To be spiritually minded is life and peace.
And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:39–41)
Jesus controls wind and waves. You fear a man like that. . . and when you begin to grasp his majesty, and grace, and love, and his excellency, and his power, and his mercy...you Love him too.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. (Proverbs 9:10)
“But God is unique and who can turn Him?
And what His soul desires, that He does.”
Job 23:13
Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh?
Can the rushes grow without water?
While it is still green and not cut down,
Yet it dries up before any other plant.
So are the paths of all who forget God;
And the hope of the godless will perish,
Whose confidence is fragile,
And whose trust a spider’s web.
(Job 8)
Why did the religious leaders of Israel kill Jesus?
Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Sanhedrin together, and were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is doing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
The Gospel of John, chapter 11
“Which one of you convicts Me of sin?” —Jesus
The only person for whom the answer to that question is: nobody.
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)
Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) (John 18:10)
But Jesus said, “No more of this!” And he touched his ear and healed him. (Luke 22:51)
On Getting Old: "The keepers of the house fail (v. 3). This would indicate the arms and hands trembling in their feebleness. The strong men, the legs, bend under the heaviness of age (v. 3). The grinders—meaning the teeth—are no longer able to do their work (v. 3). Seeing becomes more difficult (v. 3). The mouth is now closed, folded in because of a loss of teeth (v. 4). The sound of chewing is now very soft (v. 4). The elderly are notorious for sleeping lightly (v. 4). The daughters of music have all left (v. 4). As Barzillai noted earlier, an ability to enjoy music declines. An increased fear of heights comes in (v. 5). Falling is far more problematic now than it ever was before. The almond tree blossoms (v. 5), which is a figure of the hair turning gray or white. The legs are now bent because of age, like those of a grasshopper (v. 5). Desire shall fail, meaning sexual desire. The Hebrew here is the “caperberry [an aphrodesiac] fails.”
This is a journey that we shall all have to take, and preparing for it is not morbid. We should remember our Creator when we are young, and when the day of death arrives, and we all of us go to our long home, we should not be disheartened by the last few miles of road. It can be a very rough road . . . but it leads to a king’s palace (John 14:2)." Douglas Wilson
"Time is a conveyor belt and there is no way to switch it off." DW
"Growing old involves losing a step or two. But at some point, it means losing a lot of steps. We are all of us heading toward no steps at all." DW
When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. (Luke 24:30)
