Whatever He Says

By Belinda On Saturday morning on CBC radio, a psychologist was talking about why we make and break New Years resolutions. If we could make change that easily we would all be slim, fit and healthy. We get it so wrong when we try hard to change our behaviour from the "outside in." It just doesn't work, but it takes a long time to figure that out. I've known this theoretically for a long time--in fact my journals record the times when it was particularly clear and I experienced both the helplessness to change and the miracle of God's transformation in an area of my life. While I've known and experienced it, I haven't lived it consistently or fully understood why it is so important to get this right. But I believe that it is a pivotal truth. So how do you change from the inside out? I am learning that it is through communion with, and union with, Christ. We are such a busy culture in the West but relationships take time. God will not be h...

Luke 22:19 (New Living Translation) 19 He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.” It was the second Sunday in Advent but the first Sunday of the month, so as we do in our church on the first Sunday, we prepared to share communion. As the familiar words were read, " This is my body ..." they took on special significance because this is a time of year when we think of his incarnation--his birth. Once done, this thing, this planting of God in humanity, there was no turning back, no way out but through the pain and agony of a sacrificial death. " This is my body ..." Did they realize what it meant when he said that? Do we? The familiar manger scene depicts that precious body in babyhood; vulnerable, as it would remain to the end; a gift given by choice, for us. Philippians 2:6-8 (New Living Translation) 6 Though he was God,[a] he did...