_ if culture is shaped by who we are, in what we do and how we do it ... to contribute to it in some measure’ is a natural outcome on our journey thru.
November has come around once again’ ... the time we traditionally focus on the celebrations Thanksgiving(s) bring. Without a doubt, Christ followers ought to be the most thankful people on earth.... We are the same’ ...we are different, .. one thing we all share is we live under the same sky. We are all called to look up,.. from whence comes our help. Psalm 121:1.
... Coincidentally we were filled with Thanksgiving delights sailing in and thru ‘Greece’ + ‘Turkey’ , who would know? A Turkey with/in Grease’? ... not to mention a considerable amount of vegetables served along with cranberry java’ in bountiful portions at every turn. ... it only made us smile at the generosity of God’s goodness in his creatures all around us .. to experience the culture each unique to its own country, with overlap in them all...amongst the untold number of marble pilllars, and stones that had once stood strong and tall now covered the landscape with a blanket of lain down debris. .. history will not be silenced, it speaks loudly still ..with inscriptions deeply etched’ ... the lasting evidence of God’s love for people in and for every nation, ..from Westminster Abbey’ to St. Paul’s , Athens Acropolis, the grand theater in Ephesus, to Paul’s prison in Philippi’ ... ,including markings of all the injustices with the collision of empires from Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, .... the hall of the martyrs reminding us they did not die in vain ,,, his messengers were faithful to the end.
It was astounding on traveling thru the United Kingdom and Asia Minor, walking in the footsteps of the apostle Paul, you felt at home with many ‘likeminded’ the risks he was willing to take in faith believing’ .. his heart full only of his assignment from above .., His passion, proclamation, resulted in consequences of his convictions and cost of a life well lived, of being a faithful servant of Christ, in Christ! ..
Never have i noted so many scenes in a country depicting.. ‘the acknowledgement and exaltation of the Christ child held by the virgin mother Mary... and seemingly so little art of his humanity.. to see beyond the manger scene...to be a people ‘connecting the dots’ to walk in his promised power he sent in the person of the Holy Spirit in our everyday life... to the amazement of us all hearing the ‘call to prayer’ in Istanbul was humbling, one woke from travel weary almost instinctively to turn your thoughts to the Lord amongst the wild hustle and bustle of the city.
Every baby born has a purpose in and for the kingdom of God _ God’s providence in sending us the Branch, who was prophesied in the ancient of days, This Jesus ... coming to us as a baby, this Jesus as he grew would grow many limbs as he walked among us as one of us, His purposes fulfilled, the price of sin was paid for, he hanging on the Tree for the entire world... thru his blood, thru his body given ..his resurrection! .. how can we be anything but grateful at the end of the day! .. no matter the day’ he made a way for us to ‘come home’ to the heart of God our Father. ...
John 14:6 Jesus said, i am the Way the Truth and the Life no one comes to the Father except thru me.
if we don’t live counter culture ‘who will’?
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