Divine use of the past tense...

At the outset, we were told that in order to learn a new language, we would end up learning our own as well. That turned out to be true.

​It is hard, but the prize comes years later when you feel as comfortable in the learned language as you do in the one you were born into.

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At the outset, we were told that in order to learn a new language, we would end up learning our own as well. That turned out to be true. It is hard, but the prize comes years later when you feel as comfortable in the learned language as you do in the one you were born into.

The heart of the Spanish language would most likely be the precision of the modes and tenses of the verbs, for each of which there is a specific conjugation. Among other things, the endings of the verbs change according to mode, tense, person, and number. In addition to memorizing the conjugations, you have to recognize when and how they are used... something even harder to do.

For English speakers, there are parts that correspond directly and parts that even when you try to translate them they are difficult to grasp – not what they mean as much as why the phrases are constructed the way they are. I would say that the subjunctive mode would be one of the more difficult areas for us.

On the other hand, when you have to put the jigsaw puzzle of a new language together, you start seeing certain grammatical details with more clarity than you do while reading in your own.

I remember when I first started to grasp the distinction in the past tense between the imperfect and the preterite (simple past). Generally, the imperfect tense describes a condition or event that was happening in the past, while the preterite marks an action that was finished or accomplished in the past.

Passages in my Spanish Bible regarding the salvation that we are offered in Jesus Christ began jumping off the page at me because they appeared in forms of the past tense that indicated actions that were carried out and finished in the past. This reinforced what I already knew: that the salvation we all so desperately need…? God had already done it!

"even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,"  (Ephesians 1:4-5)

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,"  (Ephesians 2:4-6)

"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified."  (Romans 8:29-30)

Do you know yet if you have been included in this wonderful salvation? The only thing lacking for it to be so is that you realize that you need it and embrace what God prepared for you through the sacrifice of His Son. What rest! What certainty!

It is not about getting religious… better to embrace Jesus Christ... better to find abundant and eternal life than a dead, outward form of religion.

If getting into heaven is what it's about, then your efforts don't count for anything... but your faith in Jesus does!

"For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law."  (Romans 3:28)

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