Fall Color

Our little sourwood tree planted in the spring with mint green leaves now sports it Fall color of red leaves and tiny green fruit.

The Jealousy Monster

In Genesis chapter 37 the brothers of Joseph were convinced that their younger brother was their father’s favorite child. Their jealousy reached a destructive point and they were willing to beat him and sell Joseph as a slave. They then faked his death to be rid of him and their feelings of jealousy forever.

Their feelings of jealousy were replaced by feelings of remorse and guilt for what they had done to both Joseph and their father. The green eyed monster of jealousy over ruled love, family and common sense. It is easy for us to become jealous of another’s good fortune and dive into “Oh woe is me” and forget our highest moral values in a moment of self loathing. When we become jealous of someone else we forget how much God loves us just as we are. That is a time when evil creeps into our lives and we are capable of creating a lot of pain for others and ourselves as well,

When I was a very young pastor I served a church that had an annual bazaar to raise money for the building fund. That year things did not go well and the event did good to break even. The Sunday after I was walking down the hallway heading for the sanctuary when one of the women stopped me and said, “Pastor this is all your fault! If you had done more with publicity more people would have come to the bazaar.” Then she turned and stormed off.

I was stunned and then I was angry. How dare she lay that on me? I was not responsible for the bazaar publicity. My temper sometimes scares me so I keep it under tight control but I was about to loose it. I entered the sanctuary to set up the pulpit for worship. I opened my bible but it fell open to a different verse than I was going to use.

It was Luke 23:34 where Jesus was dying on the cross and said, “Father, forgive then; for they do not know what they are doing.” Guess who was talking directly to me about my anger? Jesus was asking God to forgive those who were killing him. I stopped and prayed for God to forgive me and I forgave that woman in the hall. I learned an important lesson that day.

A shared thought about truth

The Possession of Truth

On day I saw the Truth shining like a bright star.
It was very small and I could see it fully.
“How great I am - I can see the Truth fully,” I thought.
“Let me go and possess it,” I decided. I began my journey in possession of Truth.
As I journeyed days and days my enthusiasm great greater.
I felt I was close to it and the day to possess it is not too far off.
But as I walked further I found a grew change.
The closer I came the bigger the star grew.
I journeyed and journeyed until I was surrounded by it.
I lifted my head to the sky and found myself under the radiance of the star.
I could see neither its beginning nor end.
I stood there motionless without knowing where to go.
Whichever side I saw I found its radiance.
When I started it was smaller than me, now it is bigger than me.
When I started it was outside me, now I am inside it.
I started in possession of it, now I find myself possessed by it.
I never knew the Truth appears small when you are far away from it.

You Are the Light: Rediscovering the Eastern Jesus
By John Martin Sahajananda

World Communion Sunday

Today is World Communion Sunday in most churches all around the world. This is a day when we all celebrate around one table with Jesus as our host even though we may use different methods, slightly different theologies, and different elements.

Different elements??? For some the bread is a loaf and others it is a flat cracker. For some the wine is just that wine and for others it is grape juice.

Go to church and take communion today to thank Jesus for His gift of salvation.

The Invention of Lying

A movie called “The Invention of Lying” is now plying around the country that has the star living in a place where everyone always tells the truth but him. He is the only one who has learned to tell a falsehood.

I think most of us believe that we are truthful at least most of the time. I have known people who will tell a lie when the truth would work better. Some people will tell a small lie to avoid hurting a friend’s feelings. Another may fail to tell the whole truth to keep a confidence or family secret. A child who is asked, “Is your mother always drunk?” may answer “no” while thinking not always.

What wise husband will truthfully answer the wife’s question, “Honey does this dress make me look fat?” The correct answer is always, “NO!” even if it is a lie.

A New Thing 200 Years Ago

Some two hundred years ago a person of one Christian denomination could not take Holy Communion in a church of a different denomination. In come cases you could only take communion in the congregation to which you belonged. Sometimes you had to pass a test of faithfulness to take it in your congregation. This was the case with the Presbyterian church When Rev. Thomas Campbell moved from Ireland to America and was assigned to a congregation in Western Pennsylvania.

In the sparsely settled area his was the only church for miles and members from other denominations began attending. Once when it came time for Holy Communion he decided to make it available to non-members whom he knew to be good Christians who had not been able to take communion in their own congregations for many years.

He got in a lot of trouble for doing that. As part of his defense he wrote a “Declaration and Address” that has been one the founding documents of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Christian Churches and the Churches of Christ. In it he wrote; “So long as any man, woman or child declares his confidence in Jesus of Nazareth as God’s own son, the He was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification; or, in other words, that Jesus is the Messiah, the savior of men; and so long as he exhibits a willingness to obey Him in all things according to his knowledge, so long will I receive him as a Christian brother and treat him as such.”