Always Reforming

"O Lord , what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow."     Man, in his sinful state, is now worthy of the consideration of God.  It is God's consideration, however, that gives him worth.  For some reason God has loved His people, and that is not to be ignored.  We were created in His image, but we fell.  God has restored that image in all those for whom Christ died.      A recent tragedy has brought this passage to my mind.  A 19 year old I knew was involved in a car wreck and was pronounced dead on the scene.  No one saw it coming--no one but God.  When a dead is preceded by months or even years of ill health, families tend to get some of the mourning out before the death has even occurred.   The death of a young, healthy person takes us all off guard, however.  It hits you like a brick.  It doesn't even se...

"Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God."     Too often we define prayer as as asking God for stuff.  While God does encourage us to make our requests known to Him, we must remember that that is only one aspect of prayer.  Prayer is talking to God, and if our prayer life is always about us then we're missing the point.  When we talk to God, when we worship Him, we ought not to use it as another opportunity to focus on us and what we're doing.  We ought to use our prayer time to focus on God and what He has done and what He is continuing to do.  Instead of singing about how God makes us feel, let's just sing about the w...

I'll be presenting this lesson tomorrow morning at Church.  We'll be reading the first 18 verses of Leviticus 13.  I would suggest you do that, but I know, since you're reading blogs, that you probably won't.  Mark 1:40-45: And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.     Though this is ceremonial law, and therefore ...