Sitting on our deck, my head resting on the back of my chair, I looked at the blue sky above the trees. The blue sky, some kind of orange flowering vine on a tree and a hawk circling, God was being praised. When my brother left home, I inherited his bedroom. It was before the days of central air conditioning. Spring through early fall, I slept with windows opened. There is still a large American Basswood tree outside those windows and other trees in my parents’ yard. My alarm clock every morning was the birds singing and the doves, whose nest was outside one window, cooing. In recent years, a mockingbird has danced and sung on the telephone pole visible from my office window. When I hear birds sing, I hear songs of praise to God. I have always been awed by creation. Standing on one of the ridges of Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania and watching the hawks, eagles, and yes, even buzzards, floating on the updrafts, I am amazed not only of the birds in flight and the view of the mountain and of the valley below, I am in awe of their Creator. The smell and feel of the dirt freshly plowed when we gardened on the farm in Delaware refreshed my soul. To walk those fields with Boomer, our dog, praying in the quiet, watching the geese fly over, on occasion seeing a deer, yes, was to experience God. God’s creation is God’s cathedral as our son

“Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:22-24 NKJV). It is difficult to fully appreciate the Christians of the first century. I assume for most of us, we see their world with eyes informed by our world. Life for us is about freedom of choice, to come or go, to pursue or sit still, to live here or there, to be involved in this program or that at church or to be involved in none at all. Are we able to comprehend what it was like to be a slave and a Christian in the Roman world? Christians today are often judged to be faithful to God in Christ in very similar ways to being judged successful in business, sports or economically. Busyness in various church programs, not only loyal attendance but being out front in some form of service in worship or Bible class, and known conversions as the result of a Christian’s efforts are all good things. I appreciate, applaud and encourage all who can be so described. Yet, there is something about Paul’s words to the Christian slaves of Colossae that informs me about what it is to be a faithful Christian. A slave’s life was

“But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him” (Acts 2:24). Jesus was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by God’s power (2 Corinthians 13:4). God stunned evil. He caught it off guard. God scorned evil’s arrogance. In the midst of evil’s thickest darkness, God dispelled the darkness with the light and the power of the resurrection of Christ. This is our hope, its foundation. God is the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were (Romans 4:17). This is our hope in the midst of the darkness of the evil that seeks to destroy our faith, our hope, our love and our lives. This is our hope when in the darkness we find ourselves battling anxiety, hopelessness and despair. As we look at Jesus, we have hope. In Jesus, we see the goodness of God that surpasses all the evil in this world. In His resurrection, God’s goodness is seen in all its power. Jesus Christ was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by God’s power (2 Corinthians 13:4). As we travel through the darkness, in God, through Jesus Christ, we travel with hope. It is a living hope, sustaining us by our faith that God gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. A living hope confident… [Editor’s Note: If it were not for hope underwritten

“For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthians 12:13). Do we ever lose sight of what the church is? Of its bond and intimacy? Of the importance of our relationship with one another as the body of Christ to our relationship with God? The relationship of God’s people to God is tied to the church. That is, our relationship with God involves our relationship with one another. Of Christ’s purpose in his death on the cross the apostle Paul wrote, “His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through his cross, by which he put to death their hostility” (Ephesians 2:15b-16). There is one body in which we are brought to peace with one another and in which we are reconciled to God, not simply individually but together. By the one Spirit of God, of Christ, we were baptized into one body, and together given the one Spirit to drink from the same well. Paul also used the image of the temple of God where God dwells by His Spirit. “And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). We are together the house in which God lives by His Spirit through Jesus Christ.

So read the headline in the DeSoto Appeal Wednesday. The Freedom From Religion Foundation complained about prayers over the public address system at sporting events and other school functions such as graduations. The district responded immediately. No more prayers sanctioned by the schools. Actually this has been the policy since July, 2008. It just was not followed. There is no legal battle to be fought. The Supreme Court apparently settled the question in the past. If the interpretation of the law is correct, the public schools have their hands tied. Emotions rise quickly with such news. The issue is more complex than we want to admit. To see clearly through the frustration, anger, and other emotions on either side is not easy. First, the increasing absence of God in the public square is an obvious symptom of the secularization or our society. Government is a tool being used but it is not the cause. The cause is not one. There are many – material prosperity, moral decline, weak biblical teaching, a growing lack of faith in the God of Scripture, a world view that is human centered and not God centered. As a people, a nation, we are not the people of faith we once were. The government reflects what is happening in our society. We Christians find ourselves in a situation new and strange to us. Second, Christianity, the church, does not depend on the government for its strength and its survival. The church of the apostles and Jesus Himself were

One of the results of the concern over the emission of greenhouse gases and the impact on the environment is a measurement of carbon dioxide (CO2) called the carbon footprint. This is the measurement of the amount of carbon dioxide released into the environment by the daily activities of individuals, institutions, and businesses. Nature.org provides a carbon footprint calculator for you to measure your footprint and that of your household. The following introduction is given at the website. Inevitably, in going about our daily lives – commuting, sheltering our families, eating – each of us contributes to the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change. Yet, there are many things each of us, as individuals, can do to reduce our carbon emissions. The choices we make in our homes, our travel, the food we eat and what we buy and throw away all influence our carbon footprint and can help ensure a stable climate for future generations. Humankind has always had an impact, both constructive and destructive, on the creation that God has entrusted to us. My purpose in this little article is not to discuss the issue of global warming. Rather, when recently reflecting on the kingdom of God, I thought, here is an illustration of what I will call the kingdom footprint. The kingdom footprint, as I define it, is the amount of the likeness of God, in righteousness, in holiness, in peace and in love that we have released into the environment around us as we go

My knowledge of God in Christ especially has its origin and shape in Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected. The following quote from Stott summarizes the core of my understanding of God. “In giving his son he was giving himself. This being so, it is the Judge himself who in holy love assumed the role of the innocent victim, for in and through the person of his Son he himself bore the penalty which he himself inflicted” (159). The apostle Paul makes this point. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:2). As I consider Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected, I learn important truths concerning myself through Christ. Herein, I share with you what I know about myself through Jesus Christ. First, I know I am like the rest of humankind. Of humankind the apostle Paul concludes, “All, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God… There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:9b-11, 18).The way in which God dealt with this reality, Jesus Christ, tells me there is more to it than humankind breaking rules, though that is involved. Sin and rebellion, faith and salvation, are all about relationship with God. We see Jesus crucified and realize how seriously sin disrupts relationship with God. Sin disrupts our relationship with God as Creator,

“Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world” (Archimedes). Ludmilla Pavlova, an adjunct professor at UMass Amherst, wrote on her blog: “Archimedes’ famous quotation has always been a symbol for me of the power individuals have to change not only their own destiny, but also to affect social and organizational change. The two prerequisites are: a place to stand, and a lever long enough.”1 There have been times in my life I have asked myself, “Where is my place to stand? What is my lever and fulcrum with which to build my life, my faith, to change what needs to be changed in me, to empower me to live with a faith and a moral integrity that are genuine and true?” A simpler way to phrase the question is, “Why do I believe in God and seek to obey Him in my life?” Yet, asked another way, “What is my core belief, the place I stand?” Since July of 2007, I have asked this question with more seriousness and questioning than any other time in my life. The questioning began when our two-month-old grandson, Sully, was diagnosed with A.L.L. leukemia that July. Since Sully’s death on August 2, 2008, the questioning has continued with earnest. If I ever did, no longer do I take for granted the existence of God. No longer do I take for granted the truth of Scripture, the place of the church, the importance of moral integrity, or

From our perspective it seems so strange. They were with Jesus. Heard His teaching. Witnessed His miracles. Were prepared by Him for what was coming. Experienced His authority. How could the disciples not understand? How could they notexpect Jesus’ resurrection? Why did they doubt, not believe and lose hope? Jesus began to tell the disciples He must die and be raised from the dead. “And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you’” (Matthew 16:22). Jesus died on the cross. His dead, lifeless, body was laid in the tomb, partially prepared for burial. “When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him” (Mark 16:1). They came to finish the preparation of the body of Jesus. There was no expectation of His resurrection. Jesus told them! Yes, but none of the disciples understood. That is not the way it was supposed to be. Those Jews who believed in resurrection believed in a final resurrection of all God’s people. There was no expectation of God’s Messiah, of one person, being raised first. When Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found the body of Jesus gone, she did not rejoice. “So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know