dual personalities

In November we like to be especially aware of all for which we are thankful. It is good to start a list.

My Bible study group. It has been great to be in this group of ladies from my new church and a real entry therein. Because it is a sharing group, I have gotten to know so many of them and visa versa. I especially enjoy being with the young women. They are so engaged in the gospel and so intent on their prayer lives. I have never known women like this. It is a rarity in this world, no doubt. I have so much to learn. This is my last week until the new year. I will miss it.

The Bible. Since I began my search for a new denomination in earnest several years ago, and started listening to Tim Keller, R.C. Sproul et al, I have learned that to be immersed in the Bible and regular in study, is of the utmost importance. Daily Bible reading really does ground you. I have 47 days to go until I finish reading the entire Bible. And do you know what I’ll do on January 1, 2023? Start all over again.

Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.

–Psalm 119:105

The internet. It is the downfall of civilization (no exaggeration intended) as we know it, but it can be very helpful and enlightening. I especially appreciate writers who are much smarter and more articulate than I, like this guy. “We live in an age marked by infantile ingratitude. And if [he] is right, that means we live in an age when we do not really know how to live at all. Ingratitude has dehumanized us.” Truer words were never spoken.

Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!

–Psalm 107:15

Also the internet provides this kind of diversion. (Thank you, Anne.)

And I thought this was funny.

My aging and increasingly creaking body. I am grateful that I am still able to go up and down stairs and do multiple loads of laundry. I can still vacuum my home and take out the trash. I can’t do some things, but I can still do a lot. I don’t mind asking for help when I need it.

I am still feeling the effects of the cold which has had me in its clutches for nearly three weeks. I am getting better, but man, I really take for granted how great it is to be healthy until I’m not.

Jesus Christ said to all Christians without exception, “Let him who would be my disciple carry his cross, and follow me.” The broad way leads to perdition. We must follow the narrow way which few enter. We must be born again, renounce ourselves, hate ourselves, become a child, be poor in spirit, weep to be comforted and not be of the world which is cursed because of its scandels.

These truths frighten people, and this is because they only know what religion exacts without knowing what it offers, and they ignore the spirit of love which makes everything easy. They do not know that it leads to the highest perfection by a feeling of peace and love which sweetens all the struggle.

Those who are wholly God’s are always happy. They know by experience that the yoke of the Lord is “easy and light,” that we find in him “rest for the soul,” and that he comforts those who are weary and overburdened, as he himself has said.

François Fénelon (1651-1715)