Merry Christmas

Yesterday it was the first day of winter and here where I live in Texas, it hit 85 degrees. OK, so we are off to a warm start to this winter season, but it has already  dropped down to a high of about 60 today, so we are heading in the right direction. My Christmas morning scene will not look like this.

Not exactly a White Christmas this year, but this season has never been about the weather, it has been about Christ.


I am looking forward to a quiet and long Christmas weekend, starting tomorrow, with my wife. We will send a lot of time together alone (I like that a lot) and a lot of time with our Lord (I like that a lot as well). We will not be visiting family this year, I like to have a Christmas once in a while in my own home, not on the road visiting. Christmas to me is a state of mind not a physical location (unless that location was to be in the eternal physical presence of God. Which it will one day, but not yet it seems), so I am cool with a quiet Christmas in which I can really seek out the Lord and thank Him for what this season means.


I pray that wherever you are, and whatever you are doing this Christmas, your thoughts turn often to Christ, the true reason for the season.


Merry Christmas to all.

The Glory of God

I stayed up late last night to watch the lunar eclipse, knowing I would pay for it this morning when I had to get up for work. I figured watching a lunar eclipse on the winter solstice, which hasn't happened since 1638 (I missed that one) and will not happen until 2094 (will probably miss that one too, or since I will be around 138, probably will have even more trouble than staying up than tonight), it was worth the effort and the pain. Seeing something that hasn't happened in close to 400 years is something to see, and to write  about. Just to walk outside and see the moon directly overhead, like the noonday sun, was a treat worth staying up for. And it got better from there.

I really wanted to experience the glory of God in the wee hours of the morn, watching what I could see of how He wheels the heavens about from our vantage point on earth, bringing about moments of celestial harmony such as this. These moments are rare indeed in our rather puny and finite lives. These moments cannot be created by us, but only by the Creator for us.

It made me think of the of the divine harmony one can experience for eternity by accepting Jesus as the only way to your salvation. Of being able to experience incredible moments of harmony eternally, continually and absolutely.

A moment like this really highlights the incredible grace He extends to us daily, once we are His.

A New Direction?

I know it has been a while since I blogged and may be quite a while longer before I do it again. You may have noticed I changed the name of the blog and the link to it. You may not have noticed since I am not sure I am not going to mess up all the links it has. It may take me some time to sort that all out, but I have always plunged first and thought about it afterwards as I have worked changes to this blog.
I am looking to make this more of a passage through the grace I have been provided by Christ through my trust in Him, as I walk in faith with Him. We shall see how it goes and if anyone actually can read this going forward. As a social mediot, I do not always get the techie stuff quite right.

Happy touring!

Really?

Just finished filling out an on line survey. No big deal. This one was easy to get through and took the amount of time advertised.

What threw me was one of the questions:

I am:

___Male

___Female

Other:

I mean, Other had a whole box to fill out; Male and Female just had a button to check.

Other.

Really?

Time Traveler

Here’s one for you to ponder. A short clip detailing what is claimed to possibly be evidence of a time traveler caught in camera frame during the filming of a 1928 Charlie Chaplin movie, The Circus.

OK. So this is the latest evidence we have of the possibility of time travel: an old woman (or someone dressed like an old woman) with thick ankles and skinny shoes, talking into a cell phone in the middle of a 1928 Charlie Chaplin movie. Go with that explanation if it works for you. Or come up with your own and post a comment. Maybe she is talking to her dear diary, yelling at an imaginary friend. I don't know. I am not losing any sleep over this, either way it plays.

But OK. So who says the future doesn’t make sense? We have seen it, and it is a silent movie.

What Did He/Does He Look Like?

To you that is.

What mental picture do you have of Jesus? What did He look like when they took Him off the cross, what does He look like now, while we await His glorious return? These questions came up in the study of Revelation in my seminary class today. The question came up as we studied the following verse (emphasis is mine):

And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.
Revelation 5:6 (New American Standard Bible)

The question is that Christ stands in heaven, the Lamb, as if slain. Does He bear the marks of His crucifixion, will He for eternity, not as a remonstrance to us, but as a reminder of His love? Clearly, the marks of crucifixion were evident after the resurrection, before He ascended into heaven:

So the other disciples were saying to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you." Then He said to Thomas, "Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing."
John 20:25-27 (New American Standard Bible)

Look at what some of the Old Testament prophecy had to say about His death:

Just as there were many who were appalled at him — his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness
Isaiah 52:14 (New International Version)
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
Isaiah 53:7 (New International Version)

I do not even have to go into the crucifixion accounts of the Gospels, easy enough to find and read, for you to get a sense that it was a broken body taken down off the cross, and I believe that when we meet Jesus we will see the marks He bore in love and continues to do so even in His glory.

It is interesting that there is no physical description of Jesus in the bible, and I think not for good reason. while we can surmise some from where and when He walked the earth as a man, we are left to let our mind's eye capture for us what Jesus looks like. I think that allows us to approach Him on terms we are comfortable with, at least until He comes back in glory and removes all doubt.

What did He/does He look like to you? I hope whatever that image is, it is the picture of your Savior.

The Never Ending Post - Part IV

So, what is next? I am running out of steam on my social media activity, limping along on blogging. Not sure what to do next.

Maybe I should take up reading, again. I did a lot more of it before I started seminary, which I find ironic. School is making me cut back on my reading.

I need a big fat book to read. Feeling the heft of a massive tome (like Shelby Foote's tripartite on the Civil War). Something I can get into, grind through. Maybe try to wade through Charnock's The Existence and Attributes of God again, a little more intently this time. Or the seven Jules Verne novels in one edition I picked up a couple of years ago.

Maybe not. It may not be the time to run over covered, or semi-covered ground right now. I have a pretty big stack of unread books, and I got through a couple pieces of the Verne collection, and I do not need to take on a reread at this point. It would need to be something I have not cracked open yet (and that would leave out the Foote trilogy as well). Although the one book I will always read, no matter how many times I go over the same part, is the Bible. To me, there is no better indication of the divine inspiration of the Bible, that it is the word of God written into our hearts, than the fact that I never tire of reading it. Never tire of seeking Jesus in it.

I need a sense of accomplishment I cannot get from reading off a screen. I have to admit, there is something satisfying in finishing a big book that you do not get at reading a long blog post.

So I will cut this one off.

Now.