Reminiscing Truths ⚓

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12:1 (ESV)                     I have been pondering upon this thought since early last week when Hapi and I were choosing the hymns for the upcoming Sunday (yesterday). Abba has been preaching a mini-series on Christian Service for some Sundays now. When we were told that the sermon for yesterday would be about the personal application of Christian service, the  Take My Life and Let it Be  hymn immediately came to mind as a fitting hymn of preparation. I'm not sure whether the hymn had a similar scriptural reference, but it turned out to be really such an appropriate hymn to what the sermon discussed. The text was in Romans 12. This topic, of course, has already been preached several times before. It was highlighted in the mini-series on Biblical...

He whom the Lord loves, He disciplines. If you experience correction in your walk, rejoice. Not everyone is NOT left to their own destructive paths and ways. You hear the voice of God that reproves. Other have only silence. Every christian walking in his earthly journey still has a lot of learning and unlearning to do. If you see God’s hands coming down to you, and with great might, find comfort in this: that He makes your crooked ways straight. His hands are not to condemn you, but to correct you. So HATE your sin, Christian. Know that each crooked act and way is an offense against the Almighty God. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Mortify your sins; do not give any room for them, not even their shadow. Flee from them and their temptations. Discipline yourself, beat your body black and blue, lest you become disqualified and you fail to meet the test. Strip off your sinful and crooked ways, lest you find yourself unfit for the Kingdom. But also, learn to kiss the waves that ...

But the Lord said to David my father, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. Nevertheless, it is not you who shall build my house...' -II Chronicles 6:8-9a           "You did well that it was in your heart." Serving and glorifying God, while He does give a specific approach, can still be varied for every individual saved by grace. Sometimes, you get to be blessed with a task that has an easily recognizable path leading to it. Leaders taking care of the flock. Men being called to preach. To shepherd. To counsel. Women being called to motherhood. To rearing up godly offspring. To benevolent service. To playing the church piano. To counseling other women. But most of the time, for many people, the calling is not as clear-cut and descriptive of a "job description." Washing the mugs. Scrubbing the bathroom floor. Waiting for anyone who'd ask for help. Some roles, so to speak, are too shor...

Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,  who seek him with their whole heart,  who also do no wrong  but walk in His ways!                                                                     (Psalm 119:2-3) The psalms, and mostly all of the Bible’s poetry, operate through what is called parallelism . As a literary device, parallelism draws on this idea of connection and similarity. Parallelism is when an author constructs parts of a sentence to be grammatically similar, often repeating a specific word, phrase, or idea. This repetition creates a connection between the ideas discussed. These parallel ideas also become emphasized and become more important for the reader. (Study.com, Parallelism in Poetry) Parallelism, then, is used in the Bible to compare an idea previously mentioned and paint ho...