Good morning, Samara.
I’m noticing that my last devotional transmission was about one week ago—on the 4th. It’s early Saturday morning here at 5:41am, while it’s Friday morning where you are at 10:41am—if I’m calculating things correctly.
From where I’m sitting on a hillside next to the campus of University of the South Pacific, I look across the hills and valleys down toward the center of Port Vila in the early morning light. Birds are making lots of noise out there. A Myna bird just landed on the deck outside this window—now squawking. I can’t escape the feeling of mugginess. So it’s best to just live with it—go with the flow. Mama Becki and Thano are still in the sack. But it’s about time to deliver tea to Becki. (Pause) I just did it—borrowing a huge coffee mug that Thano bought in a Chinese shop the other day. Don’t tell Thano! Hopefully Becki will be finished with it by the time Thano rises and wants to use it.
I have a few projects in mind for the day. A section of the railing on the deck in front of me needs repair. A window on the back of the house needs to be screened. And I’d like to make up a frame for a silkscreen in preparation for printing t-shirts here for the students and staff of JBI. I’m quite handicapped for tools, so I’ll need to creatively make do.
Good talking to you. (Smile) We’ll be in occasional touch.
Love, Tua.
With this first verse of Chapter 11 my first impulse is to attempt to identify and review the first and fundamental idea that it bears. Please write this down in your cranial notebook: THE BIBLICAL GOD OF LOVE IS CAPABLE OF HATRED. That hard fact can startle some people. But it’s true. The Bible contains a large volume of supportive evidence. Here’s the second fundamental idea I think you should record in your notebook: DISHONESTY (any form of lying and deception) IS HIGH ON GOD’S LIST OF THINGS HE HATES.
This little verse goes on to confirm another big essential idea—that HONESTY IS HIGH ON GOD’S LIST OF THINGS HE LOVES.
Why would the LORD be so delighted with HONESTY? I think it’s because that quality of mind and heart demonstrates the success of a person’s acceptance of God’s terms for relationship. It helps to confirm the effectiveness of His terms, and one’s deliverance from a significant measure of the NATURAL SIN NATURE—or recovery from the NATURAL SIN DISORDER.
I can’t avoid repeating the bottom line practical principle that should be recorded at the top of our own lists/notebooks: I MUST MANAGE MY OWN HEART AND MIND SO AS TO HATE WHAT GOD HATES AND LOVE WHAT GOD LOVES.