My four-year-old granddaughter has the solution for the pandemic as well as the racial tension that now has so much of the country in its grip. “When the world gets better, we’ll have a pool party, and everyone’s invited.” That’s word-for-word what she said. It’s a brilliant suggestion.
I am fascinated by the universe. I am fascinated by the billions upon trillions of stars and galaxies out there and the unfathomable distances between everything. I am fascinated by the stars burning so bright that we can see them light years away and then I am fascinated by how long it takes the light to get here. It’s like we are looking at ancient information in the heavens.
Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:17-21
In his comment from yesterday’s Catch, our brother, Paul, reminded us of this verse. (Not Paul the Apostle, who wrote it, but our Paul, who may be an apostle himself; we’re still finding that out!) How apropos these words are to our current cultural climate of hatred and division.
Maybe you remember it when this story first came out almost 10 years ago — the photograph of a wooden cross strangely draped with a military dog tag and a purple vestment and crowned with an army helmet. It was a memorial to Captain Dale Goetz, a chaplain in the US Army who was killed along with four other soldiers by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. He was the first chaplain killed in combat since the Vietnam War.
Captain Goetz considered himself called to this job and had volunteered for the position. He was known as one who always went to the soldiers in the field where he could help them “through long days and nights of fear and dread.” His wife, and sudden single mother of three children under 11, struggled with the loss though she knew he was doing what God wanted him to do.
We were young
We have died
Remember us
Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia sustained 54 casualties in the Vietnam War, highest of any high school in the nation. Fifty-four out of a total of 58,272.
The sign inside the historic Church of the Open Door, once in downtown Los Angeles, is remarkable if you think about how many churches would be willing to put “ALL HAVE SINNED” over the front of their church. Think of what that would do for people visiting. Think of what that would do for the regulars. I can think of only good things coming out of that.
Think about the amount of trust in the Holy Spirit there had to be in the formation of the early church. Especially after the persecution scattered believers all over the region. Groups of believers were springing up everywhere. All of them were preaching the Good News about Jesus and people were being added daily to the faith. It would have been impossible to monitor all those groups. These were not Bible Study Cell Groups with a form of centralized leadership and a notebook and video for the host to follow. There was no curriculum. There was no New Testament, at least in the very beginning. Later on Paul would write his letters to the young churches, and I’m sure those were copied and passed around, but in the beginning the church was made up of informal groups of people meeting in homes, many of them separated from sanctioned leadership. And if the book of Acts says they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, that means there was an apostle there teaching them! Kid you not.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
Did you know you had an empathetic teacher?
Our interview with Gunnar Simonsen last night on BlogTalkRadio is a “must” podcast for all of us. I’ve heard it twice now and I will listen again. It’s all about change. In his own words, “In three years, every last thing in my life has changed.”
