Amanda's Musings

I got this meme from Feli over at her blog. Thought this one was interesting.

Q1. What were you doing 10 Years ago?

Ok, 10 years ago, thats 1997. Well, let me see, I’d been married for a year and a half. I had just started my job at Dale Christian School as secretary. I was living in the same house I am now.

Q2. What were you doing 1 Year ago?

Recovering from a fairly bad winter of sickness. Kez had her first three colds in a row and we both had got them of course. I hadn’t opened any online stores yet. Living in this same house! Organising Kezi’s first birthday party.

Q3. What are 5 snacks you enjoy?

White Chocolate
Coloured Popcorn
Corn
Anything mint flavoured
Licorice bullets

Q4. What are 5 songs you know the lyrics to?

Actually most of the songs I can remember are either from Michael W Smith or Steven Curtis Chapman.
The rest, I only know parts of lyrics and most of them are wrong! Usually the chorus or the opening line.

Q5. 5 things you would do if you are a Millionaire?

Well a million isn’t much these days but……

Put money into Bible Translation
Support a pile of missionaries
Visit every country that SIM works in
Buy a house
Buy my brother and sister in law a house (oh, then all the money would be gone wouldn’t it)

Q6. 5 Bad habits?

Thinking too much!
Not telling the rest

Q7. 5 things you like to do?

Play with Keziah
Create (anything, draw, sketch, polyclay, stitching, knitting, whatever!)
Keep up to date on the internet
Scratch around in Art/stationery stores (as opposed to only poking around in craft stores)
Be inspired by my Bible

Q8. 5 Favourite Toys?

Creative tools (paintbrushes, paper, paint, gesso, polymer clay, ink, pasta machine etc)
My (our) camera
My Moleskine
Computer
Pens

Q9. 5 things you would never wear?

Bright red lipstick
Very short skirts
Very low tops
High Heels (I have very flat feet)
t-shirt material skivvys

Q10. 5 things you hate to do

Have wet socks on
Drive
Talk in public
Touch spiders
Throw things out that could be upcycled or recycled

Ok, I’ll tag a couple of people for a change:
Duncan, Sarah, Kate, Suzy and Steven

Photo from thejesse
No, I haven’t broken my arm, the title of this post actually is related to a topic that I’m sure most people consider a ‘not very interesting’ topic. What is that topic you might ask? Well, before I tell you I should mention that the credit for this little post should go to Mike Fischer. Who’s he – he’s the Pastor of Melville Baptist Church (ahhh, you say, here comes another religous post to skip over! LOL).

Seriously though, the topic that the title is actually referring to is…sin. Ok, now that I either have your attention of have turned you off reading further, let me ask you to try.

So, what does an x-ray have to do with sin? The message from last Sunday’s service was about how God went and wrote a law for us all to follow (commonly known as the 10 commandments) but then by the death of Jesus these rules/law are no longer needed. What do I mean by that?

Before he came to earth as Jesus, God gave out a set of instructions (the law). These were pretty full on, not just as straight forward as ‘don’t murder’ but complex and strange laws such as ‘do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk’ (Ex 23:19) and so on. The punishment for breaking a rule was often severe involving a lot of sacrifice and often death.

What was the point of all this? And furthermore, if Jesus got rid of the law once he gave us a direct way to God then why was it here?

This is where the x-ray comes in. Our Pastor explained last Sunday that the law was like an x-ray. How many of us know people who have broken their arm or wrist etc and thought ‘oh, thats a bit sore’ only to find out later that it was actually broken? Its not until the x-ray is done that the true extent of the damage can be seen. In the same way, each of us may think of ourselves as pretty good (I don’t kill people and nor do I cook young goats in their mother’s milk!!). We’re not bad, sometime we might tell white lies or cheat, speed or the like but on the whole pretty good? Most of us rate ourselves pretty high.

The law was there to show us the true extent of the damage. We are unable to really do all that God asks of us. Its impossible. We might try to hold our tongue, not spread rumours, not lose our temper, not worry etc but we can’t help it. Its built in.

So, the x-ray of the law (as seen in the old testament – makes for an interesting read) shows us that we really do need God at the core. Deep down, we need him because no amount of doing good or being good will really hit the target. We will fail eventually.

Isn’t it great that God did send Jesus to get rid of that law. Its no longer needed and we can have a direct line to God through him. How much easier it is to just trust him than try to keep all those rules. Makes me smile (still won’t be boiling any goats though).