Life Is Uncertain

An old saying is, “Life is hard and then you die.” For most of us that is the truth. Life is not only hard but also uncertain as none of us knows what tomorrow might bring our way. One day everything is peachy and the next an accident or illness can send us into a tail spin. All is going the way we want and then we loose our job when the stock market crashes and in short order we are the ones in the welfare line.

What happens next depends on the strength of our spirit and will to not only survive but to rise to the challenge before us. One person makes a come back and another slides in to depression. What makes the difference? Just as life is full of disappointments it is also full of opportunities. In the worst conditions there is always a way through to joy.

Your faith is the starting point for your success. The strength of your personal spirit is important and should be nourished in the best of times so that it will take you through the worst of times. Your uncertainty also works the other way for you can be in the dumps and turn the corner and find a new opportunity in your path that changes everything. Your strong faith keeps you looking around that next corner. Hang in there and keep your faith strong at all times.

Who Did Cain Marry?

I always look forward to the arrival of a new edition of Biblical Archaeology Review in my mail box. It always has very interesting and thought provoking articles to stimulate my thinking. This months copy has one called “Who Did Cain Marry?” by Mary Joan Winn Leith.

It lifts up the age old and biblically unanswered question of who were these other people and where did Can get his wife? There have been many speculations by bible scholars since before the time of Christ. None of the ideas can be proven but it can be fun to stretch our minds and consider the possibilities. 

Some of the ideas I have read over the years:

1.     After God rested on the seventh day he went back to work creating on the eighth day and made other people in different parts of the world.

2.     Incest – Cain took one of his sisters as his wife.

3.     The “others” are people who are not quite human but no explanation of where they come from. Mary Leith states that society often relegates people of other nations to a less than human status as the Egyptians did before the time of Abraham.

What do you think? 

Children With Dyslexia

I was serving a church in a small city and knew a number of teachers in the elementary school. At a community meeting I was engaged in a discussion about problem children in the school. One teacher was venting that one boy was dyslexic and would be stupid all his life. I asked her why she thought that and she replied that there was no cure for dyslexia and no hope for those with it. I looked at her and said, “I that is not true, I am a dyslexic and while I have to work harder than most people I have made it. There are therapies that can be of great help for that boy.” The result of that conversation was that the boy got help and the teacher learned a lot about advances in dyslexia treatment.

I was blessed when I was in elementary school and was having trouble with spelling and reading. No one in our small town knew about dyslexia and I was not diagnosed until I was in collage.  My mother was the one who took charge and helped me. She did not know what the trouble was either but her love and instinct saved me from being shunted aside as being stupid in the school system. She would sit down with my spelling list and say the word and spell it and then make me repeat it over and over. I learned to spell by doing that. She also made me read slowly by moving my finger under the words one at a time. I became a reader doing that and I love to read.

At Texas Christian University my drama teacher noticed the difference between my oral exams and written exams and recognized that I share a problem with her husband, dyslexia. She gave me the name of his doctor and he started me on a therapy that made all the difference. While I still have a lot of trouble reading and writing, yes spelling too, I am able to over come with a lot of patience a disability that could have sidelined me.

Today there is no excuse for not helping children with dyslexia. People have different degrees of difficulty but learning is not impossible even if it all has to be aural it can be done. Never give up on the children just because they are different.

A Father’s Sin

When I was about eight years old I use to play with a friend who lived just down the street and across the ally from us. One day while playing in his front yard I saw my father’s car drive past us and the woman who lived next door was riding in the front seat with him. I didn’t think much about it but when I got home I told my mom and she was not happy with that news.

When dad got home mom told him what I had said. He became angry and accused me of lying. He then beat me with a belt for lying. When I say beat I mean just that and it was severe.

Years later – 30 years – I learned that he knew that I had not lied and that I was punished for his sin. 

EVERYDAY SAINTS

Christmas items are showing up in the stores so we will soon celebrate “All Saints Day” and society will make more of  “All Hollows Eve” also known as Halloween.  The saints of the first-century were men and women of flesh and blood, the same as you and I. They are people who had work to do day in and day out, but who also had a first hand interest in the Church, and worship of God. 

Please consider the men we call saints who's names are on the books of the New Testament:

1.         Matthew earned his living collecting taxes, the IRS auditor of his day.

2.         Mark was a private secretary.

3.         Luke was a physician.

4.         John, James, and Peter were engage in the fish industry.

5.         Paul was a tent maker.

6.         Timothy and Titus were expert organizers.

7.         Jude was a small landowner.

8.         Philemon was a possessor of an enviable list of diversified securities.

It was lay men and women, not angels, who had surrendered their lives to Jesus, who built the Church. It is still lay men and women, who having surrendered their lives to Jesus, continue to build the Church and change the world. It is your faith in action in your daily life, committed to Christ that will make the difference in this world. As you plan for all of the sacred days coming up at the last part of the year with All Saints Day, Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas to keep it spiritual.

Remember the people of the New Testament as you think about your role in the life and work of the Church. You are also an EVERYDAY SAINT.

Things we can not change

There are things in life we cannot alter. We can try but it only leads to frustration. Mother Nature brings storms and violent actions that damage our living space and we can not stop that from happening. War happens and people we love die and we can not change that. Other people do things that cause us grief and we must deal with the fall out in our lives.

 

Things have happened in the past that affect us but they are beyond our repair. Until we recognize the reality of the past as it was and everyone in it as they were, the past will control us. If we let it all stand as history and simply let it be we can find peace with in us. Then we can create a peaceful now and a peaceful future. If we learn from the past we can keep from repeating the mistakes and grow as a person and as a society.

 It is how we live out this day that affects our lives and the lives of those around us. Each choice in the now matters in our future so each point of change is under our control for that moment. So let us live each day to the fullest, loving God and loving others in each action we take. 

A Christian Nation

I was watching a TV news program and a man in Texas was complaining about foreign religions infiltrating into our “Christian Nation” and we needed to put a stop to it. There are others like him and I do not think that they understand the term “Christian Nation” or they would not make those statements. Perhaps they would any way for that is what they think they want. While we are a country whose citizens are predominately members of the Christian faith, we are not now nor have we ever been a “Christian Nation” and as a Protestant Christian Pastor I do not want us to be so.

The term “Christian Nation” denotes a country that has established an official relationship with a Christian church. England is a “Christian Nation” because it has established an official Church/State relationship with the Church of England. Queen Elizabeth is officially the head of the Church of England. Spain is a “Christian Nation” because it has established an official Church/State relationship with the Roman Catholic Church. There are also Islamic Nations and Buddhist Nations where the government has official standing with their religions.

Our founding fathers established this country as one that provides us with total freedom of religion with a clear separation of church and state. As a Christian Pastor I believe that freedom has been a major blessing for the Christian faith in America. With great wisdom they placed in our constitution the first amendment:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

We have always had other faiths than the Christian faith in our country and their rights to freedom of religion have been respected here. There are over three hundred denominations of Christian church in the USA and their rights of freedom of expression in the practice of their faith are respected here. That would not be true in a country where a religion has been established as a state religion. Think about it folks we do not want the government telling us what church to belong to, not even my church.