365 Reflections

The tendency of our faith is up and down. I'm sure I'm not the only one who experienced that frustration. One day you're hot and ready for the Lord's work, the other day you're cold as ice. I believe part of it is being human. Our flesh does not want the Lord. Our flesh wants our own way, rest, ease, and isolation. But it is then we find ourselves in desperation for the very One who saved us from all of that in the first place.  In Song of Solomon 5, what began as a hot torrid love affair has slid into apathetic coolness. Song of Solomon 5:2 (ESV) I slept, but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking. “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.” The woman hears the knock of her lover calling out to her. What is the response? Song of Solomon 5:3 (ESV) I had put off my garment; how could I put it on? I had bathed my feet; how could I soil them? She had gotten comfortable, and ...

Sometimes we just want to go back in time, don't we? Especially when life is hard. That's where Job arrives in chapter 29. He looks with longing on the days of old and desires to return. Who can blame him? Nothing good has transpired since the beginning of this story. Brutal loss, tortuous suffering, and endless unsolicited and unwise counsel have been his experience for long enough to make him cry out in anguish for the better days of old.  Job 29:2–5 (ESV) “Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me, 3 when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness, 4 as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent, 5 when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were all around me,... One thing you will see is that in the English translation of this chapter is how few sentences there are. Job expounds in long sentences recounting the glory of his former years.  He speaks of the leadership role in hi...

I've always been intrigued with Simeon in the Temple in Luke 2.  An old man described as "righteous and devout" who hoped for the "consolation of Israel."  I even wrote a play for him one Christmas! But I love how poetically Luke brings the Trinity together in Simeon's reception of Jesus. Luke 2:27–28 (ESV) And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, 28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, This righteous man had three things happen as an example of how to be a righteous man before God: 1. He was led by the Spirit into the temple to meet Jesus. The Spirit draws a man to Jesus.  A man is not a man until he has met the man Jesus.   2. He held on to Jesus. Perhaps weakened from age.  Since he was ready to die after this moment.  But he holds on to Jesus.  When life is treating you rotten, hold on to Jesus.  He is the o...