Entirely Too Busy

You know, that last chapter I read of Romans is a long list of Paul saying hello to various people. It reminds me of the fact that I haven't visited Ms. Myrtle in several weeks.

You know, I get so convicted when I don't 1-see people or talk to them on the phone or email them, and 2-pray for them. I am feeling pretty "holy spirit prickly" about Ms. Myrtle. I need to get over there. And I just got a call from what may be another best friend, Wanda, about walking with her just once a week. My mom is getting older, and I haven't seen her in almost 6 months. She lives 500 miles away -- but I miss her terribly. I haven't had Thursday morning coffe with Ms. Nancy in about a month.

I am missing my peeps.

I keep thinking about the fact that our lives are just a wisp of smoke in the entire scheme of things. Just a blink. They go so fast -- one look at my graduating high school twins reminds me rather painfully of that!

But people are eternal. When I lived in California, surrounded by all that material wealth, I used to remind myself that I had riches eternally in the souls of my five daughters. People don't end -- they go on and on to lives eternally. The question is only one of what the quality of that life will be: a life with or without the presence of God.

So the fact that people's lives here are brief and that they are infinitely more important than the "stuff" I have to do should be enough to get me out of this house and over to Ms. Myrtle's.

Gotta go. I need to call her right now.

xoxox

You're a Name, Not a Number

From Romans 9:

If each grain of sand on the seashore were numbered, and the sum labeled "chosen of God," they'd be numbers still, not names; salvation comes by personal selection. God doesn't count us; he calls us by name. Arithmetic is not his focus.

Paul is quote Isaiah here. Pretty cool that you're a name and not a number, huh?

xoxox

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Good news!

From Romans 8 --

-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!

and my favourite part --

31-39 So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

Who says it better than God?

xoxox