Let wonder replace worry

A Prayer For Ash Wednesday

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

-Thomas Merton

The Jackson Trial

I have not said anything on here about the Michael Jackson trail up to this point.  I am not sure why.  Maybe because I did not want to admit that I am one of the thousands that tune into the reenactments on the E! channel.  I do not watch it every night, but I really enjoy seeing how lawyers can take the same story and present it in a way that draws you into what they believe happened.   

Then, I look at my life.  Sure, I can think of some good things I have done, but as any Christian will tell you, we are not saved from our sin filled life by our good works, but by our faith.  This faith, though weak at best, is only made possible because Jesus choose me and gave me the ability to believe in Him.  He could build one hell of a case against me, yet chooses not to.  Why?  I do not think anyone totally understands the love He has for His ultimate creation.

So as I watched this the Jackson circus tonight, I just thought about how glad I am that my life will never be put on trial.  I will not have to answer for all of my sins, Jesus already has. 

I was thinking about the first Bible verse I ever memorized; John 3:16.  We could spend the rest of our lives trying to understand the depth of meaning and love in that verse and we would not even scratch the surface.   

Daystar Telethon

So, after a night of church meetings, I was watching some TV before heading off to bed.  Flipping through the channels, I came across Daystar; a "christian" television station.  This fat guy said that god has 1,107 miracles he is going to do in the next 6 months and if you want to be in on this, you have to call right now and pledge $1107.00.  You could sign up for just one miracle, or you could buy as many as you need.  I wish I was making it up.  The Catholic church did something very similar to this around the time of Martin Luther when they sold passes into heaven in order to finance their cathedrals.  Mothers were told the salvation of their children was more important than food.  I guess I can laugh at the terrible sense of fashion these 2 preachers had.  Why is it that a teenager told me last week that churches are just out to get your money?  I guess he watches Daystar.  Mr. Marcus Lamb, you are not making my job any easier, but you do make my life more interesting.  Heck, I would still watch your station over TBN; but it does not mean I will.  By the way, why don't you agree to list all 1107 of those miracles on your website over the next 6 months.  Sense God said that, it is going to happen.  So start a page and every person that gives the money can log on and list their miracle, or miracles, depending on how many they bought.  In 6 months, we can go down the list and see all the great things God has done.  Wait, that will not work, because 6 months from now, you will be back on TV asking for more money and promising more miracles to the same poor people who are on the phone right now.  Sense I told myself I was going to laugh this off and not get angry about this asinine behavior, I better go do some reading.   

PCUSA

I work for the Presbyterian Church.  Presbyterian refers to our style of government, not our doctrine.  We follow reformed theology.  The Presbyterian Church USA, PCUSA, is facing some tough issues right now where the national church and the people in the pews view some very important issues completely different.  My church has been put in a position where they have to deal with these issues and decide where our congregation stands.  Don't get me wrong our church is strong, both nationally and locally.  I am not worried about that, but I do pray for the leaders of my church as they wrestle with some tough issues and decide where they stand, both individually and as a congregation.  That is the beautiful thing about being reformed.  It is ok not to agree and it is ok to ask questions.  That is what some members of the congregation have done, now the leaders are taking it on.  The conversation has bugun.  May the Lord lead them.

Session

Last night was the February Session meeting here at church.  The lady who did the devotions shared some about her faith journey.  She finished by reading 1 Cor. 13.  When she read verse 13,  faith, hope, and love remain, the greatest being love, it really made me think.  All 3 of these are gifts to us from God.  It has nothing to do with what we can do.  We have faith in Christ because He first chose us.  We can have hope in the fact that we are not condemned, but saved by His grace, not by anything we do.  We love Him because He first loved us.  Because of this, we can share our faith, our hope and our love with the world.  We commit to be pure, we strive to have a Christ-like attitude, we struggle to be faithful to worship, study and pray, yet we fail again and again.  Thanks be to God, for He has done all of the work for us.  Faith, Hope, and Love are what He has done, not about all we desire to be.  The greatest of these is love.  Love so great that He is not disappointed when we fail, but He is there to pick us up and offer us faith, hope, and love.  His love for us is so amazing, the commitments, striving, and struggling are a small price to pay.  We definitely have the better end of the deal.            

God's Man in Texas

I went up to Abbotsford, BC to watch a play called "God's Man in Texas.  It is a presentation about the largest Baptist church in the world, located in this fictional story in Houston, TX.  They decide to hire a young, fundamentalist as the co-pastor to take over for the 81 year old founder of the ministry.  The new pastor quickly finds out that he more of a CEO than a pastor.  The show represented very well, and very comically the different minds sets that are so apparent in ministers in this country.  Is it possible to successfully pastor a congregation of over 25,000 people?  Are numbers the most important thing a church can achieve?  There are some very serious underlying issues in this play.  It is something that Christians can relate to and non-Christians can learn from.  It is not preachy, and does not apologize for bringing up some serious questions.  I hear this is based on the true story of the man who was hired to take over the First Baptist Church in Dallas, the biggest and most well known in the denomination.  This man left the job that is the most sought after position in the baptist church.  Good show.  See it if you have a chance.

Here we go.....

Heresies.jpg

I thought was was pretty funny.  I'm sure others do not share my humor.

It is cold today!