Astonishment and Stuff

Wednesday, April 21, 2010


ASTONISHMENT AND STUFF

Well, I am back reading through the Gospels again. I got up to Joshua starting at the beginning and just suspended that read and got back to my favorite place...the Gospels. I simply cannot get enough of Jesus. Can you?

Incidentally, I have now read a lot of footnotes and studied maps and charts in the ESV...and it is evenly wonderful - like check out the maps embedded in the texts of OT history! Wow! It's like carrying a small library with you everywhere you go. If you want a Bible that I think will last you for the rest of your life, this is it. An investment well worth the making. ESV - English Standard Version - Study Bible...available online, and at Barnes and Noble too.


So I am reading about Jesus in Matthew 7 and 8.

*The crowds were "astonished" at his teaching.
*He taught as one having "authority" and not as the other teachers of the time.
*"Great crowds" followed him wherever he went.
*He healed a leprous man "immediately"...and a paralyzed man "at the very moment"
he simply said.."Go, let it be done"
*He touched Peter's mother-in-law's hand and the fever "left" her and she got up and made supper
*He "healed all who were sick and oppressed by demons."

Incredible array of amazing statements...all in just part of a chapter.

Then his statement..."foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."
IE - the holes of foxes, and little circles of nesting materials make foxes and birds better off than I.

And we have it in reverse. All the stuff...and little astonishment.

Don't think that I write this because I have it all worked out. But, for myself, I ask that God will help me truly desire HIM....and always keep heading in the direction of less of anything that limits or obscures the passion and stillness that welcomes His Presence.

More "astonishing" moments, please God....and less and less stuff.

Thy Kingdom come.

David