Milk for Thought #4

"Last week a friend called my office to leave a question she wanted some help thinking through. Could Jesus have gotten a stomach virus? Or the flu? Or a head cold? This question was rooted in something a little deeper. Since sickness is part of the curse of the Fall, would Jesus’ sinless nature have exempted him from viruses and bugs and fevers?

That night one of my sons woke us, crying as the stomach virus hit with all the unpleasantness that brings. As I watched his little frame tremble as he vomited, I thought about this woman’s question. Would Mary have ever watched her little firstborn in the throes of such sickness?

Why is it so hard for us to imagine Jesus vomiting?

...

It just doesn’t seem right to us to imagine Jesus feverish or vomiting. But that’s precisely the scandal. It didn’t seem right to many to imagine Jesus as really flesh and bone, filled with blood and intestines and urine. Somehow that seemed to detract from his deity. It surely didn’t seem right to many to imagine the only begotten of the Father twisting in pain on a crucifixion stake, screaming as he drowned in his own blood. This was humiliating, undignified. That’s just the point. Jesus joined us in our humiliation, in our indignity."

~Dr. Russell D. Moore (bolding mine)
http://www.russellmoore.com/2010/12/12/did-jesus-ever-get-a-stomach-virus/

Milk for Thought #3

"Everyone says love hurts, but that is not true.  Loneliness hurts.  Rejection hurts.  Losing someone hurts.  Envy hurts.  Everyone gets these things confused with love.  But in reality, love is the only thing in this world that covers up all pain and makes someone feel wonderful again.  Love is the only thing in this world that does not hurt."

~Unknown (unless you happen to know.  Then please, tell me!)

A little emo/sappy-sounding, I know.  But I saw this quote on one of my friend's Facebook, and I was struck by how true it is.


People mistake love for so many other feelings that tend to come along with it (e.g. lust!).  But love--God Himself (1 John 4:16)--cannot do no wrong.

Milk for Thought #2

"The fear is that you'll run out of ideas if you share too many of them. But the truth is that you won't have space for any new ones if you hold on to the old ones too long."  

~ Jonathan Acuff -- May 7th 2009, 11:58 a.m.

Milk for Thought #1

Here commences an official list of random quotes that I've cherished over the years.

"I really love the way God reveals Himself to us only when we are ready. Not a moment too soon. He knows when we are only prepared to drink milk and when we are ready for some meat, as Paul put it. How many times, looking back on your life, have you realized that only God could have known when you were ready to learn certain things? Even in listening back to previous records, I am struck by God’s timing. There are many songs I never could have written 8 years ago, not because I am a better songwriter today, but because I just wasn’t ready for those particular lessons, yet.


I guess I had never considered that scripture would be a part of that very gradual revelation. I've always thought of the Bible as a rather static account of stories, truth, lessons and life that God gave and protected for us. You either "got it" or you didn't. But now I am starting to understand that it lives and breathes between the bound leather and that certain things might actually leap off the page only when we are ready…and you might be three or ninety three when that happens. I could read the same passage hundreds of times, but it won't matter unless the seed is finally falling on fertile soil. Perhaps this might help to explain the countless interpretations of scripture. After all, what man is immune to his own perspective and prejudice?" 

~Nichole Nordeman  
http://nicholenordeman.com/article.aspx?id=486638 (hilarious article, btw)


Also, I sometimes view this as even more support for reading your Bible constantly.  There could be so many specific lessons that God wants you to get from the Bible that only you could learn in your unique perspective at this particular stage in your life.  So get reading!