à la Jack


Scripture

I pray that God will put a curse on everyone who doesn’t love the Lord. And may the Lord come soon.

~I Corinthians 16:22, CEV

Quote

The best way to destroy an enemy is to make them a friend.

~Anonymous

The contemporary English version is very interesting. When I read the closing of I Corinthians the other day, verse 22 and 24 really caught my attention–Sounds a lot like Jack Bailey. The word à la is a French/English word that means in the style or manner of and Paul in I Corinthians 16:22-24 sound a lot like Jack so I nicknamed this passage à la jack. Paul said, “If you don’t love Jesus, I’m putting a curse on you,” then in the next breath he says, “May the LORD come soon.” It reminds me of my praising the LORD one second and cursing someone for pulling out in front of me the next. Of course my curses are something like “You moron our stupid idiot.” Here Paul reverses the order, he curses first and then prays. In verse 24, he says, “I love everyone who belongs to Christ.” Sounds just like Jack’s conditional love and David’s. David said, “I hate those who hate the LORD.”

My first thought was: why have I not noticed this, it must be the translation so I checked the NIV….If anyone does not love the Lord, let that person be cursed! Come, Lord! My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Well, there goes the translation theory. So what is the deal? The bible is an honest book and it reveals God’s nature in places and it reveals human nature in other places. Jesus was the God Man: He was God in a human body. He had two natures: Divine and human but His human nature had not been corrupted by the fall. You and I have a fallen nature: we can be tempted by sin and we are prone to yield. The pure ethic is to love your enemies which of course Jesus demonstrated in noble fashion. You and our are not capable of such love apart from His grace. If we are going to love like He did, He has to do it through us: we can’t do it on our own. Our default setting is to love those who love the LORD; to love those who love us. This is natural and easy but to love our enemies: this takes prayer and self-denial.

I do it every years: I transplant a bunch of things and then it quits raining. The good news is I will be able to cut the ditch: the bad news is its going to get up to 97 Sunday evening for our picnic.

The City of Statesville, North Carolina has filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to require Gander RV in Statesville, NC to take down their American Flag. They are imposing a $50/day fine retroactive to 10/15/18.
Many cities like Statesville have requested that Camping World and Gander Outdoors take down their American Flags. WE WON’T DO IT! Stand with us.
This is about more than just the flag. This is about our Veterans, Military, and the men and women that have sacrificed for this great country. They are the reason we fly the flag and they are the reason we will NOT take it down! Sign the petition – http://chng.it/9NstTr8nCS.
#americanflag#veterans#usa#freed

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *