Mary Ann's Blog: Kingdom Seekers

By Mary Ann Wray Have you ever pulled out of your driveway after looking both ways twice but backed into the trashcan left out from the day before anyway because of a ‘blind spot’ in your vehicle?   How about running over a curb while making a right turn or pulling into a parking space? Despite our best efforts we sometimes fail to ‘see’ certain things that can potentially damage or slow us down.  Have you ever said any of these things about yourself to anyone? Have you ever heard anyone else use some of these phrases as reasons or excuses for acting, believing or communicating the way they do? “This is just the way I am. It’s my personality so just get used it. I don’t need to change for anyone. Why can’t you just accept me the way I am? God made me this way so don’t judge me.”  If we are honest with ourselves, I think we can all say we have either said or thought these things at one time or another. In fact subconsciously, we tend to use such st...

WHOSE AND WHAT ARE WE? By Mary Ann Wray “Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us,  and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” Psalms 100: 3 Of all the analogies Jesus could have used to describe His people, he used sheep and the concept of a flock to demonstrate how He views our relationship with Him and one another. Evidently, Jesus liked and observed animal behavior. He referred to them quite often. In Revelations 5: 5 He is referred to as the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah”. This in no way minimizes his authority or Divine personhood any more than Him referring to us as His sheep degrades our position in creation to that of an animal. However, in God’s divine design every species of animal has certain characteristics. For this reason, He often used them to describe certain characteristics of people and people groups as warnings, admonitions and examples.  For example, He referred to the outsiders of the covenant as...