Joy

"Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord: for he cometh, he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth." 

Psalm 96: 12-13

I read this verse today as part of a devotional journal. I am trying to be more mindful in my daily walk with God. This is not the only thing I am doing, it is just an exercise that I have chosen to take up. For one year. 

A friend of mine died on Thursday from ovarian cancer. Julie made it a daily habit to perform a devotional. And she did it with her children to help them create a daily time with God. It is one of the things I admired about her.

We had a short active friendship. For a span of 4 or 5 years, we took our families and other teens to Creation festival in the summer. It was good, very good. And then jobs changed and kids started college and timing of the festival did not mesh with my work as an accounting professional and we had to stop attending the festival. But I have fond memories and Facebook helped give us a view of our lives. 

Julie shared her battle with cancer with the world. She modeled joy and perseverance in the face of mounting pressures of battling cancer. She maintained her joy. It was encouraging to me and I admired her and prayed for her. Julie and her family kept planning for the future. It is a future they will now face without her, but they will have her joy and memories of her determination to take forward with them. Cancer is a destructive force, but it is not more powerful than the joy we find in Christ. Julie knew that. Julie know it more now than she did on Thursday. 

Pray with me for her family and friends who will mourn deeply and for a long time. Lord, don't leave them in sadness and despair for too long. Let the light of your Son illuminate the darkness and bring them back to joy. 

Reflections in Romans

From the introduction in the epistle to the Romans:

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God- the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

Paul is a servant of Christ-called by Him and set apart to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. This gospel was a mystery and yet not a mystery. God gave foreknowledge through the prophets over the millennia.And God declared that Jesus was the Christ through his resurrection from the dead. God put his stamp on it. It was the icing on the cake after all the miracles performed over the three year period of his ministry.  Jesus not only raised Jairus' daughter, the widow's son and Lazarus. He conquered death himself, paying the price for our sins. Paul will lay it out in this letter to the Romans.

I have been listening to the new testament in my car for the last couple of months. I have a long commute to work and spend the morning commute listening to the Word or reflecting while I play spiritual songs in the background. Something really stuck out for me this time and I am trying to recapture that. I wasn't able to write it down as I was driving and the memory is being elusive. Most likely so that I will actively pursue it. So here I sit. I am listening to Romans again and will be reading it and reflecting. I type faster than I write so I shall journal here on my blog.

This is a public blog, unread, but public none the less and so I will struggle to be open and honest here.

There is verse in the second chapter that reads as follows:

This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

This is the concluding line in a section that starts in this way:

All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.

This really struck me. Most of my sin is inside of me. My thoughts, my personal reading habits, my angst, my intentions. None can see this and no one is aware of it. God knows. He has a front row seat through the indwelling Holy Spirit who is wounded on a daily basis by the ugliness of my sin. Yowza! The things we take for granted that are known to the lover of our souls.....

God desires our faith, our trust and our obedience to his Word. It should be easy, but there is a constant tension between what we ought to do and what we desire to do in our own sinful nature. We tend to fall short of the glory of God on a daily basis. What do we do about this? What can we do? Can we do anything?

It has been over a year since I posted on this thing. I guess that is a testament as to how busy my life gets. 

I changed jobs last year. I now work in Wilmerding, PA. Wilmerding, yes Wilmderding. I love saying it. The name sounds utterly ridiculous. I am now a financial analyst for Wabtec Corporation. That is a short version of Westinghouse Airbrake Technologies. I am finally doing fun work and am challenged and busy. So much so that I have neglected Facebook and blogger and gmail and such because I am no longer bored and am more pressed for time with the longer commute. So far, so good.

What is extreme today? Bombing the Boston Marathon. that is extremely evil and cowardly. The goal was to maim and kill and generate fear and chaos. So much hatred. So much fear. I was saddened and angered.

If only we could have swift justice for the perpetrators once they are caught. I fear that is a thing of the past. A girl can dream.....

About this blog

We seem to be living in a time where people are extreme. They do extreme things. A quick glance around the internet confirms it. Or is it just that extreme actions sell space? 
It boggles my mind some of the things that happen, are commonplace and taken for granted anymore. A few years ago, this was not necessarily the case. 


Can you think of some examples of things that are no longer out of the ordinary in modern culture or society?