The Better Part week #47

 

Two weeks' worth of FB posts:

The Better Part, Day #229:

 

Today is Immaculate Conception Day for our Catholic friends- a doctrine that says Mary was conceived without sin, same as Jesus. Outside of the logical fallacy that Mary has two recognized human parents, yet Jesus had to be born without a human male father in order to NOT have original sin, the whole concept was drawn from a second century "Gospel of James"- a gospel that was condemned by their Pope in 405AD and rejected by a Church Decree in the early 6th century. And yet, the theory was debated until finally declared "truth" in 1854.

 

So if you have to have a parent born without sin to explain Jesus, then how far back do you have to go? Surely you'd need a grandmother without sin, maybe a great-grandparent...

 

...or maybe you just need what was explained in the Gospels: an otherwise unremarkable teenage girl and the Holy Spirit. Sure would make the presence of a seducer of father-in-laws (Tamar), a harlot (Rahab), and a seducer of kings ("the wife of Uriah the Hittite) in Jesus's line of descent easier to explain...

 

 

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #230:

 

1Pe 1:12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. 

 

Any of you who might have read Tolkkien's The Silmarrilion would remember he starts with a simplified but elegant story of Creation, wherein all was created as God (his version, anyway) funneled his thought of the plan through the music of the angels (or their analog in the tale). But the part that separates it from what really happened is love.Not bashing Tolkkien here, but just to make you think on this passage. If the angels were created by a God of Love, then He loved them too. And the greater love He has for us on earth is powerfully shown in that the angels LONG to understand it!

 

 

 

The Better Part, day #231:

 

 

One of the things on my "morning prayer" list is "His strength, not my weakness". And this morning- hopefully not in preparation- I thought on how 'my weakness' might just come disguised as strength. We have so much evil lately- shooting, sex scandals, child abuse- there's a lot of people for which I'd like to do as David did and pray down their destruction. But His strength involves me praying for my enemies- whatever form they take. My weakness can be wrath and anger.

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #232:

 

 

Sit in your bedroom some night, wondering how even to pray over a disaster like Kentucky. Turn on your radio and hear, "God doesn't like it when the unsaved die... He weeps over it! Jesus wept over the lost of Jerusalem..." and you remember that this was a weeping for ALL those who refused Him...

 

 

 

The Better Part day #233:

 

 

David Jeremiah: "Faith is not a medicine you take when you face fear; it is a vaccine you take so you never have to fear!"

 

 

The Better Part, Day #234:

 

Today I typed up Wednesday's Bible study on Philippians. In it, I learned 7 parts to being "of like mind" with Paul (and thus with Christ). 1- A posture of serving; 2- OBEDIENCE; 3- Humility, as Pride is always the enemy; 4- Working out in the "gym" of faith; 5- a gracious attitude in all things; 6- Standing still= going backwards in faith; 7- the way to keep the good things in mind is standing firm and always rejoicing.