pursue what makes for peace

"For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves." Romans 14:15-22

A very good reminder, especially when coming in to a new body of believers where one really does not know what personal convictions different people hold. It should be my objective to "pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding" so as not to "destroy the work of God".

proverbs for parenting - part 2

I've finished my trek (for now) of hunting through the book of Proverbs for nuggets of parenting wisdom...and wow! have I found the treasure trove! The book is full of responsibilities, blessings and warnings for both parent and child. I'm sure that I have probably missed several verses that should be on the list. But, in its incomplete form, here is what I found - parenting nuggets from the book of Proverbs . Recently in family worship my husband has been taking us through the book of Proverbs and teaching verses to our children. Though not an idea original to us, we've been putting hand motions etc. to some of the verses to help our children memorize. It has been amazing what even our one-year old remembers! A section of Scripture was read the other night at church and she was saying it right along with the speaker. We pray that it will be a great blessing to them to have these Scriptures stored in their minds - even if they don't remember it perfectly later, ...

some thoughts from Romans 9-11

Over Romans 9 in my Bible I have written "sovereignty and mercy of God". It is important that I remember both of those absolute, wonderful truths. Many times I can get caught up in the idea of the "sovereignty of God" without also remembering and living by His mercy. This is crazy! One only has to look at the cross to worship in absolute amazement of God's great mercy. Do I understand - like human-logically put together - all that is contained in Romans 9, 10, 11? No way! How can you? It doesn't make sense that a just God who defines HOLY and can not tolerate sin would have mercy on A-N-Y-O-N-E. Yet, He is the author and effector (is that a word?) of salvation to save sinners. "So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy." Romans 9:16 I remember many years ago riding to a "girl's weekend out" with my sister and talking about this passage all the way. It was a beautiful ride i...

out of it

I really am not sure what to write this morning. I didn't get much sleep last night, not due to the kids - well the ones who have been born anyway. I'm going to try and watch more what and when I eat today so maybe tonight I won't be dealing with the acid reflux so bad. I read Romans 5 this morning and there is so much in there that I don't feel like I can get my head around it to pull out something. It's all so very wonderful. The kids aren't awake yet, so I think I'll go lay back down.

somewhere between

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