The Plumbline

Does anyone other than me ever feel like they were chosen to just keep making the same mistakes? Keep doing the same old stuff you'd promised yourself you'd not do again? Keep tripping up on the same things you tripped up on before? I think we all go through these cycles in life - doing well for a while and then 'tripping up' on something we didn't think could trip us up again. We have to remember these things are not experienced by us alone - there are hundreds, if not thousands of others who trip up at just about the same point! Obedience is really a series of trips and rising again! Keep me far from every wrong; help me, undeserving as I am, to obey your laws, for I have chosen to do right. ( Psalm 119:30 TLB ) We forget about the 'rising again' part of this! We are chosen to do right, not wrong. That doesn't negate our free-will (our ability to make a choice). Sometimes our choices just get the best of us! We aren't really deserving of God...

35-38 Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever. I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don't really believe me. Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don't let go. I came down from heaven not to follow my own whim but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me. (John 6:35-38) This passage of scripture follows an amazing event of Jesus feeding masses of people gathered on the countryside with only five barley loaves and two small fish.  The scripture tells us it was at least 5000 people - probably only counting the men in the crowd, as was the custom.  The disciples have distributed bread and fish from what appeared to be a never-ending supply, with left-overs to boot!  The miracle of feeding the multitude makes even more people show an interest in following him.  Now, Jesus speak...