Giving thanks....

As yet another winter storm looms just to our west, I was struggling this morning to feel thankful.  There are some very important events coming up in the next couple of days, a funeral for my cousin with extended family arriving from distant places and my daughter's long awaited quick weekend visit, and the weather threatens to disrupt the plans.  But in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, we are admonished to

"...give thanks in all things, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."  (NIV)

It is easy to be thankful when things are going well, to tell God we are glad for all the blessings we have been given.  It is harder when times are tough - death, divorce, serious illness, job loss, homelessness - to find a reason to be grateful.

Almost persuaded...

Almost won.  Almost made it.  Almost finished.  Almost well. Almost there.

The word almost represents that which is tantalizingly close, but not quite in reach.  When you are almost, there is still that very real chance that it will fall through, you won't make it, you won't reach the finish line and realize your goal.

Promises, promises....

It is very easy, when taking a single verse or a portion of a verse from the Bible, to use it out of context and make it seem as though it means something totally different than the original intent.  While justifying your own opinions by cherry picking words, it is very easy to lose the message in its totality, thereby shortchanging yourself from the fullness of God's word.

What Jesus DID Do....

There is a rather strange catch phrase in popular Christian culture, WWJD, which, for anyone who is unaware, stands for What Would Jesus Do.  Many Christians, especially younger people, seem to use this as a guiding principal for their lives, which I find a bit disconcerting.  While, on the surface, this may seem to be a good source of direction, if you look a little deeper, I fear it is a little too wide open for personal interpretation, and ultimately, unnecessary, because we actually already know what Jesus would do.  Why are we guessing, based on our own biased interpretation of what we think he might do in a given situation, when we can simply open the Bible and find out exactly what he did?