I had a lesson on parables yesterday, and it really opened my eyes to just how ingenious God is in using our language to speak to us. one instance that had a particularly profound effect on me was the part in 2 Peter 2 where Peter refers to proverbs 26:11- "A dog returns to its vomit," and "a sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud." My teacher/friend told me that she really did see her dog eat its own vomit after puking it out (can you imagine eating your own vomit?!), and that really really brought home to me the disgust God feels when we go back to sinning after we've been forgiven and washed clean by Him. As she continued talking i remember remaining stunned there for a while, completely struck by that realisation. It was so painfully piercing and clear to me. i went home and checked out the entire chapter, and here's a short passage from 2:20-21- "If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them." very very powerful words to christians who are still living in sin, who repent but continue doing the same detestable things again and again. it made me very afraid.

i dont want to be anymore like the person who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. that. is. so. incredibly. stupid.

to continue from that verse in James 1:  "but the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does."

Search me, oh God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns.