"Direction................"

With the last few decades of history behind us and all that’s going on in the Middle East, it doesn’t surprise me when someone asserts that Muslims and Christians do not worship the same god. Such statement, however, does seems short of “truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”. Hasn’t our faith, as well as the other, known our own share of extremists? Indeed, worshipping “in spirit and in truth” has resulted in multiple doctrinal dogmas, individual perspectives that separate us in so far as what we believe He requires of believers. So wouldn’t it be more correct to note that man, in his carnality, has often taken religion down a bent road? In talking with a friend at early church, Sunday, about existentialism, I listened as he noted it having been adopted and adapted by atheists, agnostics, and philosophers in general, dismissing its core tenets which simply state that everyone is responsible for their own choices, their own destiny. With time limited, our discussion was not lengthy. It could well be that his objection was born out of where people took it from that simple birthing, rejecting along the way all rules, laws, and Biblical thou-shalt-nots. For me, though, the problem lies on either side of that fence. Humanity doesn’t die just because you give it a Book to read. Our pastor’s morning sermon was built around the prophet Isaiah’s admonishment to “wait upon” the Lord, enlightening us to the Hebrew roots of that verb translating to a “twisting together” as a body in facing this present world. His evening message, with public school beginning another cycle this week, pointed to baby Moses being placed in a “sealed” basket. So ought we, as parents and grandparents, to protect our children, covering them with continual prayer. It’s all we’ve really got, isn’t it? Somehow, while yet sorting out, with Him, our own mess, we’ve got to teach them, not just chapter and verse, but the reality of His Spirit, in us, around us, over us, in our personal stumble down the road. I want His hook in their belly, more so than my demands in their head….