I have a great deal of admiration for Mary, the mother of our Lord. I do not pray to her, or through her, or any such thing. That is idolatry. But I admire her like I admire Sarah or Elizabeth or Abigail. One of the striking things about Mary is her courageous loyalty. Consider her famous response to the angel Gabriel: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38).
Mary’s first allegiance is to the Lord. She submits to the angel’s message, calling herself the Lord’s handmaid. And this is no minor thing. She has been greeted in a startling way with startling news. And no sooner has the angel departed than she “arose” and went “with haste” to her cousin Elizabeth. She obeys quickly, loyal to God and to His messenger. She is teachable, responsive to God’s leading, loyal to His command.
Later she is loyal to her husband Joseph who is himself a loyal man, faithful and responsive to God. He is “raised from sleep” and “did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife” Continue reading ‘Mary’s Loyalty’
Here is a verse in Proverbs (4:18) to give the elderly a hopeful outlook:
“But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.” The elderly may feel their age very acutely; their strength and life may seem dimmer each day. But the truth is their path is shining brighter with the passing of each day. Sounds a bit like 2 Corinthians 4:16: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.”
God turns things upside down. The body starts wearing down, but the spirit of the Christian grows newer and newer, the path ahead brighter than ever. The eye of faith sees the unseen and has hope.
On the flip side: “The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.” (Prov. 4:19)
We all think that giving offense is a bad thing, right? Well, not always. It depends. You may give offense unknowingly just by walking into a room, and that is not (usually, anyway) culpable. But we seldom realize that taking offense can be a sin we really do need to confess. We usually assume that if we are offended, that is the moral high ground, and whatever caused it must be a sin. But that is not true.
Jesus offended the Jews like crazy, and of course He was not guilty of any sin. They were the guilty ones, guilty for taking offense at the Messiah, for having their pride wounded, for being angry that their toes were stepped on. They stumbled over the stone which was Continue reading ‘Taking Offense’
One of the causes of discontent comes from listening to and telling bad stories. We get this steady dialogue going in our heads that is nothing but nonsense, and unfortunately, we sometimes believe it. It could be a long song-and-dance about how hard our job is, how we are overworked and under-appreciated, or how lazy everyone else is. It could be a sob story about how we have no friends or what a miserable childhood we had. The plot lines are endless, but they all have a monotonous dreariness that would never make the best seller list if they were actually put into print. When we listen to this idle chatter all day long, day after day, little wonder that it warps our perspective and hardens our hearts.
Anxiety comes from telling ourselves scary stories. What if I never get married? What if I get married to the wrong guy and then we are miserable? What if my car skids across the Continue reading ‘Bad Stories’
Our Christian faith and the Christian principles which proceed from that faith are to be lived out in our relationships. We are to love God and love our neighbor. The one must precede the other. If we love God, we are equipped to love our neighbor, and our family members are our nearest neighbors. So our piety must begin at home. It is sometimes easier to love those people with whom we have little contact. We can wave quite cheerfully out the car window at our grumpy neighbor. But loving our child or husband or parent who is grumpy is another matter.
1 Timothy 5:4 tells us that if anyone has a mother or grandmother who is a widow, they should “first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents; for this is good and acceptable before God.” We often look for “ministry” that is far away, across the world, or helping people we do not know. And, of course, there is a place for such ministry in the church. But this passage tells us that we ought to keep our priorities straight. Before we start trying to export our piety, we had better have a goodly stock of it in our own homes. Show your piety at home. How? By taking care of your aging mother or grandmother. Continue reading ‘Piety at Home’
I’ve been thinking lately about the relationship of law and grace. Now when I say that, I do not mean I have been reading heady theological tomes. ‘Fraid not. But I have been thinking, and this is what occurred to me.
My husband often emphasizes that law exists within the larger context of grace. In other words, acres and acres of grace, and one tree of law. Thus, the Garden of Eden: lots of trees with good fruit to eat, and only one tree off limits. We often get this the wrong way around: we think of the relationship of law and grace as a forest of forbidden trees, with one permissible tree in the midst. Are you with me so far?
So when Adam and Eve were in the Garden, it was a place of grace. Grace, grace, grace on every side until the fateful day that they disobeyed God. Then it became all law, law, law for them.
I was thinking about a place like Logos School. For most of the kids it is a place of grace. They thrive like crazy. But for the kid who does not want to tuck in his shirt (for just one example), it becomes a place of law, law, law. If he would just tuck his shirt in, he would experience the grace. But as long as he insists on not tucking it in, it seems like everyone is just out to get him! Funny how our attitude and obedience affect our understanding of the surrounding context.
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