for the journey

Clear your eyes of sleep

Take in the sight of a new day
for loving your God

(Rachel G. Hackenberg)

 

I like my routines.  I get up every morning.  I brew a cup of coffee to sip and warm my hands, while I read my devotions. Then I find my pen and write in my journal.

In my journal, I start out with recording the day, the date, the time and the place.  I make some observation about how I feel or record something from the day before that stood out as important.  

And for Lent, I am writing love letters to God, which as I’ve said isn’t as easy as it sounds.


Last week as Lent began I received the ashes on my forehead. The words spoken that day jolted me.

 

And this week, the words, “Repent and believe the gospel,” continue to confront me.

 

I was expecting “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” and instead I was startled by the word, “Repent!” 

And the charge to “Believe the gospel,” initiated a spiritual crisis. Do I really believe the gospel? What does it mean to believe the gospel? Or more accurately, what would my life look like if I took God at His word that I am redeemed and forgiven?

Maybe I wouldn’t reach for the TV remote as often. Maybe I wouldn’t doubt God’s love. Maybe I would be more gracious towards those who disappoint me. Maybe I could stop being so angry. (I made the rash decision to give up anger for Lent. It’s not going so well. I need to get rid of it, but that’s my dilemma, I tend to hoard anger.)
 
Maybe, just, maybe I would get out of bed and greet each new day with joy because Jesus lives and loves!
 
Linking up with:
 
 

 


Posted on by kelrohlf 6

Unseen

Advent{ures}: Let’s Go to Bethlehem

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29 ESV)


On this evening we remember our dear Savior’s birth. With candlelight, carols and children’s pageants, we turn our hearts back in time to a dark night in the little town of Bethlehem.

Tonight, in the simple sanctuary, we sang carols, repeated the sounding joy and read the Nicene creed together after watching the children playing angels, shepherds and the holy family as encounted by an Irish girl named Brigid.

Many centuries after Christ’s birth,Brigid was a shepherdess, so legend claims, who had a vision of herself in Bethlehem. She was working for the famed innkeeper who had no room. She offered her tattered blue cloak to comfort the shivering mother and child. When she awakens her cloak has been transformed into a new cloak, deep blue decorated with a myriad of golden stars.

A simple fable, but a moving story of a young girl who longs to be a part of the story, the pageantry of the nativity.

The opening lines of the Nicene creed moved me to tears tonight:

“We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen…”

The unseen beckons. I try to imagine what I have never known. I want to see what human eyes cannot. I long to hear the voices of a thousand angels. I desire a heart that perceives the deeper truths of grace and mercy in fresh ways.

If the unseen God sees me, I am ruined. Yet He does see me, and He loves me still.

And like the child Brigid, I thank God for keeping me safe from the wolves of this world. And like humble Mary and faithful Joseph, I wait for the unseen One to burst into my life. And I will ponder and treasure this wonderment that God, the maker of all, made his way into our world wrapped up in the form of a human baby.

May the last two verses of the familiar anthem of the little town, be our lullaby tonight:

Where children pure and happy pray to the blessèd Child,
Where misery cries out to Thee, Son of the mother mild;
Where charity stands watching and faith holds wide the door,
The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more.

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!

(O Little Town of Bethlehem! words by Phillip Brooks)

Posted on by kelrohlf 4

Look: To Direct One’s Attention

Then he said to Thomas , “Put your finger here; see my hands.
Reach out your hand and put it into my side.
Stop doubting and believe.”
 
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
 
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
John 20:27-28 NIV
 
 
Today’s Five Minute Friday prompt: LOOK
 
(This is where you write for five minutes,
no editing, just write and see what spills out.)
 
Here’s my offering:



Look at me. I have freckles. A diploma on my wall. A blog on the internet. I have a husband and two sons. I want you to notice how accomplished I have become. I am short. I have brown hair. I wear glasses.

Look at me, ma…no hands…I road my bike to have coffee with friends. I bought groceries and carried them home on the same bike. Aren’t you proud of me?

Don’t look at me! I am wart. I am slug. I am abscessed wound. I stink. I drop the ball. I am picked last. I didn’t comb my hair. My shirt and pants don’t match. I lie. I cheat. I pretend. I act out in anger. I scream. I curse. I want to punch someone in the face. I am ugly.

Look at Jesus.
 
I don’t know what he looked like, his physical body marred, bloody, sweaty, dripping with life. He walked dusty roads. He climbed a hill with a tree on his back. He looked upon his mother and John. He groaned. He breathed. He gasped. He died. Buried in a cave with a stone door. Body found missing.
 
He appears. He eats. They believe. One doubts. Jesus returns. Look at me. Look at my hands. Touch my wounds. Put your hand in my side. Believe.

Linking up with:
 
Posted on by kelrohlf 12