April 2010

April 1

The mood is dark as this weekend begins.  Our worship takes us to the dark clouds of Calvary where we see God’s Son hanging and hear Him calling out, “It is finished.”  “What is finished?”  The dark scene of sin is finished.  Jesus earns your forgiveness.  You know what you have done, what you would like to go back and do over, do right, but you can’t.  You’ve hurt others, hurt yourself.  That sin?  “It is finished.”  Others may not forgive you.  You may not be able to forgive yourself but He stepped in, took your place, and paid the price for what you did.  “It is finished.”  The scene can begin to lighten.

Revelation 21:5-6:  “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’  Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’  And he said to me, “It is done!”  “It is done!”  Words that are trustworthy and true have been written for you.  Good News.  Gospel.  “It is finished.”  Jesus has earned your forgiveness.  “It is done.”  His death and Easter resurrection opens a glorious future and the words are written to give us hope.  “Brighter scenes will then commence.  This shall be my confidence.”  (Lutheran Service Book 490, 1).  “It is finished.”  “It is done!”

We’ll be back Tuesday.  Have a blessed Easter!

April 6

I had a friend, now gone to heaven, who used to hand out little pieces of paper called “Round Tuits.”  They were tickets that encouraged the recipient to get “’round to it,” around to making our relationship with God my “A, Number One” priority.  Easter Sunday was great, celebrating Christ’s victory over death and hearing about our sure and certain hope of eternal life.  Now you and I are down to the nitty-gritty of getting ‘round to it, around to transferring Easter Sunday joy into our lives in the workaday, grind-you-down routine of Monday through Friday.

It takes something more to get ‘round to it in the workaday world than just a great worship experience on Easter Sunday.  “When they saw Him (the resurrected Christ), they worshipped Him; but some doubted.”  (Matthew 28:17)  Imagine that, they saw Him but still wavered!  “We live by faith, not by sight.”  (2 Corinthians 5:7)  Easter worship is soul stirring but fades as quickly as the lilies.

“He lives to grant me rich supply,” says the dear hymn, “I Know that My Redeemer Lives.”  Says another Easter hymn, “Grant grace sufficient for life’s day.” (Lutheran Service Book, 465, 3)  Dear God, Easter joy?  Help us today to get ‘round to it! 

April 7

Poison Ivy loves me!  I’m coming to you red with rashes.  Poison Ivy stalks me; Poison Ivy strikes me.  Every year it happens, on the north border of the Seminary’s property, overgrown for decades with noxious honeysuckle, out-of-control euonymus, and my stalker, Poison Ivy.  Year by year, Diane and I try to tame the jungle, but nature always takes me down.

Robert Creely: “I did however used to think, you know, in the woods walking, and as a kid playing in the woods, that there was a kind of immanence there – that woods, a place of order, had a sense, a kind of presence, that you could feel; that there was something peculiarly, physically present, a feeling of place almost conscious…. like God.”  (Robert Creely and the Genius of the American Common Place, p. 40) 

That’s the conventional wisdom, that nature is pure.  Really?  Excuse me while I scratch.  “Creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay.” (Romans 8:21) Yesterday there was a 7.9 earthquake in Sumatra.  A few days before an earthquake on the California-Mexico border.  Haiti.  Chili.  Look for God in nature and you’ll find a capricious, unpredictable God.  Read the Bible, and what will you find? “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”  

April 8

One of the features that I often use on my cell phone is zooming in.  The print isn't large enough?  You want the bigger picture?  Touch that little magnifying glass and you get it.

Mysterious things happen when you zoom in on the Psalms.  The Psalms are the prayer book of the Bible.  There's probably no emotion of your life that isn't talked about, prayed about in the Psalms.  At first blush, each Psalm is about something in someone's life long ago.  The writer of Psalm 118 had survived a battle and says, "Glad songs are in the tents of the righteous.  I shall not die but live."  Zoom in and you get the bigger picture.  "I shall not die but live," it says, and then, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone."  Whoa!  The New Testament uses that passage for Jesus.  You reread and see the Psalm is also about Jesus.  Get this, the Psalms were Jesus' personal prayer book.  He prayed these very words you are reading, praying.  That brings the zoom to your head and heart!  This Psalm is not just about someone long ago.  It's about you, you living in Jesus.  "I shall not die but live.  This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

April 9

In biblical Judaism Friday was known as the “day of preparation.”  Saturday was the Sabbath, the day of rest when Israel ceased from work and rested with one another and retreated to God. 

What are your times of preparation?  Our seminary students are great, good hearted people who want to serve God and help others.  Talking with them about the Good News of God, they do what we all do.  They automatically regard the bad things of life as, yes, bad things, no questions asked.  Is guilt bad?  Is fear bad?  Is worry bad?  Is disappointment bad?  Well, of course they’re bad!  Who wants these unwelcome feelings?  But they do come, don’t they?  And when they come, might they be days, times of preparation?  Might they be the down times that remind us to look up?  “Why are you downcast, O my soul?  Why so disturbed within me?  Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.” (Psalm 42:11)

On this date in 1865 General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox.  Even great generals have their depressing down times.  God’s plan for tomorrow intends your down times today to be days of preparation, incentives to give the next times to Him.  “Cast your care upon Him because He cares for you.”  (1 Peter 5:7)

April 12

I’m in North Carolina to speak to a conference of pastors…for 5 hours!The topic is faith.  Most of us have heard the classic passage about faith, Ephesians 2:8-9.  “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.”  Seems pretty straightforward, doesn’t it?  You can’t do enough good works to get to heaven; the way to heaven is to believe.  5 hours about “faith?”

Ah, “faith” is a slippery word that can be deceiving.  In Matthew 9:22 Jesus tells a woman, “Your faith has healed you.”  In that passage “faith” means what goes on in heart and mind, what goes on within us.  But the Bible also teaches that there is something out of ourselves, something external that is the object of heart and mind.  Romans 10:14, for example, asks, “How can they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?”  In that passage Jesus is the external object of heart and mind. 

Americans believe a lot of things and will tell you, “I have faith.”  But what if the object is wrong?  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.”  (Matthew 7:21)   You can have “faith” but still not be saved.

April 13

Today I’m in Maryland, speaking to another conference about “faith.”  Yesterday’s Minute ended with this sentence, “You can have ‘faith’ but still not be saved.”  I hope that got you thinking.  The point was that just having a warm feeling in your heart doesn’t make for saving “faith.”  Your heart and mind have to be directed toward some external object that is true, that is correct, that actually can deliver you out of earthly troubles and finally to heaven.  The Bible teaches that object is God’s forgiveness and life in Jesus.  Knowing, agreeing, and trusting that correct object makes for saving faith.

Ah, but the word can still be slippery.  Many of us were raised with the idea that there is absolute truth.  It may be in science or religion or both, but somewhere, someplace, people assumed there was absolute truth.  Bible believers said, “Here is it, right here, the Bible, absolute truth!”  They could hold it, discuss it, feel like they owned it…and never have to trust it, desperately trust in heart and mind.  It was like an insurance policy.  Was that saving faith?  “Even the demons believe—and shudder.” (James 2:19)  Bible believers should be confident people, but a notable theologian of long ago, Martin Chemnitz, wrote, “The struggle with doubt must go on constantly.”  (Preus, “Justification,” 110)

April 14

Where’s Dale today?  Washington D.C., visiting family and friends.  Yesterday’s Minute closed with this quotation, “The struggle with doubt must go on constantly.”  Saving faith is not like an insurance policy, that you pull out when you’re in a jam.  As long as it’s paid up, you don’t have any doubts about insurance.  You own it!  So why must a believer struggle with doubt?

Because what you trust, the object of your mind and heart, are promises.  The Good News of the Bible is promises.  For example, are your sins forgiven by Jesus’ death on the cross?  Yes, the Bible says but don’t we still feel guilty about some things?  Forgiveness is a promise.  A second example: when your heart and mind depend on Jesus, will you go to heaven?  Yes.  “Whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.”  (John 11:25).  That’s a promise.  We take it as a fact but right now we still have it only as a promise.

Many of us grew up in a time when people believed there was absolute truth.  Today many people say, “You have your opinion; I have mine.  Who are you to say you’re right?”  Answer: We trust the promises are true.  “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”  (Hebrews 11:1)

April 15

Today I’m winging my way home.  God willing, I’ll be there by 6 pm.  Faith takes wing too, it flies heart and mind to the promises of God. 

We know that people break promises all the time but the Bible tells us, “If we are faithless, God will remain faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13)  We take God at His word.  “Your Word is truth.”  (John 17:17) 

That is why the Bible is filled with passages that tell believers to be confident about what we believe.  “In Him and through faith in Him (Jesus Christ) we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” (Ephesians 3:12)  “Christ is faithful…we are His house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.” (Hebrews 3:4)  “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.  You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.” (Hebrews 10:35-36) 

Faith takes flight to the promises of God.  “So nothing can impede me, O blessed Friend; So take my hand and lead me unto the end.”  (Lutheran Service Book 722, 3)

April 16

No minute

April 19

The billowing clouds, gray and dark, foreshadowed more terror to come.  Today is the 15^th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City but it wasn’t the first.  The World Trade Center had survived a bombing on February 26, 1993. On October 12, 2000 the U.S.S. Cole was attacked by a suicide bomber, black clouds billowing from the hole ripped in the ship.  And of course, 9-11, billowing clouds, dark and gray, forever in our minds.  God had said, “Let there be light,” but the world we live in is not bright as God made it.

Timothy McVeigh showed no remorse right up to his execution.  That is even darker, a person who lives with no standard of right and wrong.  “I have my opinion; you have yours.  Who are you to tell me that I’m wrong?”  Yes, McVeigh was extreme but today’s casual assumption that everything is relative leaves us inhaling noxious fumes, imperceptibly taking down our life together.

Jesus said, “You are like light for the whole world.”  (Matthew 5:14)  We cannot legislate morality but we can witness to the Light that has come into our lives.  “Thine the glory in the night, No more dying only light.”  Someday.  For now we labor in hope.  (Lutheran Service Book, 680, 5)

April 20

Airlines are resuming some flights today after having been shut-down by the volcano in Iceland.  Mr. Giovanni Bisignani complained European transport ministers didn’t consult until 5 days after the eruption.  “Does it make sense?” he asked.  (New York Times, April 20; A6)  In one way, yes.  Human nature is prone to take threats with a grain of salt.

In August of 79 A.D. tremors had shaken southern Italy for several days.  Mount Vesuvius had erupted 17 years earlier, so you might have expected the residents of Pompeii to hightail it out of town, but the grain of salt thing again.  Bodies found by archaeologists show that most did not take the warnings seriously.  “Eggs and fish were seen where there had not been time to eat them.  At an eating-house, 81 loaves remained, carbonized, in the oven, where they had been placed only a few seconds before the building was overwhelmed.”  (“Pompeii and Its Museums,” Newsweek, 11)

“Flee for your lives!  Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain,” an angel told Lot and his family.  Lot wasn’t immediately convinced but did leave Sodom and Gomorrah.  “But Lot’s wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt.”  (Genesis 19:17, 26)  “Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us.”  (Romans 15:4)

April 21

April 22

Psalm 105:16 – God “called down famine on the land and destroyed all their supplies of food.”  God sent the famine?  Did God send the recession?  Did God send your unemployment, your illness?  Amos 3:6 says, “When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?”  Our sins bring all sorts of problems upon us but the Bible also has a way of saying that God sends us troubling times.  “The Lord disciplines those He loves.”  (Proverbs 3:12)

God “called down famine on the land and destroyed all their supplies of food; and, (verse 17) He sent a man before them – Joseph, sold as a slave.”  Jacob had thought that Joseph had been killed but Joseph’s brothers knew they had sold him into slavery.  Who suspected God had brought Joseph into a high government position so he could feed and care for famine starved Jacob and family?  “God sent a man before them.”

God sent His Son before the troubles of your life and mine came upon us.  Now when those troubles do come, God has made provision to take care of you.  “In all things God works for the good of those who love Him.”  (Romans 8:28)  Like Jacob and family, we don’t know exactly what God’s is; we can only trust.  Call it faith.

April 23

Are you closer to God in nature than in church?

Yesterday Concordia Seminary observed Earth Day in both nature and church.  The daily chapel service stressed the magnificence of God’s creation.  From Psalm 148: “Praise the Lord!  Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all you shining stars!  Fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling His word!  Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars!  Beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds!”  

After the chapel service, students and professors spread out and planted 75 trees on the campus.  In the afternoon a van load of annual flowers arrived to be planted soon.  Already radishes, lettuce, and onions are growing in the Seminary flower beds, available for students, faculty and neighbors.  Martin Luther: “If you want to know how good a thing is, then take whatever you will and say, ‘If there were no fire…’ or ‘if there were no sun…’ and so on.  Then you will see why one should thank God.”  (“Reading the Psalms with Luther,” 351)

In both nature and church, God is present and to be worshipped.  In church we hear that the resurrection of Jesus Christ signals the re-creation of fallen nature.  Then into God’s nature we should go, to plant the hope of creation being restored to its perfect beginning.

April 26

Paging through the Sunday paper, I read “One Last Magical Evening” by Gail Sheehy.  Ms. Sheehy tells about her final days with her husband, Clay. 

The doctor asked, “‘Are you afraid of dying?’  Clay nodded yes.  ‘What is your biggest fear?’ ‘Being alone.’  We assured him that would not happen, that I’d be alerted and I’d be with him.  What else worried him?  ‘Dying in a hospital,’ Clay said, ‘Again, we said that wouldn’t happen.’  (The doctor) said, ‘The other thing I find that people worry about is the feeling that things are moving without any control.  Do you worry about this?’  Clay grunted in assent.”  (“Parade,” April 25; 7)   

Later in the day I came across some thoughts by Philipp Melanchthon, a theologian who died April 19, 1560.  Only days before his death, he wrote, “Reasons why you should not fear death.”  His reasons include: “You will be freed from sin.  You will be liberated from hardships, and from the raging of theologians.  You will come into the light.  You will see God.  You will gaze in amazement at the Son of God.”  (“Concordia Journal,” Winter, 2010; 17)

Nikolai Grundtvig wrote about God’s Word: “Through life it guides our way, in death it is our stay.”  (“Lutheran Service Book,” 582)

April 27

How old will you and your family be in 2020?  God willing, in 2020 I’ll be 73.  Our grandsons will be 14 and 12, nearing high school, then college, and then what?  It should be an optimistic time for young people but here’s something else about 2020.  USA Today reported that by 2020 the taxes the government “is projected to collect barely would cover the benefits it has promised and the interest it must pay.  Without changes, almost nothing will be left for defense, education, veterans or anything else.”  David Walker, former U.S. comptroller general, told college students, “Things are being done to you, not for you.”  (April 13; 6a)  Today a commission led by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson will begin to address the problem.

What God does for us, God does through material things.  The sun warming the earth, giving us springtime growth, the embrace of loved ones, the words of His Good News…God loves us through the physical things of life.  As God shows us His love through physical, material things, we ought to be wise stewards of God’s gifts in order to love one another.  Money is a material thing.  If we truly love the next generation, we’ll be wise stewards now so that the next generation is not buried in debt.

April 28

Yesterday was “Call Day” at Concordia Seminary.  107 concluding students were assigned to their first churches.  In addition 90 interns were assigned to congregations for a year of work under a supervising pastor.  They received their assignments in two joyous worship services, about 1200 worshippers in each, uncounted numbers watching on the internet, and hopes for the future running high.

Also yesterday, a survey from Life Way Research showed what kind of spiritual world our freshly-minted ministers enter.  Of 18 to 29 year-olds, “65% rarely or never pray with others.  38% never pray by themselves.  65% rarely or never attend church services. 67% don’t read the Bible or sacred texts.  Many are unsure Jesus is the only path to heaven.”  And the survey indicated that they are not likely to turn to church as they get older, the way previous generations did.

Colin Hansen, 29-years-old himself, says his generation believes in “moralistic therapeutic deism – God wants you to be happy and do good things.”  Then he adds, “I would not call that Christianity.” Thom Rainer, Life Way president, said, “The Millennial generation will see churches closing as quickly as GM dealerships.”  (USA Today)

But on campus the mood today is optimistic.  Christ is risen.  That makes all the difference in a challenging world.

April 29

April 30

April 1 2009

What’s the wisest way to face change?  Back in 1564 King Charles IX of France introduced a new calendar.  Up until then, the New Year had been celebrated from March 21^st until April 1^st but Charles’ new calendar made January 1^st the new New Year’s Day.  Some people didn’t adjust to the change and kept on celebrating April 1^st.  They came to be known as April Fools. 

In our era there is no human way to keep up with all the changes that come our way.  “Oh, I didn’t know that.”  “You should have!”  “Maybe, but I didn’t.  Now what am I going to do?” 

There are ways.  Even the most complicated life can have an inner direction that guides through change.  God gave the Ten Commandments to help us that way.  They tell us how the God who loves and redeems us want to live.  Another God-given way to evaluate change is by the parts of the Lord’s Prayer.  If you know the commandments and petitions, know what that old language really means, you have a ready guide for evaluating the changes that come your way.  Or you can be an April Fool, an everyday fool, an eternal fool.  “Change and decay in all around I see.  Oh, Thou who changest not abide with me.”

April 2

April 3

April 6

Failures…and follow-up.

Lots of failures the first Holy Week.  When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, St. John reports the disciples didn’t get it.  “His disciples did not understand these things at first.”  (John 12:16)  Failing to understand, that’s a daily part of my life, and probably yours as well.  Back then the disciples actually saw Jesus.  We don’t; He’s mysteriously present but unseen.  What’s going on Jesus?  We believe, but so much we don’t understand…unless we’re Pharisees.  They have all the answers.

Back to humble know-nothings:  Perhaps the most practical spiritual insight I’ve learned over the years is that we understand more about God when we look back and in hindsight see what He was doing.  We seldom understand what God is doing now.  So the follow-up to not understanding now is…wait.  God will make it clearer in due time.  “When Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about Him.”  Loosen the grip on your own interpretations; wait on the Lord.

“Almighty and everlasting God, You sent Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to take upon Himself our flesh and to suffer death upon he cross.  Mercifully grant that we may follow the example of His great humility and patience….”  (The Collect for Palm Sunday)

We understand precious little.  The little we understand is precious.

April 7

Failures…and follow-up.

“Jesus, would you do us a favor?” James and John asked just before Holy Week.  “And what might that be?”  “Let one of us sit at Your right and the other at Your left in your glory.”   In other words, “Oh, we love You, Lord!  Put us in Lazy-Boys, one on each side of Your throne.  We just want to bask in Your glory.”  Read about it in Mark 10.  Jesus tried to tell them: basic failure, boys.  That’s not what I’m about.

Who was the last smelly person you befriended?  When was the last time you passed on something so you could write a check to charity?  When was the last time you spoke up for someone getting crucified by gossip?  Getting out of your comfort zone is the follow-up to the lure of easy chair religion.  “Have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had, who being in very nature God….made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant” (Philippians 2:5-7).  “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.  For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”  (Mark 10:43-45)

April 8

Failures…and follow-up.

Not every failure is a sin but without God’s forgiveness every sin would be a damning failure.  Holy Week was full of sinful failures.  Judas is well known.  For whatever reason Judas betrayed Jesus and came to realize his sin of betraying God’s Son.  “I have sinned for I have betrayed innocent blood” (Matthew 27:4).  Guilt drove Judas to despair and he followed up by taking his life (Matthew 27:5).

Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was overt; Peter’s sin was more subtle.  Under the pressure of the moment, Peter swore that he did not know Jesus.  When Jesus happened to pass by and look at him, Peter “broke down and wept” (Mark 14:72).  Peter followed up his sin with repentance and trusted that God forgave him.

Yesterday in chapel at Concordia Seminary we had a service of confession and absolution.  From their pews, all assembled joined in speaking shared words of confession but then all came forward and one by one knelt before the altar and had these words spoken to them individually, “In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  That’s God’s follow-up to our sinful failures.

April 9

Failure…and follow-up.

Without doubt, the greatest failure of Holy Week was Jesus of Nazareth.  When I say “failure,” I’m thinking of the conventional wisdom of that day.  Many of His contemporaries saw Jesus as a rising star, not just religious but also political.  Combining populist religious fervor with anti-Roman nationalism, Jesus could have had a great earthly future but it went awry.  After a triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he made a terrible political miscalculation.  The old religious and political order trapped Him, were unforgiving, and by Friday night He was dead.  The world’s judgment: Jesus was a failure.

But Jesus knew all along how the drama would play out.  Earlier “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31-32).  He did rise, Easter.  He lives right now, this moment.  “God exalted Him…that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow...and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:9-11).  Jesus followed up the world’s judgment of failure with resurrection.  That’s our hope.  Ponder His death but don’t get stuck in Good Friday; celebrate Easter!

 P.S.  I’ll be back next Tuesday.  A blessed Easter to you and yours!

April 14

I love eating Easter eggs, like it best when the shell peels easily off the egg.  Sometimes life experiences turn out like that.  The rescue of Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates was no easy thing but the outcome couldn’t have been better.  The captain offered himself for his crew during Holy Week and was freed on Easter, making a minister think, “That’ll preach,” a little enactment of Christ offering Himself for us and being freed from death on Easter morning.  The drama “peeled” nicely. 

Other times the shell sticks; it peels only in little bits and when I’m done the poor egg has been pocked.  More of our trials are like that, not quickly resolved, piece work, and we think, “Oh, no! This is going to be tough.”  In those times the triumphal strains of Easter hymns become faint, the lilies fade, and dark, leaden clouds smother the joy that had been in our souls.  I wish it were different, but it’s been the tough times that taught me resurrection hope. 

“Suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5)  “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”  (Psalm 34:8)

April 15

I believe Senator Everett Dirksen said, “A billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”

When ancient Israel wanted a king, Samuel warned them.  “He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses….  He will take the best of your fields….   When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen.”  (1 Samuel 8)  Decades later King Solomon died and his son Rehoboam rejected advice to lighten the people’s burden.  “My little finger is thicker than my father’s waste.  My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier.”  (1 Kings 12:9-11).  Not wise.  Civil war followed and Israel was divided in two.

“Only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism.  The latest Rasmussen Reports’ national telephone survey found that 20% disagree and say socialism is better. 27% are not sure which is better.” (from the “Huffington Post”) 

The Bible does not command us what form of government to have, monarchy or democracy, and it does not tell us what form of economy is best, capitalism or socialism.  Remembering what Senator Dirksen said, we Christians should be reading about politics and business, and not just about religion.  Happy April 15^th!

April 16

Hi, Christian here!  Let me catch you up on my news.  I am now 3-years old.  I’m getting bigger and my problems are getting bigger.  Romantic problems are hard.  Charlotte is my sweetheart but Jackson likes Charlotte too.  The other day I caught Jackson kissing Charlotte.  “No, Jackson,” I said.  “Charlotte is my wife!” 

Hi, Opa here!  Christian, where did you get that?   Your mommy told me you said that, but where did you get that notion?  I know that you remember every word you hear, but where’d you get the idea Charlotte is your wife?

She is, Opa; Charlotte’s my wife!

Christian, last Saturday I performed a marriage ceremony.  It’s not just for a couple to take up like they’re married.  I couldn’t do that ceremony unless the couple gave me a marriage license.  “Marriage should be honored by all” (Hebrews 13:4).  The marriage license is one way that all of us in society show that we honor marriage.  Just saying someone is your wife or husband doesn’t make it so.

Opa, do you have a Bible passage I could use against Jackson?

April 17

The late E. Stanley Jones told the following story.  "A Christian preacher was preaching in the bazaars in India, and a Mohammedan said, "Padre Sahib, we have proof in our religion that you haven't got in yours.  We can go to Mecca and find the tomb of Mohammed, but when you go to Palestine you can't be sure that you've got the tomb of Jesus."  Yes, said the Christian preacher, "you're right.  We have no tomb in Christianity because we have no corpse."  (For All the Saints, III, 1049).

After Easter Jesus popped in and out of the lives of His disciples.  They're walking to Emmaus, He appears but then vanishes.  They're together in a room in Jerusalem, He appears but then vanishes.  That's the pattern until Ascension Day when Jesus vanishes for good...until, the angel promises, He will reappear on Judgment Day.  It's not that He's gone.  "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20).  It's just that He's not visible to us, no body to be seen.  Jesus popped in and out these 40 days after Easter to accustom His disciples to live by faith in His words...and not by seeing Him.

Even Jesus' enemies acknowledged that the tomb was empty (Matthew 28:11-15).  Do you agree?  If Jesus isn't in the tomb, is He present in your life?

April 20

Two terrible anniversaries…

Yesterday was the 14^th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people.  Dr. Paul Heath, a survivor who worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs, said, “The memory of the bombing is just as clear today as it was after the bombing.  The memories run just like a video in my head.”  (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, A10)

Today is the 10^th anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.  Seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire and killed 12 students, a teacher, and wounded 23 others before taking their own lives.  There were school shootings before Columbine, in Alaska, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee and Oregon, killing 16 students and teachers.  There have been school killings since, in Minnesota, California, Finland and Germany.

The evils happened at places we instinctively thought were safe, an office building in the heartland of America and schools, schools historically “in loco parentis,” places serving “in place of parents,” safe second “homes” for children.  Columbine survivor Kristi Mohrbacher, now 26-years-old, said, “I think my priorities might be a little different if I hadn’t had that experience.”  (A10) 

Our minds see the pictures and Christian priorities teach us to pray, “Deliver us from evil.”

April 21

April 22

April 23