There is a way to treat ice and a way not to. You have to learn to walk all over again when on it. It observes its own laws and if you ignore them, you're the one who suffers. It causes so many injuries here. One colleague, a gymnastics teacher, fell, got concussion and permanently ended her career. It could have been worse.

So, seasoned by 23 sub-arctic winters, I set off very slowly yesterday with a carload of anxious occupants (including a very pregnant dog on the way to the vet) and went down and up without a hitch. What a relief! But I was not so fortunate on the return trip. Misjudging the amount of gas I need to use (not too much and not too little - it's a fine line) I got up 90% of the final hill, came to halt, and then unceremoniously slid down again. Through slow, unrushed, careful movements, and the help of my son giving me directions (it's risky to look over your shoulders and make misjudgments) I managed to control the downward slide until finally with just that extra little bit of gas I manged to get up on the second attempt. I thank Yah I did not get stuck in a snowwall or end up in a ditch. Great carefullness and skill won the day.

The interesting thing about ice is that it just the frozen variety of one of the essential bases of life - water. When water freezes in your body, it kills you. It's only mentioned in the Bible three times, and then only in the Book of Job, and not surprisingly because the Holy Land was not like Scandinavia with a six-month winter with temperatures dipping into the -20's or lower. The one good thing about ice is that it teaches children to be careful and respectful of an element they know they cannot easily defy except when they're on skis or toboggans!

Yahweh's Torah or law is a lot like ice. You defy it at your peril. It isn't something artibrary that men made up in any so-called 'cultural evolution'. It contains universal, cosmic laws for all life everywhere. If you want to play around with them, you can, since you have your free will, but you can't blame Yahweh when your life get's in a mess when you do.

The other day I was taking a movie of my children playing on the ice the first day after the thaw. They had a great time on their toboggans! But when they fell on the ice, it was hard to get up again (see picture). Sprawling and looking like fish out of water, they had to clutch onto anything which might enable them to crawl to terra firma in the form of unmelted or non-icy snow.

If you deliberately break Yahweh's commandments, He will bring you down, often hard, and leave you sprawling until you acknowledge and repent of your defiance of Him. It isn't worth it. Break His Law and your ground of righteousness turns into the dangerous ice of lawlessness and life suddenly becomes very dangerous.

"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of Elohim (God) is at hand (for you, now). Repent, and believe in the gospel!" (Mark 1:15, NKJV).