Yearly Archive: 2008

Just very busy with Adventure Camp. What a fantastic week with kids running around doing silly and wonderful things. Karen had a super group of helpers working with her to make our “Power Lab” at church work.

It’s not my place to thank anyone, but everyone who helped made the burden lighter. They also helped make the “Good News” clear (like “visible”) in the way they lived their lives for the kids.

These past three weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. It was like one thing led to another – everything tied together. Rush from one thing to another – something every hour in our lives. Did manage to get away that one night just to catch our breaths.

Now it’s back to the “normal” things, and a little slower pace.

Got back to I John 2, and he pulled no punches. Even used a big word like “propitiation” to describe what Jesus is for our sins. This kind of goes along with the sermon yesterday (which talked about selfishness) when in verse 3 he says “we know if we know Him if we keep His commandments.” A hard measure to check myself against.

So, it makes me wonder if James and John got together in writing their letters. The old “faith and works” thing and the way I can know I know him.

Hmmm…Sounds like the measurement I need to apply to my life is based on what I know about His commandments. That implies (no demands) that there is a lot of reading for me to do just so I will know what His commandments are. It means living out (doing) what He wants me to do.

Some would say it is the root of all evil. Others would say it is “evil”. I just know that when you do something over and over, it is usually called a habit – then it becomes an addiction. You know, you have to do it.

Well, actors and musicians and dancers repeat their lines/words/music/steps over and over and over. How do you think the best basketball players keep making those shots (even if you don’t want them to)? It is because they keep practicing the thing(s) they want to get better at. For you english teachers, or other such, that was a “bad” sentence. Even they (the english teachers) repeat the rules of grammar and sentence structure.

Repetition can be either good or bad – it depends on what you are repeating, and what standard you apply to the thing you are doing. We would probably say that someone who repeatedly does their exercise (run, walk, whatever) is doing a good thing for themselves physically. The person who repeats at something bad (“now he’s quit talking and gone to meddling”) gets our “dander” up.

Doing something “good” over and over gets us in the habit of doing the right or better thing.

I think that you get the picture. My mind was stirred up when Dr. Gil’s devotional last week was on spending time “repeatedly” reading the Bible and praying. He was in Proverbs 4:21, and as Gil says Solomon is reminding us that we have to repeat important stuff over and over, or else we will forget what we should be doing and drift back to our old style of living.

That may be something that we don’t want to hear, but think about it – how’s your piano playing lately; or your golf game; or your ??? I know that I want to get better at some things in life – time to get back to doing what I need to be doing. How about you? What do you want better?