Friday Review. . . Ordering Your Private World

I recently read Ordering your Private World by Gordon MacDonald. Then I read it again.

I did not want to like this book, and I really didn't want to agree with it -- but I found too many phrases in it that struck way too close to home.

And those like me, who relied heavily upon our natural giftedness, would reach some high point early in our lives and, more than likely, trail off into averageness for the last half of our days on earth.

I am not by nature an organized person. I do not pick up things automatically. I do not finish things before I start something else. I am not good with details. I can easily forget things I've promised to do. And I can get easily distracted. I am a daydreamer (having a very rich imagination); I can be very playful; and I can fall effortlessly into the trap of trying to please everybody. As you can imagine, there was a lot that needed renovating here.

I really wish this man I have never met would stop writing about me so publicly.

There is already a good synopsis of the book on the web. So, I won't re-describe the five sections of the book.

I read this with a group of women, and we all got such different things from it that I am reluctant to say what it says; because that would only be what I took from it. What I will say is that it has brought home to me AGAIN that doing things for my reasons produces disaster. Ignoring God's commandments (like resting on the Sabbath) produces no fruit worth eating, and most importantly the lesson of Frank Laubach. The only way to walk peacefully and productively is to walk with God -- always.

If you find yourself tilting at windmills, running faster and faster and falling further behind, losing site of why you are doing what you do; read this book -- and then read it again.

JusticeSeeker
JusticeSeekerOK@aol.com

Monday Question . . . . Gut Check

This week's Monday question is thanks to Rev Bill

• Am I listening to the voice of God?
• Am I taking risks?
• Am I understanding how big God is?
• Am I surrounding myself with the right people?
• Am I giving it my best?

Rev Bill got these from another web page, and they are labeled as gut checks for ministers. He points out, rightly, that they make a good gut check for all of us who follow God.

I do think I'm listening, but I'm spending way too much time creating inventive ways out of taking real risks.
Do I understand how big God is? I cannot imagine, but that doesn't stop me from wanting a God just big enough to buy my arguments and do exactly what I want.
The right people -- no. This question is way too timely.
Am I giving it my best? Oh, please. I'm not even going there.

How about you?

JusticeSeeker
JusticeSeekerOK@aol.com

Sunday Devotional - Need

Audio version here ... or here

2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.(NIV)



I’ve almost completed John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” for the fifth time. I love the way Bunyan mixes the stories of Christian, the pilgrim, with verses and promises from the Bible. Page after page, the book overflows with words of encouragement and caution, inspiration and instruction. At one time, it used to be required reading in some schools. Sadly, a lot of people don’t know that it even exists.

John Bunyan was imprisoned for his faith, just like the apostles Peter and Paul from the New Testament era. In his day, preachers were required to obtain a license in order to preach the Gospel. Bunyan refused to do this and so he was treated as an antagonist. He went to jail several times, but he persevered in his faith.

Pilgrim’s Progress was mostly written during his times in prison. Being unable to preach on the outside of his captivity, he wrote the book to reach the hearts and minds of people that he never met. His book influenced more lives than his itinerant preaching ever did. His prose and poetry are almost Shakespearean. What began as a project to help him get through the tedium of being in prison became a vehicle for his faith to inspire the same in others. The book has been translated into many languages and it still touches the hearts and souls of thousands of Christians throughout the world today.

In today’s scripture passage, Peter emphasizes that God secures all that we need for life and promises an enrichment of godly knowledge, both of which enriches our hearts and souls. It reminded me of Bunyan because he lived a simple life, devoted to God and enhanced by faith.

In our rush to succeed and to obtain all that we Westerners can, we sometimes forget that life is for living and giving, not for getting and collecting. Perhaps if we enjoyed the simpler things of life, we would discover a brand of happiness, health, and hope that would completely satisfy our hearts and souls.

There’s an old chorus that perfectly sums up these thoughts:“He is all I need, He is all I need; Jesus is all I need. He is all I need, He is all I need; Jesus is all that I need.”

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we complicate our lives by surrounding ourselves with many possessions that end up possessing us. Help us to let go of the things we have, and to let God have a hold on us. Grant us the discernment and wisdom to dedicate our ways to You alone. You are all that we need. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.


Stushie writes the weekday devotional "Heaven's Highway" and also the Sunday prayers blog "Aaron's Beard." He also draws daily political cartoons at "Pushing the Envelope."

Friday Review. . . . Mother Teresa's Dark Night

This morning CNN.com published a review from Time magazine of a new book about Mother Teresa. Actually, if I understand correctly, it is taken directly from her letters to her Confessors. According to this book, Mother Teresa experienced the purest form of Dark Night for over 50 years. Essentially the entire time she was working in Calcutta she experienced no presence of Christ. This period, obviously, began after the amazing visions that began her ministry.

Here is a link to the review.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1655415-1,00.html

JusticeSeeker
JusticeSeekerOK@aol.com

Friday Review . . . Global Mission and Empty Nests

Ring member Quotidian Grace attended the Presbyterian Global Fellowship Conference last week and has posted a series of posts about the conference beginning on Friday August 17, 2007

• Quick PGF Report -- speakers and topics ranging from slavery to John Ortberg on life as Monopoly;
• International Justice Mission -- international justice and violence;
• Voices of Africa -- a prescription for effective mission partnerships;
• A Voice From the Middle East -- the perspective of a Christian Palestinian;
• Conclusion and Reflections -- reflections on the Conference from a Presbytery Moderator-Elect.

Since most of us, presumably, did not have the opportunity to attend the conference, these short, well-written comments on the days' events are well worth the few minutes it takes to read through them.

Several of our member blogs have been writing about a more familiar adventure this week -- sending children off to college. Jane's Journey has a great story about college roommates -- oh, and Presbyterians.

JusticeSeeker
JusticeSeekerOK@aol.com

Meaning

John 17:3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (NIV)

I was having an interesting discussion the other day about church with a long time member. This person volunteers three days a week for a special organization because he wants to do something that makes a difference in the world. He doesn’t feel that organized religion can supply his personal needs to be doing something meaningful. Somewhere along his spiritual journey, his attitude about church has become detached. I listened carefully to what he was saying and tried to understand his dilemma. He wants his church to make a difference in the world, but he can’t see that what we are presently doing accomplishes that goal.

I think that what he was expressing is something that many people feel about church today. It’s an institutional monster which constantly needs fed to maintain buildings, ministries, and missions. There’s nothing exciting about giving money to fix a wall or sending money to other religious institutions. There’s nothing dynamic about maintaining ecclesiastical cisterns and pipes, rooms and roofs that constantly need attention. If you think that church is just a religious business or commercial caring center, then you may indeed lose any sense of relevance that is has. If all that we are doing in church is oiling the machinery of ministry and keeping the momentum for mission support going, then there is no meaning or purpose. We are just collecting dollars in order to spend them. We’re just recycling money in a religious way.

But what is the purpose of the church? Is it to make an impact on the community, so that life on earth is better? If that’s the case, then we’re no different from all the other philanthropic clubs, organizations, and foundations in our community. We may as well merge with other compassionate associations that promote the well-being of the community. Church life would be no different and church membership would just be like joining a club.

Yet there is a difference. All those clubs, organizations, and foundations will eventually diminish and fade away. The church goes on into eternity. Where we have made a difference in the world is preparing people to meet their Maker, is in helping others to get into God’s Kingdom. Our churches, ministries and missions are vehicles for one eternal and everlasting purpose: to bring people to Christ and to help them find salvation for their souls. At the end of history, when all of humanity is judged, it will not be the amount of philanthropic organizations that we have financed, joined or helped that will save us; it will be our sincere belief in Jesus Christ, as the Son of God who forgives our sins and saves our souls, that will be of the utmost and eternal importance.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, there are many good causes in our community that need our time, talents, and treasures of support. They specialize in making a difference in the world for those who are helpless, powerless, and in great need. Your churches are in the same business, yet they are called to have an impact, not just in today’s world, but throughout all of eternity. Give us a better understanding of why our churches exist, what we are supposed to do, and how we can expand, extend, and enhance Your ministry and mission in the world. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Stushie writes the daily devotional Heaven's Highway

Friday Review . . . Found at Kairos Blog

Ok, so today's post on Kairos blog, although fascinating, probably wouldn't get a mention here by itself. (Kairos is trying to choose a new cell phone). However, scrolling back a few entries produces a couple of very interesting posts. The first is dated May 31 (ok, so I'm slow) and is titled, Media Portrayal of Religious Voices. It includes a graph showing the 10 most prominent conservative and progressive religious leaders in terms of media coverage. When talking to people outside the church, it is good to be reminded what church related voices they hear the most.

The post before that is called True Love Waits. . . ? This discusses an article at Slate called Even Evangelical Teens Do It. In turn, this article discusses a book written by a Professor of Sociology at UT-Austin called Forbidden Fruit: Sex & Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers. This is a look at sexual beliefs, activity and when and why beliefs stop controlling actions that focuses specifically on American teenagers within the context of their religious beliefs.

Just a little something different from around the Blogring.

JusticeSeeker
JusticeseekerOK@aol.com

Monday Question . . . Bookshelf

Ok, a question from me for a change.

If you could get every member of your congregation to read one book -- what would it be?

I will start by offering Dallas Willard's Renovation of the Heart. Although, I must qualify this by saying that virtually my church's entire active membership read the Bible cover to cover earlier this year.

Anyone else?

JusticeSeeker
JusticeSeekerOK@aol.com

Mandala Devotional: Window to the Heart of the Soul

It took me ages...

Friday Review. . . The Leadership Summit

Ok, this is late. Sorry, but I had to stop by the office on my way home. Home from where? I'm so glad you asked. I have spent today, yesterday and will spend half the day tomorrow at a satellite location for the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. Now, anything Willow Creek is not going to be terribly Presbyterian; but so far we have had two Presbyterian speakers. Today we had John Ortburg from Menlo Park, and yesterday we had a New York minister who must have been Presbyterian. He spent several years in the U.S. House of Representatives and said he was never afraid of losing an election -- because God had elected him first. I don't think most of the Baptists got it. . . . then again, I'm not completely sure the speaker got it. . . .

Ok, the Conference. The schedule was:

• Bill Hybles, Vision to Die For;
• Carly Fiorina, Tough Choices;
• Floyd H. Flake, The Heat of Responsibility;
• Marcus Buckingham, Go Put Your Strengths to Work;
• Michael E. Porter, Strategy and Leadership;
• Colin Powell, Leading at the Highest Level;
• John Ortberg, A Leader's Greatest Fear;
• Richard Curtis, Living for the Greater Good;
• Jimmy Carter, Building Humanity; and
  
• Bill Hybels, Whatever You Do, Inspire Me!.

Jimmy Carter starts tomorrow. So, I haven't heard him yet. Several of the others were worth the price of admission by themselves. Granted, I was at a satellite location, not the live venue; and I was there on a bought way in advance in quantity for cheapest possible amount ticket.

John Ortberg basically preached a sermon on the Book of Esther that was so good I was trying to figure out if I could afford to live in a box under a bridge in Menlo Park when I discovered that his sermons are on his church's web page.

Marcus Buckingham teaches a way of focusing on your strengths instead of your weaknesses. The message was good. The presentation was wonderful. Michael Porter is a Harvard business professor who is an expert on strategic planning. He made a number of excellent points about focusing mission projects where the church's resources and strengths lie, focusing on maximizing the value that you produce, setting clear goals and making sure that your strategy for reaching those goals is sustainable. The weakness in the presentation was that he focuses exclusively on the perspective of a Ph.D. in finance. Nonetheless, the presentation was very valuable. Richard Curtis is a filmmaker who has used his vocation to raise incredible amounts of money for charitable relief in Africa. Those were my favorite presenters so far.

Any discussion of the speakers doesn't convey the atmosphere. I don't generally care for contemporary worship, but there were a number of aspects to the music and worship interspersed among the speakers that were intensely memorable. Assuming that my church buys seats in bulk again next year, I plan to go again. If nothing else, it is interesting to consider church work as leadership in the same way that CEO's lead corporations and Generals lead armies.

JusticeSeeker
JusticeseekerOK@aol.com

Monday Question of the Week . . . Google

I love it when we get emails with suggestions for Monday's Question. Here is the lastest from the mail room.

Greetings!

I have blogged in an effort to find out how other churches use the web to their advantage for things like google searches. http://rob.mdmonroes.com/2007/08/how-do-you-drive-traffic-to-your.html

My question for the group would come out of the same notion of using the freeness
of the internet (i.e. searches) to drive people to your website?

God Bless,
-rob

Sunday Devotional - Would Christianity Survive without the Bible?

Colossians 2:17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. (NIV)

Someone recently posed the question: could Christianity survive without the Bible? That’s a tough question to answer. For three thousand years, God’s people have looked to the sacred scriptures to build a foundation of faith and tradition in order to give their lives meaning and purpose.

The stories of the Bible have become timeless examples of how ordinary people overcome their troubles in extraordinary ways. How solid would our faith be without the heroic exploits of Noah and his ark; of Joseph and his brothers; of Daniel in the lions’ den? These ancient tales of faith have inspired generations of God’s people in every country and culture throughout the earth.

But what if the Bible suddenly disappeared from our world? What would happen if we as Christians could no longer read the Gospels? What would our faith become? Could it survive?

If we look back to the faith of the first Christians, we come across an amazing fact: they didn’t have any scriptures to sustain their beliefs. The Gospels were written thirty years after the Church was established. The Old Testament wasn’t canonized in its present form until AD93. This must mean that the first Christians established their faith on maintaining their relationship with Christ. Their reality of faith depended upon their connection to His Spirit and not to words written on a scroll of papyrus.

I’m not advocating that we do away with the Bible. It is very important as a guide book for how we ought to live our lives, but in the end it will not be our knowledge of scripture that will get us into heaven. It will be our living, day-to-day relationship with Christ that will secure our salvation. He is the Eternal Word of God – the true Word that is alive, dynamic, and everlasting. Jesus is not someone who is confined to the pages of history, nor is He a mere character in a holy book. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, in whom our faith abides and through whom Christianity survives.

The scriptures are a shadow of the things that were to come, and as Paul would say, “the reality, however, is found in Christ.”Books will one day turn to dust, and even our computers will become redundant and decay, but the Living Word of God, Jesus Christ, will never pass away.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we thank You for the scriptures and for the many things with which they teach us about You, about Your messages, and about Your mighty deeds. These sacred words bring us closer to You, but they are not the source of our salvation. Only Your Spirit can connect us to God; only Your power can restore us to His favor. Enable us this day to grow closer to You in prayer, in devotion, and in service. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Stushie writes week day devotionals at the Heaven's Highway blog.

Sunday devotional - One Stormy Night

Luke 11:42 "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone. NIV

Many years ago, when I was a preacher in Scotland, two young women appeared at the manse door on a stormy winter's night. Both were slightly inebriated and had come to make a special request. One of them was a single mum, who doted on her five-year-old daughter. She wanted her only child baptized and was wondering if I would do it. Suddenly she burst into tears and couldn't say another word.

Her friend then continued the conversation. "Minister," she said, "she came here five years ago when the baby was born, but the last minister wouldn't christen her daughter. He told her the church didn't baptize that kind of child here."

I was shocked, but not surprised. My predecessor had a stern reputation for upholding church law and neglecting compassion. I told them I would be delighted to baptize the wee girl and asked if her mum would come to church on Sundays. The young mother stopped weeping, and her whole face brightened. For the first time in years, she felt accepted.

She came to church with her daughter the following Sunday. She soon became a member of the congregation and her daughter was baptized. She became a Sunday School teacher and brought her child up as a Christian. Her whole life changed because she was no longer burdened with shame. Before I left to minister in the United States, she thanked me for helping her and for accepting her daughter.

We have good rules, well thought out regulations, important teachings and holy traditions in our churches, but when we use them to oppress individuals and neglect to show compassion, we're no better than the Pharisees whom Jesus condemned. Justice and love of God are key elements of our faith. We should never forget to practice those things first, instead of hiding behind doctrine and dogma.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, guide us today when we come across other people who need help. Enable us to listen to their requests and empower us with enough love and compassion, mercy and grace to fully support and care for them. In doing so, may we bring them closer to You, their Savior and Lord. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Stushie is the writer of weekday devotionals on the Heaven's Highway site.

Sunday devotional - God's Truth

Romans 1:25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen. (NIV)

Driving home late the other night, I was listening to a radio host ranting and raving against evangelical Christians. He declared that they had no right whatsoever to say that people of other faiths weren't going to get into heaven just because they didn't believe, serve or worship Jesus.As far as the talk show host was concerned, nobody was excluded and that the God he believed in was non-judgmental. Each time a Christian tried to call in and refute his beliefs, he quickly terminated the call. He was in no mood to be confronted; he wasn't interested giving evangelicals a fair say. After all, it was his radio show and, at that moment in time, he was god of the airwaves

That's the trouble with modern beliefs; everyone has their own individual god. We pick and choose what we want to believe as if God comes pre-packed, vacuum-sealed and perfectly sized from a spiritual supermarket shelf. If we want our perfect God to suit our modern lives, let's just select our own. After all, we are the center of our own universe, so why shouldn't God conform to our personal wee world?

The same old things were happening in Paul's time, too. The apostle, however, was bold enough to confront those beliefs and those kinds of people. "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator." Paul wasn't ready to compromise the truth or let go of God. His way of faith meant he had to battle with his culture, people and trends everyday. If he had simply given in to society or dumbed-down his belief in Christ, we might never have read any of his letters, nor ever have heard the Gospel.

The truth of God challenges every one of us each day. It confronts our decisions. It meddles in our lives. It changes our opinions. God, who truly revealed Himself to us through Jesus, cannot be ignored or re-shaped into something we want to make our lives easier. The whole point about faith is to lead us to something bigger, better and eternal. None of it is a given. We need to meet God on His terms, not on our own. Our only choice is whether we will do it on this side of eternity or not. After death, we don't get to make any more choices. Game over. Christ wins.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, keep us free from making up our own images and worshipping our own ideas about who You are and what God does. Deliver us from pride, conceit and self-deceit, for those temptations have the potential to turn Your truth into a lie. Help us to read Your Holy Word, so that Your sacred ways may be revealed in our hearts and minds. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Montreat 2007

One of the best places to go for a Youth Conference - Montreat, North Carolina

UFO over Knoxville, TN

I was taking a sunset photo tonight - captured a UFO that looks like a Star Trek shuttle over Knoxville, Tennessee.



It begs a question: if life exists in other planets in the universe, what does that do to the uniqueness of Christianity?

Candid Camera

Romans 1: 7a To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: (NIV)

I’ve written several times about St. Jude, the Roman Catholic patron saint of lost items and hopeless causes. My mother taught me to pray to him if I needed to find my keys. Over the years, despite being a Presbyterian pastor, when I get exasperated looking for something I’ve lost, I hear my mother’s words and say a silent prayer to St. Jude. Within a short period of time, I’ve always found what I’ve lost.

Well, at least that was the case until last weekend. My eldest daughter Lynsey was moving to Blacksburg, Virginia to begin her graduate course at Virginia Tech. The town is beautiful and the college buildings are exceptional. It all looks Ivy League to me.

I wanted to take some photos of the town, so I took my digital camera with me (if you want to see some of my past photographs, check out my photos, cartoons and drawings at http://www.flickr.com/photos/traqair57/ ). So, I drove the U-Haul truck to Blacksburg on Saturday morning with all of Lynsey’s furniture.

Evelyn, Lauren, Lynsey and I unpacked the furniture and set up Lynsey’s new apartment. In the middle of the afternoon, we were finished and so we decided to visit downtown Blacksburg. It was then that I sadly discovered my digital camera was missing. We hunted all over the apartment, in cupboards, boxes, purses and even the garbage bags.

I drove back to U-haul and asked if they found a camera in the truck. They hadn’t. I looked over the grounds outside of Lynsey’s apartment and even the parking lot, but the camera was nowhere to be seen or found. That’s when I started to pray to good old St. Jude, but this time it didn’t seem to work.

Glum would describe my mood for the rest of the weekend. Blacksburg was beautiful, but I was carrying my own shadow around with me. Even during worship at Northside church on Sunday morning, I couldn’t stop thinking about the camera, so when it came to the offering, I said a prayer inside of myself like this: “Lord, I give my camera to whoever has found it. May he or she enjoy using it just as much as I have done. Amen.”

St. Jude had obviously missed an opportunity to make a Presbyterian pastor happy, so I just put it down to good old Presbyterian predestination. St. Jude had greatly disappointed me, so the Calvinist within me took over. Praying to the saints is not something that Presbyterians, especially pastors, should be doing. In my mind’s eye, I could see John Knox sternly rebuking me for asking St. Jude to intercede. I felt ashamed.

And then on Wednesday morning, the U-Haul guy in Blacksburg called me to say that he had found the camera hanging under the seat of the truck. Good, old St. Jude had come through! Maybe I’m a Calvinistic Catholic after all!

All together now!...“Oh, when the saints, go marching in…”

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for the saints of old and for their past ministries. We know that You alone intercede on our behalf for our salvation. Thank You for saving lost souls and for the work of the saints in Your earthly church that goes on throughout the world today. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Stushie writes the devotional blog "Heaven's Highway."

Friday Review. . . . A Tour Around the Blogosphere

Frequently on Friday, our member blog, Heaven's Highway, (whom you should recognize as the author of the devotions featured in this spot on Sundays) has been doing a Blogachute. Ok, so what is a Blogachute? It is simply a brief introduction/discussion of a bunch of different blogs -- who they are, what they are posting -- that kind of thing.

This week the Blogachute covers the Progressive Sphere. Now, these blogs aren't ring members, they aren't necessarily Presbyterian; but if you would like a quick look through a number of different progressive blogs, then this week's Blogachute is a good place to start.

Sometimes there is a theme like Progressive blogs or atheist/New Age spirituality blogs. Sometimes there isn't except that so far they have all been religious or spiritual blogs in some ways. Well, assuming you can call atheist blogs religious or spiritual -- but you get the idea.

Check it out. It is a fast and easy way to take a short tour around the Blogosphere

JusticeSeeker
JusticeSeekerOK@aol.com

Accepting the Unacceptable

Acts 15:8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. NIV

When I was at High school, I worked in a store that sold both work clothes and fashion items. It was owned by a Jewish family, the Freedmans, who had been in the business for a very long time. Mrs. Freedman, who was widowed, and her eldest son, Joe, ran the store. My job was to initially look after the stock, wash the floors, and lift the heavy wire grates from off the windows first thing in the morning. At the end of the day, I had to re-mop the floors, tidy the stock, and put the grates back on the windows.

Eventually, I also got to sell items to customers and discovered that I had a knack for making sales. The Freedmans were good people to work for; they believed in an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. Mrs. Freedman taught me a lot about dealing with people, especially difficult or fussy customers. Much of what she impressed upon me has helped me throughout my years of ministry.

She also taught me about Judaism and engendered a great love of things Jewish within me. When I went to university to become a minister, she was delighted. And when I let her know that I was studying Hebrew, she was ecstatic. It was almost as if I was the son who became a Rabbi that she never had. Her acceptance of me as a teenager and her respect for me as a minister were two gifts that I will always cherish.

Our denominational church is deeply troubled and divided right now. There seems to be an atmosphere of antagonism and intolerance on both sides of the ordination debate. Each side claims to be right. Each oppose the other vehemently. Acceptance is unacceptable. Toleration is intolerable.

It seems to me that Peter faced the same kind of issues way back in the past. Some of the Jewish Christians wanted the Gentile Christians to follow their own traditions. But Peter spoke out against intolerance and expressed a great truth that we seem to have forgotten: God, who knows the heart, may be more accepting of others than we are.

It is my fervent prayer that God grant our church the gift of discernment, that is the ability to know, understand, and accept these things according to His ways, and not our own.

Prayer: Lord God, the church has always struggled with itself, but throughout the ages You have given guidance about who or what is acceptable to You. During these restless days, grant us Peter’s courage to declare that where there is evidence of Your Spirit, there is acceptance by You. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Stushie writes the daily blog "Heaven's Highway" which is listed at the right hand of this page.

Sunday devotional - a day late

No Mean City

Audio version here

Psalm 13:4 “my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.”

I was devastated to hear about the terrorist attack at Glasgow airport in Scotland at the weekend. Glasgow is my hometown, a city with a rich diverse culture. Glaswegians are known for their hospitality and friendship. They even have one of the largest Islamic communities in Europe residing there.

I was angry, too, for the bombers knew that lots of innocent families would have been queuing up at the airport. Hundreds of children were waiting in line with their parents to fly out on their annual summer vacations. If the burning jeep had managed to penetrate the main doors, I dread to think how many children’s corpses would have been pulled out later.

And then this morning, I was shocked to read that two of the perpetrators were doctors! I thought that they took an oath to do no harm. What kind of inhumane, insane fanatics are being raised? How long will it take before these people come to their senses?

These terrorists are not religious people. They honor no one, nor do they respect the Quran. They are simply enemies of humanity whose wickedness has reached satanic proportions that they are willing to murder innocent men, women, and children in order to express their vile message of violence and cruelty.

They seek to overcome our way of life through fear, intimidation, and violence. They are barbaric bullies, contemptuous cowards, and pathetic parasites who malign the teachings of Mohammed, the peace of Christ, and the benign rule of God. They have sold their souls to the brazen god of fear, fanaticism, and vengeance. They have no honor, no glory, and no shame.

Glasgow is a diverse city that was built upon hardship, gumption, and true grit. The Nazis tried to bomb it out of existence in World War 2 and they failed to subdue the heart of the city. These terrorists will soon discover that the city of Glasgow flourishes in the midst of adversity and that the people will band together to overcome this evil. Wickedness will not prevail. Good will triumph over evil.

Prayer: Lord God, there are wicked people in the world who use religion to disguise their disgust for humanity. We pray that their efforts to destroy our way of life, hope, and faith will not be accomplished. Help us to confront this evil and join together with the majority of humanity to defend ourselves and overcome this wickedness. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.