A murder of crows

This is a test post from my phone. 

Making room for Jesus

The Christmas season is upon us in full.  Yesterday was the busiest travel day of the year.  Family.  Gifts.  Airlines.  Food.  In laws.  Shopping.  Cooking.  It's all here and hopefully you also take time to rest and rejuvenate your mind, body, and spirt while on this holiday break.  If you aren't careful, your "vacation" from work can quickly become anything but.  Life can get hectic and very crowded in general but even more so during holidays.  We make room for family, friends, gifts, and food (and all of these are important and fun) but let's make sure we are also making room for Jesus.

Luke 2:7 in the KJV reads like this,

"And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn."

Is there room for Jesus in your life during this holiday season?  Is your life so crowded and busy and hectic that you don't have any time or energy left for faith?  Work, life, eat, sleep, repeat.  Multiply all this by 100 during the Christmas season right?  My prayer and hope for everyone reading this is that you make sure and make room for Jesus.  If you are not careful God can get crowded out competing for time and attention in your life.  Making room for Jesus has to be a decision that you make and consciously are aware of.

Whatever you are doing this holiday season don't forget to make room for Jesus.

What does 'purloining' mean in Titus 2:10?

I'm a little bit of a wordsmith.  I love words.  I love definitions and I love etymologies.  My B.A. is in Speech Communication and my graduate degree is in Communication.  So words and language and meaning all are things that jump out to me.  I especially love it when you happen upon words that are so unique that they are only used a few times in holy writ.

Titus 2:10 is really cool because it contains a word that is only ever used once in all of the Bible.  When discussing how servants should interact with their masters, in other words how employees or subordinates should act towards their bosses or supervisors, Paul says, "Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity: that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things."

Purloining is the word that jumps off the page to me every time I read it.  I had actually forgotten what it meant when I came across it today and I had to go look it up.  If you want to be a student of the Bible you should definitely invest in a Strong's Concordance.  The Greek word for 'purloining' means stealing, or more exactly, pilfering.  Pilfering is stealing it just means what is stolen is either not very valuable or in very small amounts that will go unnoticed.

Wordsmithing rocks!  :-)