Remembrance

My Dad passed away last week and I just came home after returning back east for the funeral. It was a week touched with much sadness, much remembrance, much reflection. A week of tears mixed with some laughter, the recent pain mixed in with some of the past happiness. A week when I was touched by the loss of a loved one, but also touched by the love, encouragement and support shown by friends and family. Seeing and talking with cousins, sometimes for the first time in a decade. Seeing friends who traveled up from Texas to be at the funeral, spending more time traveling to and fro than the were able to spend on the ground, but who wanted to be there. It blew me away to see them as we entered the church. It hit me even harder yesterday to hear they used the travel time on the plans to share Christ with people. I am humbled to see how God moves in this world, using all for the glory of His name. Paul certainly laid that out clearly and correctly in Romans.

Standing at the grave site on a slight rise in the snow covered cemetery on a cold January morning. Listening to taps being played for a soldier who took part in D Day in 1944 as a very young man. The thought occurred to me that the winter wind will always blow more chill for the rest of my time on this earth, yet the warmth of His love will comfort me even more as it does. One of my earthly safety nets, my Dad, is gone. How I know even more today how I need to rely solely on the Lord to see me through this life to the next.

I am sure I will have my moments in the upcoming days, weeks and months. I am blessed to have a Dad like I did, for as long as I did. And I am more blessed to have a loving and gracious Lord to walk by my side as I struggle on through this life's journey.

Transformation

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

Romans 12:2 (NASB)

If you are reading the word of God, is it transforming your life? The Bible isn't a book to read for head knowledge only; it should be read for heart knowledge as well. It should make you think differently, see things differently, see others differently. If it is only an academic exercise, you have entered into a sad, sad state of affairs in your life. Because you are so close to the truth, but you are not letting it set you free.

Oswald Chambers speaks in today's devotional in My Utmost for His Highest about becoming bitter and sour as a result of hoarding God's blessings. I think the same can happen if you do not treat God's word as transformational. Bitter and sour, blimp-like. The Bible is inerrant; it is true in what it says, in the claims it makes. It is authoritative, it is the last word on any topic on which it speaks. It is inerrant in that it cannot fail to be transforming, in what it does, in the effect it has on God's people.

Be a child of God and let it transform you. As Chambers said, be the sweetest person on earth. Be salt and light.

I think of the movie, Transformers and how cool it was to see the sudden changes that would come over those robots. Don't be a robot, but be transformed. Be a transformer of others. Make sure you are a different person coming out of the Bible than you were going in.