Faith & God

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Extreme

Are you an extremist?

According to a U.S. Army Reserve presentation (now discarded) by the Department of Defense, if you are an evangelical Protestant or a Catholic, you belong to an extremist group. You’ve been lumped in with, al Qaeda, Hamas, and the KKK. You can read one news story here.

As would be expected, the presentation caused a huge ruckus.  After all, more than half of Americans consider themselves to be either Catholic or Protestant Evangelical. The Department was quick to backpedal, assign blame and make excuses.

At first, I too was upset. No one likes to be branded an extremist. Few people want to be likened to the KKK. But then I started thinking.

Maybe they’re right.

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The Waiting Room

Lately, it seems I’ve been spending all my time waiting. My dad and I waited over an hour for a walk-in lab test. Pete and I waited an entire afternoon for some thunderstorms to pass through the area so we could play outside on our date day. And it seems as though our family has been waiting forever for our new granddaughter to be born! (She’s due soon, very, very soon!)

Even though I’ve been frantically busy, rushing from appointment to appointment and task to task, it’s the waiting that gets my attention. (Maybe because I’ve been so busy, and I don’t think I have time to wait?)

God doesn’t seem to mind waiting at all. In fact, He seems to make a point of forcing us to wait for things. Instead of getting on the ball and accomplishing something, he instructs us to develop patience.

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The Holy Bible

biblclimWe should study our Bibles, right? Of course we should. It’s a given, obvious, no question about it. I’ve written lots of posts about my struggle with consistent Bible study, and the habits I’ve formed that help me follow through on my good intentions. Just recently I compared the Bible to love letters my husband wrote me when we were dating.

One morning I was doing just that—reading my Bible, underlining verses that particularly caught my attention, scribbling notes in the margins—when I noticed something I’d never seen before. (It amazes me how God can point out new things in words I’ve read over and over for the last 40 years!)

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Losing a Pillar

I’m attending a memorial service this afternoon for a person I didn’t know. And it’s not the first time. I’ve been to a number of services for people I either never met, or was barely acquainted with. Let’s just say it’s a bit awkward.

(The first such service I sat through, years ago, happened to fall on my birthday. Our plans for a special outing were interrupted by the demise of an acquaintance of Pete’s, who dropped dead while shoveling snow off his sidewalk. We endured over four hours of sobbing people repeating stories for which we had no context. I sobbed too—first because it was such a rotten way to spend a birthday, and second because I felt guilty about feeling that selfish.)

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The Church is a Wimp

At least, the American church is a wimp. Happily there are exceptions, but for the most part, I see American Christians going to church, doing “good deeds,” perhaps tithing (although most give far less), even praying. But something is lacking. In most areas of life, we don’t stand out from the crowd. And we’re supposed to.

I think the problem lies in what a friend of ours (thanks, Dave) summed up as the focus of most Evangelical churches—they worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Bible.

I’m reading Romans now, and in the very first chapter Paul writes, “who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power….” A footnote explains that this verse could also be translated “who was declared with power to be the Son of God.” (Romans 1:4) Either way, it boils down to the same point—Jesus and power go together.

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Now Appearing: Jesus

There’s nothing like snuggling up with a cup of tea and a good book, especially with a huge thunderstorm pounding on the roof. It’s even better when you haven’t had a chance to sit down in days, if not weeks.

With my dad all moved into his new quarters, and a huge pile of leftover furnishings and other debris filling our garage, jammed into the family room, and clogging hallways, I finally chose to take a day off. I needed it.

So Monday I sat down with a steaming mug of Irish Breakfast Tea (my favorite) and started reading Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World?, by Tom Doyle. When noon arrived I took a short break to make a sandwich, propped the book up on the table, and read several more chapters. Pete arrived home. We reheated leftovers and I headed to bed, dinner in one hand, book in the other. I finally turned out the light around eleven—late for someone who normally gets up around five. And yes, I finished the book.

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Love Letters

Pete's lettersI’m pretty consistent about reading my Bible. Not perfect, mind you. Sometimes life gets in the way, sometimes I get distracted. For the most part, though, I try to read at least a chapter (or more, if they’re short or in Numbers) every morning. I always imagine it as God and I sitting down over a cup of tea, having our own little tête-à-tête.

Recently I’ve been rereading the gospels, first Matthew, then John. Pen and straight edge in hand (I’m a bit compulsive about neat annotations), I was underlining verses that particularly spoke to me, inscribing comments in the margin to remind myself later of what I was learning.

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Downsizing Dad

This week we’re moving my dad into assisted living. He’s been in an “independent living” apartment at the same complex for the past 7 years, but that just isn’t working anymore. I had been fretting this decision for months. What would he think? Would he go willingly? Or would he see this as the beginning of the end, and resist change?

We had a nurse from the facility come and do an “activities of daily living” assessment, and she agreed that my dad’s lack of short-term memory was severe enough to warrant this move. So, with much prayer, Pete gently broached the topic a few weeks ago, over our weekly Sunday lunch out. Why Pete, and not me? Well, Pete is much more tactful.

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Ten Weeks to Go

It’s already August. Our trip to Swaziland leaves in less than ten weeks. What are we doing to prepare? A lot!

Financial Support
The most common question I get relates to money—how is my support-raising coming? I’m happy to brag on God. We were supposed to have $3,000 of the total $3,500 in our account by the end of July. Some goes to pay for the plane tickets. Some was to send to Children’s Hope Chest (CHC) so they could prepare for our arrival. For example, we will be delivering care packages to the children’s caretakers when we visit them in their homes. Since we have no real concept of what items are most needed and suitable, CHC will do the shopping for us, with funds we send now.

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Gullible

Are Evangelicals more gullible than other people? A friend recently shared a blog article claiming that, among the blogger’s Facebook friends, it’s the Christians (and just this particular kind of Christian) who most frequently re-post “news” that turns out to be a hoax. Share this post and some company will donate to a kid’s heart transplant fund. Warn your friends that their hot dogs are about to explode. Don’t drink coffee/milk/water/juice/soda because it will ruin your health and cause you to be dead!

The blogger then went on to suggest four excellent reasons why Christians should not re-post this tripe, and an easy way to find out if something is true or not (just Google the first sentence). I recommend his article highly.

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