12/25/24

Baptism is uniting in Christ death and resurrection (Romans 6-8)

Being a Christian involves an honest encounter with God. We listen to instruction and obey, leading to righteousness, purity and abundance - or we go our own way and fail. A Friend once said a discontented heart is the result of the ideal values you hold not matching the real values you live. When feeling discontented it's important to review who you aspire to be and make a commitment to live from those values today. 

Today is my last day of being in my forties and yesterday I watched "Alice Through The Looking Glass" on the airplane (It was the only film not watched after traveling to and from AZ all year). It's a story about time travel, wanting to go back and change what's happened. The moral of the story is that we can't change the past but we can learn from it. 

  • The Mad Hatter lives in his head and the Queen of Hearts lives in her heart. 
    • The Hatter was dying because Alice didn't "believe him" and is stuck in a minute before tea time. 
    • The Queen had, locked people up in her hate filled heart. She shrunk down a whole family and treated them like ants. 
      • Time stops for the Queen of Hearts when she goes back to the moment when she felt betrayed by her sister. Alice puts time back in its place of power, where time heals all wounds. 
  • Back in the the real world, Alice "gives up the ship" to have a positive relationship with her family and in return her family believes in her. Her heart and mind, in sync - no longer needing to go through the looking glass. 

We had a wonderful walk around the Veterans Oasis Park then we watched "It's a Wonderful Life" with John. When we get caught up in ourselves we lose sight of the big picture. But when we open ourselves up to what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy... When we think about these things and put them into practice we enter into God's peace, wholeness and feeling together. I had these scriptures read at my Baptism in 2005 (Phil 4:4-19). I'm grateful for our "Relationships Matter" group in BSF and all the lives. We watch Christmas Eve at Cornerstone Chandler and Pastor Lyn gave a good message about not opening the greatest Christmas gift of all time. "A Savior." The Savior is the only one who can connect the Ideal to the real. Everything else comes up empty. 

This morning I'm reminded of Romans 7:14-15,18,19,21,23. Sin is still at work in my body and mind. Romans 7:25, "Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin."

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