Grace-period

     There is a certain arrogance to many Christians, don't ya think?  Or, it could be my arrogance talking.  I know.  Here is the thing, we sing to God, "Break my heart for what breaks yours," but then we never consider-what if I am one of the things that  breaks God's heart? I know, thinking of one's self is seen to be...well, self centered.  Especially when there is a world to save, right?  And, perhaps it is, but if I am a mess, what good will I bring?  Unless I have actually found bread, will I be able to tell the next beggar where to find it?    I am certainly not wagging my finger at anyone.  Just thinking out loud.  A small group of my friends meet to discuss a book on Thursday evenings, and we were talking tonite about the lies that we believe about ourselves.  The hellcat has been tormenting me lately.  Not that I have been as verbally violent as I feel, but I am freaked out by this hellcat, whose...

One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”     “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”   Seems to me that Jesus was asking a stupid question.  How could that man not WANT to get well?  He had been sitting at the pool for 38 years!  He was waiting for his chance.   His family left him there so that he could get well.  They weren't planning on a lecture.  He wasn't planning on being used as a teaching illustration to a rabbi's disciples.  He just needed someone to tip him into the pool when the angel arrived.  Doesn't that sound like a man who wanted to be healed?  (If you noticed a snarky tone, you are right on target.)   I was t...