When you make a phone call, would you rather talk to a real person or listen to a recorded message? Yet have you ever talked to a real person, even face to face, and felt as if you were listening to a recorded message? Has anyone ever had the same experience with you? It is easy and intellectually lazy to revert back to previous thoughts for familiar questions, and replay them. And so you can in effect have two recorded message machines talking to each other. It is more demanding but also more satisfying to be present in the moment, really listen before you speak, look at things anew, and be willing to go on a path you have not walked before. 

Are you familiar with the idea of small talk? Conversation can be held at a very superficial level and this is typical and considered polite when meeting strangers or casual contacts with people met in passing. Yet your heart hungers for something deeper than this and you find it unsatisfying to engage in for long periods of time. Your words reflect the substance of your life. It is no more difficult to speak words of eternal truth than idle chatter. It does require a deeper level of involvement but it also gives greater satisfaction. They that feared the Lord spoke often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and wrote a book of remembrance for those who feared him and thought upon his name. You can speak words worthy to be recorded in this book. 

If there is a universal symbol of the Christian faith it is the cross. You see it on gravestones, churches, and jewelry, and printed on everything Christian. Does such universal usage rob it of its original meaning? Would a hangman’s noose be as acceptable in the same settings? Yet the cross represented a far more cruel death. The cross is indeed the symbol of the Christian faith. It represents a cruel death but you can see this as the degree of sacrifice I was willing to make for you. It also represents triumph over death and ultimate victory. Don’t let the prevalence and common use of the cross rob it of the real impact it represents.

My word teaches that he who is spiritual judges, or discerns, all things. That is because all things are spiritual. Not all things are divine, for there is one God and you are to worship the Creator rather than the creature. Do you accept the premise that I made all things, and man in my image? Is this obvious or do you just accept it as doctrine by faith? I want you to see it as well as believe it. Peter knew that I was the Christ and I said that he was blessed because flesh and blood did not reveal this to him. I want you to be able to see my fingerprints with your naked eye. If you can do this you will never be bored.