My Heart is Not Set on You

                        One of the things that I love about Scripture is that I can read through it countless times and still read something that hadn't noticed before. Like Psalm 131 for example. Verses one and three have been my prayer for some time now and here I find that David prayed the same way. It's similar to what the Apostle Paul says in one of his letters, and I paraphrase, “I do what I know I shouldn't and don't do what I know I should.” In Gethsemane, Jesus told his disciples, “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” Isn't that the truth? I know it is for me. I will continue to strive to put my faith, gain my joy, and find my assurance in Christ. What about you? 

Lessons from Thor (i wasn't sure what else to call it)

I thought you dead./ Did you mourn?/ We all did. Our father.../ YOUR father! He did tell you my true parentage, did he not?/ We were raised together, we played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of that?/ I remember a shadow, living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss, I who was and should be king!/ So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights? No, the Earth is under MY protection, Loki!/ [laughs] And you're doing a marvelous job with that! The humans slaughter each other in droves, while you ideally threat. I mean to rule them. And why should I not?/ You think yourself above them?/ Well, yes./ Then you miss the truth of ruling, brother. A throne would suit you ill./ I've seen worlds you've never known about! I have grown, Odin's Son, in my exile! I have seen the true power of the Tesseract, and when I wield it.../ Who showed you this power? Who controls the would-be-king?/ I AM a king!/ NOT HERE! You give up the Tesseract! You give up this poisonous dream!... You come home.

I love the heart of Thor. He continually extends reconciliation to Loki. His heart is for his brother to repent. No matter what Loki does. Even in Thor: The Dark World, after he says, "KNOW that WHEN you betray me, I will kill you," he says, "I wish I could trust you." After everything that happened, after Loki killed him, he still forgives. While on Pinterest the other day, I saw something that I thought was quite profound. It said, "Watching Thor, I find it sad that Loki spends so much time wallowing in the fact that he's not Odin's favorite, but he completely misses the fact that he's Thor's favorite." It's most obvious when Loki dies*, Thor's grief is real and heart-rending.

Similarly, I think we, as Christians, spend much of our lives wanting to be popular or the cool friend or the favorite, and we miss the fact that Jesus is there loving us... Even after we killed Him. Sure, I may be stretching the example, but I hope you get the point. Jesus wants us to "give up our poisonous dreams" and come back to Him. To what matters. *side note: Yes, he didn't die and I was so upset that Loki didn't ACTUALLY die. He died so well. There was reconciliation. There was closure. Aaaaand they had to screw it up by letting him live

Be Excited. Jesus Loves You.

So, today, I was talking with some friends about how when you are alone in liking a certain TV show or movie or whatever, it's difficult to share your joy alone. It is. It just is. Then, in church, Pastor Mark Toone spoke about Psalm 122, where the Psalmist is saying "I was GLAD when they said too me, let us go to the house of The Lord!" I was GLAD. You hear that. He went on to say that so many Christians, too many Christian are more excited about the Seahawks than they ever are about church. How it's saddening that so many seats are empty on Sunday. How people are at church because it's the "right thing to do" not because they WANT to. His point in all this was, "Why aren't we sharing our joy? When you're late to church consistently, and don't care, it really shows where your priorities are. You dine and dash. You don't give, you just come and take." I paraphrase, but still, how true is that? Get excited about Jesus. Get excited that He loves you. Come to church, GO to church, be amazed and fall in love, or back in love with Your Saviour...