The Day After Valentine's 2020

Today is the day to shop for roses if you can still find them. They'll be half the price of yesterday - a real bargain! That's just for bargain-seekers like me, who also like roses, any day, anytime.

Well, I got expensive roses on a vase sitting in my living room, too! I know they are pricey because they were bought yesterday and it was Valentine's. The next most costly day to get them is probably on Christmas Eve. Hmmm, love... and roses. I'm just so blessed I have a daughter whose Valentine gave her flowers on the mandatory flower day.

I'm a mom and just like the many moms out there I just hope that my daughter will be happy and will actually one day marry her date, have a settled and stable life, maybe have kids. For life goes on and that's how it's meant to be. We can't run away from the realities that we all grow old, we pass on, and hopefully, we have children by our side who would help us in the years when we are frail and need help. We also hope that our children will have children who will have the same heart of compassion to do likewise for their parents, and so on. Yes, nursing homes and retirement plans are there, but it is never the same to grow old surrounded by your own family who care for you.

So, what do we have on our plate today? The raging Coronavirus in China, the threat of locust swarms in Africa, the impeachment acquittal of President Trump, the upcoming US presidential race, Krushner's proposed peace plan for Israel and Palestine, Brexit, Megxit, the Oscars, the passing of Kobe Bryant, the viral American Airlines vid of a man repeatedly hitting a woman's reclined seat  in front of him? Today we have these challenges, losses or wins; tomorrow they may be a little bit different, but quite like the same. But the faithfulness of God never ends, His mercies are new every morning, and we manage through another day. Win or lose, He is in control of everything. We may be in dire circumstances for which we have no answers - utterly clueless how to turn things around for ourselves - but we can always wait on God and He would do it. What a great, mighty and loving God we have!

Yay! Valentine's Flowers!

19 Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.
20 Surely my soul remembers
And is bowed down within me.
21 This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
22 The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I have hope in Him.”
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the person who seeks Him.
26 It is good that he waits silently
For the salvation of the Lord.

Lamentations 3 (NASB)

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This is a re-blog. If you wish to cite this blog, citation is as follows: PureJoyLand. (2020, Feb 15). The Day After Valentine's 2020 [Blog Post]. Retrieved from  http://purejoyland.com/2020/02/the-day-after-valentines/ ‎

Why is the New Testament So Hard to Read Compared to Psalms or Proverbs?

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.

31 “It was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce’; 32 but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. (Matt 5, NASB Version)

It's because of hard-hitting passages like the above. 😁 It's so much easier to read Psalms where you can cry to God with the Psalmist to help you with life's burdens and cares. But passages like the above from Matthew point us to the Savior in the Bible. We can't go through life without breaking any of God's commandments. Because that's what we are - sinners. But sin leads to entanglements, catastrophic consequences, illnesses and death - true signs that we need a Savior from sin and death - Jesus Christ. We need to receive Him into our hearts so we will have power to overcome sin. We need to be spiritually re-born.

12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1, NASB)

3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
(John 3, NASB)

9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. (1 John 3, NASB)

It is this "seed" - a deposit of the Holy Spirit - that comes into us when we receive Jesus into our hearts that gives us the power to overcome sin. This happens when we repent of our sins and make a covenant with Jesus, that in exchange for the life He laid down for you and me on the cross, we lay our own lives in return, promising to obey His commandments in the Bible. Without that commitment of total surrender of our lives and will to Jesus, no Covenant Relationship happens. Of course, we are human and we make mistakes and we break promises. But If the repentance and total turning around is done in all sincerity at one point in one's life, Jesus recognizes that, and a transaction actually happens. Once that transaction is in place we can still break promises but God doesn't because He's the Covenant-Keeping God. So, what does that mean? He will always turn you back to the right track to make sure you finish the race of overcoming sin, as much as possible, to enjoy Eternal Life now and forevermore. That is what it means to be born-again in Christ and to have Eternal Life.

This is also what sets Christianity apart from Religion. All the religions of the world teach us to follow certain rules to achieve Heaven or Immortality. In biblical Christianity God Himself came down and lived among us and imparted a part of Himself to live in us so we can attain Heaven and Eternal Life. God does not just throw at us a list of rules to follow but He Himself dwells in man to enable him to live out those rules and be united with God. As such, Christianity is not a religion, it is being in union with God.

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This is a re-blog. If you wish to cite this blog, citation is as follows: PureJoyLand. (2020, Feb 6). Why is the New Testament So Hard to Read Compared to Psalms or Proverbs? [Blog Post]. Retrieved from   http://purejoyland.com/2020/02/why-is-the-new-t…alms-or-proverbs/ ‎