Monday, December 16, 2002
The Little Things
Ken gave a very relevant analogy yesterday in class. He talked about how so many times we think of all the causes we could support, all the people we could help and we're overwhelmed. But when we look at Jesus' walk on earth, even though he always paused along the way to heal and to speak to people, he never stopped moving forward. There were hundreds of thousands of people that he didn't have a chance to help, but he didn't worry about that, he just helped those he met during his journey. So we should model our lives after Christ and not get caught up or stopped by the huge number of causes and problems in the world, but instead we should help when the opportunity presents itself, and keep moving forward in our spiritual journeys.
Another thing that struck me during the class relates to the passage from "The Screwtape Letters" which I cited on Saturday. It talked about how the devil's cause is never in more danger than when a Christian looks around and sees no trace of God, feels deserted, but obeys God anyway. That's interesting because so often I know that I expect God to speak directly to me, through a voice in my head or heart, or through a sign, to tell me what he wants me to do, but if the Christian can't sense God's presence, then how can the Christian know God's commands to obey them? The answer is so simple, but so important: through the Bible! I realized yesterday that I really do make following God's will way more complicated than it has to be. It must've frustrated God no end that all the time I was asking him to tell me what he wanted me to do when all I had to do to find his answer was open my Bible! ::shakes head:: It's amazing how I could totally miss this most fundamental principle even after being a Christian for so long.
Anyway, now that I realize how important reading the Bible is, that's what I'm going to do! I'm going to finish off Ecclesiastes today, and I'm hoping that "the conclusion of the matter" will help to shed more light on the book as a whole, because I think I'm still missing about 95% of the meaning. ^^;;
Ken gave a very relevant analogy yesterday in class. He talked about how so many times we think of all the causes we could support, all the people we could help and we're overwhelmed. But when we look at Jesus' walk on earth, even though he always paused along the way to heal and to speak to people, he never stopped moving forward. There were hundreds of thousands of people that he didn't have a chance to help, but he didn't worry about that, he just helped those he met during his journey. So we should model our lives after Christ and not get caught up or stopped by the huge number of causes and problems in the world, but instead we should help when the opportunity presents itself, and keep moving forward in our spiritual journeys.
Another thing that struck me during the class relates to the passage from "The Screwtape Letters" which I cited on Saturday. It talked about how the devil's cause is never in more danger than when a Christian looks around and sees no trace of God, feels deserted, but obeys God anyway. That's interesting because so often I know that I expect God to speak directly to me, through a voice in my head or heart, or through a sign, to tell me what he wants me to do, but if the Christian can't sense God's presence, then how can the Christian know God's commands to obey them? The answer is so simple, but so important: through the Bible! I realized yesterday that I really do make following God's will way more complicated than it has to be. It must've frustrated God no end that all the time I was asking him to tell me what he wanted me to do when all I had to do to find his answer was open my Bible! ::shakes head:: It's amazing how I could totally miss this most fundamental principle even after being a Christian for so long.
Anyway, now that I realize how important reading the Bible is, that's what I'm going to do! I'm going to finish off Ecclesiastes today, and I'm hoping that "the conclusion of the matter" will help to shed more light on the book as a whole, because I think I'm still missing about 95% of the meaning. ^^;;
