September 7th, 2008 at 8:00 am
From Barbara Johnson’s I Don’t Suffer From Insanity…I enjoy every minute of it calendar, something far less than insane:
| What kind of perspective do you bring to unpleasant situations?
Do you add to the gloom or introduce joy?
Do you join in the grumbling or find something to laugh about?
Do you follow our Lord’s example and lift the spirits of “those bent beneath their loads”?
The Lord lifts the fallen and those bent beneath their loads.
Psalm 145:14 TLB |
And two other verses I thought of on the subject of adding light rather than gloom:
| “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
“For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8). |
I am both challenged and convicted.
Tags: encourage
Posted in Christianity 101, Lessons for Living, Today's Thought | No Comments »
September 7th, 2008 at 7:16 am
Dobson Rebuked for Breaking His Pledge Before God
| On April 28, 1990 at the Washington D.C. Rally for Life on video and to hundreds of thousands of Christians, Dr. Dobson stated, “I want to give a pledge to you on a political level… I have determined that for the rest of my life, however long God lets me live on this earth, I will never cast one vote for any man or woman who would kill one innocent baby.” |
But now he’s planning to vote for McCain-Palin. Despite the fact McCain fails the above test.
Maybe a pledge “on a political level” is different that a pledge on a Christian’s level.
Whatever the case, here are a few sentences from a letter supposedly under the Focus on the Family letterhead:
| As Mr. Enyart stated, it is true that Dr. Dobson has said on previous occasions that he would never cast a vote for any politician who supports abortion. Recently, however, there have been times that he felt he was faced with the necessity of making a difficult but inescapable choice between two or more major candidates.
[...]
Please know that Dr. Dobson didn’t arrive at this decision without giving it much thought and consideration. Rightly or wrongly, he chose to compromise his own standard, which he rarely does, in order to protect everything that matters most. Although Dr. Dobson realizes this decision carries with it the potential for criticism and disagreement, he believes God has led him in this direction. |
Oh my!
Surely that doesn’t mean that he did arrive at his previous Nope-Won’t-Vote-For-Him decision without much thought and consideration. 
And he’s going to vote for McCain after all (never isn’t as long a time span as it used to be) to protect everything that matters most. So killing a baby here and there is in a different category?
Dr. Dobson, a bit of unsolicited advice: Leave politics to the politicians.
And an observation: You don’t have two choose between two candidates — don’t vote at all.
Now, regarding pledges and vows and promises and commitments and oaths, the Bible:
| “Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay” (Ecclesiastes 5:5).
“But above all things, my brethren…let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation” (James 5:12). |
So…what should Dr. Dobson do?
(And “rightly or wrongly”?!? Wow!)
Tags: abortion, Dobson, McCain, vows
Posted in Christianity 101, Lessons for Living, Politics, Religion | No Comments »
September 6th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Posted in This and That | No Comments »
September 6th, 2008 at 7:56 am
How do you handle discouragement?
Better yet — how do you beat it?
(I fear too many of us — well, I, anyway — enjoy too much wallowing in it.)
Andrée Seu wrote in WorldMagBlog:
| For what ails you
The best thing to do when you’re depressed is to live as though you’re not depressed. (That advice applies to fear and other suffering as well.)
[...]
And then I pray God’s promises over it—“I will never leave you or forsake you”; “My power is made perfect in weakness”; that sort of thing. It helps, also, to make a list of what you need to do that day, and just start doing it. Press into life and live it. |
I simply have to remember that.
And this:
| Psalm 139:10
“Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” |
Tags: depression, discouragement
Posted in Christianity 101, Health, Lessons for Living | No Comments »
September 6th, 2008 at 7:25 am
Would you attend?
A Georgia (USA) church tries drive-in worship
| The brown and white beagle peers intently at her owner, watching as he swigs V-8 juice and dials his car radio to 1640 AM. On an ordinary Sunday morning in Marietta, Ga., Barry Hopkins would be getting ready for church. Today, dressed in shorts and an Atlanta Braves T-shirt, he’s already there – in his car.
A few vehicles dot the parking lot of New Hope Methodist Church in suburban Atlanta, but there’s no sound except the rumble of idling motors. Slow rain becomes a torrent, blowing in wide sheets, obscuring the pastor standing on the church steps as he delivers his sermon. Drivers flick their windshield wipers to life and stare straight ahead. They won’t leave their steel cocoons any time soon. They won’t need to: The sermon booms from their radios like Carrie Underwood.
Drive-ins have given us movies delivered to our cars with popcorn and notions of front-seat romance. They have given us fries and malts delivered by teens on roller skates. Now they’re giving us the word of God, or at least of preachers, delivered out of our dashboards in the hope of attracting a new multitude of worshipers.
Across the country, a handful of churches are trying to unite two fundamental forces – religion and Americans’ love affair with the automobile – to offset the dearth of people sitting in pews.
Usually, as here at New Hope, attendees can be as involved or uninvolved as they want. Either way is just fine with the Rev. Norman Markle. He stands in the outdoor alcove that is his pulpit and preaches, hoping his message carries clearly through his lapel microphone.
“A lot of people still feel the only way they’ll be accepted is if they come to church with a suit and tie,” he says. “But that’s changed. If we don’t change, we’re losing out to the new churches.”
[...]
Tucked inside his office after the sermon, Mr. Markle peels open a McDonald’s wrapper and spreads grape jelly over a sausage biscuit. His regular indoor service begins soon, and for this one, he’ll wear his starched white robe emblazoned with a gold cross. It’ll be a completely different sermon. The drive-in service is only 45 minutes – people won’t sit in their cars much longer. In the church, with its pine floors and luminous stained-glass windows, Markle can preach as long as he likes – usually about two hours.
|
I assume they don’t kneel to pray during these drive-in services.
Do they roll down their windows to shout “Amen!” — oh, never mind that question. I don’t shout “Amen!” in our church services either. Well, not more than once every two or three years. (But last month I shouted “Yes!” after we were done singing, “May the Lord Depend on You?”)
To the extent that he’s following God’s leading, may Mr. Markle succeed.
And may more people be drawn into real congregational living as God has designed.
HT: CarolB (one of this blog’s few readers) 
Tags: church
Posted in Religion, This and That | No Comments »
