Prince of Peace

Today is the Second Sunday in Advent and the day we focus our devotions on the Messiah as the Prince of Peace.

The Gospels are clear that Jesus teaches His disciples to be peace makers with teaching like turn the other cheek, go the second mile and give the shirt off your back. Being a peace maker is not an easy calling. Many people do not understand that vital Christian role and some of  them even strike out at the peace maker. There are times when the other person prefers violence and becomes angry at your efforts to make peace.

During the civil rights clashes of the 1960's Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. took Jesus at His word and practice non-violence in confronting the evil of racial hatred. He was attacked by the raciest on both sides and was martyred for the cause. Yet his dream came to pass and this new generation is moving us forward to peace between people. We still have a long way to go but we are getting there day by day.

Today we celebrate Jesus as the Prince of Peace and we pray for peace. I pray that the day will come when the armed forces of every country will only be stationed within their own borders and that we will truly turn our swords in to plow shears.


In the name of the Prince of Peace - Pray for Peace and Make Peace!

Electric Power Backup

In the last three years that we have lived in this house the Electric Power has been out about a dozen times. Most outages have been short term as in less than a day but four of them have been four to eight days long. That is too much! A very kind lady across the stree lets us run our 100 foot extension cord across the street to power our freezer and refrigerator. The only thing about that is she has also been with out power some of the time.

During the Ice storm’s eight day outage last January we decided that a better backup source was needed. Small portable gasoline generators don’t do enough and are dangerous. The also get stolen and you can not run them in the house or garage and be safe from carbon monoxide gas. Refilling the gas tank every few hours is a pain and you need to let it cool off first or risk an explosion or fire.

All year I have been searching for an automatic whole house generator powered by natural gas. Most were too expensive and in the range of $15,000. But Lowes to the rescue this week they had a sale to an affordable price and I have one on order. Yea no worries this winter.

A Moving Force

She was a long time member of the church I served and I was the last person in her nursing home room after they took her body to the funeral home. I stood there staring at the empty bed. The rude truth strikes me that this woman who was so powerful in the congregation was gone. She had been a moving force in the church and a woman of both a great faith and a great love. Even from her nursing home bed her influence had been felt through out the church.

Enduring the pain of bone cancer she always radiated joy to her visitors and prayed with them before they left her room. She had a saying that was repeated over and over by the women of the church for years after her death:

“When you are at your wits end and have used up all of your resources remember that God will pull you through. Life is not about self-reliance but about but about turning your challenges into opportunities to serve God.”

SOON

As I read Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians it is clear that Paul expected the second coming of Christ soon, as in his life time. He praised the Christians in Thessalonica for their deed of love while waiting for Jesus to return. There was an expectation of it could happen at any moment. Paul reminded them that the return of Jesus would happen like a thief in the night - that is without warning.

Christians have been waiting in expectation for almost two thousand years. Still we wait, we serve Christ and pray Come Lord Jesus come!  During this season of Advent we celebrate the first coming of Jesus as a babe in Bethlehem we are reminded that still we live in the expectation of His second coming.

He is coming SOON!!!! What ever that means in God’s time. God who live in eternity soon is a relative term. For us it is at any moment and we must always be ready. Enjoy this Advent season in Expectation.

The Book of Esther

Like the Book of Ruth the story of Ester has all the drama of life plus the intrigue of the Royal Court of Persia.

Esther is a young Jewish girl who is an orphan being raised by her uncle in the foreign land of Persia. A sad state of affairs to say the least.

At the court the King throws a seven day drunken party and in the process his number one queen makes him real mad and he demotes her. To select a new queen he holds a Miss Persia beauty contest to find the most beautiful virgin in the empire.

Esther wins the contest and is made Queen of Persia. Happy Days are here.

DRAMA: The evil advisor to the King tries to have all the Jews in Persia killed. More sad days for Esther’s people. Esther’s uncle asker her to help and she does. The story of how she turns things upside down for the evil advisor is well worth reading. It is a wonderful story.

Bible Stories

The Bible is full of truly wonderful stories that have drama, disasters, love and even some happy endings.

One of the most beautiful stories in the Bibles is the account of Ruth. - Read the Book of Ruth - This story  has it all. Naomi and her husband and two sons are forced to leave their home because of drought. The moved to nearby Moab where living is easy. Her two sons meed and marry local girls - happy days.

Happiness does not last for long. Death takes Naomi’s husband and both sons - sad days.

She sends both daughter-in-laws back to their families but Ruth will not leave her. - Both widows go back to Naomi’s home in Judah. Ruth’s loyalty and service to Naomi is noticed and rewarded when she marries one of Naomi’s kinsmen Boaz. This Moabite woman becomes the grandmother of King David.

Weak Faith

A few days ago I was talking with a man about the Bible and talked about the process for choosing which books went into the Bible we have now. He almost put his fingers in his ears! He actually said to me; “God gave us the Bible exactly as it is in the King James Authorized Bible. How can you preach the Word of God if you don’t believe that?” He did not want to hear anything else. His faith is so weak that change in his preconceptions would shatter it.

It is scandalous for Christians if we remain content about our own ignorance and understanding of the Bible. This includes the history of how the Bible came to us and the movement of people in the Holy Land. The more I learn and understand about the scriptures the more powerful they become for me. This even includes all the human frailties the produced it. We must understand that God did not dictate word for word the Bible we have today.

To accept what that man believes about the Bible is to make an idol out of the book.