Greek Rocks!

And It's pretty easy to pick up. The letters are a lot like ours in sound and process, I love it! I can't seem to go to bed lately with this new computer. I play on it way too much. I'm starting a new blog about my weightloss. I've lost 40 pounds in 8 weeks! Praise God!

Learning Greek

I'm making a commitment to learn Biblical Greek. It's been a long time since I really learned anything. I would have never guessed before that I would one day want to know so much about Jesus that I'll try to learn a new language. I imagine some folks might think it's a little too much to do. There's only so many hours in a day.
Deuteronomy 6:5 is quoted by Jesus when he's asked which commandment is the greatest: " Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." I feel like if I don't get down to the original languages of the Bible I'll be leaving the interpretation up to someone else. And that for me is just laziness.

They Got Me Again...

This time it was NPR on the way to work. The constant barrage of reports on families impacted by Sept 11 is starting to irk me. It's almost as bad as the commercialization of Christmas. Everywhere you turn someone's reporting on this tragedy. Not that I don't care- it just hurts to listen to it. Today it was the story of a man who called his ex-wife from inside one of the towers before he died.
He confessed he still loved her even though she was now married to another man. The woman broke down into sobs telling the story- I 'bout did the same just listening. She said her kids are just like their dad and are a constant reminder of a man she had been in love with when they both were young.
I didn't realize it then, but now as I write it out, I see that I was judging their broken marriage the whole time; as if they deserved to suffer for not keeping their marriage together.
Here is my prayer: Lord, please forgive me for my pride and judgment of others. Instill compassion and humility in my heart. Please heal those broken hearts today Lord. You have blessed us without fail. In your name I pray, amen.

A Harsh Truth About Sept 11

As the fifth anniversary of 9/11 approaches news reports and all sorts of media outlets remind us at every opportunity that we have experienced something terrible. One report on Good Morning America showcases the children born to widows of victims. It was heart-wrenching to watch as a new parent; I kept thinking about my two little boys and kept imagining not being part of their lives. One kid on the show said her daddy was her special little angel that's always with her. For some reason, that snapped me back to reality.

The fact is, everyone's family would like to think their dead loved ones are in Heaven smiling down on them. You hear it a lot at funerals and memorials about what a good person dead people are and how they're "in a better place." Sometimes pastors have to sugar-coat the truth to say something nice so the family won't be offended.

Unfortunately, many people who died in 9/11 are not "smiling down on us" or "in a better place." It's conceivable that there were many 9/11 conversions, but many people died without salvation that day- it's a statistical fact. I know that hurts. However painful it is to know, being the victim of a terrorist attack is not a one-way ticket to Heaven. The ONLY source of salvation is through Jesus Christ. Those who die without Him spend eternity exiled from God. In Hell. Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

There is no nice way of saying it. This life is just the blink of an eye in eternity, don't spend it away from the source of all that is good. The alternative is unthinkable. Romans 10:9 gives us the answer: "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Don't wait.

I always thought "forgive" was a strange word. Not that it sounds funny, just that it seems to imply the passing on of something from one to another. Forgiving a loved one for something they've said or done doesn't give them anything. On the contrary, the forgiver is actually taking something from the party at fault: guilt. The forgiven person passes the burden on to the forgiver. Somtimes a person will claim to forgive, but bring it up later; guilt can be given back.

The way I see it, to truly "forgive" is actually to "fortake." When we come clean and ask Jesus for forgiveness for of our sins (1John 1:9), we're not asking Him to give us anything; we want Him to take our sins away. The good news is that he does take them away. He takes away our sin from us and he doesn't hold them against us later. We have to remember he has "fortaken" away our sins and He's not going to give them back.