Take Down the Ten Commandments?

 

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. (James 1:19, New Living Translation)

In January this year, I posted various Bible verses that I intended to memorize. I think I did pretty well on that goal.

Then, last week, I started adding more passages. Yikes! My brain may be full, but I am going to plow through and try some more. And I came upon this verse.

But here’s what I think. I know certain groups want to remove the Ten Commandments from all public areas, to which I shake my head in disgust. But how about we at least replace them with this verse? How can anyone be offended by this?

My dear brothers and sisters, always be willing to listen and slow to speak. Do not become angry easily. (James 1:19, New Century Version)

Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. (James 1:19, The Message)

So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. (James 1:19, New King James Version)

Whatever version works for you.

Oh, and then live by it. And maybe realize there are more commands in the Bible which would make our world a better place if we all lived by then. 

The Narrow Gate

     “Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate to hell is wide and the road that leads to it is easy, and there are many who travel it. But the gate to life is narrow and the way that leads to it is hard, and there are few people who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14, Good News Translation)

These verses remind me of Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken.” You know the one. It ends with “I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

Both of these, however, make me think of a fork in the road. There’s a road to the left and a road to the right, and which one should you take?

Hubby left a random fork on our washing machine last night. When I picked it up, it dawned on me. A fork usually has four tines, which to my mind means four choices. I know an eating utensil is a totally different fork than the one in the road, but bear with me.  

People who take the far-left fork blatantly commit all the sins with no remorse. They lie, cheat, steal, have affairs, and maybe even kill. They don’t know Jesus at all and they use His name in vain.  

People who choose the next road over try to be good people. They heard about the Ten Commandments and thought it would make sense to at least keep the biggies, like killing and stealing. They provide for their families and try to help out people in need. But no matter how good they are, they don’t know Jesus as their Savior.  

The tine second from the right is the one people pick who go to church, try to keep all of the Commandments, and usually ask for forgiveness. They say their prayers and help out strangers. The problem is everything they are doing is just stuff they do. They say their prayers to some invisible God because they have been told to. They haven’t asked Jesus into their lives; they don’t have a relationship with Him.

Lastly, the path to the far right, the road less taken, the one through the narrow gate. The one which the fewest people choose, but those are the people who try to keep the Commandments, who ask for forgiveness, who have asked Jesus Christ into their lives, and have a personal relationship with Him.

Which path have you chosen? 

Green Bay in a Day

Last week, we had planned on flying to Seattle to visit Hubby’s nephew, as well as see as much as we could in the four short days we would be there. Unfortunately, and as our spring break weather always guarantees, our flight from Minneapolis to Seattle was cancelled due to snow. We banged our heads together trying to salvage the trip, but decided it just wasn’t meant to be. (We had cancelled the same trip last June because my back was just too bad at the time, not that my pain is 100% cleared up even now.)

I suggested a few places we could drive to for just a day or two so that the week wasn’t a total waste. We decided to head to Green Bay on Tuesday just for overnight. 

As you can see, the stupid late March snow was still in our yard when we left. And if anyone from the Green Bay area is reading this today, I’m sorry that your winter storm was worse than ours this week. Stupid Wisconsin Fake-Spring. 

First thing Wednesday morning we visited the National Railroad Museum. We’d both been there a few times before, but it’s still always fun. Doesn’t everyone have a twinge of love for old train cars, the romance of the rails? 

The Merci Train was a train of 49 French railroad box cars filled with tens of thousands of gifts of gratitude from at least that many individual French citizens. They were showing their appreciation for the more than 700 American box cars of relief goods sent to them by (primarily) individual Americans in 1948. The Merci Train arrived in New York harbor on February 2nd, 1949 and each of the 48 American states at that time received one of the gift laden box cars. The 49th box car was shared by Washington D.C. and the Territory of Hawaii. (From the Merci Train website) 

Some fancy cars. Some not so much. Pretty sure this bed would give me more pain than I’ve had in a few months. 

Our next and final stop was at the Packer Hall of Fame. 

I took an unbelievably few pictures there. I was stupidly emotional the whole time we were walking around. 

I’ve become very jaded towards professional sports in the last couple of years. How can anyone justify the huge salaries any of them are being paid? And how can they make some of the most bone-headed plays? It just all seems so staged sometimes, like they are getting those big paychecks to keep their mouths shut when they have to throw a game.

But then there was that one shining season when the Packers won the Super Bowl after a very long drought. When Brett Favre was just a kid with an amazing arm and the spirit of a little boy. When I knew the names and positions of all the players and Reggie White was the Minister of Defense.

I have two secrets – one I won’t share here or anywhere else EVER! The other is my birthday, I’m just weird about it. But I’ll let that secret out.

Because Reggie White was born on the exact same day as I was. And so sadly, he was called home to be with Jesus when he was only 43. I really haven’t got anything else to say about that. If you don’t know anything about the man, you can look it up on-line, but I admired him and know he would never throw a game. 

There were lots of displays of him at the Packer Hall of Fame, but I couldn’t get close enough to them to take any pictures. The other people around me would think I was nuts when I started blubbering.

Now you know a little bit more about me. 

Do you?

 

Friday we were left with words such as Disappointment, Dismay, and Desolation.  

But it’s Sunday morning. Mary Magdalene and others go to the tomb of Jesus, filled with Dread. They believe their Lord and Savior is Dead and His cold body will be lying there. Instead, the tomb is empty, Jesus’ body is gone. They are Desperate to find it, to find Him.

And He finds them and their Despair is quickly turned to Delight. Jesus is their Deliverer.

A week later, however, we encounter one last D word. Doubt. You know the story. Thomas, one of the disciples, wasn’t with the others when Jesus appeared to them. He doubted what they told him. He wouldn’t believe until he put his fingers where the nails had pierced Jesus’ hands.

When Jesus appeared to him, Thomas did just that – put his fingers in the holes in Jesus’ hands and in His side. Then he no longer doubted.

What about you? Without having seen Jesus yourself, do you believe in the resurrection? Do you have faith that Jesus Christ came to save you from your sins?

I pray you Do. May God bless you, Chris

So Many D's

This past Sunday night, Hubby and I were supposed to fly out of Minneapolis, heading to Seattle to visit his nephew for the week. I’d been watching the forecast the whole previous week, and it kept saying that snow was heading our way. But Minneapolis, Minnesota? Where a foot of snow is the same as an inch of snow anywhere else? Surely the eight to ten inches that was forecasted wouldn’t affect our flight.

8:30 Sunday morning, twelve hours before our scheduled takeoff, I got a text from the airline saying our flight was cancelled. What? Twelve hours away! Anything could happen. Come on, people, give it a chance.

Hubby and I reviewed all our options, tried to come up with every possible scenario to save this trip, but it just didn’t feel like it was going to happen.

We were so disappointed. But then my pain jumped up again Monday morning and kept me miserable for three days, so maybe the trip would have been a wash anyway.

Disappointment. But nothing compared to what Jesus’ followers felt on the first Good Friday. Dismay, despair, desolation, dread. So many D’s.

And what about Jesus? Death. An excruciatingly painful death on a cross.

But Sunday is coming.

Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled

 

“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give peace to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard Me say that I am going away. But I am coming back to you. If you love Me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father. The Father is greater than I. I have told you this before it happens. Then when it does happen, you will believe.

            “I will not talk much more with you. The leader of this world is coming. He has no power over Me. I am doing what the Father told Me to do so the world may know I love the Father. Come, let us be on our way”. (John 14:27-30, New Life Version)

There is nothing I can – or should – add to that. Today is Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week. Good Friday is only days away. But remember, Easter Sunday is coming. God bless you.

I Want to Live

It will be a year on the first since I threw out my back, and this horrible cycle of pain began. For the last few weeks, I had been doing pretty good; then, I was afflicted with vertigo, followed a few days later by a cold. But still, the pain wasn’t bad at all, except for my neck, which I couldn’t turn without getting dizzy.

Then, I woke up Monday morning with another spin of the Wheel of Misfortune. Right pelvic pain to the point where I couldn’t walk. Over the last eleven months, I’ve had this before, and it usually eases up after two days.

So I woke up yesterday morning, and the right side wasn’t too bad, but the left side was horrible. That has kind of been the trend. Not only is my left pelvis still hurting this morning, but today my left neck is stiff and killing me. 

I’ve dealt with all of this as best I can. Some days, like yesterday, I hit the wall and wasn’t very nice to my husband or son, as if any of this was their fault. But overall, I’ve accepted that this is life.

There was a time, however, last fall when I couldn’t cope anymore. God wasn’t answering my prayers to take away the pain, and He wasn’t answering my prayers when I kept asking why this was happening to me. A depression descended on me, a black cloud. I didn’t care if I got up in the morning; I found nothing to make me laugh. My prayers become times of begging God to take me home to heaven.

I scared myself and the friends and family members who I told about my feelings. I started thinking of all the ways I could kill myself, which looked like an accident.

Then, one afternoon in November, I got crushing chest pain while taking my walk. Instead of going straight to the ER (do not pass go, do not collect $200), since the pain went away by the time I got in the house, I called and made a doctor’s appointment for the following week.

But in my head, I thought, ah-ha, finally, God has listened to my prayers, and He’s going to take me.

I made it to the appointment and had a bunch of tests that day, which all came back pretty okay. But the doctor wanted to run one more test, which took a month to get in for. 

Still, I thought, this is okay. I’ll die from a heart attack before then.

The day of the appointment came, and I was still alive. I made it through the test, and a few days later, my doctor gave me the results. He tried to cover up his concern, but I could tell he didn’t like something about the results. He scheduled me to see cardiology.

I went home and looked up everything I could find online about the number he didn’t like, that one little blimp on an otherwise normal test. What I saw stopped me in my tracks. The words “increased risk for sudden cardiac death” jumped off my computer screen.

I looked out my window and whispered, “But, God, I don’t want to die.” Then I wanted to shout, “I don’t want to die.”

I was like George Bailey near the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” hanging on to the bridge railing, his mouth bleeding, repeating, “I want to live. I want to live again.”

When I saw the cardiologist, she said that the one abnormal number on that test usually didn’t mean anything, but she’d schedule one last test just to be sure. That one came back totally normal, and I was cleared; there was nothing wrong with my heart.

And my mind? That is good again, too. Coz I don’t wanna die. No matter how much pain I’m in or what new ailment assails me, I want to live.

Yes, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us, nothing below us, nor anything else in the whole world will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39, New Century Version)