Not the post I was trying to write

I have spent over an hour writing, deleting, and re-writing a beginning to this post. Somehow it is refusing to get written. But after all this I'm determined to get down something which expresses a little of what I'm thinking, even if a full explanation has to wait. So I give you this, from Matthew Henry's commentary on Hebrews 2:

Let those who dread death, and strive to get the better of their terrors, no longer attempt to outbrave or to stifle them, no longer grow careless or wicked through despair. Let them not expect help from the world, or human devices; but let them seek pardon, peace, grace, and a lively hope of heaven, by faith in Him who died and rose again, that thus they may rise above the fear of death. (Source)

And this from me: Life is precious and precarious. Do the best you can with it. But if you have any faith in Jesus and his resurrection, death is not the worst thing that can happen. Please don't pray as if it is.

(I should probably add: No, this is not a reaction to anything happening to me or my family. Don't start worrying that there is some awful news you haven't heard yet.)

Comments

Mr White Watson of Bakewell

Once upon a time, back in 1795 or so, lived a man who was always asking questions. The kind of questions like, "Why is glass transparent?" or "Why do fruit trees grow better in that place than in this place?" or "What does the earth look like underneath the surface?" This last question was one that he was particularly interested in, and he went so far as to work out what the rock layers looked like where he lived, and draw little pictures of them. Now he was a marble sculptor by trade (as well as fossil hunter, mineral seller, and a few other things) so he thought it would be even better to make his little pictures in stone. That way he could represent the layers using the actual rocks they were composed of. Over the course of his lifetime he made almost 100 of these tablets, as he called them. Then he died. And no one else was quite as interested in all those rocks and minerals as he was. His collection was sold off, bit by bit, and the table...

Compromise

Wearing trousers to church. Carving pumpkins for Hallowe'en. Dancing. Popping to Aldi on a Sunday. Believing that you can be LGBTQ+ and a Christian. Owning multiple electronic devices. Playing cards. Supporting women in church leadership. Drinking alcohol. Paying tax. Thinking that there isn't a "Biblical view of marriage". Eating meat during Lent. Washing clothes on a Sunday. Buying non-Fairtrade chocolate. Not wearing a hat or headscarf to pray. Driving a car. Wearing clothes that were probably produced in a sweatshop. All of these are things that I do. So, which ones do you think suggest that I am compromising my faith by adapting to the culture around me? And, if your answer is not "All of them" or "None of them": how do I tell the difference? We have had a series of sermons at church, from the beginning of the book of Revelation. This is before John gets to all the dragons and horses and lakes of fire. There are seven letters to seven differe...

California: Beside the Sea

What comes to mind when you think of California? Surfing! So we strapped Toby to a surfboard and pushed him out to sea... Actually, it's pretty difficult to engage in watersports when holidaying with a toddler. Sometimes it feels like it's pretty difficult to do anything when holidaying with a toddler! But one thing they do tend to enjoy is getting lovely and wet and sandy. So a beach is a good place to be. Toby was delighted to discover an apparently endless sandbox, and amused us by running in circles, rolling around and even acquiring a sand goatee! His favourite game was for Graham to bury a small ball in the sand so that he could dig it up again. One of the most relaxing afternoons we had was at Goleta Beach Park, just north of Santa Barbara, where we were staying. The air was cool but the sand was pleasantly warm, and the sky was partly cloudy, helping to mitigate the panicked impulse to slather on as much sunscreen as possi...

Martha's Marvellous Munchies

Search This Blog