weary.
3.2 Fill My Cup, Lord
or self-righteous. We are afraid to strain relationships at work or at school for fear of being treated differently in our community or even our own homes. Many of us wonder what to say. What a comfort it is to know that when we speak the Spirit of our Heavenly Father will be speaking through us and what an inspiration it is to know that despite all obstacles God himself will reward us for our boldness?
Gordon MacDonald on Resilent Living
A Resilient Life February 22, 2004 – by Gordon MacDonald
The
event is engraved upon my soul much like words carved into marble face
of a monument. I have described it often because it shaped the way I
look at life.
I was standing at the starting line-the leadoff runner-in a mile relay championship race at the world-renown Penn Relays in Philadelphia. Our team had drawn the second lane. The first lane was occupied by a
runner who, a few weeks before, had broken the American record in the
100 meter dash. He was fast..and he was cocky.
"May the best man win," he said as he hammered his starting blocks
into the cinder surface of the track. "I'll be waiting for you at the
finish line."
It was trash talk, 1950's style. And it was intimidating to a skinny
15 year old who was competing in a large stadium with thousands of
people for the first time.
Gordon MacDonald on Resilent Living
A Resilient Life February 22, 2004 – by Gordon MacDonald
The
event is engraved upon my soul much like words carved into marble face
of a monument. I have described it often because it shaped the way I
look at life.
I was standing at the starting line-the leadoff runner-in a mile relay championship race at the world-renown Penn Relays in Philadelphia. Our team had drawn the second lane. The first lane was occupied by a
runner who, a few weeks before, had broken the American record in the
100 meter dash. He was fast..and he was cocky.
"May the best man win," he said as he hammered his starting blocks
into the cinder surface of the track. "I'll be waiting for you at the
finish line."
It was trash talk, 1950's style. And it was intimidating to a skinny
15 year old who was competing in a large stadium with thousands of
people for the first time.
Gordon MacDonald on Resilent Living
A Resilient Life February 22, 2004 – by Gordon MacDonald
The
event is engraved upon my soul much like words carved into marble face
of a monument. I have described it often because it shaped the way I
look at life.
I was standing at the starting line-the leadoff runner-in a mile relay championship race at the world-renown Penn Relays in Philadelphia. Our team had drawn the second lane. The first lane was occupied by a
runner who, a few weeks before, had broken the American record in the
100 meter dash. He was fast..and he was cocky.
"May the best man win," he said as he hammered his starting blocks
into the cinder surface of the track. "I'll be waiting for you at the
finish line."
It was trash talk, 1950's style. And it was intimidating to a skinny
15 year old who was competing in a large stadium with thousands of
people for the first time.
John Townsend on Relationships (1 of 3)
Secrets of Great Relationships February 22, 2004 – by Dr. John Townsend
Welcome
to our series on GREAT RELATIONSHIPS and how you can have them! We all
desire the good things a thriving, healthy relationship provides-things
like love, tenderness, intimacy, companionship, security, protection,
help and more. God wants you to have all these things, and He provides
a way for you to experience these good things: through connection. God
created you for connection, both with Himself and other people, and He
has designed ways to help you grow into the relationships you need and
long for. We are excited about your own prospects to create great
relationships, whether you want to improve a struggling one, or make a
good one great.
In this first article of three, we wanted to start with the foundation and beginning of any great relationship. That foundation is grace. This
is a word that you often hear describing our spiritual relationship
with God, and that is the origin of it. Grace is, briefly defined, unmerited favor,
and is the basis of how God relates to us, by favoring us through love
and not through performance: "For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (Eph.
2:8)." It is favors that God provides to us that we could never provide
for ourselves.
3.1 Fill My Cup, Lord
Stop and Go – What Is a Sabbath Anyway?
During Lent I am returning to a quote from John Ortberg in The Christian Century: "The true indicator of spiritual well-being is growth in the ability to love God and people. If we can do this without the practice of any particular spiritual disciplines, then we should by all means skip them" (as quoted in Scot McKnight, "Jesus Creed: What Is the Focus of Spiritual Life?" in The Christian Century, September 7, 2004, page 24).
Today I am asking us to pay attention to the Sabbath. Please note that I will not ask us to consider the notion of a community Sabbath or call us to re-invoke the Sunday "Blue Laws" of my childhood. Rather, I will point us to the need for each of us to find Sabbath, whether or not our culture dictates it!
Let’s turn to Matthew’s Gospel and read the following:
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath." He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath" (Matthew 12:1-8, NRSV).
Ron Sider on The State of the Union on Poverty
Link: The State of the Union on Poverty by Ron Sider– Beliefnet.com.
Ron Sider is calling evangelicals to action. I posted his article "The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience" which called Christians to reexamine their attraction / addiction to the values of the world in general and to USAmerican culture in particular. In this article he continues to challenge us to live into being fully devoted followers of Jesus … being "little Christs" in the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther. Read on …
The State of the Union on Poverty: What would an honest evaluation of President Bush’s impact on domestic poverty look like? By Ronald J. Sider
I was one of about twenty-five religious leaders President-elect George W. Bush invited to talk with him about his faith-based initiative in December, 2000, right after the election was decided. I had been intrigued by his call for compassionate conservatism. That day, he told us there is a poverty of the soul and a poverty of the wallet. I agreed with him that faith-based groups are much better at correcting the first. But government, he said, can help with the poverty of the wallet. I was cautiously hopeful.
What happened? Vastly less than he promised, as David Kuo has recently pointed out.
Continue reading “Ron Sider on The State of the Union on Poverty”
4.2 – Assurance of Strength – 2 Thessalonians 3:3
Memorize 2 Thessalonians 3:3
The Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one (NRSV).
The Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one (NIV).
Reflect on 2 Thessalonians 3:3
- Read Paul's benediction to the Christians of Thessolonika in the NRSV, the NIV, or The MESSAGE.
- Paul asks the church to pray for two things: that Word of the Lord would spread quickly and that Paul and his companions would be rescued from evil people. The basis for this hope is contained in the above verses. What is Paul depending on? What are you being invited to depend upon?
- Our modern ears often ignore or downplay words about evil people or the Evil One, (daibolos – "devil" in the Greek, ha-satan – "the enemy" in the Hebrew). Step back and honestly examine your workplace, school, neighborhood, community, and world. Where do you see evil? What do you need from Jesus so that you can guard against the Evil One?
Front Porch Reflections 
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