Jen-I often think of how God’s heart must break as He watches over us and reaches out to us. When my own children say or do something that hurts me in it’s foolishness or sinfulness, I think of God and how we must look like little, squabbling, whining children to Him. Thanks for writing! I love hearing from everyone.

Debbie - what a great (long) comment! You are so right about our relationship with God being just that, a relationship. At times we sit quietly in each other’s presence and at others we dialogue back and forth and at others we challenge, discuss, and work through big issues. I think you (and Tim’s Dad) are on to something in the idea that spending time in God’s Word is always precious and rewarding and valuable, even if it doesn’t yield “new” or convicting truths.

Thanks for the great dialogue, everyone!!!

Two things come to mind, my relationship to my dh, Brian, the closest I can relate on human terms to my relationship to God and Tim’s entry last week about quantity vs. Quality.

There are many evenings when Brian and I sit together, he’ll read and I’ll stitch, we might talk now and again, but usually it is pretty quiet, but there is something so precious about these times, nothing earth shattering or thought provoking, just time spent with someone I love and care about deeply. Other times we spend hours talking about things that are happening in our lives, major things and important issue or maybe just chatting.

Our time in the Word or prayer might not always bring great truths, but I think they are so sweet to our Heavenly Father that we want to spend quantity time with him. We might not always gain something life-changing but just spending time with our God is such a wonderful way to spend time!

Thank you for sharing your heart. You had me thinking all day!

On another note. Thank you so much for putting the newsletter together for me. God has blessed you with nimble fingers and a quick mind. Thanks for your willingness to help. We love you. Dad

It was a cool video that raises some difficult and rather embarrassing questions for Evolutionists. One of the kids asked whether Jesus existed before dinosaurs, and I scurried to find this passage, in which Paul talks about the supremacy of Christ:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:15-20)

As I was reading this, I was struck by what a personal affront to Jesus that the so-called scientific theory of evolution is. It is as though you worked your whole life on building a complex and elegant invention of great value to mankind, and someone walked by and dismissed it as having happened by chance, ignoring all your careful design and craftsmanship.

I guess it isn’t really anything new, since I’ve studied that passage in Colossians many times before … but it seemed a somewhat new perspective to me, that Jesus might take His creation very personally and be displeased with those who downplay His role in it.

What have I learned from the Bible? Honestly, I learned that God reaches out to us in ways that break His heart just for the sake of drawing us to Himself.

I’m thinking of His certificate of divorce even though He hates it,
of feeding a prophet from the beaks of birds when his courage has run out and doubts God’s protection,
of allowing His very Son to be ridiculed and lonely and broken to repair the damage done by those who say they love Him.

It’s really overwhelming to think of how God continues to endure the betrayal of the human heart in order to bring the faithful to Himself.

He IS good!