Spiritual Ponderings

They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:8) Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous , you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him. (1 John 2:28-29) We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us . God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us , so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear , because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. (1 John 4:16-19) What I am sta...

Now Peter and his companions had been overcome with sleep; but when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men standing with Him. (Luke 9:32) I had not noticed this before, but today I realized the implications of this verse. The disciples did not see the glory of Jesus until they were fully awake. This reminds me of another story that Jesus told about sleepiness. Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep . But at midnight there was a shout, 'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. (Matthew 25:5-7) This parable of Jesus has long been a source of continuing conviction for me. It describes two groups of people who were so identical that it is nearly impossible to tell them apart. According to the story the only noticeable difference between the foolish and the wise virgins was the fact that the foolish ones didn't bother to plan...