1. I am currently in the midst of teaching a course on the Pentateuch (Creation and Covenants) in the accelerated undergraduate degree program at Lancaster Bible College. This past week, we found ourselves at the foot of Mt. Sinai as Moses delivered the ten commandments to the people of Israel. Often, Christians look at these ten commandments wrongly .... as either ten suggestions or ten restrictions. But they are anything but! Pastor David Murray tries his hand at re-framing the ten commandments from ten vices to avoid to ten virtues to pursue. I think you will find his insightful (and brief) article refreshing. I did!
2. One thing I have observed as our kids are now raising their own kids is the way that they have stressed the importance of people. It looks something like this: child is playing with a toy (or on an iPad) and I walk into the house. I say hi ... my grandchild continues to play, oblivious to my presence. Parent walks over to child and stops their play. "Papa is here and he said hello. You need to respond. Go and give him a hug. Remember, people are more important than that toy (or game!)" Yes. I like that! And people are more important than toys, or games, or sporting events, or ... yes ... even animals! Don't get me wrong. I do love animals (Although my wife and I don't currently have any pets in our house, it is not due to a disdain for animals but more an issue of lifestyle. We travel a good bit (at least we did prior to my wife's current health journey ... see update below). Arranging care for pets while we are gone is not something we want to have to do!). Recently in the news there has been uproars on social media because zoo animals have been killed when zoo officials have determined that a human life was in danger (the most recent occurred in Cincinnati where a gorilla was killed after a young child had slipped into its exhibit). Many people criticized the killing of these animals. Listen, people are more important than animals. In the Christian Judaeo worldview, only human beings are image bearers of the Creator. Yes, animals need to be treated humanely. But when it comes down to saving the life of an animal or saving the life of a human ... one must go with the latter every time. I would only wish that the killing of unborn children would receive as much attention as the killing of the Cincinnati gorilla did!
3. One of my favorite (and needful) verses in the Bible is Proverbs 10:19. In the verse, God warns us about our tongue (as he also does in the third chapter of the New Testament letter of James). Why is it that we so often run into problems with our mouth? One big reason is that far too many of us start
4. Finally here's an update on my wife Sharon and her journey. We saw the orthopedic surgeon on Wednesday (our 8th visit since he did the surgery to repair Sharon's broken femur back on November 19th ... but who's counting!). He did not take x-rays (he will when she goes back in 6 weeks). He still does not know if Sharon's fracture is healed. In his words, "it may be ... it may not be." He is encouraged that she has been walking more and the pain is less (she's been using meloxicam and that has been a help). He wants her to continue physical therapy twice a week. So all this to say we are continuing our "wait and see". Dr. Heinle told us that if the bone is not healed, eventually the hardware (plate and screws holding the bone in place) will begin to show signs of failure on the x-rays (or worse case, the plate will actually break at which point Sharon will know it. So another somewhat "mixed bag" visit. We continue to wait upon God for HIS strength. Thanks so much to all of you who have prayed and continue to pray. They mean more than you know.
Thanks for stopping by ...
Pj
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