amen
an Amen
Generally, feeling too focused on whatever seems pressing but undoubtedly is less so than, I no longer open the Days of Praise post subscribed to years ago as a spiritual read, that nevertheless faithfully waits every morning as I lift the laptop screen; but today’s subject caught me like a smirking judge sitting high waiting for my plea.
Copy and paste, the post is below, scroll down. Not drivel, self-awareness shakes me by the shoulders. Chastened, shamed, NOYB, that’s as far as I go, ὁ ἀναγινώσκων νοείτω.
New subject. Last night’s was the gardenia-est football game I’ve ever watched. In the last minute, score 14-13 Lincoln and if we can hold them a few more seconds we win it, ball deep in the Godby red zone and having been fought over and changed hands right there several times back and forth, now theirs, a Godby player caught and ran the ball 93 yards for a touchdown, taking the lead 19 to 14 and obviously winning the game with less than a minute to go. Across the field, the Godby fans go berserk, insane, we are crushed after clinging to the lead by one point the second half. For the conversion, Godby went for two points and failed. Still, giddy with victory, less than a minute to go, Godby kicks-off to Lincoln. Fighting down by down, the clock stopping promptly each time and running tenths of seconds in the final sixty, Lincoln fights back to about the forty. With 6.9 seconds to go and obviously game over, Lincoln’s line holds back Godby’s defense long enough for the Lincoln quarterback to get off a long, high pass to his intended receiver in the left corner of the Godby end zone as a crowd of offense and defense players rush to the spot, such a crowd that I couldn’t see a damn thing as the pass sank into the circle of players. Silence. Silence for an instant. Scoreboard goes dark, I guess whoever was minding it had to go to the bathroom, IDK, maybe he peed his pants. Refs arms go up double. Lincoln crowd goes wild, Godby fans in stunned disbelief. In the final minute the score goes 14-13 Lincoln, 19-14 Godby, and with the down starting at 6.9 seconds, 20-19 Lincoln. I’m a Michigan fan and a Gator fan, and secretly today an FSU fan but if you tell anybody I’ll call you a liar. Last season and this season I’m a Lincoln fan, and this is how football should be, a game, not big business, but a game. That's football, and it's just a game. Will somebody shout amen.
We sat next to the Lincoln High School marching band, their director a former student leader of FSU Marching Chiefs. Beloved C1, Caroline on flute.
Finally this. A proper and just sentence for Bowe Bergdahl, whom many hated and whose blood and life many wanted. A disturbed young man who was kicked out of the Coast Guard and should never have been recruited into the Army, he should have been discharged and sent home in the first place.
But by a long damn shot, not as seriously disturbed as the Tweeter in Chief, an extremely dangerous foul ball who wishes to use the FBI and DOJ to go after his political enemies, a solid mark of a despot; a primal humanoid who speaks of revenge as a factor of foreign policy.
Go in peace and pray for me, a sinner, and let the one without sin cast the first stone.
DThos+
Autumn leaves pinched from Days of Praise
Papa's girl
November 4, 2017
Root of Bitterness
“Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.” (Hebrews 12:15)
Bitterness and a bitter spirit should never characterize a person who has experienced the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ. No matter how seriously one may have been wronged, if he has known God’s forgiving grace for his own wrongdoings, he should manifest that same grace in his life toward others, even though they do not merit it (for neither did he merit God’s forgiving grace himself).
Bitterness is a characteristic of the ungodly “whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness” (Romans 3:14). A Christian must never try to rationalize it as “righteous indignation” or to think that certain injustices give him the “right” to be bitter and resentful. “If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish” (James 3:14-15). Rooted bitterness will soon “spring up,” not only robbing the bitter believer of joy and true fruitfulness, but bearing bitter fruit whereby many others will “be defiled.”
The antidote, of course, is never to “fail of the grace of God.” That is, we need to be “looking diligently,” moment by moment, at the wonderful grace of God by which we were saved through faith and in which we continue to live each day.
Therefore, “let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:31-32). Otherwise, we not only hurt both ourselves and others, but we also grieve “the holy Spirit of God” (v. 30). HMM