I find it quite remarkable that I've still got so much to learn, even now I'm well into my 70th decade.
At least 10 years ago I was listening to Graham Herbert speaking in Chudleigh Baptist Church, and he repeated a verse which I must have read scores of times.
Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this:
to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
James 1:27 Berean Standard Bible
How is it that some key verses slip through the net unnoticed, and then one day "boom" they come alive?
Things are ordered in a different way in God's kingdom.
Was it the prodigal son or faithful elder son who enjoyed his Father's blessing in Luke 15?
We may seek any amount of pleasure, but perhaps this isn't the best way to draw close to God?
in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
2 Timothy 3: 1-5
In 2022 brought me the deepest joys on a refugee camp working alongside a church team in extreme heat, sitting at the bedside of teenagers with mental struggles in hospital, and sitting with lonely pensioners.
At the start of a new year I'd love to schedule in exotic trips away, special events, and target books to be read. Then again maybe I'd be better off placing myself where I expect to feel less comfortable - but gain the biggest blessings.
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