Nothing ever goes smoothly, it seems. Or if something does it’s almost a shock. Our culture has a name for it:  Murphy’s Law. No point in going into all the ways it shows up in daily living.  But it might be worth thinking about it in a spiritual context.

You can count yourself blessed if you’ve never been asked by a health care professional to rate your pain on a scale of 1 to 10.  Many are all too familiar with the question. 

Paul exhorts us to examine ourselves, as often as we remember our Lord’s sacrifice and resurrection.

Ordinary sentences are simply inadequate to describe Jesus. A poet’s touch is needed, the skillful use of devices such as metaphor, which can pack far more meaning into a few words.

“Have I learned anything?  Have I grown?  Have I lost ground?” 

Paul confesses to a specific recurring weakness—covetousness. Realizing he might have had a particular problem in this area, we start noticing that it appears A LOT in his writings. 

“These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.” (Rev 3:14).**

The New Testament frequently and emphatically reminds us that the Law of Moses was a foreshadowing of the work of Messiah. 

Today I was struck with a realization of how many people we encounter in scripture, of whom God asked a lot—way beyond what we might think of as a “standard” level of commitment. 

Everyone knows what a scapegoat is:  someone who is made to take the blame for something, allowing the actual perpetrator(s) to go scot-free.

The apostle Paul remarks on our human frailty, and at the same time on the resiliency which is characteristic of those who perceive the light God has provided to shine in the darkness, in the face of Jesus Christ.

How would you react, if you were transported into the throne room of the Almighty?  Met by seraphim, who proclaim the Lord’s holiness with an earth-and-heaven-shaking voice?  Somehow “awe-inspiring” doesn’t do justice.