Category: Discipleship

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

( Romans 8:18-25 ) KJV

January is about to end. For me this has not just been the beginning of a new year, but the beginning of a new way of life. I had a change of circumstances two weeks before Christmas 2017. It was a time of uncertainty but also of earnest expectation.

The month ended and all the bills were paid. Not only that, but I published a blog post every day, which was what I set out to do before my circumstances changed.

It’s more than posting to be posting though.

Discipline in writing is more effective than inspiration. Inspiration is important, but if you only write when you are inspired you may never write. Or what if you are inspired when you can’t write, like when you’re driving a car?

A lot could be said about the passage that I chose for today, but the creature that was made subject to vanity is us. We had to be made into human beings and put here on planet earth to endure it. The general idea is that we are able to endure it patiently because we know what is coming after. What we will experience after this life is over is going to be more than worth everything that we suffer here on earth.

As we prepare to move into February I have anticipation and excitement. Earnest expectation. The second day is when God created gravity. This has enormous implications for science and allows us to understand why it appears, superficially at least, that science and the Bible are in conflict. They aren’t, that’s just the place where human wisdom took it to and left it.

The discipline it took to get through this month deepened my understanding. My earnest expectation is that if I apply the same discipline to writing in February as I did in January then my understanding will deepen more.

The work of faith is like climbing a wall, imagine a climbing wall that has big hand and foot holds bolted onto it. The goal is to get to the top of the wall. That can only happen if we reach out to the highest hand hold we can reach, put a foot on a foothold then pull our selves up. We’re not on the ground any more. We are now able to reach hand and foot holds that we couldn’t reach when we were on the ground, so we move up again. The ground is further away, we might experience a quickening heart beat and the adrenaline of excitement. We are closer to the top. We can now reach hand and foot holds that are closer to the top of the wall, so we move up again.

A long time ago it occurred to me that the light on the first day of creation was created by the fusion of Hydrogen atoms that were present in the deep. It took quite a while but we moved up the wall to understand that the deep is Jesus Christ the Word of God, the lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world.

It also was a long time ago that it occurred to me that the creation of a firmament in the midst of the waters, separating the waters above from the waters below, was caused by the creation of gravity.

Let’s start climbing that wall tomorrow.