Golgotha
Life can be tough, especially when there are people in it. We are all challenged to face life, deal with life in the midst of people. Life can come with mountains. It seems as if everyone has one to climb. While trying our best to scale the mountain in front of us we, many times, will stumble over someone else. That’s when someone usually gets hurt.
Keep in mind, this wasn’t God’s idea, plan or intent, and it still isn’t. He made man and placed him in a garden. Typically, a garden is a mountain free zone. This doesn’t mean God is allergic to mountains. He has used mountains, or hills to do some of his best work. From Mt. Sinai, He gave us The Ten Commandments, which if followed, helps us live a better life. Jesus taught about his Heavenly Father, life, and many other important issues to help us from many hills, or mounts around Jerusalem. Of course it was the hill of Golgotha, where Jesus died for our sins, that gives us life eternal.
So what do we do with mountains? We should name them for what they are. Face them with boldness, but the most important thing to do is to ask Jesus to guide you through it, around it or over it. Even Jesus had a mountain (Golgotha) to face, but didn’t want to. He asked his Father to remove it from him, but then he went on to say, “Not my will, but your will be done.” When mountains are conquered, you can stick a flag in it that waves in the wind declaring to all that someone made it. It might just encourage them to keep climbing, to keep hanging on, and take another step where the Master has stepped before us.
“This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step.” (1 Pt. 2:21 MSG)
Copyright © 2019 Mark Brady. All rights reserved.
God is perfect, but He doesn’t expect it!
It can be challenging, trying to blend two cultures, but it can also be fun. For instance, I grew up in America where my mother and father had a lot of people over to play card games, eat, and laugh. I thought it was pretty cool. Something I have tried to emulate as an adult.
I had a friend that once stated she doesn’t want to hear her spouse say, “I love you” every day. Somehow, she feels it cheapens the words. I asked her, “Well, how do you want to know you are loved then?” She replied, “Just knowing someone is thinking about me makes me feel loved.” Yes, the next question I had to ask was, “How do you know you are being thought of if that person doesn’t express it in some form?”
If you have tried everything, does that list include Jesus?
I was praying for my neighbors the other day, for I have just moved into their neighborhood.
I got remarried yesterday evening, after being divorced for twenty-three years. I no longer have to check that dreaded little box, “Divorced”. I married a wonderful woman of God who is a Filipino. The only problem is, I’m an American, and she is not allowed to enter the United States without a Visa, which could take a year or longer to arrive. When she said, “I do,” she became an “IR”. Instant Relative. This status gives her priority over everyone else trying to enter America by any other means. Work Visa, Student Visa, Fiancé Visa, etc. It also gives her access to a “Green Card” and two weeks after she arrives in America she will get her Social Security card. Being an “IR” has instant privileges.
brady, mark a. 