To Bring Him Joy

I am not a huge sci-fi fan in general but I have gotten into some because of watching a few shows with my teenage sons and my 20 something daughters  (sometimes dad gets in on the watching action as well). We pick a show and start at the beginning and watch through as many seasons as are available.  The sci-fi started with Stargate Atlantis but now we are on Dr Who. Many times over the years after we have watched a movie or TV show I have asked my kids who was most like Jesus in that show and then we have a good discussion about it.  Sadly, there are more and more shows that there is no one to be found who is like Jesus at all. But what is amusing to me is when a show that is fairly anti-God, pro-super science accidentally gives a fairly good picture of the gospel! It is funny that things that we accept in our heroes we don't like, even hate about God.   This idea hit me when my youngest son was replaying his favorite narrative from one of the  recent shows ...

 This is something that I just sat down and wrote shortly after my mother in law died.  I felt like God wanted me to write and so I did.  It is just me fairly raw, not at all polished, sharing with God. I hope it helps someone out there.   I am just not sure where to start but I know that I need to be writing so here goes. I have been wondering about my mother in laws death and just why she died in the way the she did. It was so weird. She fought to the end. Screaming and kicking and biting, mocking and glaring, just mean and weird. I don't know if it was the melanoma reaching her brain, the Alzheimers, or the medications that we were giving her to try to relieve the pain and delirium she was having. It was awful. If I hadn't really believed that she was a christian, there are times that I almost thought that she was possessed! Father, this seems useless, just writing for the sake of writing. Lord, only You truly know why she died in the way that she did...

What in the world does this mean? How do you do this? This is a phrase out of Romans 4 speaking of Abraham.  In the Old Testament we read that God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was not far behind him. Abraham and Sarah had long given up on having children, Sarah even laughed at the idea. Abraham said that their bodies were as good as dead.  I think this is what it means when it says "in hope he believed against hope".  All the odds were against them, if you looked at them and their circumstances there really was not any hope for them to have a child.  So why did Abraham have hope why did he "believe against hope".  For that you have to look at the surrounding verses in Romans 4.       "As it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations"--in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not ex...