Seeing IS believing

Romans 2: 4Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? 

The context is not judging others.  

Romans 2:  1You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad.

I have issues with other people that really disturb me, especially when they influence friends and family to live in destructive ways.  This passage helps me realize, this is a pattern to repent of, and not allow myself to be self blinded and "see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with" me and those whom I consider to be living in deviant lifestyles.

Forgiveness is freeing, and releases a forgiving person to move forward into constant forward motion.

Go Deeper

One of the great aspects of summer is swimming.  This past week, and all summer, we were able to do some great swimming and diving.  For most of our time on the water, we want to stay on the surface and when we do, if we want to stay on the surface a long time, we will put on and keep on these life jackets.  They are especially helpful to keep someone from tiring out and in an emergency, they will keep you from drowning.

All that is great for surface enjoyment.  However, if you want to go deeper down into the water, you have to let go of the life jackets and be equipped to go down and go deeper into the water.

Under the water, is a different dimension than the dimension on the surface.

To go deeper, under water, you have to move beyond survival and barely swimming. 

Going deeper under water is not something we encouraged our grandson Leo to engage in.  We wanted him to stay on the surface. 

We also did not want our granddaughter Bethany to go deeper, for we wanted her to stay on the surface, and with her life jacket on, enjoyed the surface of the water.

For many in the body of Christ, the babes in Christ among us, staying on the surface is what we want you to do.

We, who are older in the Lord, more mature in relationship with God, want you to stay on the surface of your relationship with God, and just enjoy a relationship with God, and stay alive in Christ.

However, there will be times for the mature, to go deeper.  In addition, at times, it will be very necessary for a mature swimmer to go down deep. 

It is both a fun moment and a tense moment, when a young swimmer, takes off their life jacket, and goes deeper under water.  A completely new world opens up. 

At the lake, early in the week, the water was very clear, and with goggles and a mask, one of the first comments, that our son Daniel made, was it was somewhat freaky to have a big fish swim by, and later the next day, our grand daughter Lydia said something similar.

When you go deeper in swimming, as well as going deeper in Christ, it is very possible you will see, hear, and experience things that you did not know was possible.  In addition, for some, a decision will be made to just stay on the surface, but for others, it will increase your desire to know God deeper, no matter what you see, hear and experience.