Happy 2010!

Hmm.  I wonder how we’re to say that? Is it going to be “Two Thousand Ten” or “Twenty-Ten?”  I vote for “Twenty-Ten.” First time we can actually say Twenty-something and make sense, plus it’s one less syllable.

Well, I’m finally back and ready to do a blog post. Or at least determined to do one, whether I’m ready or not. Truthfully, I have sat around for an hour or so, gone for a walk, sat around some more, read Drudge and Powerline and Victor Davis Hansen, waiting for the Lord to give me something profound and meaningful to say, but instead it seemed He said just go write.

So I am, doing so as I come off one of the most difficult and challenging holiday seasons I’ve ever experienced. There was no one major element that made it difficult, but rather a rash of small hits, insults, losses, obstacles, disappointments, inconveniences and just plain weird sequences of events, the timing of which, the interweaving of which, the seemingly tailored nature of which produced an unrelenting parade of Things That Must be Dealt With. Without sinning.

Well, I dealt, but not without sinning, alas. In the end I was reminded of the fact that it doesn’t matter if I fail. My failure is built into the plan. When I realize I’ve sinned, I have only to rebound (I John 1:9 If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.) And after that, keep taking in the word under the teaching of my Pastor, because that’s how God is going to change me. Not by me trying to do better, but by Him changing my thinking. All I do is expose myself regularly — daily — to the teaching of the word.

Yes, I do mean daily. First because real change occurs slowly, incrementally, over time  — way too much, in my opinion, but nevertheless, that’s how it happens. We focus on the Word, and it changes us. Then we can take no credit.

Secondly, we do it daily because we’re in a war and the other side is constantly assaulting us with an opposing viewpoint. God’s ways aren’t our ways, nor are His thoughts our thoughts.  The devil rules the world for now, and his thoughts abound — in the air, through the radio, TV, other people (most of them, actually) music, news, dramas, billboards… it’s a deluge. And with the sin nature happily sucking up all that worldly viewpoint (since it HATES God’s viewpoint) the only hope we have of holding fast to truth is to get it every day.

Many people think they already have truth. That it doesn’t take that much to find and hold onto it. But God’s word says otherwise. As a matter of fact, learning how to discern the truth, the right way from the wrong way, the difference between good and evil… was exactly the temptation the woman faced in the Garden. She had no clue she was even being tempted, being totally deceived. But what the serpent offered and what she desired was to be like God, knowing good from evil, being able to discern on her own, apart from His word, what was right and what was wrong. She thought, when she ate the fruit that she was doing the right thing. The good thing. The better thing. But she was wrong. Deceived.

Determining what is right and what is wrong, what God wants and what He doesn’t is not nearly as simple as the world would like us to believe. And even after we determine it, living in it is another matter altogether… The battle is all about thought. What thought system will we function under? And God’s is in the minority….

Gee, that was not at all the post I was expecting to write when I sat down here. But I think I’ll keep it, anyway.

0 thoughts on “Happy 2010!

  1. Loren Warnemuende

    Good to hear from you again, even if it wasn’t what you expected to write! I am always encouraged by your reminder that we can rebound, and that God IS working in us, slowly but surely, as we let Him.

    I got The Enclave from my wonderful hubby for Christmas and am enjoying it. Kraig is waiting for his turn 🙂 .

    Reply
  2. becky

    I’m glad you kept this post. It comforted me. I’m a new fan of yours. Read Arena this past October while battling swine flu. Requested all the rest of your books for Christmas, and got them. Unfortunately, some got lost in the shipping nebula, so I currently have Enclave, and books 2 and 3 of the Guardian series, and I’m awaiting books 1 and 4. Went to your website this evening to make sure I wouldn’t be jumping into the middle of something by reading Enclave, and found your blog.

    This post answered some questions for me. I had a difficult and challenging holiday season as well. Just as you described — all sorts of small things to deal with that added up to a trying Christmas. But mine ended differently than yours. Four days after Christmas (fifteen days ago), my sweet daddy committed suicide. The trying Christmas was too much for him to handle, coupled with his post-heart-attack-depression-inducing meds and lifelong battle with suicidal depression.

    He would have been 62 today. We’re all devastated, of course. His wife, children and grandchildren miss him like crazy and want him back desperately. The lies, false guilt, questions, emotions, and broken hearts litter the existence of those he left behind. Post-suicide trauma creates a deluge unlike any other. But my greatest comfort is just what you described. The Word of God. And I’ve found, over the past 15 days, that *what* Scripture I read matters far less than the *fact* that I read. ALL of God’s Word is living and powerful, and simply reading it has been my greatest weapon.

    One of the lies being whispered to me is “What’s the point of reading your Bible? Your dad read his Bible every day of his life, and look where it got him.” But your post answers that question definitively. Obviously, when the Lord told you to just go write, He had a plan you couldn’t see. Thank you for obeying Him.

    Reply
  3. Sandy Elder

    This is bit off the track but I was reading your page on Good and Evil with quotes from Koontz. ie.,

    “All of which is why the theme in Koontz’s book so annoyed me. Here it is as he stated it:”

    “None of us can save himself; we are the instruments of one another’s salvation, and only by the hope that we give to others do we lift ourselves out of the darkness into light.”

    THIS SOUNDS LIKE LIBERATION THEOLOGY TO ME…SANDY

    Reply

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