1 AND now, I speak also concerning those who do not believe in Christ.
2 Behold, will ye believe in the day of your visitation—behold, when the Lord shall come, yea, even that great day when the earth shall be rolled together as a scroll, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, yea, in that great day when ye shall be brought to stand before the Lamb of God—then will ye say that there is no God?
3 Then will ye longer deny the Christ, or can ye behold the Lamb of God? Do ye suppose that ye shall dwell with him under a consciousness of your guilt? Do ye suppose that ye could be happy to dwell with that holy Being, when your souls are racked with a consciousness of guilt that ye have ever abused his laws?
4 Behold, I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness before him, than ye would to dwell with the damned souls in hell.
5 For behold, when ye shall be brought to see your nakedness before God, and also the glory of God, and the holiness of Jesus Christ, it will kindle a flame of unquenchable fire upon you.
6 O then ye unbelieving, turn ye unto the Lord; cry mightily unto the Father in the name of Jesus, that perhaps ye may be found spotless, pure, fair, and white, having been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, at that great and last day.
(Book of Mormon | Mormon 9:1 - 6)
I have been reading from the passages of the Book of Mormon that talk about the condition of our souls at the time when we will be brought before our Maker to give an accounting of ourselves during our mortal probation.
As mortal beings, we each suffer from what is a uniquely human event, namely, the ability to magnify the sins and shortcomings of the other fellow while turning our own peccadilloes into minute specks of dust not worthy of attention.
Some of us have a harder time with this visual adjustment than others based upon the spiritual character of our own heart and soul.
Every time I have the opportunity to attend the temple, be it one of the "home" temples or one while I am traveling, I am struck deeply at the privilege it is to be allowed to enter into God's Holy House at all.
Being an imperfect person who struggles on a seemingly hourly basis with the conditions of my own mortality, the idea that I have qualified myself by the choices I have made to walk through those doors is staggering. For I know that it is not by my own skill set alone that I am allowed through for this opportunity to be in the presence of the Divine. Without the redeeming blood of Him who suffered in my behalf in ways I cannot comprehend, there would be no admittance at all. Trying diligently to avoid the trap of self-delusion, my reflection in the mirror each day is a barometer of personal progress.
Am I able to look myself in the eyes or do I avoid my own gaze in a hang-dog guilty fashion, ashamed of what I know lies behind the blueish green of my eyes?
Is there some shadow of feeling that lurks nearby speaking softly to my heart decrying my guilt and remorse for all those ways in which I have failed to follow Christ, or have I deftly silenced that consciousness under a blanket of quiet desperation and delusion?
To answer that question, I reflect on a different Book of Mormon scripture:
16 Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard.
17 Nevertheless, notwithstanding the great goodness of the Lord, in showing me his great and marvelous works, my heart exclaimeth: O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities.
18 I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me.
19 And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted.
20 My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep.
21 He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh.
22 He hath confounded mine enemies, unto the causing of them to quake before me.
23 Behold, he hath heard my cry by day, and he hath given me knowledge by visions in the night–time.
24 And by day have I waxed bold in mighty prayer before him; yea, my voice have I sent up on high; and angels came down and ministered unto me.
25 And upon the wings of his Spirit hath my body been carried away upon exceedingly high mountains. And mine eyes have beheld great things, yea, even too great for man; therefore I was bidden that I should not write them.
26 O then, if I have seen so great things, if the Lord in his condescension unto the children of men hath visited men in so much mercy, why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow, and my flesh waste away, and my strength slacken, because of mine afflictions?
27 And why should I yield to sin, because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I angry because of mine enemy?
28 Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul.
29 Do not anger again because of mine enemies. Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions.
30 Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation.
31 O Lord, wilt thou redeem my soul? Wilt thou deliver me out of the hands of mine enemies? Wilt thou make me that I may shake at the appearance of sin?
32 May the gates of hell be shut continually before me, because that my heart is broken and my spirit is contrite! O Lord, wilt thou not shut the gates of thy righteousness before me, that I may walk in the path of the low valley, that I may be strict in the plain road!
33 O Lord, wilt thou encircle me around in the robe of thy righteousness! O Lord, wilt thou make a way for mine escape before mine enemies! Wilt thou make my path straight before me! Wilt thou not place a stumbling block in my way—but that thou wouldst clear my way before me, and hedge not up my way, but the ways of mine enemy.
34 O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.
35 Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I ask not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God. Amen.
(Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 4:16 - 35)
There is a hope for salvation beyond the ability I possess to save myself. Though my choices and my effort to rise above the common and do more than average does weigh into the equation, I need and I desire so much more than just to skid through to the back pew of the Kingdom of God. I need to be welcomed home by my Father in Heaven and His Son Jesus Christ.
The only way I know to do anything to prepare for that moment is to go to the House of the Lord bearing my imperfections and guilt and pray for them both to be swept away by Him who is Mighty to Save.
This is one activity that brings a sense of peace and contentment which cannot be matched by anything in the outside world. It is the opportunity to place my all at the very foot of the cross and approach the throne of God and importune Him for the opportunity to be more than saved... to be made ready to become exalted.
And there is a huge difference.
To be saved from the effects of sin and mortality is a huge blessing, but to have the opportunity to literally dwell in the very presence of God the Father and Jesus Christ requires more - it requires that I become like them. Not just close, for that is not enough.
I must become like them in my every action and deed. I must choose as they would choose because it is my deepest desire, not because I am guilty and afraid of what might come if I don't.
I must desire to do what is right under all circumstances because it is right and not count the cost.
In order to have all that the Father offers, I must want to receive it, for truly it is the mortal side of the equation that stumbles at the gift and not the hand of the Divine Giver.
A wise Bishop once told me that guilt can be a powerful motivator to do the right thing and that our memories of struggling to overcome our weaknesses can be a powerful tool to advance the needed changes in our personal life. Then, he said the most important part of all - to forgive OURSELVES for our sins and shortcomings is also part of the job.
Without the forgiveness of ourselves for those things which we have truly repented of and for, the process is incomplete - it is, in essence, holding the restoring mercy and love of the Atonement of Jesus Christ at arm's length from our own soul.
Having guilt about a past moment of regret over sin is good if we allow it to lead us to the Light. Wallowing in that guilt as a marinating moment that prevents movement toward a course correction is just a waste of our time.
It neither removes the guilt nor changes our heart. Instead, it can actually cause us to begin to justify our actions by use of a very myopic mortal scale. Our chains, much like Scrooge saw in his dreams, are very real. We begin with those things that are small and continue until the Devil has us bound in his chains and we fear there is no redemption for us. He wants us to believe that, because the Devil has no power over us that we do not yeild to him.
But Jesus Christ can break the chains FOR US. He already has done it! Now, the only thing standing between us and freedom is the recognition of what price His pure blood has paid for our sins and filth and accept His offer to make us whole.
I want to be free to accept the offer and return home.
The only way I know to make that possible is by returning frequently to the House of the Lord where the undiluted spirit of God can give me the insight I need to make it through the obstacle course of life and into the promised land of Eternity. Only there can I feel the worth of my soul in His sight. And only there can I remove myself from the earthly trappings that can seem so important and obscure my view of God.
Today I'm going to the temple...
January 6, 2010
December 31, 2009
It just makes me wonder...
By and large the media informs and gives us perspective on the world events and local color that shapes our daily life.
Sometimes, the people delivering the news become the news themselves. I don't know that I like that trend, where the person giving me THEIR slant on what happened drives off the road of objectivity and right into the town of Personal Opinion.
Everyone has an opinion and we will never see every issue the same way. It's part of the endearing quality of being human that makes the journey appealing.
But celebrity news or as I like to call it SENSATIONALIST PROSTITUTION...
Well, that is another realm entirely.
The 'news' about celebrities isn't news in the traditional sense. It is, to be precise, tattle tale material offered up to the salacious and greedy who seek to have a front row view of the rise and fall of someone who doesn't do business at Mae's Quick Mart and Charm School.
Celebrities are only famous because they are rich, do something that the rest of us can't or won't or have been arrested doing something that even they know is wrong, but from which they will seek public absolution because they are playing the 'famous' card.
They are people who burp, pass gas and have armpit stains on their clothing.
They wake up with morning breath or in many cases, morning AFTER breath.
They have crusty eyes, matted hair and a small wad of dried spit on the left corner of their mouth.
They have to go to the bathroom exactly the same way the rest of us do and have to call out to someone to bring them more toilet paper when they sit down and take care of business only to discover that the roll is empty.
They parallel park like baboons.
They cheat on the Times crossword because they only speak erudite words and clever phrases that are written for them.
Chances are, they have paid more for uplifts, updo's, redo's and dental whitening that we pay for our mortgage.
The fact is, they need a team of people to turn them out fabulously and we, the great unwashed, are left to our own devices each day. If we forget mascara on one eye, there isn't a specialist on hand to patch us up before we are seen again in public.
So, it just makes me wonder, why are we fascinated with THEM?
The burden of our daily lives would stagger a celebrity.
They don't have to juggle the appointment with the cable installer, the orthodontist and the vet which are all inexplicably at exactly the same time even though you distinctly remember making them for different days and times.
They seldom have to decide which pair of sweats has few enough holes to still be usable for the trip to the hardware store for a new doorstop after the dog chewed the other one off.
Celebrities don't have the burden of anonymity. To be absent while present and ignored though you are the only one in the store.
The problem is that they mixed up a pitcher of special Kool-Aid and we all took a big old whacking drink of it because they said to.
Now, we hang onto their lives as if they don't have smelly feet or eat the last of the lunch meat and put the empty bag back into the bin for you to find when you are running late and have no cash to spare for lunch out.
We gasp at their happenings as if their world of spin is true. It is nothing like finding a library book in a box of yard sale holdings and making the sickening discovery that it was NOT bought at the library sale that day, but that you had checked it out that day and just mixed it into the pile of 5 cent specials.
I doubt that they would gasp at owing $11.47 in overdue fines. Their accountant would be dispatched to 'deal with it' and a photo op would be arranged of the celebrity reading to children from a closed book that was upside down and backward.
Celebrity news is indeed a respite from our own boring lives, but a dose of perspective is in order.
While we goo and gah over the happenings in the tabloids, we forget that our own lives are awe inspiring from time to time.
Like the day we got the kids to church both on time and still fully dressed! Let's see Paris Hilton try that with 5 kids under the age of 12 and no help because hubby had to be there early for a priesthood meeting.
Or the time that the dinner was so good that everyone was actually sad that there wouldn't be any leftovers for lunch the next day.
Then there is the thrilling moment of finding money we didn't know we had! It's a perpetual feeling of cheer!
Celebrities can't feel these things because they have chose to focus everything in their lives through the brilliant view of themselves.
Even those with families are willing to throw them under the bus for time in the news, be it positive or negative.
We in the ranks of the underwhelmed are not able or willing to throw our loved ones under the bus because we need them and they need us. And frankly, even if we did do that, it would just come back to bite us in the butt because they wouldn't be wearing clean underwear and everyone knows what that means!
I guess the main reason I wonder about celebrity information is to gauge some personal behaviors. If I have remembered to take both my car keys and my undies when I leave the house, then my day will be reasonably successful.
If I have remembered the hugs and kisses which I love to give and most certainly owe to those who help me through life, then I will be missed when I am gone and joyously greeted upon my return but BOTH the family and our slavishly spitty canine who washes us down with her tongue.
We need to see that we are worthy of the front page - not because of our sins and omissions but because of our kindness and fun.
We should be featured in the paper because we remembered the cookies for the party and took them into the classroom in the nick of time.
There should be a tickertape parade because there is clean, fragrant laundry and a bubbling pot of beef stew waiting for tired, hungry and cold family members.
It makes me wonder where our priorities have been.
News and newsmakers should be more in harmony with the 'flyover' portions of America instead of the wacky people who inhabit the coasts of Hollyweird and Broadway.
Take time today to plan to do New Year's a little differently - try this one:
We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential. ~ Ellen Goodman ~
Happy New Year! And remember to wonder about the famous less and think about the every day moments of wonder a whole lot more...
Sometimes, the people delivering the news become the news themselves. I don't know that I like that trend, where the person giving me THEIR slant on what happened drives off the road of objectivity and right into the town of Personal Opinion.
Everyone has an opinion and we will never see every issue the same way. It's part of the endearing quality of being human that makes the journey appealing.
But celebrity news or as I like to call it SENSATIONALIST PROSTITUTION...
Well, that is another realm entirely.
The 'news' about celebrities isn't news in the traditional sense. It is, to be precise, tattle tale material offered up to the salacious and greedy who seek to have a front row view of the rise and fall of someone who doesn't do business at Mae's Quick Mart and Charm School.
Celebrities are only famous because they are rich, do something that the rest of us can't or won't or have been arrested doing something that even they know is wrong, but from which they will seek public absolution because they are playing the 'famous' card.
They are people who burp, pass gas and have armpit stains on their clothing.
They wake up with morning breath or in many cases, morning AFTER breath.
They have crusty eyes, matted hair and a small wad of dried spit on the left corner of their mouth.
They have to go to the bathroom exactly the same way the rest of us do and have to call out to someone to bring them more toilet paper when they sit down and take care of business only to discover that the roll is empty.
They parallel park like baboons.
They cheat on the Times crossword because they only speak erudite words and clever phrases that are written for them.
Chances are, they have paid more for uplifts, updo's, redo's and dental whitening that we pay for our mortgage.
The fact is, they need a team of people to turn them out fabulously and we, the great unwashed, are left to our own devices each day. If we forget mascara on one eye, there isn't a specialist on hand to patch us up before we are seen again in public.
So, it just makes me wonder, why are we fascinated with THEM?
The burden of our daily lives would stagger a celebrity.
They don't have to juggle the appointment with the cable installer, the orthodontist and the vet which are all inexplicably at exactly the same time even though you distinctly remember making them for different days and times.
They seldom have to decide which pair of sweats has few enough holes to still be usable for the trip to the hardware store for a new doorstop after the dog chewed the other one off.
Celebrities don't have the burden of anonymity. To be absent while present and ignored though you are the only one in the store.
The problem is that they mixed up a pitcher of special Kool-Aid and we all took a big old whacking drink of it because they said to.
Now, we hang onto their lives as if they don't have smelly feet or eat the last of the lunch meat and put the empty bag back into the bin for you to find when you are running late and have no cash to spare for lunch out.
We gasp at their happenings as if their world of spin is true. It is nothing like finding a library book in a box of yard sale holdings and making the sickening discovery that it was NOT bought at the library sale that day, but that you had checked it out that day and just mixed it into the pile of 5 cent specials.
I doubt that they would gasp at owing $11.47 in overdue fines. Their accountant would be dispatched to 'deal with it' and a photo op would be arranged of the celebrity reading to children from a closed book that was upside down and backward.
Celebrity news is indeed a respite from our own boring lives, but a dose of perspective is in order.
While we goo and gah over the happenings in the tabloids, we forget that our own lives are awe inspiring from time to time.
Like the day we got the kids to church both on time and still fully dressed! Let's see Paris Hilton try that with 5 kids under the age of 12 and no help because hubby had to be there early for a priesthood meeting.
Or the time that the dinner was so good that everyone was actually sad that there wouldn't be any leftovers for lunch the next day.
Then there is the thrilling moment of finding money we didn't know we had! It's a perpetual feeling of cheer!
Celebrities can't feel these things because they have chose to focus everything in their lives through the brilliant view of themselves.
Even those with families are willing to throw them under the bus for time in the news, be it positive or negative.
We in the ranks of the underwhelmed are not able or willing to throw our loved ones under the bus because we need them and they need us. And frankly, even if we did do that, it would just come back to bite us in the butt because they wouldn't be wearing clean underwear and everyone knows what that means!
I guess the main reason I wonder about celebrity information is to gauge some personal behaviors. If I have remembered to take both my car keys and my undies when I leave the house, then my day will be reasonably successful.
If I have remembered the hugs and kisses which I love to give and most certainly owe to those who help me through life, then I will be missed when I am gone and joyously greeted upon my return but BOTH the family and our slavishly spitty canine who washes us down with her tongue.
We need to see that we are worthy of the front page - not because of our sins and omissions but because of our kindness and fun.
We should be featured in the paper because we remembered the cookies for the party and took them into the classroom in the nick of time.
There should be a tickertape parade because there is clean, fragrant laundry and a bubbling pot of beef stew waiting for tired, hungry and cold family members.
It makes me wonder where our priorities have been.
News and newsmakers should be more in harmony with the 'flyover' portions of America instead of the wacky people who inhabit the coasts of Hollyweird and Broadway.
Take time today to plan to do New Year's a little differently - try this one:
We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential. ~ Ellen Goodman ~
Happy New Year! And remember to wonder about the famous less and think about the every day moments of wonder a whole lot more...
December 29, 2009
Unequal measures
Sucks lemons doesn't begin to cover it.
How can I toil on the treadmill and exercise bike, lift weights and do ab exercises and still weigh the same as my deep freeze?
There is some perverted math going on here where every molecule of food ingested equals the equivalent caloric count required to launch the space shuttle - I'm sure of it - I just can't prove it to people who don't have to sweat off any pounds or struggle with body image issues while hoping that a piece of celery makes up for something somewhere at some time.
Underneath my flab, my abs are tight. Of this I am convinced. But the Michelin inner tube surrounding my gut looking oh so much like a deployed airbag is hiding my fabulous physique.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Oh, shut up! Your laughter is unbecoming!
The reality is that work, by the very nature of it, is indeed a FOUR LETTER WORD! Yes, I find joy in the work that keeps me one step from the operating table for a triple bypass... the fact that I am not dead is a good thing, right?
But the time factor is the struggle for me.
Those scientists who are trying to make green beans that glow in the dark would be better served to figure out how to take the essence of who we have become and go back in time to pick up the bodies we left behind that still functioned at optimal speed and health.
We waste millions to research ways to kill roaches (HELLOOOOOO - we will ALWAYS have them!) and the money could be much better applied in real time experimentation in how to wide-beam our flab into deep space.
SPLAT! Take that alien hoards!
Can you imagine the lack of interest if they thought our only export was flab? How less likely they would be to desire our planet... unless they have some sci-fi special effects way to put it into a renewable resource to power the world!
Then we who carry a few (thousand) more pounds than we need would be in demand for our resources! We could band together in coops and bargain away our precious resources to 'help all mankind'!
But I digress.
After I ride the bike, I truly feel like everyone needs to lay down and take a nap. However, I have been told that this maneuver is actually counterproductive. Fun suckers!
Over the past few days with holiday and Holy Day food choices upon me, I confess to not having made many very wise decisions. No one shoved that spoonful of dressing and gravy INTO my mouth, but by the same token, I wasn't exactly shoving it AWAY from me either.
So now the work phase begins and the under construction signs come out to announce to me and the world that the soul's temple is taking in serious renovations and reconstruction.
No knives will be employed, but instead, sweat pants, tennis shoes, running shorts (although running is out of the question now with the damage my ankle has endured), and a new pair of those cushion footed sox that have the colored heels and toes. Call it a weakness...
With the advent of the school semester, I'll have more training time out of doors since Jared will be safely in the care of his wonderful classroom teachers and aides. So that means my days will return to outdoor assassination schedules with the resident furbag. She will be so happy.
I hope I will be. She has missed our outdoor exertions and getting her onto the treadmill lately has been an exercise in futility and sweat as we wrestle for time and position.
Does futile sweat count in the weight loss process? Again, I digress...
In a way, I'm looking forward to it, because it means that I am working toward a goal that I CAN achieve. In another way, I am not looking forward to it because I know it means that once again, I am starting from ground zero after having rehabbed my ankle from the latest battleground casualty.
If anyone can figure out the exact equation to apply to the process so that results come faster, please let me know. In the meantime, I'll be the sweaty gal in the mismatched exercise clothing trying to find the fountain of youth for a drink.
How can I toil on the treadmill and exercise bike, lift weights and do ab exercises and still weigh the same as my deep freeze?
There is some perverted math going on here where every molecule of food ingested equals the equivalent caloric count required to launch the space shuttle - I'm sure of it - I just can't prove it to people who don't have to sweat off any pounds or struggle with body image issues while hoping that a piece of celery makes up for something somewhere at some time.
Underneath my flab, my abs are tight. Of this I am convinced. But the Michelin inner tube surrounding my gut looking oh so much like a deployed airbag is hiding my fabulous physique.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Oh, shut up! Your laughter is unbecoming!
The reality is that work, by the very nature of it, is indeed a FOUR LETTER WORD! Yes, I find joy in the work that keeps me one step from the operating table for a triple bypass... the fact that I am not dead is a good thing, right?
But the time factor is the struggle for me.
Those scientists who are trying to make green beans that glow in the dark would be better served to figure out how to take the essence of who we have become and go back in time to pick up the bodies we left behind that still functioned at optimal speed and health.
We waste millions to research ways to kill roaches (HELLOOOOOO - we will ALWAYS have them!) and the money could be much better applied in real time experimentation in how to wide-beam our flab into deep space.
SPLAT! Take that alien hoards!
Can you imagine the lack of interest if they thought our only export was flab? How less likely they would be to desire our planet... unless they have some sci-fi special effects way to put it into a renewable resource to power the world!
Then we who carry a few (thousand) more pounds than we need would be in demand for our resources! We could band together in coops and bargain away our precious resources to 'help all mankind'!
But I digress.
After I ride the bike, I truly feel like everyone needs to lay down and take a nap. However, I have been told that this maneuver is actually counterproductive. Fun suckers!
Over the past few days with holiday and Holy Day food choices upon me, I confess to not having made many very wise decisions. No one shoved that spoonful of dressing and gravy INTO my mouth, but by the same token, I wasn't exactly shoving it AWAY from me either.
So now the work phase begins and the under construction signs come out to announce to me and the world that the soul's temple is taking in serious renovations and reconstruction.
No knives will be employed, but instead, sweat pants, tennis shoes, running shorts (although running is out of the question now with the damage my ankle has endured), and a new pair of those cushion footed sox that have the colored heels and toes. Call it a weakness...
With the advent of the school semester, I'll have more training time out of doors since Jared will be safely in the care of his wonderful classroom teachers and aides. So that means my days will return to outdoor assassination schedules with the resident furbag. She will be so happy.
I hope I will be. She has missed our outdoor exertions and getting her onto the treadmill lately has been an exercise in futility and sweat as we wrestle for time and position.
Does futile sweat count in the weight loss process? Again, I digress...
In a way, I'm looking forward to it, because it means that I am working toward a goal that I CAN achieve. In another way, I am not looking forward to it because I know it means that once again, I am starting from ground zero after having rehabbed my ankle from the latest battleground casualty.
If anyone can figure out the exact equation to apply to the process so that results come faster, please let me know. In the meantime, I'll be the sweaty gal in the mismatched exercise clothing trying to find the fountain of youth for a drink.
December 24, 2009
Pinecones and Holly Berries... Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh
Christmas has become a secular holiday instead of a religious and deeply felt HOLY DAY.
And the fault lies within ourselves.
We are seduced by the twinkling of lights and sparkling of metallic papers and our gaze has dropped to things terrestrial instead of finding the wonder of the Christ in that star so bright that heralded His Birth.
The shepherds received a startling message. They, among some of the most humble professions on the planet, sat out in the dark and watched over the helpless sheep with their very lives. How fitting that they were the recipients of the most powerful revealed truth which came to the world that night!
The good news - the gospel - the angelic messenger brought an announcement that has rippled through time and will continue to spread forever - Jesus Christ is come to the earth!
They dropped what they were doing, important as it was, and came with all due haste to the humble manger - a place of animal habitation where the lowly and the Almighty met in the most meager of circumstance. There, before their very eyes was Salvation come!
We do not know the rest of their story, as each shepherd took and spread that news. They published it abroad in the land, but we have no idea if others of their lowly station came also to see THEIR King. I hope so.
We know that angel choirs sang exulting the joy and happiness of the birth of the Messiah, who would be born in a manger, but grow to The Son of Man who would pay the terrible but necessary price in His precious blood for us to all be redeemed, if we will but choose to follow Him.
Later, Wise Men came from the East to bring the gifts that are synonymous with wealth - gold, frankincense and myrrh. They traveled far with the brilliant star to guide them to the place where the young child now lived. No journey from so far and so possibly frought with peril would happen in a short time. These Wise Men traveled from distant lands to seek audience and consultation with another king of mortal fame.
Being warned by the Holy Spirit that evil was in this mortal man so steeped in sin, the Wise Men did not return to him after presenting their life-saving gifts to the King of Kings. Instead, they returned to their own countries in other ways leaving the ruler of a tiny kingdom to fail in his misguided attempt to assasinate the Son of God.
Our celebrations of the birth of the Savior are a good beginning. But without the rest of His life and His selfless Atonement performed for each of us out of Love Divine, all we have is a baby being born in a rude stable on a crowded highway during the Roman Census.
How much of what we celebrate is man-made joy and how much comes from God above? Is my own heart filled with gratitude for all that I have been granted or am I merely content to take it all and hold out my greedy hands for more?
Would I have been as willing to leave my own personal flocks and come into the city at the invitation of the angelic messenger? Do I hear him even now as he beckons me to drop the world in favor of the Kingdom of the Most High? Or is the bleating noise of the world, the glitter of a falling kingdom and the false promises of that which cannot save grating in my ears preventing me from hearing about the Good News that even now can save, redeem and exalt?
Would I be wise enough to travel any distance and perform any service necessary to make myself able to give my gifts - indeed, my ALL - at the feet of Him who has come to save me, if only I will come unto him with the gifts He seeks the most: a broken heart and a contrite spirit?
I hope and pray that this time around, my ears will be far more in tune, that my heart may be more tender and that my soul will be attuned to those angelic strains that still reach out to each of us to bring us from the manger to the foot of the cross and to the very Throne of God.
Merry CHRISTmas. For without Christ and His continuing ministry to rescue the lost and wayward sheep of HIS fold, there is nothing to be merry about at all.
And the fault lies within ourselves.
We are seduced by the twinkling of lights and sparkling of metallic papers and our gaze has dropped to things terrestrial instead of finding the wonder of the Christ in that star so bright that heralded His Birth.
The shepherds received a startling message. They, among some of the most humble professions on the planet, sat out in the dark and watched over the helpless sheep with their very lives. How fitting that they were the recipients of the most powerful revealed truth which came to the world that night!
The good news - the gospel - the angelic messenger brought an announcement that has rippled through time and will continue to spread forever - Jesus Christ is come to the earth!
They dropped what they were doing, important as it was, and came with all due haste to the humble manger - a place of animal habitation where the lowly and the Almighty met in the most meager of circumstance. There, before their very eyes was Salvation come!
We do not know the rest of their story, as each shepherd took and spread that news. They published it abroad in the land, but we have no idea if others of their lowly station came also to see THEIR King. I hope so.
We know that angel choirs sang exulting the joy and happiness of the birth of the Messiah, who would be born in a manger, but grow to The Son of Man who would pay the terrible but necessary price in His precious blood for us to all be redeemed, if we will but choose to follow Him.
Later, Wise Men came from the East to bring the gifts that are synonymous with wealth - gold, frankincense and myrrh. They traveled far with the brilliant star to guide them to the place where the young child now lived. No journey from so far and so possibly frought with peril would happen in a short time. These Wise Men traveled from distant lands to seek audience and consultation with another king of mortal fame.
Being warned by the Holy Spirit that evil was in this mortal man so steeped in sin, the Wise Men did not return to him after presenting their life-saving gifts to the King of Kings. Instead, they returned to their own countries in other ways leaving the ruler of a tiny kingdom to fail in his misguided attempt to assasinate the Son of God.
Our celebrations of the birth of the Savior are a good beginning. But without the rest of His life and His selfless Atonement performed for each of us out of Love Divine, all we have is a baby being born in a rude stable on a crowded highway during the Roman Census.
How much of what we celebrate is man-made joy and how much comes from God above? Is my own heart filled with gratitude for all that I have been granted or am I merely content to take it all and hold out my greedy hands for more?
Would I have been as willing to leave my own personal flocks and come into the city at the invitation of the angelic messenger? Do I hear him even now as he beckons me to drop the world in favor of the Kingdom of the Most High? Or is the bleating noise of the world, the glitter of a falling kingdom and the false promises of that which cannot save grating in my ears preventing me from hearing about the Good News that even now can save, redeem and exalt?
Would I be wise enough to travel any distance and perform any service necessary to make myself able to give my gifts - indeed, my ALL - at the feet of Him who has come to save me, if only I will come unto him with the gifts He seeks the most: a broken heart and a contrite spirit?
I hope and pray that this time around, my ears will be far more in tune, that my heart may be more tender and that my soul will be attuned to those angelic strains that still reach out to each of us to bring us from the manger to the foot of the cross and to the very Throne of God.
Merry CHRISTmas. For without Christ and His continuing ministry to rescue the lost and wayward sheep of HIS fold, there is nothing to be merry about at all.
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