Lead Us Not Into Temptation

I want to start this entry in the series with a question. What is your biggest temptation? It might be those cupcakes that coworker brought into work. It might be speeding. For some it will be a bottle of alcohol, for others heroin or meth. For over half of men the answer to that question would be porn. What I want you to see is that there are temptations all around us. Everyday. We cannot escape temptation. And yet for most this is a petition to God for escape from a life of temptation. But that is not really what Jesus is teaching us.

Scars

So there is this passage in Genesis that struck me the other day. It is after Jacob wrestles with God. Jacob names the place Peniel. This is Hebrew and it means face of God. But what struck me was what Jacob said. He said that he had seen God face to face and had been preserved.

Preserved? Really?

In case you didn't know, God gave Jacob a limp. Seems interesting to think that preservation meant a limp. Some might say God cheated since he couldn't beat Jacob. But frankly I think that is a bad interpretation. I think this was God's way of reminding Jacob that God was always with him. Jacob's scar became something to treasure and not to disdain.

Advent: Scandal

It's the fourth week of Advent. This week people are getting ready for Christmas. Children are home from school (I know parents love this.) People are frantically trying to get their last minute shopping done. And in the midst of it all I think we forget the exact circumstances of the birth of Jesus. I think we forget that Jesus' birth was a scandal.