I know that God blesses His faithful followers,
\n the people who have been justified in Christ Jesus.
\nBut sometimes I think – What if…?
\n if… I wasn’t a Christian – I could have all that stuff.
\nOther people, people who aren’t Christians, have such excesses – it seems wasteful.<\/p>\n
They are so pretty – no grey hair
\n or cellulite or black heads.
\nLife seems somehow charmed
\n or they can afford to sweeten it.
\nBut keeping up appearances can be suffocating
\n and it’s easy to get angry about little things.
\nThe abundance of stuff makes them greedy,
\n at the same time as being useless and empty.
\nThey pretend that they know everything,
\n and belittle (or fire) you if you don’t agree.
\nThey assume they know better than God
\n and their gossip is heard far and wide.<\/p>\n
And so others emulate them,
\n consider them flawless human beings.
\nThey say the bible isn’t relevant to the 21st century,
\n the people who wrote it lived too long ago.
\nAnd so they continue on,
\n getting richer and doing whatever they please.
\nWhy did I bother trying to live as a Christian,
\n denying self, giving time and money?
\nOn television they taunt me with their perfection
\n beautiful people, important people.<\/p>\n
If I decided to follow their attitude
\n I would have been a bad example to fellow believers.
\nThe more I am taught about you
\n the more I can’t understand the why and how behind you.
\nAnd then you open my eyes, I understand a bit more of you.<\/p>\n
You put them in challenging, slippery places,
\n then they fall and are ruined.
\nOvernight their image is destroyed,
\n dragged down by absolute folly.
\nThey disappear like a bad dream – the more you
\n try to remember the stupider it seems.<\/p>\n
When I was envious of them, trying to
\n ignore my conscience
\nI was being stupid and ignorant –
\n I had as much brain as a manikin.
\nAnd yet you still hold the hand of this silly plastic girl,
\n You point me in the right direction
\n and applaud me when I get there.
\nYou’re the only reason I want to go to heaven,
\n And you’re the best thing here on earth.
\nMy body is aging and my mind will not last,
\n but God is my forever.<\/p>\n
You teach that those who aren’t Christians will fall.
\n You will justly deal with those who abuse you.
\nIt is a good thing to be saved by grace,
\n I have chosen to live in God’s protection
\n And to tell others of your Son.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I know that God blesses His faithful followers, the people who have been justified in Christ Jesus. But sometimes I think – What if…? if… I wasn’t a Christian – I could have all that stuff. Other people, people who aren’t Christians, have such excesses – it seems wasteful. They are so pretty – no… Continue reading Psalm 73 (as translated by me)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psalming","tag-bible","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1RxuW-1p","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97,"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions\/97"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}