Standing at the Door

Eyes still open, that's the snow falling outside right now (for a better look, click on the picture).

I had an idea for an entry tonight, but I ran across something on the web that kind of intrigued me, so I'm bouncing off of that instead (and I can't find the verse for my original thought, so I'll find it later and use it tomorrow).

If you read blog comments, you may have noticed someone named Lorna commenting on a few of my posts. She is from Finland; I know that because after I read her comments, I went to visit her blog (See-through Faith). Really interesting blog. Anyway, she posted today about another blog (never ask a West Virginian how she feels, because she'll tell you everything), called Reverend Mother. She was visited by Jehovah's Witnesses, who spoke with her and asked if they could read her a scripture. They chose to read from Romans 16:

I urge you, brothers and sisters, to keep an eye on those who cause dissensions and offences, in opposition to the teaching that you have learned; avoid them. For such people do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded. For while your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, I want you to be wise in what is good, and guileless in what is evil. The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

So the question is, if you were to go door to door to share your faith, which scripture would you choose to read? Reverend Mother chose this one, from Romans 8:

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I'm leaning toward this one myself.

Other suggestions which came up in her comments section include Luke 6:31-38, John 3:16, 1 Corinthians 12:4-21, Micah 6:8, 1 John 3, and 2 Chronicles 7:14.

Two others of my favorites are 1 Corinthians 13 and Galations 3:28. We used the 1 Corinthians 13 passage in our wedding, and I just love its description of love. The link above is from The Message. If you've never read The Message version, take a peek ("Love doesn't strut; doesn't have a swelled head"). When I was in youth group (many many moons ago), our associate pastor at JM asked us to memorize Galations 3:28. He told us that if we memorized it, it would always be ours. That's true, but now I can only say it with a kind of sing-song voice, the way I memorized it. But I still like it.

I have to say, though, I might just stick with Romans 8:37-39 (The Message):

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing--nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable--absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

So, what would be your choice? You're standing at the door, and you get one choice of scripture to read to someone...

While you're thinking about that, here's a quick one -- S was talking to his brother, R, today, who just bought a new car. R has had his Saturn for 5 years and it doesn't have a scratch on it. Now, in the time between buying the new car and taking possession of it, what are the odds something will happen to the Saturn? S told him, "Murphy's got you on GPS; he knows where you are."