wordsmithin': hoi polloi

Extra! Extra! Read all about it HERE.

 

hoi pol·loi n.

The common people; the masses.

 

I was introduced to this word by way of a word-of-the-day calendar my friend, Ami Duvick, got for me one year for Christmas. I love words and love Ami for knowing that about me.

Matthew 7:13-14

¹³ “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. ¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

People enter ease by the masses.
Few find life.

More will work for wind than will receive rest.

love God? sometimes i hate Him

“Love God? Sometimes I hate Him.” ~Martin Luther

“Love God. Love people.” is a beautiful summary OF THE LAW.

When we are told that the Gospel is “Love God. Love your neighbor,” we wilt.

I want to love God and my neighbor perfectly.

But I don’t.

It is not Good News to tell me that I must do something that is impossible in order to avoid the wrath I deserve..

Do not tell people that in order to be saved they need only to love God and their neighbor.

They cannot do it and they will not be saved by trying their best and failing at it.

So what hope remains then for the Christian who failed?

The Gospel.

Dive deeper into this HERE.

snapshot salvation

The Chambers of commerce profited a strong yield today when he pointed out that.

 

Many of us have a mental picture of what a Christian should be, and looking at this image in other Christians’ lives becomes a hindrance to our focusing on God.This is not salvation— it is not simple enough. He says, in effect, “Look to Me and youare saved,” not “Youwill be saved someday.” We will find what we are looking for if we will concentrate on Him. We get distracted from God and irritable with Him while He continues to say to us, “Look to Me, and be saved."

 

We get mad at God because we cannot be the good Christian people we imagine we should be. We think being a Christian means becoming a Christian. We hold up Christians around us as targets on which we set our sights. We often fall short of our aspirations; but even if we accomplish them and become the Christian we always wanted, we have not yet entered into the rest of salvation.

 

Becoming a Christian is not something we do.

 

We receive our Christianity because of and solely on the basis of whatChrist has already done.

 

When we focus entirely on becoming better Christians, we end up pissed at God for making the ceiling so high, the rules so unbending, the standard so unreachable, the lion’s den so dark, the clouds so untouchable, the Goliaths so large and perfection so impossible. We can even begin to hate God for His good standards.

 

Observe…

 

Romans 8:7-8

 

⁷ For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.⁸ Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

 

Our hope is not in achieving the resume’ of those to whom we look up.

Our hope is that God will forgive our inadequacy and find us in Jesus.

 

When we receive Him, we receive rest.

When we worry about the rest, we work up only more worry.

eat me

John 6:66

 

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

 

After what?

 

John 6:60-65

⁶⁰ When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”⁶¹ But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them,“Do you take offense at this? ⁶² Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.⁶⁴ But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)⁶⁵ And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

The irony is that in response to Jesus telling the crowd that only those called can come, a large number of them leave.

 

Jesus basically says, “It’s My Way or the highway (or low-way in this case)” (VVCSV)

 

They choose highway.

Which makes sense.

The flesh profits nothing.

It could not choose Him without His consent.

 

But what started all of this hoolabaloo?

 

Two words:“Eat me” (VVCSV)

 

There are things about God you have to accept when you sign up like the tension between God being BOTH completely in control and completely good.

 

If He is completely in control, why does He allow or will so much bad?

If He is completely good, why doesn’t He take more control?

 

Does He care? If He does why _____?

Is He capable? If He is then why not _____?

That is upper echelon tension.

 

These folks had a more simple, in your face dilemma.

 

Person 1: Did He just say, “Eat me”?

 

Person 2: I think He did.

 

Person(s) 1 & 2: That is crazy!!!

 

John 6:66-69

⁶⁶ After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,⁶⁹ and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

When you put your stock in with Jesus, you accept a lot of that which you do not understand.

 

That is not to say that understanding is not available or worth seeking.

 

It is more of a commentary on the fact that finite creatures are grappling with the Finite.

There should be more we do not understand in many circumstances.

 

Are you so committed to Him to be totally confused and frustrated and yet confess allegiance to Him alone?

 

Or do your feet flee to what you hope are firmer foundations when He acts or does not act in a way that confuses you?

 

The flesh profits nothing, but Jesus’ flesh profits everything.

two of a kind

So Team VV had an impromptu ultrasound at Friday's mid-wife appointment and discovered that we are having another GIRL!

 

I am very excited to have another little girl.

I love watching my wife and her sister Lauren interact.
They are both beautiful and love Jesus. 
They are probably some of the closest sisters I have ever seen.

I am praying that Penelope and baby grrl #2 be like Paige and Lauren.
Exactly.
In every way imaginable.

God has been so kind to me.
I don't know why.
I am grateful.

All I can do is say, "Thank You" and know that when I do so I am also thankful for having Someone specific to offer my appreciation and gratitude for this life hidden in Christ and blessed in plain sight.

loose lips sink ships (and apparently apostles)

Matthew 14:30-31

³⁰ But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” ³¹ Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him,“O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

 

Jesus rebuked Peter’s lack of faith, but did not let Peter drown because of his lack of faith.

 

Peter’s faith was criticized by Jesus for being “little” NOT “absent” altogether.

 

Apparently a “little” faith is enough to do miraculous things by the grace of God for in our weakness He is magnified the more.

 

It is also a great comfort to me in reading this morning that we can be bold and courageous in Christ solely on the assurance of knowing that He is mighty to save and compassionate to actually do so when our faith is shaken by “the storms of life.”

 

My faith need not be the anchor of my hope.

My faith can be shaken.

Jesus CANNOT.

 

I love that Jesus reached out His hand to Peter in response to Peter’s cry.

 

Peter sank.

Jesus DIDN’T.

 

Peter did not need “walk on water” faith or “new car” faith.

Peter needed Jesus to save him.

 

Jesus could help Peter because Jesus NEVER SINKS.

 

In Him, we too may stand fully confident before God, forever.

 

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus Christ, my righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

 

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand

All other ground is sinking sand.

 

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

a hearty breakfast

Psalm 33:13-22 

¹³ The Lord looks down from heaven;
he sees all the children of man;
¹⁴ from where he sits enthroned he looks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
¹⁵ he who fashions the hearts of them all
and observes all their deeds.
¹⁶ The king is not saved by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
¹⁷ The war horse is a false hope for salvation,
and by its great might it cannot rescue.
¹⁸ Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love,
¹⁹ that he may deliver their soul from death
    and keep them alive in famine.
²⁰ Our soul waits for the Lord;
he is our help and our shield.
²¹ For our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
²² Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you

Today we get to hear our new baby's heartbeat.

God is the Author and Designer of all life.
He creates us and knows us.

Only in Him is our heart glad.

St. Augustine said it this way,
"Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in Thee."

Our hearts can only be made complete by doing that for which they were designed.
We were made to love and follow Jesus.
We don't.

We fall short of our purpose.

So God made a way for us to be by faith that which we were made to be by design.

Our heart is glad in Jesus.

May our newest family member's heart be softened by grace to receive by faith the Author and Perfector of their little heart which we will hear beat for the first time today.