Pray without ceasing

I can't believe you're still reading this homespun blog. I can't believe I'm still writing it. Each week I listen to and read the teachings of wise patriots, theologians, apologists, defenders of our faith and scientists; yet when I sit down to write this blog it all flies out the window and I just want to gather with all of you, fall on our faces before God and pray without ceasing for our country. What has happened to us? How has the evil one wormed his way into the very core of our government and into every facet of our society? In my little world, I continue to fight for marriages. Divorces abound. "Blended families" don't blend. Second and third marriages struggle to navigate through layers of relationships. The family that was in my lifetime the strength of our country is being laughed off the stage. It isn't that the family has not always been under attack. ...ever since the Garden of Eden. ...but this is America. ...a nation established upon biblical principles.

I was thinking yesterday about Solomon's many wives. Did they pick a number? As a wife of sixty years I  know well how much I needed to be the most important person on earth to my husband.  For a man purported to be wise, Solomon wasn't. He bemoaned the effects of his indulgences throughout one of the Books he wrote.  His daddy wasn't much of a role model; yet the Lord called David his "friend". ...so many puzzles that will have answers in Heaven. ...and then there is Paul to wonder about. He writes about marriage.  He had to have been married in order to be a high mucky muck in the Sanhedrin. In his pre-Jesus days as a cut-throat murderer did he kill his own wife too?  Did she divorce him?  Did she simply die from emotional brutality? Male-like, he sums it up: "I was the chief of sinners". ...which brings me to another musing. Paul was no light-weight discipler. He hadn't written his part of the Bible yet (which was a chunk!) so he had to have repeatedly shared his own unfolding story of God's grace. Adults who come to Christ usually come because of pain from some level of rejection that ranges from mild to shattering.  Unanswered questions press on their minds, such as:  "Where was this 'loving Jesus' when my soul was being raped?"

A person's worth is measured by the love and sacrifice of another person. If no human has ever loved another human enough to sacrifice for them God's love for them is in question. ...and this is where we in the Body come in. "...and this is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ lay down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." I John 3:16.

                           LOVE THAT WILL NOT LET ME GO

O love that will not let me go; I rest my weary soul in thee.
I give thee back the life I owe, that in its ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O joy that seekest me through pain. I cannot close my heart to thee
I trace the rainbow through the rain, and feel the promise is not vain
That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life's glory dead
And from the ground there blossoms red; life that shall endless be.

Love, Jo