Don't tell me why I'm angry.

Only in his own home is a prophet...misunderstood.

Most Resistance

Remember when I said that prayers could be political?  I said a prayer for peace could be said three ways?  Well it happened again today.  The prayers of the people today (not to mention the agenda of Synod last week) was so left leaning that I left Church angry and resentful.   It's actually doing me spiritual harm to go to Church now.  Last week as I sat there I thought, "I can't stay here."  The Church has swung so far to the left.   I'd have been comfortable in the day when the Anglican Church of Canada was the Conservative Party at prayer, but that's not right either.  Where do I fit?  God guide me.  I need direction, and I'm staying in the path of most resistance.  I feel like Jonah not going where God really wants me to be. Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

It Happens Elsewhere

"Since then, and probably prior to that, many evangelicals have felt that the spaces they have occupied in the Kirk are getting narrower and narrower. Freedom of opinion and liberty of conscience is being eroded and removed.  There is a strong and growing sense amongst them that the Kirk is moving theologically and ethically in its liberal direction, at such pace, that their own place within it is increasingly tenuous.  They are being pushed and marginalised to a place to which grace and Christian love ought never to have pushed them.

No minority can be rejected or oppressed forever.  The warning signs in the Kirk are there for any careful observer.  The steam is positively pouring out of the kettle.  Kirk evangelicals already feel unchurched.  In the Kirk's rush to be 'inclusive' it is the evangelicals who are being excluded.  They feel that the church in which they came to faith and in which they were matured in Christian discipleship has been hijacked.  There is common agreement amongst them that a denomination founded on the scriptures of the old and new testaments, summing up its Christian understanding in the superb Westminster Confession of Faith, has now been the subject a spectacular ecclesiastical coup d'etat."  Louis Kinsey

Limousine Liberal

Limousine Liberal: Those who can afford to give up the most telling those who work the hardest for what they have earned to give more of what they have to those who are the laziest.

Marriage

The one thing I got right in life was that I was faithful to my wife.   I was looking at the wedding vows in the BAS today, sacred vows:  to have and to hold, yes, although Eugene Levy's words from American Wedding come to mind; for better, for worse (we've been through both together); for richer,  for poorer (we've seen both); in sickness and in health (God has blessed us with good health): to love and cherish--love yes, absolutely (cherish,  it comes in moments it seems,  even still); for the rest of our lives according to God's law--we have made it this far (we have an arrangement,  if she decides to murder me, she has to let me know in advance and I will leave and she can have everything).  I have never been with another woman since we started dating.  I have never beat her or hit her (seems common sense, but you'd be surprised, even today).  I have never drank away our money or drank myself into a stooper.  I have never gambled away our money.  I have been a provider. We have had more than our fair share of arguments as we are both strong willed.   I doubt I would have fallen in love with a woman who was not my equal.  I look forward to the next forty years; I can't imagine living my life without her in it. Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

Readings

As I rest in a seeming perpetual valley in my faith, and struggle with sin, the scriptures sometimes speak to me.  A few days ago, as I was moved to pray the daily office--something I have fallen out of the habit of doing, sadly--I read over two readings that really spoke to me.  They were part one of Psalm 107 (NRSV I believe) and Romans 12:1-13 (Good News Version).  They spoke to me about dedication to God, about sin, about redemption, about wandering in sin and being guided by God, about Jesus prophesy, about not being part of the world but letting God transform us, about each of us having different gifts, about prayer and endurance, and about love and giving.  It really spoke to me about renewal and the two passages seemed tied together with this common theme.

Left Destroys

Somebody commented days ago on Facebook that they were shocked that, while the right seeks to defeat the left in politics, the left seeks to destroy the right.  Why?  It's been that way since the beginning.  That's how it was in The French Revolution, when the left destroyed the property of the Church, aristocracy, establishment, private property, and murdered leaders, administrators, and clergy.  It was that way in The Communist Revolution in 1917 when the left banned religion, killed the royal family of Russia, and confiscated all property from the people of Russia.  Even in Germany, the National Socialists party took power and outlawed all other political parties.  So, why should the left change now.

My Prayer for Synod

ALMIGHTY GOD and FATHER, grant that your presence guide the thoughts and actions of those who speak and vote at synod.  Help those who believe strongly in good stewardship of the Earth understand the difficulty this causes for those in the Church who believe that politics have no place in the Church.  And, help your priests and pastors minister to all, not just the left thinking.  Help nobody to be left out.  Foremost, thy will be done FATHER.  I ask this in the name of Your Son, my Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Evil Army

I was sitting in Church a few weeks ago and a thought came to me.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Why do priests molest children?  Because, God isn't the only one who is recruiting servants.