Happy Thursday!

I spent the day reading about violence as experienced from the plantations to the holocaust. It was tough reading about the violence people do to other people.  Then in chapter two the author talks about how we must strive to find the image and likeness of God even in those who seem very ungodly(read: violent people).  My Religion and Violence class is going to be very interesting.

Prayer:  Jesus, thank You for this new day. Today I can choose to allow You to work through me by the power of Your Spirit. I can also choose to retreat back to my worldly ways. Where my desires are wrong, please change me, and where my flesh is weak, please help me. I love You and thank You for Your grace today—not just in salvation by also in every moment. It is all because of Jesus that I am alive, and it’s in Your Spirit that I find true life, so I start my day yielding to You. Amen.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

Galatians 5: 22, 23

While I was doing an overnighter this summer during CPE I re-read the book The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. In one of the passages of the book she writes of a time shortly after her release from Ravensbruch concentration Camp. She writes of arriving at a home that housed refugees and of seeing fresh fruit in bowls sitting on a table. During her time at Ravensbruch the only colors she saw were grays, blacks and browns.  Corrie stopped and was reminded of what she had missed during her captivity in the beautiful colors of the fruit before her. Her world had been so broken and full of such sadness, despair, hunger and death. The colors of her life were bland and full of a cold future-less life. 

There before her in her life of freedom were the beautiful colors of God’s creation.  As I read this I was reminded that even though Corrie went through the horrors of the concentration camp, she surrendered herself to the Spirit of God to serve others who had survived. One of the ways she served was to serve them some fresh fruit.  She served these folks helpings of the character of God and how to serve others these same pieces of God’s loving grace.

So here is the question of the night…If Corrie daily faced the horrors of the concentration camp and still told others about the love of God in all circumstances, then what keeps us from sharing from the fruitful table of the character of God to those who so desperately need it?

Take joy in the journey.  Wear comfortable shoes, throw that extra blanket on the bed and get some sleep. Count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni, Travis and Sarah.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com     

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am only moved by what I believe and I believe God.