“In the Filth” – “Heart Right Love” – “Obligation to Death” – “Scattering Persecution”
I saw a rainbow a few minutes ago. I thought of God and the promise made to Noah. On Sunday as the lesson was wrapping up, our leader told the boys to remember the promises God made us in the Bible. Many promises were made to the Jews that were specific to them, but many of the promises apply to everyone who calls on the name of the Lord. In studying the Bible, as you may have heard me state before, it is hard to understand how the Jews could see the miracles of God one day and turn right around and bemoan their lack of something or another.
People still do that today thousands of years later. I walked outside after the rain had pasted and as I went out, I saw the tree where lightning hit in the back while I was in the front. I very briefly paused to make sure there would not be a repeat. I remembered.
One of my daily reads involved the scattering of the Christians as the rulers of the day cracked down on their “corruption” of the approved religion of the area Judaism. It is always shocking to see the gap in our perception of Christianity growing out of Judaism. Many Jews of the day denied Christ was the messiah and it continues today. This “scattering persecution” spread Christianity out over the roads the Romans had built, and its spread was faster and greater than any human could have expected.
“Heart Right Love” indicated to me that any outward love has to be preceded by getting our hearts right with God. Doing great things with out love is like making a noise. It has no impact. Loving without God is easily twisted and unimaginable. The damage that is done to kids in the name of love is horrendous.
A recent obituary mentioned a relative of ours who has been dead for many years. The trigger for reading the obituary was the news that the killer of the deceased’s daughter had been discovered 26 years later. The daughter was found in a horrendous condition by her father, and he died not knowing who had done this to his daughter. We have to live “In the Filth” of the world around us and sometimes the statistics apply to us or our loved ones.
Death is natural and can be quite tragic. One lesson this week led me to the phrase “Obligation to Death”. The driver to the phrase escapes me (that is part of the fun), but I feel that the point is to discuss the fact that as much as we want to live or as much as we want to be taken up in the rapture, we need to expect our death. Sometimes this means we need to have a will, life insurance, a stack of papers those left behind can use to handle things. Sometimes this means we need to forgive those who have hurt us, to tell those who have hurt us we love them, or to tell those we know why we do not fear death. But mostly I think it means we need to recognize that we are dead. We are dead to sin. It no longer controls us. We can live after dying. I got a card today that came out in 2008. It cost about $5, but it completed a “rainbow” I have been wanting to complete since 2008. Its not a big deal, but it was a little boost in this weird era of Target stopping to sell cards in the store and cards selling for millions of dollars. Baseball might be dying, card collecting maybe cutting itself out of the hearts of the fans, and it may be all but behind me, but I am reminded that God promised a rainbow after the flood and he promises a heaven after our death. Let your seeing a rainbow remind you of the promise god made to you, that you will live with Him in eternity if you accept Christ as your Lord and Saviour.