tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55883362334117665392024-02-21T08:00:28.057-05:00The Pilgrim Road“…They agreed that they were no more than foreigners and pilgrims here on earth. And obviously people who talk like that are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had been thinking of the country they came from, they would have found a way to go back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland..."
~Hebrews 11:13-16Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.comBlogger143125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-78177838348576228732022-12-09T17:29:00.000-05:002022-12-09T17:29:00.564-05:00In One Day...Advent, Waiting and Bringing the Folks<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">“The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. <i>Many other people went up with them</i> and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread.” ~ Exodus 12:37-39</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">“Be careful,” Jesus warned.” them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.” </span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">~ Mark 8:15</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Advent means waiting. Waiting is writ large all over the pages of the Great Story. So much of the waiting in Scripture is bound up with a longing for freedom and deliverance. God counsels His people everywhere, from the beginning, to be patient, and to believe, even when the outlook <i>seems</i> grim. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">But in some times and places throughout the checkered story of human history, there are peppered answered prayers and fulfilled longings so great, that they transform the world and individual hearts at the same time. The time of patience is completed. The time of the hoped for deliverance arrives. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">For 430 years, the Jewish people were enslaved in Egypt. They were bent, hunched and humiliated despite the promise to their forefathers that they would be a mighty nation, blessed in a land of freedom and abundance. And so they waited and prayed and waited and wept and waited and despaired and waited and hoped. Until in one day, Moses walked <b>millions</b> of God’s people, along with “many other people who went with them”, out of the bondage of Egypt into their long awaited freedom. 430 years boiled down to one unforgettable day. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">When the prophet Malachi penned the final words of what would become the Old Testament, there would follow 400 years of silence from the Holy One of Israel. The people of God waited and prayed for the promised Messiah who would deliver His people not only from external tyranny but from the ancient ravages of sin and spiritual darkness. And then, in one day, Jesus Christ the promised One was born to a virgin in a dusty backwards desert town in obscurity and humility. The Son of God altered the course of history in one day, after so much waiting.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">And we know the story. Jesus had to die and rise again for the story to reach its climax. The Exodus from Egypt is a shadow - the deliverance of millions of God’s people along with many others who did not originally worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The shadow came to life in Jesus. Christianity started with a group of rag tag Jews who with the flame of the Holy Spirit set the world on fire. And many Gentiles, pagans and unbelievers, <i>went up with them.</i></span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">And now, the people of God wait patiently again. One more round of patient waiting is required. Jesus promised He would return, this time in great glory for all to see. He will vindicate the patient endurance of His people and bring them to the true land “flowing with milk and honey”, where they will live with Him forever, justified by faith in Jesus the Messiah. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">The Jews left Egypt carrying dough without yeast in it, having hurried out of Egypt. Even this was a sign that would find deeper meaning when Jesus warned about the yeast of Herod, and the Pharisees – the yeast of unbelief. Both Herod and the Pharisees rejected the Savior. Herod refused to follow Jesus because it meant a devotion that would cramp his sin laden appetites, and the Pharisees refused because they pridefully thought they could justify themselves by adhering to works of the law. And so they perished by both forms of unbelief, still in play in our culture today. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">As we wait for Jesus to come again, it seems to me that the people of God are most in danger of losing heart and losing hope. The American church is shrinking, orthodox Christian doctrines are mocked, and we people of the Way are all too sleepy when we should be keeping watch. (I love when I preach to myself…) So I remind you of these two great moments when long stretches of endurance and waiting were followed by great joy in the fulfillment of the promise.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">I pray we will rejoice in this time of Christmastide, grateful for our beautiful inheritance from the Old and New Testaments, thankful for those who patiently waited and hoped before us without shipwrecking their faith on the rocks of impatience and unbelief. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus will return. Let’s remove the leaven of unbelief, rouse our faith in so Great a King, and pray and work so that “many others will go up with us”. It will all happen in one day.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Your friend on the Pilgrim Road,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Loriann</span></p>Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-80462354476310712792022-10-16T14:07:00.000-04:002022-10-16T14:07:29.437-04:00Good Fear?<p> <span style="background-color: white; font-size: 1.5em;">The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">The statement above from the book of Proverbs is not only counter-cultural. It’s the kind of </span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">proclamation</span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> that would cause many intelligent, up-to-the-minute modern thinkers to cock their heads in </span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">baffled</span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">wonder before dismissing the ancient precept altogether</span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. We’ve lost the beauty and joy that comes with the right kind of fear.</span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> In it</span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">s</span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> place, well I don’t have to tell you. History </span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">tells the tale.</span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Indeed, in </span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">many ways it has been ever thus. </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">That modern classic</span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> movie</span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></span><span class="s3" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Jurassic Park</span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">nails it with</span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> th</span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">at unforgettable </span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> quote by </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Dr. Ian Malcolm</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">: </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">"God creates dinosaurs, God destroys dinosaurs. God creates Man, man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">.</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">"</span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">When man ceases to fear God, the fictional disaster depicted in Jurassic Park becomes a </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">metaphor for the reality </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">of chaos</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> in a w</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">orld where “everyone does what is right in his own eyes.” </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">I’ve grappled with the fear of God lo these many years of stumbling and </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">stammering in my life as a follower of Christ. </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Can</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> you love Someone you fear? Should </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">you fear Someone who</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> calls Himself your Father? </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">What do I fear? His wrath? His discipline? </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">The Proverbs call the fear of the Lord the BEGINNING</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> of knowledge</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. In this context, </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">it seems to mean </span></span><span class="s5" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">the foundation that </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">sets the wheels in motion</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> on the path to </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">right </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">understanding</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">– and right application of what is understood</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Like the foundation of a house holds it up, like the </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">bread won’t be bread without leaven, like </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">a car </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">isn’t a car without an engine. </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">To fear God</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> is to grasp the non-negotiable, binding, </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">perfect and just authority </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">H</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">e has in His ownership of this world and everyone and everything in it. </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Even the wrath of God, a very unpopular subject of discussion, is good and right. </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">God’s absolute hatred of sin and what it has done to His creation is </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">good. </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Fear is a powerful </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">mindset</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. Like mighty rushing water, it can destroy what is good when</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> it runs amok without a </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">path and a purpose. </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Hence the Bible’s </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">plentiful commands to “fear not.” </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">But when </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">fear is rightly understood it </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">becomes a catalyst for </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">what is </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">important</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> and </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">valuable</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. The Hoover Dam harnesses </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">the power of water to provide electricity to millions of people.</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">It’s a fearful force</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> that tourists visit with awestruck </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">wonder but-wouldn’t</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> want to </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">carelessly </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">paddle their canoes under</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">…</span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">The tension between the right kind of fear</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> of God</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> and the </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">destructive kind is something I’ve grappled with for a long time. </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Different temperaments </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">and different times and places </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">approach the fear of God in varying ways. </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">In general, our culture is on the </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">dismissive end of the </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">pendulum</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, taking lightly those </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">moral bedrocks that </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">have weathered the </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">battering storms of time</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Past cultures have </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">often gone to the other extreme, </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">be</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">ing</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> so afraid of God they fell into the trap of superstition and </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">horrifying sacrificial practices.</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> As usual,</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> neither of the</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">se poles </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">make for a fruitful, relational life with God. </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Since we live in a time when the fear of God </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">is mostly absent, we ar</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">e in the dangerous flow of a </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">river</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> where </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">human </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">wisdom = folly. </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Right now, </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">murderers are being released on bail. </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Authority is mocked. The smallest and weakest among us </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">are destroyed and buildings are lit up in celebration.</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> Commitments are shallow, </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">entitlement </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">abounds…</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">man creates dinosaur…</span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">I cannot say where the healthy fear of God finds its sweet spot. It’s something I think </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">must be prayed for, sought, learned from scripture, wrestled w</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">ith and considered every day</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">This I do know. The knee must be bent, the </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">cross of Christ always kept at the forefront, a heart of gratitude </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">the </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">cornerstone</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">“</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Fools despise wisdom and instruction</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">”</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Maybe there is one thing today you can do to </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">energize the right kind of fear of God in your life. </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Consider </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">the changing leaves, and all the intricacies of how that happens. </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Take a walk in a cemetery and remember your mortality. </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Light a bonfire in the </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">backyard and</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">lift your heart to the God who </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">made fire to burn and </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">to comfort.</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Stand in awe of all these things. And, r</span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">emember always, that everything, everything He does, is </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">ultimately right and </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">good. </span></span><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"></span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Your friend on the pilgrim road,</span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span class="bumpedFont15" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Loriann</span></span></p>Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-7957068134298624452022-07-18T12:41:00.000-04:002022-07-18T12:41:17.859-04:00Be Deadly Serious...And Laugh at the Days to Come<p class="yiv7499861319MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.84000015258789px;">Proverbs 31 haunts me with a particular phrase: “She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.” </p><p class="yiv7499861319MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.84000015258789px;">Here is a woman living in a time before penicillin, washing machines and the rule of law. In a geopolitical culture where a bad king could make life hell, and where an invading enemy could destroy everything you worked for, and where you were very likely going to lose at least one child to death, or die yourself bringing them forth. She lived in a world where bad guys could round up your family members and enslave or kill them in the blink of an eye. </p><p class="yiv7499861319MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.84000015258789px;">There was no Medicare, Social Security or government backed securities. </p><p class="yiv7499861319MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.84000015258789px;">The earth has always been a rugged place to live, in every time, in one way or another. Where the human race struggled for eons to stave off starvation, it now battles (at least in the West) diabetes and hypertension, often the result of the availability and consumption of too <i>much</i> food. Ironically, where pain was a mostly unsolvable problem, thousands are dying in our day in America of pain-killer overdoses. Poverty was, and ever will be with us until the earth is renewed. Pestilence and war and death rattle their noisy chains as loudly as ever. Cain is still killing Abel. The heavy anvil of sin and its fallout has made its cosmic dent on mankind. </p><p class="yiv7499861319MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.84000015258789px;">So is this bold statement realistic for disciples of Christ in the 21<sup>st</sup> century? Is it possible, let alone advisable, to laugh in the face of all the folly and despair and devastation of a world where wrong is seen as right, where the ancient understanding of an unchanging, foundational moral law is mocked? Where to seriously believe that the Bible’s traditional sexual ethic is true is to make one a hater or a bigot? </p><p class="yiv7499861319MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.84000015258789px;">I know a few living examples of saints who somehow find the balance between a serious and sober take on their lives and callings, but who can also laugh long and loud at the goofiness of a dog, or the Abbot and Costello “Who’s on First” skit, or some personal ding-a-ling thing they’ve done. These are the people I want to be around, and to be like. They have a faith so sturdy and grounded that they can “rejoice with those who rejoice and sorrow with those who sorrow”, managing these context switches with ease and grace.</p><p class="yiv7499861319MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.84000015258789px;">What kind of a world are we talking about living in if those who have glimpsed at the robust joy of Jesus carry on with sour faces and doom and gloom outlooks? (It’s always hard, this preaching to oneself…). </p><p class="yiv7499861319MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.84000015258789px;">I’m re-reading a favorite time travel novel right now, (it’s actually a 2-part book: Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis). It’s a masterfully written fiction with a whole lot of real history weaved into the story. The novel(s) takes place mostly in London during the German Blitz, when the English were mercilessly hammered by Hitler’s Luftwaffe from September 1940- May 1941. Stores stubbornly stayed open at Christmastime, and Londoners determined to keep their Yuletide spirit alive while their world was on fire. Mugs of tea were passed out in the underground train shelters, because no one is coming between a Brit and their cuppa. There’s no doubt these folks were facing an existential threat…and no doubt they worried and wept and wondered… but there was an undertone of hope, a trust that the darkness would not prevail. And that proved to be critical to their survival in the end.</p><p class="yiv7499861319MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.84000015258789px;">There’s no mistake that these are the times we are made for:</p><p class="yiv7499861319MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.84000015258789px;">“From one man He has made every nationality to live over the whole earth, and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live.” Acts 17:26 </p><p class="yiv7499861319MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.84000015258789px;">We could not choose when we were born, nor where. But this we can do: we can choose to live in hope. We can believe that the Keeper of Israel, who does not slumber or sleep, is sovereign. No <i>ultimate</i> harm can come to those in His care, in His abounding, extraordinary, gracious shelter. We must be deadly serious in our own efforts to kill the sin within that seeks to kill us. We must help those who suffer, mourn with those who mourn, and have a true and sober view of things as they are. We must stand up and face the darkness, even with trembling, tea in hand…</p><p class="yiv7499861319MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.84000015258789px;">And dare I say, we who have such a lofty Hope, can laugh at the days to come…</p><p class="yiv7499861319MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.84000015258789px;">Your friend on the Pilgrim Road,</p><p class="yiv7499861319MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.84000015258789px;"> LS</p>Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-46720485860095320052022-02-05T09:41:00.000-05:002022-02-05T09:41:48.086-05:00Why I'm Not Watching the Beijing Olympics<p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px;">Frustrating, isn’t it?</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px;">How there are so many wrongs in the world that we have no power to make right ...</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px;">The truth is we folks struggle our whole lives to overcome the darkness within our own souls, in the only place where we have some leverage.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px;">The farther out we go in concentric circles from ourselves, the less control we have to make an impact.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px;">Nevertheless, in the sphere we inhabit, there are small or incremental choices we can make to turn the ship, at least of our own hearts, and maybe that of a few others.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">The country of China is full of people just like us. Men, women, and children who work, play, love their families and share the existential hopes and fears experienced by all human beings. It is also an enormous and powerful country ruled by a small number of shrewd, authoritarian despots. The history of China’s human rights abuses aside, <b>right now</b> in the “People’s Republic”, there are approximately 1.5 million Uyghur people (a Muslim religious minority) who are the target of what the United States has officially declared a genocide.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Here is a sampling of what’s happening to the Uyghur people:</span></p>
<ul>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Detainment in internment and “re-education” camps (replete with the horrors of malnutrition, lack of sanitation and medical care, rape of female prisoners, beatings, forced labor)</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Random arrest and torture </span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Forced abortion and sterilization of Uyghur women</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Uyghur children removed to Chinese orphanages </span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Uyghur women “married” to Chinese soldiers</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Medical experimentation on Uyghur people</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Gang rape</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Ongoing surveillance</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Disappearance of Uyghurs from their homes</span></li>
</ul>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">These are <i>only some</i> of the reported atrocities occurring against this ethnic minority simply because of their religious beliefs. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Haven’t you often thought “What can I do to help (fill in the blank) in (some far away part of the world)?" In this social media/news saturated culture, there are so many tragedies before our eyes. Far too many for us to absorb and certainly almost all out of our reach to upend in a meaningful way. One caveat: I’m the last one to say that fervent prayer isn’t powerful – it is. Who knows but that it was the prayers of the faithful that were the ultimate cause of the take down of past atrocities and injustices? Prayer to the One and Only is a weapon like no other. Sometimes it’s all we have. But if faith without works is dead, in the smallness of our own reach, what CAN we do? Rather than be overwhelmed, is there anything our hands and feet can accomplish? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Last night, what I assume was the beautiful and moving spectacle of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games was televised around the world from Beijing China. And today the figure skaters will begin swirling, the skiers flying, the bobsledders zipping through the ice and snow in strength and glory. The backdrop to all this wonder is a country where human rights are being violated in the most profound and disturbing ways imaginable. It’s like putting a crown on a pig. It’s baffling how the Olympic Committee and the free world agreed to allow Communist China to host games that are supposed to represent what is good and beautiful. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">I realize there are terrible things happening all over the world. I don’t even know what they all are, much less do I have any power to do anything about them. But I do have this one power: I can change the channel on my TV. I can say with one small click of the remote that I will not support NBC, nor the companies paying for commercial time, nor indeed the whole fandango of unrighteousness that is driving this phony operation. This small thing is within my power. And it costs me little. I pray to be willing to do the right thing when it costs me much more.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">You can’t fix everything wrong in the world. One day Jesus Christ, the only Great Hero, will do that. But you can do something. Pray for the Uyghur people. Insist that our government hold China accountable by reaching out to your senators and congresspeople. And turn the dial for the next few weeks. Better yet, turn the TV off altogether and give thanks to God that you were born free – and use your freedom to bless your family, your friends, your coworkers - someone right within your sphere. In the place where you CAN do some real good.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Your friend on the pilgrim road,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Loriann Smith</span></p><div><span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></div>Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-10318782046417360132021-07-30T13:46:00.001-04:002021-07-30T13:46:13.056-04:00Seagulls, Seals and the Primacy of Perspective<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">“Look at those birds!” I exclaimed to my Smitty as we squinted across the inlet of the Great Atlantic flowing into the Nauset Salt Marsh, across to a sandbar littered with small, black figures. I left my binoculars at home, so we’d have to simply marvel from a distance at the sheer number of birdies lounging in the sun. I wondered what they were… Terns? Shearwater’s? Sandpipers?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">There aren’t many people on this remote section of the Cape Cod National Seashore, a good stretch of the leg from Coast Guard beach where our umbrella and summer reading awaited our return from our pilgrimage to what I nicknamed “Cape Horn”. It’s a favorite place of mine, there at the mouth of the Salt Marsh inlet where the waves don’t follow the rules even more than usual, skipping and changing direction faster than my youngest son’s video game character when he’s playing Super Smash Brothers.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">A young couple approached us, (we would soon learn they were on their honeymoon) binoculars in hand, excited about the wildlife on the distant sandy outcrop. “Did you see them?” they pointed. We joined right in on the delights of nature, and then (in keeping with seaside language) they lowered the boom: “So many seals all together!”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Seals. No wings. They don’t fly. Those weren’t birds at all. We weren’t seeing things clearly from that distance. We made assumptions. We know what seals look like. (They hang around the beaches all the time in singles or small pods - hence the ever present shark alert flags at the National Seashore beaches). But because we couldn’t see the details of their amusing, blubbery bodies and their adorable, whiskered snouts, we imagined flocks with feathers and beaks. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Even as the light dawned, I started converting the story in the natural world to the great truth in the spiritual: without the right perspective, you can’t see clearly. Without the binoculars of faith, the gospel becomes about good behavior instead of amazing grace. A life’s direction and motives are skewed because the ladder being climbed is leaning against the wrong wall - of this world’s success, instead of eternal purpose. A person is being judged by outward appearance, rather that through the clear, illuminating glass of their infinite worth as a person created in the image of God. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Wrong perspective is an easy trip-up. Ask me how I know…</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">How grateful I am that the word of God is described as “a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path”. How superbly Jesus changed the whole paradigm of religion, bringing God the Father so close that we could see what He’s really like, Christ being “the exact image of the Father”, both Just and the Justifier. How wildly beautiful (like the glittering, dancing waves forging their way into Nauset Marsh) is the word of God, bearing witness with perfect perspective, from beginning to end, to the great pursuit of God for sinners like you and me. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">The ancient paths to perspective remain the same forever. The truth of the bible, the prayers of God’s people, the fellowship of the saints: all these keep the man or woman of God from blundering under false doctrines and crazy headed ideas. They aren’t glitzy, but they are the prescribed binoculars, bringing the clarity of the living Holy Spirit, that keep us from seeing birds, when what’s really out there are seals.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">A goofy little story, I know. But there’s lots of parables on this path we’re on. May yours be filled with wonder, and the perspective of faith. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Your friend on the Pilgrim Road,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Loriann Smith</span></p><div><span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></div>Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-30851155653763920202021-07-06T12:36:00.000-04:002021-07-06T12:36:11.428-04:00The Parable of The Dog, The Mud and The Hill<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">A few weeks back we had a lot of rain. A few months back, we got a German Shepherd/Lab mix puppy. And a few millennium back, the forces of erosion, tectonic plates, (and who knows what other natural phenomena) formed a spot of land into a small hill…</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">This is the story of how those 3 points in time came together to teach me some ancient and well tested truths...</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Once upon a time, about 3 weeks ago now, I took aforementioned puppy to the town park, a few days after the aforementioned rain. And turning the corner to follow the well travelled trail down to a creek, the puppy spotted another dog. That other dog was with a family - mother, father and a child, perhaps 3 or 4 years old.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">I had one of those locking leashes that extend when unlocked. And the now 60 pound puppy, great lover of all other dogs and people, charged ahead for a meet n’ greet. The leash was unlocked. The ground was muddy. The hill was following the law of gravity. I was not, in any way, in control.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">For fear of scaring the poor little boy as a large black dog bounded toward him (pulling a sliding owner who clearly was not prepared for the moment) I steered myself into a tree to stop the bounder. Into the tree. Into the picker bushes surrounding the tree. Smashing fingers into the tree to stop the leash from going any further. Smashing legs in shorts into the tangled brush. I stopped the dog…but I was a bloody mess of scratches and mud. I finally gained control of the puppy, whose sole aim was to gleefully lick the entire family and their pet. After apologizing profusely for scaring the wide-eyed foursome, I went my way to continue on the path, shaking and very glad I was wearing my $5 Walmart tee shirt now dotted with blood and smeared with a dirt/tree bark blend. The old sneakers I had worn were now certifiably filthy.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Everyone was OK. The dog was oblivious, simply delighted to prance in and out of the stream along the path. But I was bleeding and sore, and pondering the value of staying alert and recognizing personal limits. There was a parable here, and it was already formulating in the head under my Dog Mom baseball hat.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">My oldest son asked me before I even got in the car if I was going to be OK alone with the dog. After all, he’s getting bigger and stronger. (And unspoken, I’m getting older and weaker). I’d never really taken him out alone with the extender leash before. I poo pooed my son’s caring caution. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">When I arrived at the trailhead I noticed the muddiness, and actually slipped once. But I dismissed the wet environment even as I thought for a moment that I should have brought my hiking boots.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">I’d like to share 3 points in my parable that apply to the disciple of Jesus on life’s pilgrimage to the City of God. I’m the first person who needs to understand these truths (clearly!) since I got the message through blood, mud and the powerful workings of gravity.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Listen to the warning.</b></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">The Word of God is replete with soundings and flashing lights that indicate spiritual danger on the horizon. Sometimes, God makes use of human beings to sound the alarm. Sin is a subtle, cunning enemy, grasping self justification in one hand and self deception in the other. By listening to the voice of wisdom the traps of the world can be identified and avoided. A good part of victory is recognizing the world, the flesh and the devil, and staying clear. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Discern your environment.</b></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Where are your feet? Are they on the solid ground of the Gospel - not the shaky, muddy foundation of religious “goodness”, but the rock solid, dry ground of the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ alone? (I love preaching to myself!) Are you depending on Jesus, the Cornerstone for your righteousness, or the slippery mud of your own power to keep life in control? Jesus is the steady-on companion through the wild, brambly places of this present darkness. He knows the hills, valleys, rocks, and as John Newton so perfectly put it: the “many dangers, toils and snares…” </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Understand your limits.</b></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">We are a vapor. None of us is a spiritual Hercules. We require rest, Sabbath, a time to slow down. We have areas of weakness in our make-up that will make us ever-dependent on Someone stronger. It’s painful to say I’m not strong. It’s hard to accept our inability to change other people or difficult circumstances. But it is critical to understand our weakness. Or we will end up bloodied, muddied and shaken. The Kingdom of the Apprentices of Jesus is very different from the kingdom of this world. One of our upside down mottos is the great truth: “When I am weak, then I am strong.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">My parable spoke to me. My scratches healed, but I learned to bring the short leash when walking the pup. I gained insight into the proper footwear for muddy terrain. Most of all, and most difficult: I’m aware of my limitations. And I’m more mindful of what’s up ahead on the trail now that experience has worked her magic.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Life is full of parables. My minor but painful injuries gave me ears to hear. Let it be so where it really counts.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Your friend on the pilgrim road,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Loriann Smith</span></p>Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-57108814389894807602021-05-17T21:12:00.006-04:002021-05-17T21:12:56.820-04:00"You May Be Right": Laying Down the Need to Come Out on Top<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Four words might possibly change the tenor of your whole day…perhaps, in time, the climate of a whole culture. Those words: “You may be right…”</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">As the consummate first-born, bossy big-mouth, I can- with authority - speak to the foolishness and pride of wanting the last word, thinking I know the correct way to go, pressing forward with all dispatch to “fix” other people and their opinions.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">This character defect has brought me no peace, and a great deal of trouble over these many years. Through many encounters involving dimwitted, know-it-alls (me being the aforementioned head dimwit) , I have in time come to learn the value of the 4-word phrase that circumvents a great deal of blow-hard stupidity and fosters the Jesus-like character for which I yearn and strive. But oh, how hard it can be to choke out those deferential syllables…</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">“There’s a right way to load the dishwasher…” “You may be right.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">“Climate change is destroying America’s forests.” “You may be right.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">“Masks are the best way to stop the transmission of Covid 19.” “You may be right.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">“Cats are 10 times better than dogs.” “You may be right.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">It’s a simple matter of giving some ground where there is some leeway of ground to give. For the sake of courtesy, for the sake of tolerance, for the sake of <i>not having to have our own way</i>, we can use the magic phrase. This quad of words can stop a pot from boiling over and ruining the stovetop. It can stop a train that could easily go runaway. It’s the bullet proof vest for the drive by killing of human discourse. By employing “You may be right” at the apex of your desire to spell out your opinion of the error of another person’s opinion, you not only leave the door open for the beauty of acceptance. You yourself change. The effort of the dialogue melts into wonder that it really doesn’t matter that you are understood or that you come out on top. What matters is that you are making a real effort to allow for the thoughts of another person to be heard. As St. Francis of Assisi penned many years ago:</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Lord make Me an instrument of Your peace</span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Where there is hatred let me sow love.</span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Where there is injury, pardon.</span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Where there is doubt, faith.</span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Where there is despair, hope.</span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Where there is darkness, light.</span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Where there is sadness joy.</span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>O Divine master grant that I may</i></b></span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Not so much seek to be consoled as to console</i></b></span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>To be understood, as to understand.</i></b></span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>To be loved. as to love</i></b></span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">For it's in giving that we receive</span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">And it's in pardoning that we are pardoned</span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">And it's in dying that we are born...</span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">To eternal life.</span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Of course, there are some things, (but probably far fewer than we think), where we simply cannot tender this helpful phrase. Some ills fall clear into the realm of evil or calamitous ignorance, and as Christians those are clearly defined by scripture. On those points, where human souls are at stake, and <b>ultimate</b> human meaning and happiness are on the line, there can be no compromise. </span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">“Sin won’t kill me, I don’t need salvation…it’s just the human condition.”</span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">“Pornography is a victimless vice.”</span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">“Jesus is one road among many to God.”</span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">There are razor’s edges on this narrow path that cut clean through with no room for compromise. But they are few. And the non-negotiables will ring with more truth if we don’t insist of having our way in the places where there edges allow for filing down. </span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Give it a try. Just say the words: “You may be right.” No one needs this admonition more than me. Down to my bossy bones.</span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Your friend on the pilgrim road,</span></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #202124; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Loriann Smith</span></p>Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-31273895356207764952021-04-02T07:16:00.000-04:002021-04-02T07:16:57.506-04:00Holy Week Friday - Why Good Friday and Easter Sunday are Better than Christmas<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Before all the Christmas elves get mad, I begin by saying the celebration of the Savior’s birth is a joy and delight to me and my family. Even the American Christmas culture, though much of it misses the whole point of the holiday, is delightful in many ways. Music, decorations, special foods - these are all so very good.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">But if we want to climb to the pinnacle of high holy days as Christians, we will reverently bear ourselves over the incline of the incarnation to the mighty heights of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It is here where the birth of Christ finds its fulfillment - the very reason for the manger in Bethlehem.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Perhaps we’ve prettied up Christmas too much. In reality, a poor, young frightened couple are in a terrible fix, with labor pains coming and not a bed to be found. God providentially provides an animal’s shelter. This is not a clean, sanitary, comfortable place. Silent Night is not playing in the background. There is no hospital, doctor or even midwife available. And if you’ve experienced birth, you know it’s messy, difficult business in the best of conditions. This is the glorious palace into which our God descended as a fully human baby boy.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">He grew up, and walked this earth, and the loveliness of His ways and His character could not be contained if every book in the world and every inch of the internet were engaged for that task. Yet His purpose was not primarily to teach and heal and show the way, but to die.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Good Friday is the holiday that provides the richest gift to the poorest beggar. The good news Jesus came to tell, He then <i>demonstrated</i> when He willingly gave up His brilliant, perfect life for the likes of us. To be the One to take on himself the penalty for our sin. Heaven thundered and roared and the sky darkened in the middle of the day when the Savior of the world offered up the gift so great the whole world can’t contain it. It is wrapped in the red blood of Christ, and sparkles with the gold of redemption for every soul that simply believes, from the beginning of time to the end. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Good Friday is better than Christmas.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">In the treasure of the gift of Christ, we find not a lifeless salvation. If Jesus is dead, Christianity is just another religion, with a great teacher-prophet, who is not mighty to save. As the bible declares through the pen of the Apostle Paul:</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins”. ~ 1 Cor. 15:17</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">But Christ is indeed raised. And by many historical evidences, as Pastor Tim Keller says:</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“The resurrection of Christ is both intellectually credible and existentially satisfying.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">And so, this magnificent present of the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is teeming with life. The box, so to speak, is alive and bursting to be opened. God’s Easter gift is freely given to all who will come to the tree on which Jesus died, and the tomb from which He emerged to devastate death and hell - and believe.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Easter is better than Christmas.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Have a very merry Easter.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Your friend on the pilgrim road,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Loriann</span></p><div><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></div>Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-46711267861335378892021-04-01T05:34:00.000-04:002021-04-01T05:34:40.035-04:00Holy Week Thursday - Gethsemane, History's Lynchpin<p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px;">The Garden of Gethsemane is Holy Ground. As we consider the agony of our precious Lord in the garden, we may want to kneel, and in a quiet, reverent tone, repent in dust and ashes. Poetry speaks when regular prose will not do.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><i style="font-size: 13.2px;">Gethsemane: The Linchpin</i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>In Gethsemane</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>You wept for sin's sure toll on all things good.</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>Struggled, in clean white beauty </i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>the filthy horrors of perdition...</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>striving to destroy you, striving to destroy yours.</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>Your Father, firm to keep light for darkness.</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>Relentless with His "no" to your plea:</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>"Let this cup pass."</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>You bled through pores your own hand formed for cooling</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>While white hot fire from ugly death pressed, burned</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>shaking all your primal, human flesh.</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>All God, all man in the valley of decision...</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>The fate of every man</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>on One man.</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>Who can bear such loneliness?</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>"Let this cup pass."</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>The acid of distress, scalding, ablaze in your chest, your heart.</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>Fear, rage, murder, envy...all OUR vice laid hard on you.</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>Gethsemane, the linchpin of the ages...</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>where God meets God and all hope rests on this:</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>"Let this cup pass...</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>yet not my will, but Thine be done."</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>Onward to Calvary.</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Your friend on the pilgrim road,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Loriann</span></p>Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-925255332162365882021-03-31T07:33:00.000-04:002021-03-31T07:33:04.033-04:00Holy Week Wednesday - Why You Want a God of Wrath<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The idea of a wrathful God makes people angry and upset. If you find yourself in a conversation with an agnostic or a nominal Christian about the nature and character of God, you’ll probably hear some rendition of the following: “I don’t believe in the kind of God presented by some people, an intolerant, demanding God. I believe in a God of love…” There was a time I said the same thing, even as a younger Christian. And for sure, the love of God in Christ is what this week is most profoundly all about. But I want to spend a few minutes on the uncomfortable subject of the wrath of God. Because it’s the truth - a biblically sound part of the WHOLE truth, and because it’s a liberating and compelling truth indeed.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">For starters, let’s look at a few scenarios:</span></p><ul>
<li style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 6.6px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Tamar, the young, beautiful daughter of King David, is raped by her half brother and then hated by him, not to mention permanently ruined in the Jewish culture of the time she lived.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 6.6px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">A 13 year old girl in New York state is abducted while riding her bicycle, sexually assaulted, killed and her body hidden by her murderer.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 6.6px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Black men and women in Africa are rounded up, chained together and stuffed into dark cargo holds, taken from their homes and families and sold like animals into a lifetime of slavery.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 6.6px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">6 million Jews are starved, tortured and exterminated in Nazi concentration camps in the 20th century.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 6.6px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">A thirteen year old disabled boy from Delmar, NY is smothered in the back of a van by his caretakers.</span></li>
</ul><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Of course, the list of injustices in the history of the world, those known and unknown, those great and small, could go on endlessly, the sheer volume of them orbiting around the earth to the sun a thousand times. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">As the Creator, Sustainer, and King of the Universe, how ought a good, loving God respond to these atrocities? Should He ignore them in the name of being “kind and loving”? Should He minimize them and give the perpetrators an extenuating circumstances excuse? Should he shrug His cosmic shoulders and forget they ever happened in the name of being tolerant and understanding?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">God forbid. The New Testament declares:</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.” ~Romans 1:18-19</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">It is precisely the beautiful goodness of the nature of God to utterly abhor sin of any kind. Forget just the obviously horrific sins in the list above. Would it be ok for God to wink at people cheating on their taxes, ruining their bodies with drugs, alcohol, food or work addictions? Can He simply look away from nasty emails sent at work or laziness that impacts the flourishing of a family? Can He stand by while the dug-in, unrelenting selfishness of every human being goes about the business of destroying all that is lovely and precious in the world He made?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">If God were to dismiss without a peep <b>any</b> sin, he would no longer be a good, righteous and just God. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“God is light. In Him there is no darkness at all.” ~ 1 John 1:5</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">God has powerful, perfectly just wrath against any unrighteousness, and I’m glad He does. You should be too. We want a God who hates darkness. Who hates double-crossing and racism and murder. Who hates everything that perverts and twists and ruins us and those we love. Those HE loves.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">You see the problem, don’t you? Of course you do. You and I, we aren’t the heroes in the stories of the bible. More often than not, we’re the villains. We are the bad guys. We are lost and justly under the wrath of a good and lovely Master of the Universe. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Ah, but here’s the genius of the gospel… God must punish and take vengeance upon sin, or He ceases to be just. And so He holds court as the righteous judge. And you and I and every person ever born, save One, are found guilty. Then, from the back of the courtroom, comes a man. A God-man, with spike holes in His hands and a spear hole in His side. A man who was dead, but now is alive. That man holds out those hands to His father, the judge. And His father is glad, knowing that the full fury and wrath of His righteous judgment have already been satisfied. The typhoon of light that burns and kills darkness has been unleashed on the Righteous Son of God, who alone could bear the sin of all men on this third rock from the sun, this home of the people He made for relationship with Himself. And the gavel comes down with a shocking verdict…”not guilty”. The sentence of death was already meted out to Another, and with God there is no double jeopardy.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Charles Spurgeon, the great 19th century preacher put it this way:</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“In the gospel, God never trifles with human sin; we proclaim full, free, immediate forgiveness to the chief of sinners, but it is not in a way that makes us think the sin is trivial in God’s esteem. By the sacrifice of his Son, God renders it possible for him to be merciful without being unjust. In the substitution of Christ Jesus, we see justice and mercy peacefully embracing and conferring double honor on one another.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">So like the first day of spring, God in his son Jesus brings hope. He comes and saves us to the uttermost:</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“Therefore he is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. ~Hebrews 7:25</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">And God the Father, perfect in light and life, has HIS reward. He’s the very One who sent Jesus into the world. For this very reason. That all who believe upon Him may not perish, but have everlasting life.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">So you see, <i>you want a God of wrath</i>. Who is also a God of unrelenting, unrivaled, justifying love. Repent, believe and be saved. Then go, and make disciples of the wonderful Jesus, who with His father and the Holy Spirit devised the brilliant plan to be both just and the Great Justifier.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Blessed be His name…</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Your friend on the pilgrim road,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Loriann</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-31185492121194982322021-03-30T05:38:00.001-04:002021-03-30T05:38:32.247-04:00Holy Week Tuesday - Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares: John Newton and Amazing Grace<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;">There may be no better song as an anthem for Passion Week than the most famous hymn ever written in the English language - Amazing Grace. The lyrics of this masterpiece of gospel truth were penned by a sparsely educated British sailor-turned-pastor, who elegantly communicates (with mostly 1 syllable words) the profound beauty and power of the grace of Christ.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">As western culture moves with exponential speed away from a shared understanding of our human limits, the concept of the need of grace becomes more and more foolish to modern man, if considered at all. Despite the overwhelming evidence of the reality of the sinful nature, and the failed attempts of mankind to “make a better world”, the resistance to the need of a Savior remains. It is in this moment in modernity, when personal freedom is elevated to the pinnacle of virtue (how’s that workin’ for us?), that the lyrics of Amazing Grace and the story of the man behind the song are an oasis in a desert of self absorption and bad theology.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">John Newton’s story is a textbook example of the adage “truth is stranger than fiction”. This forum is too brief to outline the whole drama of Newton’s life, but I recommend going deeper with him, especially through the letters he wrote (which were the social media of the the 18th century). In light of the topic here, suffice it to say that through a series of circumstances John Newton found himself occupying the position of captain of an African slave trade ship, where he witnessed and was party to the great evil of the capture, torture and sale of human beings. This wicked era of human history created a hurricane of inhumanity so malevolent that the calamitous winds of that social villainy continue to blow today. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">But through the unbounded grace of a Greater Wind -the convicting power of the Holy Spirit - John Newton recognized the absolute corruption of the human heart - especially his own- and the impossibility of cleansing the stain of sin from his soul. No hope could be found in good works, in self awareness, in charity. Here, in this place of his soul’s ruin, Newton discovered that most needful truth, indeed the only rescue for the disastrous shipwreck of sin:</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The unmerited grace of Jesus Christ in His death on the cross.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">John Newton repented of his sin and placed his trust in the atoning blood of the Son of God. Period. That is amazing grace. There is nothing that can add to it, and nothing that can take away from it. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">And out of this conversion came not only a hymn that will likely be sung in heaven, but a providential earthly good as well. John Newton became a mentor to William Wilberforce, the great British abolitionist who fought relentlessly for his entire career in Parliament to end the slave trade in his nation. Newton advised Wilberforce to enter into politics instead of the pastorate when he was a young man deciding on a career path. And in an ironic turn of the wheels of divine superintendence, the words of a redeemed slave trader played a critical role in the eventual abolition of the slave trade in the United Kingdom.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Though not popular and not pleasant, the bible says two things we need to hear as we approach Good Friday:</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">~Jeremiah 17:9</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">AND</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“…for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">~Romans 3:23</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">None of us have captained a slave trade ship. But we have by our very nature rebelled against God and His perfect, beautiful justice and righteousness. The only hope for you and I is the amazing grace of God. We cannot fix ourselves. That’s why this coming Friday is called good. The best.news.ever.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Amazing grace! How sweet the sound</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">That saved a wretch like me!</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I once was lost, but now am found;</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Was blind, but now I see.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">And grace my fears relieved;</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">How precious did that grace appear</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The hour I first believed.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Through many dangers, toils, and snares,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I have already come;</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">And grace will lead me home.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The Lord has promised good to me,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">His Word my hope secures;</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">He will my Shield and Portion be,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">As long as life endures.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">And mortal life shall cease,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I shall possess, within the veil,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">A life of joy and peace.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The sun forbear to shine;</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">But God, who called me here below,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Will be forever mine.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">When we’ve been there ten thousand years,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Bright shining as the sun,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Than when we’d first begun.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">John Newton</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Your friend on the pilgrim road,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Loriann</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-88537966957882360552021-03-29T05:27:00.000-04:002021-03-29T05:27:59.078-04:00Holy Week Monday - There's No Vaccine for This<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There is no lack of uncomfortable subjects for conversation in 2021. Vaccines, mask mandates, the last election…any of these can turn a polite communication into a dog fight in mach 2. But if you really want to clear out a room, bring up that age old killer subject that makes the most loquacious of men suddenly mute and sends a natural born gossip hunting for the back door out. </p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Death is the most inevitable, dependable, solid truth in each of our futures. It’s not up for dispute, has no controversy to come up against, and cannot be foiled by great virtue, great intellect or great strength. The bible calls it “the last enemy”, and indeed it is - completely undefeatable by all the powers of man. It is as sure as day turning to night. And it is the most off-limit topic of human discourse.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Lent is the great reminder, the bell ringing in the tower to sober up mankind to the brevity of life and the certainty of death. In all the beautiful, horrible passion of holy week, there is no avoiding the ultimate truth. Only One man defeated death. And only He is its remedy. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">John Donne was an English poet who lived around the turning of the 16th century. In those days before antibiotics and RNA vaccines, sickness would pass through a town and wipe out large swaths of a population swiftly. Donne was lying on his bed, listening as the church bell rang out for each death, ring, ring, ring. And it was there he penned the poem that included the famous line:</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">He survived that particular plague (and graced the world with works of profound and beautiful poetry). But death did ultimately come to John Donne, as it will for you and me.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Here on the solemn ground of Holy Week, where we remember the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, perhaps a wise first step in our meditation should be to listen to the bells ourselves. It is not morbid or brooding to consider daily the words of the brother of the Son of God, recorded for our good:</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, then vanishes away.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">~ James 4:14</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I squirm under this serious question that drives me to repent of the wasted time in my life, and to reorient my days toward the thing that really matters. In this week especially, the bell tolls loud for the waking up of souls to the great reality that life is brief. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, my friend, it tolls for thee. And for me.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">How much greater, then, the truth that sounds louder than any death nell. As we “proceed to the route” as GPS advises, we will find on Good Friday the hope that makes this short stretch meaningful and hopeful. The bell tolled for Him - even though He was God. His death bought us life. Not a stingy 80 years of toil and trouble, but an everlasting spring in the Kingdom of Love.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Today, don’t avoid the reality of your mortality. Let it sink in. Let it drive you to the cross of Christ, for whom the bell tolled.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Your friend on the pilgrim road,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Loriann</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-25299559709061519332020-12-09T20:51:00.002-05:002020-12-09T20:51:59.621-05:00Weighed on the Scales and Justified: Christmas, Original Sin, and The Cosmic Dumpster Fire<p> <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px;">The doctrine of original sin is not popular today, despite the profound evidence of its truth.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px;">But for anybody who has any self awareness at all, recognizing how rotten we can be is not at all a stretch.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px;">And I’m not talking about looking backwards to Hitler or Stalin, or looking outward to drug dealers and murderers, but looking inward and examining our own fantastic capacity to be wretched.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px;">Ask me how I know…</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">So here we are in Advent, and what the heck am I doing talking about the darkness of my own soul in the midst of this season of twinkling lights and cheer? Shouldn’t the words tapped out on my keyboard be filled with hope, joy, and peace on earth? I’m getting to that. But the bad news is always better delivered first. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">The history of the human race, though certainly punctuated with acts of mercy, courage and grace, is more often than not an ugly, twisted trip down familiar roads with the repetition of evil being as sure as the rising and setting of the sun. In my survey through the Old Testament books of history and of the prophets, I’ve gotten whiplash going from good king to bad king…but bad kings are in the lead by a country mile. And even the good ones have simply terrible moments, so insidious is the bent toward self - the prideful root of all wickedness.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">God at one point, very early on in the history of mankind, looks upon the world and the scriptures record this devastating revelation: </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">“And it repented Jehovah that he had made man on the earth, and grieved him at his heart.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">~ Genesis 6:6</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">People had become so horrifying in their selfish ambition and the evil inclinations of their hearts that the Creator was actually saddened and regretful that he started the whole thing. Only His infinite love and the knowledge of His plan to make something good out of this cosmic dumpster fire staid His hand from closing down the whole operation. That’s where Christmas comes in…</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">In those years before the birth of Jesus, prophecies and hints, psalms and stories of a coming deliverer peppered the inspired writings of the saints of God. Everywhere you look in the pages of the Torah, and the other OT books, the coming Messiah is forecast. A tired world, groaning under the weight of the tyranny of wicked kings, and indeed, even worse, under the slave driver of personal sin, was straining to somehow find a rescuer. And God, who will not be rushed and who knows the sovereign timing for all things, at the perfect time sent his begotten son to gestate in the body of a virgin Jewish girl from a backwoods (or desert) town under the thumb of another miserable ruler.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">In this unlikely place the whole eternal history of human begins stood on the point of of a knife. Could it really be true, that God really does love us lost, grimy children - enough to come personally to our rescue. To stand in our place. To remain just himself, not bent as we are, but willing to bend to be our justifier? Not to wag his finger but to spread His beautiful arms across the wood and with every pounding of nails not regret anymore but for the joy set before Him endure the cross? To know every evil thought, motive and deed of every one of us, but to be determined to do what was always the point of Christmas: to come save us, out of unthinkable love, simply because we cannot save ourselves.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">I found my self completely undone one day last week, reading from the Old Testament book of Daniel. A very bad king, Belshazzar, was drunk and having a party with his cronies and concubines. He used the gold goblets that were sacred objects of the temple for his alcoholic shindig. Worship of other gods was part of the extravaganza. It was all fun and games until a hand appeared and wrote on the wall for everyone to see. “Mene mene tekel parsin”, the words read. Only the great prophet Daniel could interpret the meaning: “You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting”.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">When I read those words, I shuddered. ‘I too, Lord, being weighed on the scales, am found wanting. The private sins, the envy, the selfish motives of my heart, and things too embarrassing to mention here - these leave me as far from a Holy God as east is from west.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">But as quickly as the thought came, so came the words of grace, relief and Christmas mercy beyond my reckoning:</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">“Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="font-kerning: none;">nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. <b>But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.</b></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">~ 1 Corinthians 6:9-11</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">And God showed me a brick being placed on the other side of the scales, and that brick was the justifying grace of the blood of Christ. And Jesus in His inimitable way spoke to my heart: “You have been weighed on the scales and found <b>justified</b>.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">And so there it is. The wraparound to Christmas. The hope, joy, cheer, twinkly lights, popcorn garland and every other good and beautiful celebratory delight. There it is: peace on earth, good will toward men. There are the people living in darkness who have seen a great light. There is the conquering gift greater, far greater, than the curse of original sin - that meaty, difficult doctrine that would kill the heart in us if not for Christmas.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Not by works of our original crooked hearts, but by the gift of grace of a perfect Savior, are we weighed on the scales and found justified. Loved. Treasured. Valued. We couldn’t do it, so God descended and did it Himself.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus in a manger. Jesus in the garden. Jesus on the cross. Jesus in the tomb. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus risen, forever high king of all. Jesus, the Great Justifier.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">There is absolutely no Christmas gift that compares.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Your friend on the pilgrim road,</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Loriann</span></p>Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-5414182833444379882020-11-25T09:11:00.001-05:002020-11-25T09:11:41.732-05:00Defiant Gratitude and William Bradford's "Epitapheum Meum"<p>William Bradford, perhaps the most well knows of all the English separatists to make the crazy trip across the Atlantic on the Mayflower in 1620, lives on at our Thanksgiving table every year. Part of our tradition is to recite his poem, "Epitaphium Meum". At one point the verse simply says:</p><div style="text-align: left;">"In fears and wants, through weal and woe, </div><div style="text-align: left;">As pilgrim passed I to and fro..."</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">(Weal is an old English word for prosperity, happiness and well being.)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Pilgrimage is a theme that has captured my heart for a lifetime. This idea of leaving behind an old life, venturing out on the uncharted, seeking a fit homeland for the breadth of one's deepest desires - and despising the pains and troubles to get there- this is the stuff of every great story.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Most people know about the hardships the first puritans endured to find a home wide enough to hold their greatest treasure: an unfettered relationship with Jesus Christ These folks were tough. They were weird by our modern cultural norms, but deeper and stronger that just about any American alive today. They had something I keep thinking about, a rare and beautiful quality that makes these sojourners stand out in the dark landscape of history:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Defiant Gratitude. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">You've likely known a few of these types of folks in your lifetime. They have not had easy lives. The wilderness they have travelled - through addiction, loss, betrayal, heartache and a thousand other snares- has not suffered them to be resentful or bitter, but winsome and grateful. Here in 2020, (a kind of crappy year by most modern standards), I long to leave my complaining behind and get a little closer to the attitude of my long-dead puritan brothers and sisters. They, who in their first winter lost half their company to pestilence. They, who were separated by an ocean (with no modern communication) from beloved family and friends in England and the Netherlands. They, who despite all of those troubles and many more practiced defiant gratitude.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">What are some simple ways defiant gratitude can play out? </div><div style="text-align: left;">When self pity comes because this holiday season does not meet our expectations, we can blast the music and dance anyway while making the stuffing (my plan for tonite!) </div><div style="text-align: left;">Write down 3 blessings in your life and rejoice over them. </div><div style="text-align: left;">Tell someone you're thankful for them and why.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">For my fellow pilgrims, followers of the One and Only, for us I pray a deep humility that will cause us to make gratitude a way of life. We are always looking for God's will for us. Here it is in black and white:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">1 Thessalonians 5:16-18</div><div style="text-align: left;">Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">For any of my dear friends who are not followers of Christ who may read these words, I pray heartily: be reconciled to God. He is the Captain of your Mayflower, ready to take you on a great pilgrimage to Himself - a land so broad and beautiful that it is impossible to put into puny words. You only need step aboard the ship. Nothing would fill my heart with more gratitude than to share this wild trek with you on the narrow road to the blessed heavenly homeland. Sinners like me, saved by grace, walk gratefully through the mountains and the valleys of this temporary territory.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Happiest of Thanksgivings! May it be will with your souls! I've included the William Bradford's poem in its entirety below. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Your friend on the pilgrim road,</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">LS</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h2 class="title" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Epitaphium Meum</h2><div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entityreference field--label-hidden" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: border-box;">by <a href="https://www.poetrynook.com/poet/william-bradford" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #129abc; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none;">William Bradford</a></div></div></div><div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;"><div class="field__items" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field__item even" property="content:encoded" style="box-sizing: border-box;">From my years young in dayes of Youth,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />God did make known to me his Truth,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />And call'd me from my Native place<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />For to enjoy the Means of Grace.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />In Wilderness he did me guide,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />And in strange Lands for me provide.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />In Fears and Wants, through Weal and Woe,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />As Pilgrim past I to and fro:<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Oft left of them whom I did trust;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />How vain it is to rest on Dust!<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />A man of Sorrows I have been,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />And many Changes I have seen.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Wars, Wants, Peace, Plenty have I known;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />And some advanc'd, others thrown down.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The humble, poor, cheerful and glad;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Rich, discontent, sower and sad:<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />When Fears with Sorrows have been mixt,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Consolations came betwixt.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Faint not, poor Soul, in God still trust,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Fear not the things thou suffer must;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />For, whom he loves he doth chastise,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />And then all Tears wipes from their eyes.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Farewell, dear Children, whom I love,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Your better Father is above:<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />When I am gone, he can supply;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />To him I leave you when I dye.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Fear him in Truth, walk in his Wayes,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />And he will bless you all your dayes.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />My dayes are spent, Old Age is come,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />My Strength it fails, my Glass near run:<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Now I will wait when work is done,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Untill my happy Change shall come,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />When from my labours I shall rest<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />With Christ above for to be blest.</div></div></div><div class="field field--name-field-rating field--type-fivestar field--label-inline clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 2em;"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-76141453815394842222020-09-25T10:54:00.003-04:002020-09-25T11:02:53.929-04:00Here Today, Gone Tomorrow...Finding the Truth in the Hot Minute<div style="text-align: left;"> “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”</div><div style="text-align: left;">~ James 4:14</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In the vernacular, “you are here for a hot minute.”</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If you’re 20, you don’t believe this, not really. If you’re 60, you can sing Joni Mitchell’s The Circle Game song with earnestness. “It won’t be long now, till you drag your feet just to slow the circles down...”</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Partly because of the brief nature of human existence, it is impossible to get a larger view of life without outside help. People everywhere are grasping for some small bit of happiness in their minuscule time span. Meaning and purpose are elusive when you look for them within your drop of mist, a drop that’s ironically on fire with rage, fear, violence and selfishness. (The old fashioned, offensive word for all of this is Sin). And when you look within yourself, the droplet within the drop, things are no better.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It is unpopular in this particular droplet of time to look to something ancient or large or most un-vapor like as a possible source of wisdom and practical help for the freaking mess we are in. But many, many before us, those pre-modern, unsophisticated folks who managed to get far enough to keep the world populated, thought it wise to look outside of their mist bubble. And though “we didn’t start the fire, it was always burning since the world’s been turning” to quote Billy Joel, the majority of people in those unsophisticated times believed in something larger than themselves. They attributed the ordered world to something or someone that was NOT them. And maybe because hauling water and chopping wood and manually editing a book with a pen made room for undistracted thought, it was easier for people to transcend their droplet and get a view of the wide wonder of it all.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Whatever the reason, the further we moderns seem to get away from validating anything thought or written before the 20th century, the worse our interior lives become. There have always been sad people, suicidal people, anxious people, angry people. But just look up the suicide rate graphs by year on the internet, and I’ll rest my case.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Anyone who knows me also knows that I am a follower of Jesus Christ, although a stumbling, bumbling one with a great deal of forgiven sin in my rear view mirror, including from this morning. So you already know where I’m going with this. We need something solid. Something non-misty, something like a rock and refuge and lighthouse at the same time to navigate and understand our place in this long running story of here today, gone tomorrow. Or, better said, someONE. It is absolutely critical that we put down our phones and go chop some wood or haul some water, or whatever it takes to stop being distracted long enough to grab hold of what’s true and lasting. We’re not meant to be spectators in the mist, tossed about in a meaningless fog until we die. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">When God in a jaw dropping display of humility sent Jesus to this sorry planet, just about every human being on earth believed in something bigger than themselves. And knew something was wrong with the world. And with themselves. They mostly feared some kind of god, because they saw the bigness and scariness and sublime beauty of the world they lived in. Jesus shocked (and appalled) the people of 1st century Palestine by saying that he was indeed God, the exact representation of the Father, and that he cares about all the misty little creatures he thought up and created, and in fact loves them. And He said there’s a solid place to stand, and He’s the solid place. And then he proved His love by dying and taking all the sin of the misty world on Himself. He actually became a mist. But then the mist got back up out of the tomb. And the world has never been the same hopeless place because hope became Someone solid if we would only believe it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This truth has been relegated to fairy tales by many clever modern people. In the 21st century, education is the answer, funding is the answer, the answer is to be found in the midst of the mist. And we are free to believe the words of whosoever we choose in a vaporous world. Freedom is the great gift of course, because without it love is impossible. And the whole point of this affair from God’s point of view is to love a people, and have that people love Him in return. But that’s another post...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">When Jesus rose from the dead, Thomas the disciple wasn’t there at His first appearance. But later, Jesus appeared again to His followers. And Thomas, who doubted the reality of the resurrection, was met with something solid, something outside himself, someONE made of flesh and blood that did not ultimately succumb to <i>here today, gone tomorrow</i>. Christian tradition has it that Thomas was eventually martyred for his faith. But not before he and a small group of others started a fire of love that is still changing mists like me thousands of years later. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Find out what’s true in your hot minute. It matters more than anything else.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Your friend on the pilgrim road,</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">LS</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-80766637934062368842020-07-06T13:53:00.000-04:002020-07-06T13:54:33.720-04:00A Call to the Banquet - Full Capacity SeatingWe finally celebrated our daughter’s 25th birthday dinner last night. Being born in April didn’t set her up well for a good time in 2020. But steaks, salmon and special drinks were on the menu, along with wonderful conversation and sibling jabs. It was strange though, and a little bit sad, not to have the place packed - not hearing the sounds of many voices delighting in the good food, delighting in one another, making the warm atmosphere of the room bright and bursting with the beautiful color of human celebration. Restaurants are stuck at half capacity rules right now.<br />
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This morning I read the familiar parable Jesus told at a dinner party with some well to do religious folks, who as usual were watching him closely to catch him in a religious error. He relayed the story of a man giving a large banquet. He invited people who he knew - likely friends and relations in his wide circle. One by one the folks gave excuses for not coming. In today’s culture, the equivalent reasons might boil down to “I’ve got too much other stuff to do right now. Let’s be practical, maybe when things slow down in my work/relationships/daily distractions.” The man was miffed. Imagine, you are putting on an extravaganza at no small expense, for people you know and love, and the invitation is met with a big fat NO. “You’re not that important to me. I’m not stopping my routine to celebrate with you.”<br />
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This man in the parable was exploding with generosity. He was so anxious to share his abundance, that he had his servant go out to the streets and alleys of the city and invite every manner of person. The “respectable, intelligent, elite” people turned him down. So he opened the doors to the poor, blind, maimed, and crippled. He invited the prostitutes, tax collectors, dingbats, swindlers, deadbeats and goofballs of every sort. He wanted to fill that elaborate ballroom with people. He wanted to see people eat, drink, be merry, and generally flourish in every way. And he wanted that banquet hall full of the rejoicing of people loved and forgiven who knew they didn’t deserve it. He crammed them in, serving no doubt the best wine and the finest food, playing the best music and clothing them as they came in with clothes that would make the famous movie costumer Edith Head blush.<br />
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Jesus told parables to get at the truth. He’s no respecter of persons. The spiritual banquet of life with Christ is offered to all. Sadly, many turn Him down. But His banquet hall is still filling up, despite what this “world with devil’s filled” (as Martin Luther penned), says or thinks. The penitent man greets the invitation with great gladness of heart. And why wouldn’t he? The invitation to have the rot of sin removed from our souls, to be promised the difficult but satisfying climb of sanctification in this life, and to share a relationship with the dearest, kindest and best the world has ever known... A man would have to be mad to refuse.<br />
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As for the Master, He is determined to fill his room, his LARGE room, with many. “Go out into the highways and hedges and make them come in, that my house may be filled.” (Luke 14:23).<br />
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Covid19, a world in unspeakable pain, the ugliest lies and divisions - none of these can stop the love of God. He will have His beautiful banquet, and the restaurant will be at full capacity. Bursting at the seams with life and joy. No masks, no closed salad bars, no lack of any good thing. <br />
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The question is - the biggest question you’ll ever have to answer - is how will I respond to the invitation.<br />
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Your friend on the pilgrim road,<br />
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LS<br />
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<br />Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-47960765328493458252020-03-26T06:49:00.002-04:002020-03-26T06:49:36.158-04:00The Cosmic Tragedy of Social Distancing<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got til’ it’s gone..” ~ Joni Mitchell</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Its only been a few weeks for most of us. Weeks without a chat over coffee with a friend, participation in a Sunday worship service with voices both angelic and creaky, Friday night tacos with our besties. Being the resourceful creatures human beings are, we’ve come up with work-arounds for our isolation. Face Time, Zoom, Webex - these have all helped, and I’m grateful for them. I’ve spent the last 4 days using Bomgar to train hospital employees remotely, and I thank God for that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But there is no substitute for presence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Nothing takes the place of looking into the eyes of another soul and seeing the one-of-a-kind strokes of the Artist who made them. There is no substitute for the live and in person voice of the quirky guy at the gym or the warm embrace of the folks at a support group, or the thousands of other simple daily vignettes of social intercourse.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I’ve learned very quickly how much I’ve taken presence for granted. I myself am quarantined because of contact with a person testing positive for Covid19. I’m no hard luck case for sure. I live with family members, I can work from home. I’m blessed. But I miss the physical presence of others. And it hasn’t even been a couple of weeks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This strange time we’re living in has me thinking and praying in ways I haven’t before. I look at Abraham in the bible, whittling away at God in a conversation about his nephew Lot, as he presses to see just how deep the mercy of God will actually go. Abraham is right in God’s face, boldly stepping closer with each question: “Will you spare the city for the sake of 40 righteous people…30…20…10”. Abraham didn’t stand stoically before a cold, distant deity, observing all the proprieties of servant and king. Abraham boldly pleaded for his kinsmen, and the scriptures actually call him “a friend of God”. The wicked city fell, but not before Lot and his family were ushered out of there in the most hurried move in history. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Abraham did not practice social distancing with his God. Neither did David, Isaiah, Daniel, and a whole host of lesser known saints sited in the pages of the wild and powerful word of life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The greatest tragedy of all, far more deadly than any foul microbe, is a life lived in isolation from the One who created us for Himself. Here is God’s great sorrow. He has made us for true presence with Him, and we have run from Him. Or ignored Him. Or hated Him. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In a herculean move of self abasement, this High King of all so desired our presence that He actually shed His kingly garments in exchange for the soiled robes of men. He himself took on our weakness. And He did what only He could do: He destroyed the pestilence that keeps us apart. He himself became the remedy and antidote for the killer with a 100% death rate. Sin. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Gospel is the beautiful breakthrough that saves the world from the disease which none of us can escape. The heart of God is broken. He seeks for people who will talk to him, listen to Him, come to Him for life and deliverance. There is no substitute for life with our Father. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Covid19 pandemic has become for me a metaphor and a grace. It has forced me to look at my own spiritual complacency, made me far more grateful, and caused me to become a little bit more like Abraham. Every day I desperately need the intimacy with my Father that I was born for. And what’s more, I can approach Him without shame despite my sin and weakness. Because I’ve taken the cure - faith in the death and resurrection of the Son of God, who “loved us, and gave Himself for us.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I am praying that brilliant and resourceful people will find a way through this twilight zone we are living in. I look forward to baseball, dinner in a restaurant and getting my hair cut again. But my greatest prayer is that this social distancing will cause the world to seek the One whose heart longs for fellowship with us - and not from a distance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Your friend on the pilgrim road,</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Loriann</span></div>
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Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-58390877265739851842019-02-28T06:38:00.001-05:002019-02-28T06:38:56.517-05:00A Painful Awakening...<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">The recently passed abortion expansion law in the great state of New York has become a resounding wake up call to the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In our drowsy fog of living just like the rest of the world, we have missed a gigantic swarm of locusts that came through and looted our homeland. The lives of the children of our legacy, and the hearts and souls of their mothers have been summarily stripped of worth, breath and dignity. And we were caught with our pants down.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">So now, what do we do? Shall we keep quiet and hunker down fearfully as the majority did in 20th century Germany while 6 million people cried out for their neighbors to come and rescue them? Shall we be complicit by thinking it’s enough that we are not directly involved in the sin, like free northerners in pre civil war America, who ignored the curse of slavery that existed south of their back yard? Shall we say as Cain did to the Almighty, “Am I my brothers keeper?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Reproductive Health Act, despite it’s euphemistic name, allows for a human fetus to be destroyed at the will of their mother and at the hands of those sworn only to heal, up to the very day they could be born. The law allows for the termination of a pregnancy up to the ninth month of gestation if the health of the mother is at risk - including her mental health. The law is written so broadly, that in the recent case of a pregnant woman murdered by her boyfriend in New York City, the attorney could not find any legal statute to allow for a second count of murder for the life of the unborn child.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I have searched my own heart, and stand convicted of cowardice. I have feared the opinion of man. Many intelligent, educated and sophisticated people look on pro-life folks as ignorant, back-woods meddlers who need to mind their own business and keep their hands off the rights of women. I don’t want to be thought of as a stupid. I don’t want to be viewed as opposing freedom. So I shuffle around on the sides of the issue, and sit on the sidelines, to my shame and regret.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Now too, I have met and talked with several women who have had abortions. The exceedingly painful wounds they bear are held in the shadows of their hearts. The deception of the promise that abortion would be a clean, easy way to solve a big problem has left them decimated and traumatized. There is no reversal option, no going back to make the decision differently. Having had the right to terminate their pregnancy does not solve the problem of a lifetime of emotional pain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Though few people will read these words, they are written for my brothers and sisters in Christ. We are the ones who must act, in whatever way the Spirit of the Living God calls us. For some, it will mean prayer walks at abortion clinics. For some, adoption or foster care. For others, meeting the tangible needs of a single mother. Some will weep with and bring the good news of the beautiful gospel of forgiveness to women who have had abortions. Those with great wealth or influence can levy those gifts to open the eyes of a nation. Whatever we are called to do, it must be done in faith, and with relentless prayer and the right heart. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I wavered over publishing this blog, because in general I don’t believe social media is the place to change hearts and minds. In this case, it’s more about me coming out of the shadows of my own pride, and asking the church to do the same. Those who disagree with us are also made in the image of God, and should be treated with dignity and kindness. But stand we must, and be willing to be thought of as fools. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Your friend on the pilgrim road, </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Loriann Smith</span></div>
Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-47211100858700850752018-02-18T08:55:00.000-05:002018-02-18T08:56:10.867-05:00Why Social Media is the Drive-By Killer of Reasoned Discourse<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">True: Social Media is an excellent forum for expressing your opinion in 30 second sound bites.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">False: Social media provides a sound platform for intelligent, thoughtful discourse to impact the hearts and minds of those who engage there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I wasted a significant amount of time during my brief sojourn here on planet earth last night. Unfocused and tired, I made the mistake of scrolling through my Facebook account. The onslaught of what I saw later disturbed my already rocky middle aged sleep. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Most people would consider me a social media amateur. (I’m still trying to figure out my iPhone for crying out loud). It is rare that I post anything at all on Facebook, and even more rare that I would post my opinion on politics. So my insights here, for what they are worth, are coming from a place of observation of a world to which I confess l have limited understanding.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Last week, another terrible, heart shattering tragedy pummeled the American soul. The darkness of a fragile, fallen world once again came out from under the thin veneer of civilization and tore and brutalized the flesh and bone of our corporate body as people sharing a nation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Instead of inspiring words of comfort and shared sorrow and even thoughtful disagreement on causes and cures, this reckless evil has spread its tentacles to foster some really hateful and barbaric speech by way of social media. My poor choice to scroll through the projection of our cultural climate left me drained and discouraged. And not one bit more enlightened in one way or another on gun control, mental illness or political solutions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I am blessed to have friends of many political persuasions, people I know, like and even hold dear. Reading the vitriolic language of some of their Facebook posts (from both conservative and liberal bents) got me to consider. I know these folks. It would be impossible to paint them with a single brush. While perhaps disagreeing with them on some important issues, these are people who would buy me a sandwich, or who I would share a laugh with about some stupid thing my cat did, or whose loved one’s funeral I would attend. These are real, multifaceted, made-in-the-image-God folks…My life is better for knowing them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But here, in the techno created bubble of social media, if these folks didn’t know me personally, they would be expressing words of hatred toward me. I would be lumped into a category (into which I don’t fit for either side). </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I am unashamedly Pro Life. But does anyone who knows me really think that I “care more about children in the womb than those already born?” </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I am also Pro Gun-Control. But does anyone who knows me think I want to take away all of their constitutional rights? </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">At the same time when I read the vitriolic words from some, I find myself saying, “They can’t possibly mean to say it like that…I know these people.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">God Lord, it’s a mess out there. The single brush stroke is wrecking civility, kindness, and any hope of understanding one another and actually listening to what other people have to say. Martin Luther King Jr. put it well:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>“Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.” </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The last thing I’m trying to say here is that people should not have and communicate the force of their convictions. I’d go to the mat for the things I think really matter. But my point breaks out into two parts:</span></div>
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<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 8.8px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Social media is hardly ever the appropriate place, at least not as it is today, for thoughtful dialogue on important matters where a change of heart is sought. (There are rare exceptions, like the case of Megan Phelps-Roper. Her engagement with caring, thoughtful people through Twitter eventually resulted in her brave departure from the Westboro Baptist Church.)</span></li>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">What I learned last night was to quit phone scrolling on Facebook for 2 reasons: It’s a waste of time, and I’m not up to the assault.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Social media is the drive-by killer of reasoned social discourse.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I do, however, love the posts with kittens, puppies and babies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Your friend on the pilgrim road.</span></div>
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Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-86531964828131565982017-01-15T11:39:00.001-05:002017-01-15T12:22:16.313-05:00The Power of the One<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">An overarching theme revealed itself on the last night of a week of prayer at my beloved little church in the suburbs. Emerging there, in the pile of our own repentance, in the intercession for sick people, sad people, lost people, nations at war, and restoration from the vast wreckage of the fallout of sin came the simple truth of the power of the One.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I’m betting that most folks are like me in feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of need in our own cities and towns, let alone the wide world. Between the distraction of never ending “noise” from the technology that is drowning us, and the pressure on our time to simply do the everyday things that sustain us, we’re about at max capacity. Looking at the needs “out there” can lead to practical paralysis. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But with the truth of the power of the One engaged, things can be different. They are different. Here are 2 components of this truth that build on one another:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> 2. Our callings are ultimately to the one.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Mother Theresa said this:</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> “ Never worry about numbers.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you.”</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Mother Theresa ended up impacting millions, from the beggars on the streets of Bangladesh to leaders in the loftiest positions in the world. But her focus was never on the many, but the one. Maybe you can’t provide for the refugee you see on TV behind a Turkish fence. But maybe you can pay for the groceries in the cart of someone at Walmart who you know is struggling. Maybe it’s in your wheelhouse to buy a homeless man a cup of coffee, and share a little conversation with him. Perhaps you can’t stop the riots in Baltimore, but can you write a note of encouragement to a coworker who is struggling with her kids? As Mother Theresa also said, “Do small things with great love.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I cannot solve the problem of the age old racial divides conceived in the womb of America by the disgraceful sin of slavery. But I can listen and try to understand a black person’s view of the world, as I did recently over snacks after a meeting I attended. I can hear the one, even if the crushing sound of the many is too much for my limited soul.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I cannot cure the heartbreak of homelessness, nor the plagues of mental illness and addiction that often go with it. But I can work the overnight at the code blue shelter, and sit on the cot while Erica tells me about her 2 beloved children, and my fellow volunteer bakes a warm banana bread in the oven for the ladies on a cold night.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There are thousands of things we cannot do: Cure government corruption, save every orphan, stop the railroading of distraction that is stealing the best of our young people. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We are not God. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">He will one day wrap this thing up, fixing the ills that the mixed blessing of free will has made possible, turning every wrong right in one explosive healing that will rock all of heaven and earth. He will do this, in the perfection of time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But for now, he calls us to Himself first, as the One. Then, He calls us to show His mercy and grace to the one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">He has uniquely designed each person for this ministry to the one. Frederick Buechner says it so much better than I ever could:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It may take you out of your comfort zone, but you may be shocked at the deep gladness you will find when you reach out to the one out of a heart of love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">My friend Katrina found this deep gladness, and she impacted the one…and beyond.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Her neighbor was severely injured in a rugby game, and became paralyzed from the neck down. His wife and then baby daughter were destined to visiting him for the rest of his life in a nursing home, since their small home was ill equipped for the great needs of a quadriplegic. But Katrina wasn’t having it. She approached a contractor to see if he might donate time and materials to build on a room in her neighbor’s home to accommodate his handicap. He agreed, provided she would act as “boss”, getting other donations for electrical, plumbing, siding, materials etc…, and that she would run the job from start to finish.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Thus began the odyssey of a middle aged housewife and the power of the one. With the grace of God as her fuel, this rather shy, unassuming woman lit the engine of the power of lots of ones to be the hands and feet of Christ on earth. Today, her neighbor has a special ceiling lift to move him around the brand new fully accommodating addition on his home. He lives with his wife and daughter. And though Katrina could not solve all the problems in this world, or even all the problems of her neighbor, she grabbed hold of the joy and work and victory that comes when the power of the one is harnessed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One word of warning: Guilt is the wrong motivation for reaching out to the one. Only love will do. The apostle Paul said it - “If I give all I possess to the poor, and offer my body to be burned in the flames, but have not love, it profits me nothing…” </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Keep it simple and do it in love, or you risk becoming a self righteous, self oriented prig. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But acts performed in simple love do stretch far beyond our limitations and really do change the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I recently attended a wedding where the bride waxed poetically about the many ones who had a part in making her who she is. I close with a quote from her simple but profound speech…</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“I grew up in a church that talked a lot about changing the world, being a “world changer”. At some point I started resenting that kind of pressure. The truth is that most of us scraggly humans on the face of this planet are not Martin Luther’s or Mother Theresa’s. We have a limited circle of influence constructed by propinquity and scattershot occurrences, so our world-changing, at the end of the day, consists of how well and how hard we loved those people standing with us or crossing our paths for these minute slices of time. It’s like that story about the little boy picking up and throwing starfish stranded on the sand back into the ocean as the tide goes in. A man says to him, “You’re not making a difference” and the boy replies, “I’m making a difference to this one”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">~ Micaela Martinez </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Be the one, to the one, for the glory of The One.</span></div>
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Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-88570377516501587772016-12-31T18:30:00.002-05:002016-12-31T18:30:17.890-05:002016: Another Year of Meaningful Mist in the Books <div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">January of 2016 rolled out of its fresh hay much differently than December of that same year tucked itself away forever to sleep, the stuff of memories alone. Just goes to highlight the ancient truth: </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">James 4:14 “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In the life of this middle aged woman, the wind blew warm from the south as the year 2016 began, never letting on that there would be a hurricane lasting from spring to fall, followed by the uncertainty of an unforcastable winter. Surely, living is fraught with unforeseeable outcomes. And the very fact that I used the word “fraught” uncovers the pessimist in me, that girl with the half empty glass. One man’s “unforseeable outcome” is another man’s wild adventure. As much as I would love to be the metaphorical Magellan of the baby boom generation, alas I admit to being more the “bundled up in a blanket with a good book” sort, a reluctant pilgrim with the love of Christ pressing me onward through the fray.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">If the wind hadn’t blow hard, I fear I would have become a spiritual couch potato, too easily satisfied, puffy with superficial religion. I don’t like storms, but they batter the rocky coasts of our lazy, half conscious souls. They wake us up (harshly, but with the kindness of a shot of narcan to a heroin addict). Each year has a story to tell. We wish for easy ones, God crafts good ones. Good, as He defines good. Lasting good. Good that takes patience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Adventure (if you want to call it that), challenge, an unpredictable road - these I have known well across the waters of 2016. If I’ve learned anything from this 365 days “at sea”, it’s simply been more of what has been abundantly clear for a long time now - I’m not in control, God is, and best policy is to sidle close to Him as we roll over the waves of our days. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I don’t think New Year’s resolutions are a bad idea, it’s just that they’ve never worked for me. I gave up resolving years ago. Precisely because if I’ve gleaned anything from the fickle nature of our pass across the human landscape it is this: flexibility has to be maintained so the boat doesn’t break apart in the storm. The only rule that applies (admittedly a 2 part rule) is to hear the voice of God and do it. Some days He says “Be still and know that I am God.” Other days he says “Run with endurance the race marked out for you”. Both are true, all the time…but in the practical day to day of a year's orbit around the sun, it takes listening and doing to find our way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">So if I had “resolutions” for the new year, I guess they would be listen and live it. Listening comes first, and should be emphasized more. Most of us followers of The Way get ourselves bolloxed up with doing this and that “for God” without really knowing Him for himself, and what the heck He wants us to do after all. And really, what He most wants are not our works, but our selves. That’s the whole point of the years and days and seasons we’re living anyway. This cosmic relationship thing is the point of it all. Every calm, every storm, every providential happening in the life of one of His own is a funnel to The Great Heart of Love. All the unpredictability is completely predictable to Him, who “works all things together for the good of those who love Him…”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">So if 2016 was a whirlwind, look at it in the light of eternity and give thanks. Not for the pain, but for the process. Perhaps 2017 will be a mild year. Then again, maybe not. Regardless, before you know it it will be one for the books. Listen and live it. Most of all, love like there’s no tomorrow. Because you “are a mist that appears for a little while…” </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Your friend on the pilgrim road,</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Loriann</span></div>
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Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-12520543765026111142016-08-23T21:10:00.002-04:002016-08-23T21:10:43.514-04:00A Happy, Broken Heart: The Balanced Life<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">"Rejoice with those who rejoice…sorrow with those who sorrow." Romans12:15</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">He told the story of his alcoholic son, clean and sober in this present, this gift of now, playing with his beloved granddaughter. The pleasure of watching his child and his child’s child share a bowl of cereal filled W.’s eyes with tears of joy. He had lived years of hell while alcoholism chipped away at his son’s life, but not today. Today his recovering son was in relationship, and not with a bottle. I could barely contain the lump in my throat, so great was the joy in my heart as I listened to this man in his 70’s spill his happy words. I rejoiced with one who rejoiced. This was a gift. A gladness not linked to my own current circumstantial pain, but a true, deep down joy. I was experiencing something outside myself, a pure emotion of happiness that surprised me, delighted me, made me want more…</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Social media is bubbling over right now with bittersweet photos of fresh, young college students packing bags, hugging parents, and setting out for school and dreams and a future. Mom’s post their happy/sad pictures of kids waving goodbye, playing one last game of cards, packing their cars. I crack a little, counting losses that I have experienced, missing the rejoicing that can be mine. Self pity begs entry, looking for a way to keep me from the balanced life of Romans 12:15. Today, I refuse to let the monster in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I think of my dear friend who lost her first-born son at the tender age of 13. Another with a disabled child who will never wave goodbye for a dorm, but to whom she must wave goodbye for a special supervised group home for the severely disabled. My own daughter bends under the affliction of a traumatic brain injury, and the ripple effect of battling her own demons. Making it through another day is newsworthy. But we don’t post these things on Facebook. Some are not buying books, but buying time, sick with cancer, sick with addiction, sick of mind, sick in body, sick and tired. The tentacles of grief threaten. I pray for strength to comfort, to console, to lament in a healthy way. To hurt but also to heal. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It seems strange, these bedfellows of rejoicing and sorrowing, both alive in my happy, broken heart. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The beautiful, the hard, the ugly and the sweet, all these are part of the landscape of a whole life. Jesus loved a good meal with His friends, and agonized under the burden of the rejection of all His friends. He rejoiced at a wedding and wept at a grave. He experienced the full range of human emotion, unfiltered and full on. He did not turn to chemicals, people, food, sex, tv, video games, gambling, or the ten thousand other distractions, numbing agents or addictions to dull the pain or artificially increase the pleasures of life. He lived in perfect balance, rejoicing with those who rejoiced, sorrowing with those who sorrow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">He still does so today. How glad must His heart be to watch as a proud Father when a young man or woman strides into their future, full of hope and promise? How glad I can find myself, rejoicing for my friends whose children are blessed with such possibilities! What a terrible loss, if hell can hold heaven hostage because we cannot sing in the choir of another’s happy day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">And how too must we remember in our rejoicing the sad ones among us. To send flowers,remembering one lost…to call with a memory…to bring a joke with a pie: to be like St. Francis who prayed: “grant that I may not seek so much to be consoled as to console”. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The balanced life of Christ is the example. As usual, His great word lays out the simple but difficult path for a life of love. A trail marked with both light and shadow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Your friend on the pilgrim road,</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Loriann</span></div>
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Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-23356383624493197212016-05-31T21:15:00.001-04:002016-05-31T21:15:43.874-04:00The Right Orbit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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What is the center of your life...the gravitational pull, the object of your affections, the Sun of your orbit? <br />
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It's a tooth and nail fight not to close ranks and duck and cover in an often cold and unmanageable world. Billy Joel once lyricized: "I've found that just surviving is a noble fight." Most of us spend a great deal of our time trying to stay zipped up, put together and armored to go through our days in one psychological piece. The self-centeredness of the human condition in general has collided with an age of unprecedented self orientation. A phenomenal host of technologies assist mankind in the quest to keep itself isolated from pain. (I am, of course, exhibit A...binge watching Netflix in utter avoidance of actually facing down the Spector of my own fears.)<br />
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Self must be protected at all costs. <i>Hence the palpable misery of a human race in orbit around itself.</i><br />
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Jesus, in His typical, humble way, demonstrates the way to joy, a way radically at odds with a cultural constellation of self.<br />
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At the aptly named Last Supper, the last one He would ever celebrate on the Earth He formed, the One and Only does the unthinkable. Knowing he'll soon be dead, (and getting to death in the worst possible way), Jesus is looking down the barrel at being separated from everyone and everything dear to Him. It is then He blows our minds with this counter cultural attitude and action: He turns His gaze outward.<br />
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He holds the flat bread in his hands, food born of the wheat and water He created with a word, and breaks it apart to share. In a stroke of profound and baffling symbolism, Jesus breaks the bread and says "This is my body...".<br />
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Nobody got it. Lots of us still don't really get it in a "sophisticated" modern world.<br />
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Nobody understood as He served them the broken pieces of the staff of life that this symbol in this moment was about the ultimate breaking; the cosmic opposite of self centeredness - a most beautiful example of humility and grace.<br />
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This man was about to give it all, not only to the motley crew at his first century table, but to every lost an broken soul the world had ever known or would ever know. Everyone, everywhere, in every time.<br />
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This example of selflessness is the GPS coordinate for the change that brings fulfillment and life. It is not without pain, an it doesn't enhance profit. It's costly. But it does deliver on its promise to satisfy our surly, self orbiting souls. To live is to follow the simple commandment, the 2 for the price of 1 that brings balance and right orientation: Love the Lord our God (the center) with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. And to love our neighbor as ourself.<br />
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I'm praying to find my way, one day at a time, to the kind of outward orientation that produces true gain. There's only One Savior, and only His great breaking brings salvation. But we as His current "motley crew" of followers are indeed called to lives of outward orientation and joy. Just surviving may indeed be a noble fight, but it's not enough for the People of The Way. If we're healthy, we long for an abundant life, marked by small, consistent, purposeful, daily acts and attitudes of sacrificial love. <br />
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Planets orbit around the Sun: large, powerful, greatly beyond themselves. They circle a star that provides life, light, warmth and the perfect gravitational orientation. They don't take their orbit around each other, or a satellite, or a meteor. <br />
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Neither ought we.<br />
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Your friend on the pilgrim road,<br />
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LoriannLoriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-81866905241158996502015-10-07T20:01:00.002-04:002015-10-07T20:01:24.753-04:00Job: When You're Feeling "Done Wrong"Dinner table talk somehow rounded the corner to the biblical story of Job. My much beloved first born summed the story up to his girlfriend this way: "Job was this guy in the bible who basically got done wrong on every level." A fairly accurate appraisal, painted with the bold strokes of "black and white" first born's are known for, and without the nuances that come with being older than 22. Still, in the grand scheme, nail on head. <div>
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Since the darling girl wasn't familiar with the drama of Job, I tried to sum up the saga from beginning to end. Even as I outlined the story of Job's life, I felt inadequate to express the pathos, tragedy and hope in this complex story of a man done so wrong...and so right.</div>
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Job was a righteous man. God points out to Satan in a rare, inside look at a cosmic face off, just how proud he is of this particular mortal: "Have you observed my servant Job. There is no one on earth like him, blameless and upright; a man who fears God and shuns evil." ~Job 1:8</div>
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That foul enemy, however, is summarily unimpressed. To paraphrase his response : "Job loves you because you give him life's candy. Take away the goods, and he'll curse you for sure.'"</div>
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And as most of you know, God does that very thing. Job loses his wealth, his children, and eventually his health. His wife turns on him and his "friends" twist themselves into pretzels trying to find some way to sort this disaster (including accusing Job of some hidden sin) so it makes sense and somehow protects them from a similar fate. Job shows enviable patience with his lot for awhile. But as with any of us, his suffering leads to understandable complaining, and eventually to accusations that God is unfair.</div>
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The persistence of the trial wears Job to a thread. He, like the fictional Frodo in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "<span style="background-color: #fbfbfb; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20.8px;">... naked in the dark, with nothing, no veil... between me... and the wheel of fire!"</span> </span></div>
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Then the unthinkable happens. In response to Job's demands for an audience with God, the Almighty <i>descends</i> to speak to his prized son. What comes out of God's mouth is completely unexpected to the first time reader. </div>
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God does not chide Job for his complaining. He does not hammer him with laws or commandments. And most notably, He does not explain to Job the number he's doing on the prince of darkness through this dreadful trial. Instead, God simply shows Job Himself. In a whirlwind of poetic language, The Holy One describes His supremacy over nature, His unfathomable creativity and His vast reach. Regaled with the greatness of God, Job is overwhelmed. "My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have <i><b>seen</b></i> You. Therefore I retract, and repent in dust and ashes."~ Job 42:5-6</div>
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It's unlikely that any of us have experienced a Job kind of grief. But in a fallen world, and as fallen folks ourselves, we have all suffered and known sorrow... even agony of body, mind and soul. The remedy for our confusion and bitterness is found via the same portal Job went through...passing from hearing to seeing and knowing. </div>
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In these latter times, God has graciously given his dearest and best, Jesus, to experience in His own suffering every possible "done wrong" that ever has been or ever will be. He became one of us so we would be able to see Him and know Him, and to persevere as He did, with the hope of eternal life where "every tear will be wiped away." </div>
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It wasn't enough for God that Job be righteous and honorable. God wanted far more glory for his beloved than that. God wanted to give Job Himself. </div>
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And it's not enough for God that we spin our wheels, in a back breaking effort to be moral and upright. First of all, how's that working for you? No, the letter of the law brings shame and accusation. True righteousness is forged in the furnace of grace. The cosmic plan is to make Love the be all and end all. To put an ultimate end to all the "done wrong" of this weary planet.</div>
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In the end, Job had his fortunes restored (multiplied), had more children (although the wounds of those he lost surely remained...) and every earthly gift was again his to experience. Still, it's my bet that in the great eternal future, Job will not give two whits about the sufferings he endured or the blessings he enjoyed. To see God, to know that burning love beyond all our greatest imaginings, that will be Job's treasure. He will not see himself as a man "done wrong."</div>
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Persevere friends. Look for Him in every shaft of light, in every warm embrace, in every beautiful thing that proves there is Amazing Grace. There are no formulas, no quid pro quo's, no trite and easy answers to the sufferings of this world. It can't be neatly sorted and categorized into some heady theological equation. </div>
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But there is God. Himself. Love incarnate, full of grace.</div>
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He was done wrong, so in the end, we can all be done incredibly right.</div>
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Your friend on the pilgrim road,</div>
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Loriann</div>
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Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588336233411766539.post-65206279348391724042015-07-21T20:40:00.001-04:002015-07-21T20:40:42.681-04:00Mick Jagger, Jonathan Edwards, and The Great LongingIt sounds cliche in a way, but it's true: I can't get no satisfaction. Thank you, Mick Jagger.<br />
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I read a friend's comment..."I have everything I want". And I wonder at that life. Because that has never been me, and I don't think it will ever be me. It's lovely, but it leaves me scratching my increasingly threadbare head. I most assuredly don't have everything I want. <br />
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I have stepped into the river of God, and the deeps keep calling. Despite the hindrances of my own addiction to safety and pleasure, it cannot be shaken. The holy discontent remains, and I think it will till I die.<br />
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The mystics reach far for the presence of the Holy in the land of the living, but even they in their enviable nearness to the One, admit they have barely scratched the surface of the eternal. Even they, the world's great seekers, admit to The Great Longing.<br />
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Satisfied? No. Content? Sometimes, but always with the longing for more beauty, more purity, more saturation of grace. <br />
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This is not the dissatisfaction of not having, but of not being. Not being what we're made for...perfect union, perfect love, perfect freedom. To be poured out and poured in freely to the unique mold for which I was born, to truly know Jesus Christ - this is the yearning and passion that will not be quieted by all the delights earth can offer. I would no more trade even the longing for God Himself, as weak and broken as it is by my own sin and folly, than I would sell my first born for all the gold in the world. <br />
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If the longing is that magnificent, how earth-shatteringly joyful will the fulfillment of that longing be?<br />
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Listen to Jonathan Edwards:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">“God is the highest good of the reasonable creature. The enjoyment of him is our proper; and is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Better than fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of any, or all earthly friends. These are but shadows; but the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun. These are but streams; but God is the fountain. These are but drops, but God is the ocean.” </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">I love so much on this earth - my children laughing, the glorious changes of my crab apple tree, the overwhelming fresh vastness of the great Atlantic, and so, so much more.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">But they are "but scattered beams". God is the sun. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Some of you reading this are dissatisfied. There's a good kind and a bad kind of dissatisfaction. The good kind is a thirst, but a grateful thirst. It drives you to the River of Life. The bad kind often comes when you have plenty of the world's blessings, and you're satisfied with a spiritual cup that's dry. As my kids would say "that's the worst...".</span></span><br />
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As always, I write from a place of far too much understanding of getting it wrong. Still, it's the grace of Christ that won't let His beloveds get true joy from any other source but Himself. And it's that very grace that keeps me asking for more, and keeps me in that good kind of dissatisfaction that won't settle for the best of earth without the best of heaven.<br />
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We'll get our total satisfaction come one of these days... I'll be able to say with my dear friend, "I have everything I want". I'll do all I can to bring the kingdom of God to this planet, to bring "up there down here" as John Ortberg says as an ongoing life theme. But this life is a vapor, and I'm not ashamed to say that I'm going for something a lot more solid and lasting. Then we will step out of the shadows, into the substance. In the meantime, I'm content to be discontented. I'm grateful for grace that makes me see "these are but drops, but God is the ocean."<br />
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Your friend on the pilgrim road,<br />
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Loriann<br />
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<br />Loriann Champagne Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11083673392369385755noreply@blogger.com0