Stopping to Think

  Preface:  This isn't "writing" per se, this is the first of three posts that will be lesson outlines from the VBS our church is conducting this week. The titles are,  Where Did I Come From? , Am I Important , and How Can I Be Okay? My hope in sharing is that if you work with kids, or simply are interested in answering these questions for yourself, you will be edified. How Can I Be Okay? Gold bean bag Do you ever feel broken? Like something inside of you just isn’t right?  The last couple of days the kids have been working on a verse, Gen 1:1, In the beginning, God created… The Bible starts not with people, not with some slog beginning with an immense hydrogen explosion, but with God. A speaking God. A God who speaks life into being What did God call his creation? Very good ( v31 ) Part of that very good creation was an image-bearer: people Kids, who made everything? God! So, who made you? God! So, who’s the boss? God is! Right, God is the boss. And he gave people a...

"Though the world is slow to forgive, it is quick to forget." C.S. Lewis Commonplace Monday is a series of posts wherein, on Monday mornings, I share short quips, sentences -perhaps as much as a paragraph- which I have collected in my various commonplace books and files. If I wrote down or recall where it came from I will certainly give attribution. However, sometimes I write down things and not where they came from. So if you see anything like that here and recognize it, that's what comment sections are for. 

"To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable,  because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you." C.S. Lewis Commonplace Monday is a series of posts wherein, on Monday mornings, I share short quips, sentences -perhaps as much as a paragraph- which I have collected in my various commonplace books and files. If I wrote down or recall where it came from I will certainly give attribution. However, sometimes I write down things and not where they came from. So if you see anything like that here and recognize it, that's what comment sections are for. 

Just a few thoughts on, as the title suggests, repentance, forgiveness, and consequences. Many of you may be familiar with the story of David and Bathsheba (if not, you may read it here ). You may also be familiar with David's prayer in Psalm 51 ( here ), In Psalm 51, David makes a most curious assertion when he says to God, "against you, you only, have I sinned." Having performed an even cursory reading of the story, we know that David has either coerced Bathsheba into adultery, or (perhaps more likely) simply used his power as king to demand her "services". At best he's led her into sin, at worst he's raped her. Then we have her husband, Uriah, whose wife has been used sexually by a man to whom he has been exceedingly loyal, and continues to be, even after the fact. And when Bathsheba becomes pregnant, David tries to trick Uriah into coming home and making this look like his kid; when that fails, he has him purposefully killed in battle. Those are ...