Now If Only…

Now if only – three little words that in my journey through life that means “I agree God but…” The “but” could mean a viariety to things from I don’t really trust You to not right now but when I am ready to any other excuse I can come you with. You see that is what I mean when I say “now if only.”

I’ve noticed that God really isn’t interested in my excuses, rather He is interested in my doing. Proverbs 3:5-6 talks about trusting the Lord, Joshua was commanded to be strong and courageous and not waiver from the path layednout for him.

Trusting God is one more step in our faith journey. Remember how God has been faithful in the past will help you know that God will be faithful in the future.

Found

This is a follow-up to my blog posting entitled “Lost” a couple of weeks ago. That was a look at depression from the inside. Today I want to talk about depression from the outside.

In the weeks since that posting my fog has lifted. I want to thank all my friends who wrote words of encouragement and offered up prayer, they really do help. I wish I knew how or why the depression lifts, I guess I could do some research but I don’t have the time right now. It is really a rather odd experience – life is good, life sucks, life is good – a cycle that keeps repeating itself. The intervals of good vs suck ebb and flow. Triggers that move me into or out of the sucky state, beats me.

So what did I learn? Well, found out that I need to follow up with a couple of people about life things. That God is there even in the darkness though friends, family, and others. That I may have a voice speaking into subject of depression – don’t know what this will look like yet.

I think I have more to say, but right now I am still processing things. Again, thanks to those who wrote, prayed, etc for me.

Reflections on The Gospel of John – Chapter 1

Our small group from church has begun to read through and study the Gospel of John. It’s been a while since I have spent a lot of time looking at this book of the Bible and I had forgotten a lot of the finer details of the Gospel. I think the best way to get the overall feel for a biblical book is to read the entire book in one sitting. This allows you get a good feel as to the flow of the story.

As I have looked at chapter 1 a couple of things jump out. First, in the first dozen verses we have John developing a wonder image of who Jesus is, His unity with God, His role in creation, His light shining in the darkness, His rejection, and His reward (Grace) to those who do believe. I love the fact that we are God’s children with all the rights and responsibilities associated with this new identity.

The second thing that struck me was John, not the author John rather John the Baptist. His role in life was to point people to Jesus. That was it. He came to prepare the way. This was the testimony that he gave. What an honor to be the proclaimer of Jesus the Christ. If you think about it though that is what we are called to do as well. Our testemony, our story, our life should also point people to Jesus. As Paul writes in his letters, we are God’s ambassador.

The question I leave you with is this, how does your story point others to Jesus? What has God done for you that you can testify about?