Warm greetings from Glenda and myself. We had snow in Hertfordshire last night and the current temperature is 2 degrees. A slight difference from some of our friends in the southern hemisphere!
I include this picture of Captain Kirk’s famous space vessel for a reason. While watching one of the old classics recently, I was reminded of how the spaceship could deploy a “force field” to deflect or destroy enemy missiles, plasma pulses and yet-to-be-invented weaponry. The thought hit me - most of us spend our lives with our force fields up…
So aware of ourselves, and of others who relate to us
of threats and possible threats
of our own rights and who violates them
of our works and who appreciates them
of our legacies and who honors them
of our own hardships and who does not share them
of our spheres and who is part of them…
Words and looks and frowns and grins….meanings within meanings….thoughts within thoughts and what’s written between the lines.
You would not be human without some moments in the twilight zone between law and grace. But the force-field God wants us to have is one that shines from us, absorbing hurts and receiving wicked men, and radiating God’s love in its place. Now there is an impossible life. A faith life. A shock absorber life.
A Christian life. Be who you are. Exercise faith to believe God will empower your decisions to align to His will-Word.
After all, who of us have yet faced what our Lord faced, Who was hanged on a tree and in his final moments of agony cried out, “father, forgive them for they know not what they do”?
1 Cor 4:12-13 “and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.”
Matt 5:38-48 ““You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Now, there’s a mighty new year’s resolution!
Love
Nick
