Today's Sunday Morning Coming Down will consist of my personal resolution for the New Year. It's for this reason that I chose the cartoon displayed herewith, for we all sometimes think of ourselves as being perfect, but perfection is not a part of our DNA; we are mortal sinners who constantly fail along our way. And if we want to talk about perfection, there is only one person who ever lived with perfection and He departed this earth over two thousand years ago.
I planned to publish me resolution yesterday, but a slight blogging glitch got in the way, so here it is as part of my weekend special blog. It actually belongs right where it is today since it is so appropriate for a commentary on faith. Yes, the Lord does work in mysterious ways.
My New Year's resolution consists of two parts. The first one actually includes the second because it consists of all components of my life. But I thought the second was also important to spell out separately as well since it involves an area where I especially want to improve myself that is very difficult. But a good resolution should be something that takes work, not something that is easy. Self-improvement always takes lots of work.
Part One, or the "Big Kahuna" of my resolution is simply this: To put God first in all things that I do, putting myself second. Now when I say God, I am talking about the traditional Christian God found on the God of Israel, but also including s the Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit (some say the Holy Ghost) as brought to us by the New Covenant.
The God of Israel, the God of all Christians and all mankind as well, realized that all the blessings, love and opportunity He gave man just didn't get them to change their ways and He needed to add something, something tangible that man could see. Man was indeed intent upon continuing with sin, so He responded by sending His Son to die for us, potentially solving the problem. I say potentially because although at the moment Jesus died on the Cross we were forgiven of our sins, but that wasn't enough. We must individually accept His offer and believe by faith, doing all we can to live our lives in His image. Many have refused to believe it as Truth and the rest of us still falter no matter how hard we try.
Jesus knew this would happen while he was in human form and warned his Disciples. The question was could they carry on with his work, a work which was dangerous due to the hate present in the world, so after His resurrection from the dead on earth and his Ascension back to the Father, he sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. The Spirit would be our internal guidance counselor to advice us on how to live for God and to keep us in touch with Jesus, our Mediator with God. Even so, we still come up short and it's for that reason that I make the resolution to put God first, the God in Three Persons that I have accepted and believe on faith, in everything that I do on earth.
And for those of you who might question this, wondering what it might say about the importance of my family and country in such an arrangement, there is a clear answer. If we put God first, the One who knows all things and is all powerful and our Creator, how would family and country not be included in his grace? Everything in our life will be included and we need to leave it up to His will, using our talents and skill to carry that out.
So, now that we've addressed the predominant part of my resolution, here's the second part. It is to use my writing in a way that would be pleasing to Him. And that means that while voicing what I believe is appropriate, be it religion, general life, nature, animals and yes, even politics, it should be presented without snark and without getting into nasty give and take on social media or wherever. To do this, I will "talk" about the issues without using snark in my blogs, working hard to avoid demeaning others and their viewpoints as I go. If they demean me, I will just move on, not taking the bait.
Now, this is not easy since the snark, the sarcasm and even the use of hate, sadly, has become so much a part of our discourse today, but I will endeavor to do my best to avoid being drawn into it. And my daily blogs will have no more than two direct political commentaries per week. I can't divorce myself from politics since I studied it extensively and have actively worked in campaigns. But I can work hard to do so in a way that God would find pleasing and this is why I added this to my resolution.
So, here it is in writing, for me to see every day as I measure my Christian growth in my life. It's my goal and my challenge and I'm going to work on it diligently in 2018. And frankly, it will be a work in progress that I anticipate will be continuing until the day my last breath on this earth is drawn. I truly believe that's how it's meant to be.
We can be both bold and loving at the same time. It just takes His guidance as we go. And that's my resolution and my final Sunday Morning Coming Down blog for 2017. Happy New Year, everyone.
I planned to publish me resolution yesterday, but a slight blogging glitch got in the way, so here it is as part of my weekend special blog. It actually belongs right where it is today since it is so appropriate for a commentary on faith. Yes, the Lord does work in mysterious ways.
My New Year's resolution consists of two parts. The first one actually includes the second because it consists of all components of my life. But I thought the second was also important to spell out separately as well since it involves an area where I especially want to improve myself that is very difficult. But a good resolution should be something that takes work, not something that is easy. Self-improvement always takes lots of work.
Part One, or the "Big Kahuna" of my resolution is simply this: To put God first in all things that I do, putting myself second. Now when I say God, I am talking about the traditional Christian God found on the God of Israel, but also including s the Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit (some say the Holy Ghost) as brought to us by the New Covenant.
The God of Israel, the God of all Christians and all mankind as well, realized that all the blessings, love and opportunity He gave man just didn't get them to change their ways and He needed to add something, something tangible that man could see. Man was indeed intent upon continuing with sin, so He responded by sending His Son to die for us, potentially solving the problem. I say potentially because although at the moment Jesus died on the Cross we were forgiven of our sins, but that wasn't enough. We must individually accept His offer and believe by faith, doing all we can to live our lives in His image. Many have refused to believe it as Truth and the rest of us still falter no matter how hard we try.
Jesus knew this would happen while he was in human form and warned his Disciples. The question was could they carry on with his work, a work which was dangerous due to the hate present in the world, so after His resurrection from the dead on earth and his Ascension back to the Father, he sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. The Spirit would be our internal guidance counselor to advice us on how to live for God and to keep us in touch with Jesus, our Mediator with God. Even so, we still come up short and it's for that reason that I make the resolution to put God first, the God in Three Persons that I have accepted and believe on faith, in everything that I do on earth.
And for those of you who might question this, wondering what it might say about the importance of my family and country in such an arrangement, there is a clear answer. If we put God first, the One who knows all things and is all powerful and our Creator, how would family and country not be included in his grace? Everything in our life will be included and we need to leave it up to His will, using our talents and skill to carry that out.
So, now that we've addressed the predominant part of my resolution, here's the second part. It is to use my writing in a way that would be pleasing to Him. And that means that while voicing what I believe is appropriate, be it religion, general life, nature, animals and yes, even politics, it should be presented without snark and without getting into nasty give and take on social media or wherever. To do this, I will "talk" about the issues without using snark in my blogs, working hard to avoid demeaning others and their viewpoints as I go. If they demean me, I will just move on, not taking the bait.
Now, this is not easy since the snark, the sarcasm and even the use of hate, sadly, has become so much a part of our discourse today, but I will endeavor to do my best to avoid being drawn into it. And my daily blogs will have no more than two direct political commentaries per week. I can't divorce myself from politics since I studied it extensively and have actively worked in campaigns. But I can work hard to do so in a way that God would find pleasing and this is why I added this to my resolution.
So, here it is in writing, for me to see every day as I measure my Christian growth in my life. It's my goal and my challenge and I'm going to work on it diligently in 2018. And frankly, it will be a work in progress that I anticipate will be continuing until the day my last breath on this earth is drawn. I truly believe that's how it's meant to be.
We can be both bold and loving at the same time. It just takes His guidance as we go. And that's my resolution and my final Sunday Morning Coming Down blog for 2017. Happy New Year, everyone.
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