18°F Fog SSW7mph SR0709(0609) SS1913(1813)
Morning Offering given
Village awake, shaking their heads over the vacillating weather
Coffee, strong
Happy Birthday to my cousin Pam.
St. Cyril‘s success in upholding the unity of the early Church teaches us to trust in the work of the Holy Spirit. God, give me the courage of my convictions when my convictions are based in you.
Scripture Reading for Day 18 of The Way of the Cross
Romans 6:15-23 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Of course not!n 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves,o you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?p 17 But thanks be to God that, although you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient from the heart to the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted.* 18 Freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your nature. For just as you presented the parts of your bodies as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness for lawlessness, so now present them as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. 20 q For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.* 21 But what profit did you get then from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.r 22 But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit that you have leads to sanctification,* and its end is eternal life.s 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.t
I’ve been following “Farmer Girl” on FB. She recently posted twice on Barabbas. I found both posts to be quite thought-provoking. Her final 2 sentences are niggling my mind today. ” We are Barabbas. And we are the ones who walked away.” I’d never spent much time thinking about him, and scripture gives little information regarding him, except to say he was notorious and criminal. Several years ago, maybe 40, I read a fiction book about him and his life. It was one of those along the lines of “The Greatest Story Ever Told” by Fulton Oursler. I cannot remember the title, but I do remember some of the content. Farmer Girl’s posts reminded me of that book. So today I will think about how Christ stood/stands in my place and takes the fall for my sins/crimes, and I get to walk away. What will I do with this sudden, undeserved freedom?
Know you are prayed for.
In the "Wilds of Wisconsin & Cornfields of Iowa" 