Galatians: Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again?
This is the second time writing this as the website ran into technical difficulties and quit working. I thought it saved periodically (I've seen it saving), but apparently, it didn't, and it didn't recognize the first draft. I can only hope this will be better than the first draft, but we'll never know. Truly, there are no coincidences.
Once we begin to get to know God, and God gets to know us, it changes everything, especially our perspective on life.
I have a friend and we were discussing a book we both had read/listened to and it was sad to learn of the hardships the character went through. My friend made the comment, "Life isn't fair." I realized that that was her actual belief in life.
Elemental spirits are the words that caught my eye this morning. When we are in our elemental stages in life, we might think that "life is unfair" but we don't know what it looks like from God's perspective.
I have another friend who lost his job a little more than ten years ago. He seemed like he was really good at his job and made a positive impact. Unfair? Maybe. When I asked what happened, he said he still had no idea, but in his next breath, he added that because he got fired, he was able to attend his fortieth high school reunion in another state. He danced with a gal he barely knew when they were in school together, and since then they've been blissfully in love and living their dream.
Instead of dwelling in the negative, worrisome, unfair spirits realm, may we dive into God's love for us and experience His world and vision for our lives. May we leave all negativity on His altar, freeing ourselves to live in the there-are-no-coincidences. God has the plan. We are here to carry out the plan, no matter what it is, believing that it is all good and of love, because God is all good, God is love.
April 9
Matthew: and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
Mark: And he said, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”
Luke: Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,
John: The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)
Acts: if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed,
Romans: Is this blessedness, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We say, “Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.”
1 Corinthians: For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to mortals.
2 Corinthians: persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
Galatians: Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again?
Ephesians: (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
Philippians: Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
Colossians: he is coming with Onesimus, the faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you about everything here.
1 Thessalonians: Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another;
1 Timothy: The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance.
2 Timothy: Do your best to come to me soon,
Hebrews: So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God;
James: Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection.
1 Peter: Be hospitable to one another without complaining.
1 John: God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
Revelation: And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to the one who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever,