You can be light for someone. I observed two baptisms in church today and there was something additional. I liked that the two young ladies gave their personal testimonies, answered traditional questions, were prayed for when they came up out of the water, plus a reminder to be salt and light going forward. They were each handed a small bowl of salt to take a taste and a lit candle. It was a beautiful reminder that belonging to Jesus changes so much about the intent of our lives. As believers we now abide in Him and are adopted as sons and daughters. As reborn believers our reward is relationship with Him and that is the gift given us by the cross. Pastor Mike, today, taught more from I John 2:28-3:10. Apart from Him we can do nothing lasting and no one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. I’ve been thinking about why I write. I learned something today I wanted to share but I know that there is a certain arrogance of thinking that you need to hear from me. Writing is introspective and isolating. My words and thoughts become a conglomeration of life around me. Forgive me if I waste your time somedays! Speaking of light, the days are getting colder and shorter in Prague although the sun made a surprise appearance for a church picnic. I’ve been sleeping so well, on this trip, that I think I may have been tired for years. A second type of arrogance (the first being my writing) is in giving. We receive so much when we see the delight in the eyes of a grandchild who loves a gift. Similarly, on mission, God does extraordinary things to and for us. I am seeing a world I’ve never experienced and have a greater appreciation for people I would never had known except for this time together in a different place. Everywhere I look I see people who might still be sad in the shadow of past oppression. People need hope beyond making it to Friday and drinking beer. That goes for any country. I have a few more quotes from Prague Farewell. “Two months after liberation, people had stopped cheering and embracing. They were not giving away food and clothing anymore, but selling it on the black market. Those who had compromised their integrity during the Occupation (German/Nazi’s) now began to calculate and plan, to watch and spy on each other, to cover their tracks, eager to secure the property they had acquired through collaboration with Germans, by cowardice or denunciation, or by looting the homes of deported Jews”. pg 63, and, “Second was the degree to which membership of the Communist party, very much like belonging to a religious order, determined our lives. Party discipline demanded that we constantly analyze ourselves, our thoughts, our wishes, our inclinations – and whenever we discovered some discrepancy between the commandments of the Party and our own opinions, blame it on our bourgeois background, our antiquated reasoning, our intellectual decadence, or misguided education.” pg 76. It seems like they went from one oppression to another. Under Germany to under Russia. Aren’t we like that when we follow every wind of doctrine or political passion that tickles our ears when these accounts prove that no power other than God’s offers the truest freedom. We should not accept any terms that favor the whole and ignore that God created us as individuals in His image. Extrapolate what you may from this then vote for principles closest to what might better represent our Lord. Photos from today.
