Day 74: Westminster Divines

Every Wednesday, I (or Pin and I!) walk to the  minister's house to catch a lift to the MET in Glasgow.  MET stands for Mutual Encouragement Time, and it involves studying the Bible or principles from the Bible and applying them to our lives in a way that encourages us in life and faith.  I love the METs because the intention is to be encouraged.  There are no foolish questions.  Nobody has 'all the answers'.  There's a MET leader,  but his goal is not to lecture, but to tease out from the others what we think - even if we feel like we may be way off base.  In this MET, we're studying the Westminster Confession of Faith, a document written by the 'Westminster Divines', Godly men who studied the Bible and wrote out a summary of what it teaches.

This week was a lively discussion about one of the most debated (and by some, the most hated) doctrines of the Reformed faith: predestination.  To believe that God ordained everyone's future to heaven or hell is a very difficult thing for most people.  One of the main reasons is that we'd like to think the best of the human race.  To believe that everyone is basically good, it will all work out in the end, and you can live your life the way you want but at the end get up to heaven and 'sort it all out with the big Man', no matter who you are.  And, we'd all like to think we have some level of power - not just the freedom to decide what we will do, but the power to choose either the evil or good.

Well, it's a long and heavy discussion, and I do not attempt in the slightest to begin that discussion here, or to try to insult the world or anyone in it.  The Bible is a strange document, for it tells us truths about God that seem (to our little minds) to be mutually exclusive: but in God's case they are not.  For instance, how does He manage to  be a God of love and yet also be wholly just?  Is He 'fair' in the sense that we understand the word, giving everyone a 'chance'?  How are God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit three completely separate beings and yet one God?  It's enough to blow your mind - or perhaps cause you to give up in despair. 

But if I've learned anything as a Christian, it is, first, that there are some things about God that I (not being God, or infinite, or all-knowing, or having any of His amazing God-like characteristics) cannot in this life understand.  The second, that if when reading the Word something doesn't make sense, my first inclination is to presume that I haven't got it right.  (I'm usually correct in that assumption.)  And the third, which we talked about tonight, was that if anyone got the 'unfair' end of the deal, it was Jesus.  Lived a perfect life, never did anything wrong, was the ultimate in kindness and grace, saved people's lives, raised others from the dead, healed thousands from illnesses, taught wise words, obeyed all God's laws, and got killed for it.  Took on Himself the punishment that I, we, His people ought to have had.  So that we can live with Him forever.  Now that's 'unfair'.  Surely  we got the good end of the deal.

Walk length:  20 minutes

Day 46: Bond. James Bond.

Soon I will have more in common with James Bond and Jason Bourne than I ever had before.  (Before, I had nothing in common with them.)  Today I walked to the post office to send off an application for my British passport!  Very excited about getting this document - I am pretty confident that I will feel pretty cool having two passports.  Of course, the United States isn't overly thrilled about dual citizenship, but they don't say that I can't do it, so I figured I'd better seize the opportunity whilst it's available.  After all, I remember the day when I applied for my UK residency after having been in the country for four years, and after I got my residency status they changed the rules to five years.  I was pretty thankful I'd done it while I could! 

It's pretty exciting being a British citizen, about to get a passport.  The lady at the post office very kindly commiserated on the ninety pounds I had to spend to get it, but really that is nothing in the grand scheme of things.  After living in Scotland for ten years (in June), I'm thrilled that it is now my country, too!  I got a letter from Visit Scotland today, sending me some information I had requested, and they said, "Thank you for your interest in exploring a bit more of your home country."  What a happy statement!  Of course I have three home countries, including heaven, and I love exploring the two that I have access to currently.  I look forward with great anticipation to the explorations of the third country some day!!

Today was actually 'quite nice', compared to much of the previous crazy, wild, dark, cold weather we've been having.  The sky was blue  - imagine!  No, you don't have to imagine, I took a photo for you.  It's a good thing too, because a few minutes after I snapped it, the clouds started rolling in a bit more.  It was that funny kind of nice day where you step outside and think, gosh, this is lovely, I don't really need my hat or gloves or anything.  Then you walk along a little further, and think well, maybe I will put my gloves on, just.  A little further on and the hat goes on.  By the time you get where you're going you are more bundled up than when you left, and you have to take it all off again because you're inside where it's warm.  What a complicated country to go walking in!

I actually took two walks today - also walked to my MET group tonight.  I couldn't remember how long of a walk it was - at first I thought a half hour and then I remembered it was quite close and so thought maybe 15 or 20 minutes...turned out to be about 10 or a little more.  When I got to the street on which the house was, there was a man walking alongside me, just about the same pace.  I figured he would speed up so that we weren't both walking in the same direction at the same time but without speaking, but he didn't.  So I (following the rules of etiquette for Encountering Another Walker) passed to the other side, but then it was still awkward because we both were walking at the same speed on opposite sides of the same street.  He steadfastly refused to look at me (he, too, was familiar with the rules of etiquette previously mentioned), but he refused to speed up.  So I took the initiative and did so, but I swear he did too because I couldn't get him out of my sights.  I started to wonder if he was going to my MET, too, but I didn't know him! Or at least I didn't think I did.  Finally he turned in just one house earlier than the one I was going to.  Whew.  Wouldn't want to have to Speak To Someone that you're walking next to! Imagine!

Walk length (total):  35 minutes

Day 38: The Narrow Road

Today is, gloriously, a day of rest. I was considering whether to walk to church tonight when I remembered that it is my guilt-free day off.  What a joy.  The sermon this morning was very applicable for my blog, all about the two roads that the world walks on during this life.

"The gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it."  Matthew 7.13-14

You would think that Jesus would spend ages explaining why the 'wide road' is not the one to be on, but He actually makes it sound pretty appealing at first.  'The way is easy.'  How much we would love to stroll through life on an easy road - a road that requires you to do nothing, a road of self-indulgence, a road that is full of friends who will never challenge what you believe or do or say.  Conversely, the narrow road is defined as a hard road.  A road that requires you to make decisions (hard ones), a road of self-denial, a hard and difficult and lonely road.  Doesn't sound too appealing.

The problem is that the wide road, the one that lets you off and makes everything easy and doesn't require any difficult decisions of faith or practice, "leads to destruction".  The narrow road may be very difficult and hard and lonely and weary, but it is also short.  You spend perhaps 80 or 90 years on a hard road (less, for some), but  the entirety of the rest of time is spent in a place of ultimate joy, with no hard roads or difficult decisions or frustrations or pain or sorrow ever again.  Whereas those who have enjoyed their easy and fun and popular life face pain and sorrow and horror and regret and anger and bitterness for the rest of the second life, beyond time as we know it.

Makes the narrow road a little more appealing after all.  Walk on!

Watch the sermon here: 
Which Road? - Matthew 7v13-14 from Airdrie RPCS on Vimeo.