Saturday Evening Blog Post: I Asked The Lord...

By MAD21

The most read post on my site for February 2010 was

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A Cheap Imitation

By MAD21

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to capture things in a photo sometimes? The way something appears to us in real life, the beauty or enormity of a situation and no photo you take can do it justice?

I was thinking about this when I was trying to get some pictures of the area around my house after the blizzards dumped such a huge amount of snow on us last month. I kept taking picture after picture, but when I'd look at the picture I took, it just didn't match what I was seeing with my eyes. I mean they were ok, but there was so much lost in the pictures. The camera was just unable to capture the whole essence of what I was seeing.

I wrote a little about this topic for my post on Remembering, and I was reminded of it again when I was looking at Beki's picture for her blog carnival, Fingerprint Friday. She had tried to capture the beauty she saw in a frosted window, but wasn't able to get the picture to show the full beauty of the frost with it's shine and depth.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11)

I've been thinking about how a photograph can fail so badly at portraying the beauty and complexity of real life. It is such a good analogy to the things we experience over the years. God has given us so many gifts. They aren't exclusive to believers, most of those gifts can be enjoyed by unbelievers. But there is always something missing when you take God out of the equation.

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Going Through The Motions

By Chuck (Sharing Compassion)

This has been on my heart for the past few days so I thought I would attempt to verbalize it here. Matthew West has an awesome song titled "The Motions." If you have not heard it I encourage you to do so before reading further.

I want to take some of those lyrics and apply them to our walk with God.

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Pride Goes Before The Fall

By Pat

Pride can be a very good thing. For instance, when we take pride in our appearance, we make sure we're clean and neat and look our best. Pride of ownership ensures that we are taking proper care of our homes, cars, even our lawns and our pets. We take pride in them, so we take good care of them.

However, there is another component to pride that's not such a positive trait. Pride can also prevent us from making a necessary apology, admit we're wrong, or give someone else credit for something we did.

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A God Who Allows Us To Struggle

By Pat

I have to admit something that I am really ashamed of: God scares me! I know He loves me, because if His redemptive love shown in the resurrection of His son, Jesus, for us. The Bible tells me from Genesis to Revelation that God is loving, forgiving and merciful. But in reading the Old Testament, we find many accounts of God's vengeance and punishment upon His people for the disobedience and disrespect shown to Him. Plagues, diseases and famines sent to cause suffering, destruction and death, in hopes that the guilty offenders will repent and turn back to Him. Even the killing of infants and children. I don't understand.

Is this a loving God? I get angry sometimes. And no matter how hard I try, my feelings do not waver. Although I pray about it, the anger remains. The doubts. The FEAR. But luckily, we serve a God who understands our confusion and our fears. He knows our struggles, and when we feel angry, He allows us and even invites us to struggle with him. To become angry. To wrestle. He hears us when we say "Why, God?" And He does have an answer for us.

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