Mark

In Matthew, Jesus' teaching is about the present. The Sermon on the Mount takes up two and a half chapters with information about how the Kingdom of Heaven operates, and Jesus' parables and exhortations throughout the book are about spreading the kingdom further. Mark seems to be more concerned with the future, because of the way he uses a series of episodes of healing and journeying, without many words from Jesus, to build up to Chapter 13, in which He spends thirty-two verses talking to the disciples about the end times. At the beginning of the chapter, Jesus shows His disciples the magnificence of the Jewish temple and claims that in the future, not one stone will be left upon another. The disciples' first instinct is to ask when this destruction will take place, and they specifically ask for a sign, a sign of the end times. In answer to their question, Mark gives us Jesus' longest passage of straight speaking in the entire book. And the point of what He says is this: there will be no sign. It is up to us to always be ready: "What I say to you I say to all, 'Be on the alert!'"

These two Gospels complement each other well, because we need to be reminded to live with both an awareness of God's kingdom as it exists on earth and with the constant expectation that one day He will come again to make everything new.

Anni-VER-sa-RY

On January 3, Edwin and I spent our first Anniversary at the Monterey Bay Aquarium! It's been a whole year. Thanks for sticking with us, those of you who are still reading, and for anyone new, welcome and here's to many more anniversaries.

Edwin had to get up sooo early that morning: 10:30!!

I LOVE SEAHORSES!!!

It's a couple! ^_^

Tiny seahorse

Doesn't this look like Edwin and daughter?!?! One day...

I discovered I also like cuttlefish. They are surprisingly cute.

Delicious clams and linguine at Luigie Linguine's

Matthew

by Elanor

Today in church, we tend to emphasize God's inclusivity: He loves the entire world, "I will go down any path to find you." These things are true. However, as I read the book of Matthew, the attitude that jumps out at me is one of selection. Jesus' parables--the four soils, the tares and the wheat--emphasize that, while some people will become His disciples, many will not. I used to think of this issue of the wide and narrow gates as motivation for me to share the Gospel more or better, or to love people in a different way. I would often look with regret on relationships, thinking that if only I had done something different, perhaps that person would be closer to God than they are. Jesus did not think that way. Rather than try to coddle His followers for fear of losing them, rather than allowing each one to go "at his own pace," Jesus would purposely try to get rid of the unmotivated: He told confusing stories; He assigned people difficult tasks; He asked for total devotion above all else. He was not afraid to let people go if they were not driven to come to Him out of their own conviction.

I've always seen my job as being that of persuading people to follow Jesus. Jesus did not try to persuade; that is the job of the Holy Spirit. Instead, He confronted people with the truth and allowed them to choose.

The New Year's Resolution

by Elanor

As far as I can remember, I have never made a New Year's Resolution before, mostly because I am too afraid of failure to willingly set myself up for it. But this year, while I was driving home from a party on New Year's Eve, I thought of something I would like to do this year.

In 2009, I learned that Jesus is the dividing point of the world. Where some people, intentionally or not, want to mush Christianity together with a general theory of tolerance towards all people and all religions, Jesus comes with a sword and cuts through to mark a distinct boundary between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world. If you ever want to find out for sure where someone stands, get them to tell you what they believe about Jesus, and you will know.

Since He is the difference, He is what changes everything, I want my spiritual focus this year to be on Jesus, and Jesus specifically. I intend to read one of the Gospels every week and share 200 to 250 words about something I learn from them. When Jesus was on earth, His disciples followed Him around for three years, so maybe I will somehow find the discipline (disciple-ness) to follow Him for one.

Merry Christmas!!

“At this point everything becomes clear or unclear, bright or dark. For here we are standing at the centre. And however high and mysterious and difficult everything we want to know might seem to us, yet we may also say that this is just where everything becomes quite simple, quite straightforward, quite childlike. Right here in this centre, in which as a Professor of Systematic Theology I must call to you, ‘Look! This is the point now! Either knowledge, or the greatest folly!’—here I am in front of you, like a teacher in Sunday school facing his kiddies, who has something to say which a mere four-year-old can really understand. ‘The world was lost, but Christ was born, rejoice, O Christendom!’… ‘God became man for thy good, O man. ‘Tis God’s own Child that binds Himself to thine own blood.’”

- Karl Barth (via More Than 95 Theses)

Perishable

by Elanor

When my husband and I moved into our apartment,
I found in his old room a string of rose-lights,
pink buds, green leaves, all wispy-veined,
that we hung up around the kitchen window.
Their vine was an electrical cord that plugged
into the wall and made the flowers glow red
and made the place look like a ten-year-old girl’s bedroom.
They lasted, evergreen-and-pink, for four seasons.
This morning I found a few fragments of fake leaf,
brown and brittle, on the kitchen table.
They reminded me of the bulldozers on our street last week
ripping up pockmarked pavement to put in new
smooth black stuff that steamed in piles
before it was steamrollered level,
and of Roman roads that lasted a long time but not forever.
Then I thought of how indignant I was to learn that
when you buy yourself a house, expect
to have work done on it every ten years or so—
retiling, recarpeting, reroofing.
When I buy something, especially at so great a price,
I don’t want to have to pay for it again.

Christmas Art

I just discovered a Christian artist the other day named Daniel Bonnell. His work is incredible. Take a look here.


Seeing Shepherds