Thoughts for February 17, 2014

I have been reading the Bible most days and today I am up to date for 2/17/2014. But, journaling and documenting my thoughts has not been a priority. I seem to be busy with things such as a sore foot, the MCYM banquet, a trip to Williamsburg and the State of Kansas not liking my 2012 tax return. Also, we are trying to get ready for a Young Life Fund raiser 3/15/2014. It would be good to raise about $50,000 for the upcoming year. If any of you want to help, I would be very grateful. Still, what is most important in life. What is the purpose and reason for life, for your life and my life? It is very hard to believe this beautiful place just happened by accident. How could anything so majestic and magnificent be created out of nothing by nobody? There just has to be a very big and powerful God. I can find no other cause. Nothing else makes any sense. So, if there is a God, there must be a how and a why! How many things do you do that just seem to happen without any thought? Do plans make things work better? Can you get an expected result without having an expectation? Whenever I watch a sporting event, I pick a side or player to root for. There have been lots of events in Sochi this week. The Olympic games are so great. I marvel at the dedication of these athletes. When you get sick or have a sprain or broken bone or get a sunburn what kind of actions do you take? Do you try to get healing or relief or both? Or, do you just enjoy the misery and the pain? I’ve spent the last eight months trying find a reason and cure for my sore foot. It is relentless. I want desperately to be well. That must be why God spend so much time explaining to the Israelites how to take care of sin. He describes preventive cures, cures for intentional sin and cures for accidental sin. The processes are complex and elaborate. Perhaps human beings don’t function well if they don’t use the design parameters for operating in this world? And, it appears that taking no action and hiding the mistakes are a bad idea. God spends an inordinate amount of time and words presenting His position on these destructive activities. Under the old covenant there was no way to remove our sins. But, it does seem that in order to grow and be stronger better people it was necessary to admit sin and make atonement for the actions. If we try to hide it or hold it in, we will perish. Under the new covenant the sins are some how mysteriously removed by the sacrifice of the perfect lamb of God. Jesus paid our penalty so that we could return to being acceptable to God. God loved us but could not accept us because we were defiled. So God in His Word has explained how we are to act. We are to try to act justly, and love mercy and walk humbly with our God. To do this we need to admit and reveal who we are and not hide anything from God. So how do we do the first and most important command. Love the Lord your God with all of you. Don’t hold back anything. Jesus told us to do this to our neighbors. By loving and caring for our neighbors we show and declare our love for God. It is impossible to love our neighbors if we don’t know our neighbors. And, to do that we must have a deep and intimate relationship. We need to know all their faults and gifts and they need to know ours. Let go, let loose, be a complete friend. No show, all real. We must confess and be humble. We must accept our neighbor, faults and all. Thank you Lord for this wisdom and guidance.