Journaling log-1

I’m an avid journaler.(..I know I said I wouldn’t make posts about myself, however, I’ve determined that that is inevitable.) I want to encourage you, reader, to a life of journaling. A life of pouring out your soul on paper, or electronic medium.

A few thoughts on journaling…

Journaling does not take a wise man (or woman), or an emotional person, or a wordsmith - it takes a reflective person. This is something that we are either born with or can acquire. Now, how do we acquire this ability? Through being observant. After all, isn't journaling just writing about your observations? For the most part.

What about those entries that spring from the soul and not the eyes? These take reflection and observation as well, examining the mind and reflecting on what takes (or took) place in the heart. What difference is there between the one who journals and the doctor who inscribes on paper the prescription? nothing!

Why journal?

Journal because you want to. If you don’t want to, you will eventually quit, and very soon and If you do stick with the art your portraits will indeed be something quite awful. How do you acquire a taste for this cuisine? By the joys that spring forth from reflecting on what you've tasted (ok “written”, sometimes i’m too poetic). And I know, this is all one never. ending. circle.

Look, let me make this plain and simple for those who appreciate plainness and simplicity, for journaling is not merely for those love elegant verbiage and beautiful wordplay: When you write in a journal you’re able to document your life for yourself, or all, to see. Myself, I am a private person, but I don’t mind being transparent, when I want to be. I challenge you to be interested enough in your own situations and emotions to ponder them upon a pad. If my own life - a snoozefest, is interesting enough to document surely you, the reader’s, life is as well.

Time

Recent events have really caused me to reflect on the concept of time. Time is infinitely precious, especially to the finite man, who will eventually live forever (talk about a paradox). Time is like...a car on a one-way lane, with no reverse, and no brakes. You can only move forward. If you loose your way you can never go backwards and re-embark on your journey. You can only recouperate and continue where you left at, arriving at your destination late. Many of those who left at the same time as you have long since passed you by...but i digress.

Time is the father of wisdom.
"Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child"(Proverbs 22:15) and "Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days,"(Job 12:12) ,beloved.
What seperates children and men is time.

Time brings circumstances. Without time, nothing that happens happens.  "In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth"(Genesis 1:1). "In the beginning", time. MUST preceed creation, and you can deduce from that that ALL that occurs within the created order is dependant on time.

See how valuable time is?

*I have often lamented the time I have waisted in my life. I honestly view everything that happened in my life prior to coming to Christ as UTTERLY worthless to me. Worthless in the sense that my old man has not left me any practical inheretance in this new life. I truly am reborn -my hypothetical car crashed and upon its repair all the cargo I once hauled is now spoiled goods, worthless garbage. Now im in a virtually new car and I must harvest new goods. All that time collecting trash is now lost! Anyways, enough about me. (I dont want this blog to be about my personal life.)

We must have the same view concerning lost time as Paul had:

"But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, " (Phillipians 3:13b).

And, with the new time God may grant us?

"making the best use of the time, because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:16).

Brothers, sisters, let us praise God for the moments granted to us in this fleeting life and do all for the glory of him who is the called the Ancient of Days.

Are we still under OT law?

Matthew 5:17 ESV

“Do not think that I have come to abolish   the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but   to fulfill them."

To what extent are you required to obey that which God commands of you, Beloved? How vast is his law to you? Does is span the length of the Jordan, then end? Or, does it flow from the lake of Gennesaret outward?  

See, Many of those who profess the Lordship of Jesus Christ think of his commands, from Matthew onward, as a “new thing”. Hence the term "New Testament"(a term which I have no problem with whatsoever, if properly understood)is very profitable to them. Conversely, those same men view those former commands, from Malachi backwards, as, well, "the old thing" - that which is to be discarded for that which is more..fashionable. 

The Old Testament is viewed by many professing Christians today to be obsolete -now made void. Yet, Christ here pronounces the exact opposite! Certainly, they reason, this must be understood a different way,because no man in his right mind thinks those under the blood of Christ should dare trample that blood by sacrificing lambs and doves. Well, his reasoning is certainly correct. It is what he concludes from that reasoning that is error.

They assume that the law is to taken as one whole. They then throw that which has passed away out with that which is still valid. The law is to be understood by a division of moral, ceremonial, and civil sanctions. God has DONE AWAY with the ceremonial aspects of the law through Christ’s sacrificial death, those civil laws are also done away with the nation of Israel (the general equity of thereof still binding).

The MORAL aspect of the Mosaic Law is STILL BINDING. They are as timeless as God is. Our infinitely holy God’s view of morality does not change. Should we assume that God’s view on sodomy will change someday? Of course not!

Let me ask you something:

Exodus 22:19 ESV

“Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death.”

Does God still view bestiality negatively? If you don’t believe the OT moral law is still binding then you can’t say so definitively. If he views it negatively, isn't a man having relations with, say, a cat a sin?

Christians must STOP denying Christ by rejecting the Old testament and understand its proper application in Christian living today. Without so we displease God by neglecting to obey his commands. I know first hand that many things are hard to understand, but we must apply ourselves to understanding Gods's will for the church in American and as a whole.