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Just Thinkin'

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Just Thinkin'

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Hindisght Isn’t Always 20/20

16 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by Patrick A Cooper in Bible Study, Blog, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Devotional, Encouragement, Faith, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Preaching, Religion, Spirituality, Student MInistry, Theology

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car-mirror

“For now we see in a mirror dimly. . .”  

—1 Corinthians 13:12

 

Sometimes looking back makes things clearer, but not always. Having gone through times of difficulty and struggle. It is helpful to (in review) see that big and obvious moment of breakthrough when Jesus stepped into your storm to say, “Peace, be still.” It makes the next difficulty not look so much like the tightrope stretched over Niagara Falls we thought the previous issue was and gives us the confidence to move forward in faith.

But there are times when in hindsight we reflect to see that defining moment when the curtain rolls back, and God comes on stage to part the seas of our perilous moment, but it isn’t quite so dramatic. There comes a calm, but we don’t see how he makes it happen, we don’t see him. Be assured of this, however, see or not see, God is there else you wouldn’t be here.

In business, a rate of growth that is too fast is dangerous often leading to loss and failure. A slower intentionally paced growth rate will allow a new company to adapt to changes in the economy and other unseen events and is much more likely to experience success and prosperity. The same can be true of believers in the spiritual sense.

God understands our eagerness to know but sometimes sees it best to pull in the reins revealing a little at a time rather than everything at once. Better it is to go wobbling across the floor of life in baby steps glancing back to know only that Jesus is there. It is enough.

Sandcastles and Marriages (A Devotional thought for Men)

06 Monday Aug 2018

Posted by Patrick A Cooper in Bible, Bible Study, Blog, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Devotional, Encouragement, Faith, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Religion, Spirituality

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Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
— Ephesians 5:25

My younger brother was at the Revere Beach Sandcastle Building Festival and Competition in Boston a few months back, admiring the incredible craftsmanship of the artisans whose work was on public display. The pictures he took were stunning. Mind-boggling, actually.

One work was of a fairy-tale like castle, reminiscent of Disney’s Magic Kingdom, complete with well-known storybook characters like Sleeping Beauty, Humpty Dumpty and the Cat in the Hat. Nothing at all ambiguous about the sculptor’s work either. The details were given such meticulous attention, every component of the sculpture was vividly clear and easily identifiable. You didn’t have to look twice to recognize that an oval figure seated atop the castle wall was Humpty Dumpty.

A successful marriage requires attention to details as much as prize-winning sandcastles do. I pray the love I have for my wife to be so clear that no one would have to take a second look to recognize it. However, that will happen only as I model the same honest, self-sacrificing love Christ has for his bride, the Church. Not just a “till death do we part” kind of love. But a love that is willing to part with one’s own life for the sake of his wife, as did Christ for the Church.

That is the standard Jesus set that marriage might always be rock solid, rather than on the rocks.

To be a husband is a responsibility.

Just Thinkin’ Theology

05 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by Patrick A Cooper in Bible Study, Blog, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Encouragement, Faith, Homiletics, Inspiration, Religion, Spirituality, Theology

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With love, I confess. The enterprise of theology is perhaps the most frustrating of pursuits. Like a dog chasing its tail, answers sought are often elusive as the wind. But I continue in the chase.
 
“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” ~ Romans 11:34 ~
 
Layer upon layer, the deeper the probe, the deeper the stratum-like depths are found to be. Layer upon layer of riches uncountable lie just beyond the turn of each sacred page, just beyond the grasp of the mortal mind. But I continue peeling back layers, one layer at a time. I must. I cannot stop.
 
“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”
~ Psalm 139:6 ~
 
No, the finite will not fully grasp the infinite. I accept and understand “his judgments are unsearchable, his ways inscrutable.” None-the-less, should I endeavor to be the faithful servant who diligently seeks to know and understand “the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” – to do theology. Perhaps I should then become as “a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season.” This is my desire, my continued prayer.
 
To that end I press on. To keep planting, keep watering the soil of my soul with the fertile truth of God’s word that he might bring forth an increase in me. Then to pass it on to another.
 
See also Romans 11:33; Psalm 1:3, and 1 Corinthians 3:11.

Just Thinkin’

26 Thursday Jul 2018

Posted by Patrick A Cooper in Bible, Bible Study, Blog, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Devotional, Encouragement, Faith, Homiletics, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Preaching, Religion, Spirituality, Student MInistry, Theology, Youth

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Thursday, July 26, 2018

Early this morning reading excerpts from the book of Romans through just then opening eyes. My mind got stuck on the depth of meaning there is to be found in 3:10-12. Not reading any further, I just stopped and started typing. Although by no means exhaustive or an attempted exposition of the text my thoughts were these:

As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” — Rom. 3:10–12 ESV

Wow! Such a potent statement, I thought. A real eye-opener.

Not only can none be found righteous, or good. Not only is there no one who understands, there is not a single soul who truly looks to find God. Why? We don’t want to. Why don’t we want to? Because we can’t.

Until we are awakened by the Holy Spirit to our need for God (an act of regeneration) we can see no need for him – our desire is to satisfy self only. We are spiritually dead creatures without an understanding of things spiritual or the capacity to understand them.

Slaves to what appeals to the senses, the cravings of our fleshly nature; we cannot break free from our earthly shackles and reach up to God “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so” (Romans 8:7 NASB). He must first reach down to us. Thus, we find John to say, “We love him because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19 KJV).

Backing up to verse 10 John explains,

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” —1 John 4:10 ESV

Man’s ability to love and have fellowship with God is God’s gracious gift to man made possible by the atoning sacrifice of his son on the cross. In Jesus’ offering of himself as the substitute for our sin, he absorbed fully the prescribed penalty for sin thereby satisfying God’s justice and “canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. . .” (Colossians 2:14 ESV). In so doing God imputed (ascribed in a real and literal sense) our sin to Jesus and his righteousness to us. In other words, He took my death and gave me his life.

I cannot help but sing. I must sing:

“How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be:               How marvelous! How wonderful! Is my Savior’s love for me!”

Have A Blessed Day Everyone,

Pat

The Haunting

22 Friday Jun 2018

Posted by Patrick A Cooper in Bible, Bible Study, Blog, Christianity, Church, Devotional, Encouragement, Faith, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Opinion, Preaching, Religion, Spirituality, Student MInistry, Theology

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The other day I gave my answer to a question asked in our church Community Group Discussion Guide which read: “How does knowing you are adopted by God change your view of yourself and of God? How does this give a new answer to your identity?”

My honest response was:

“Knowing God has chosen and adopted me as his son brings me to my knees in highest praise. Unfortunately, the overwhelming sense of guilt and shame past sin often reminds me of competes for my ability to see myself as the forgiven, regenerate, and redeemed child of God he tells me I am, and walk confidently of my ability to each day be everything he says I am.”

Dear Christian friend, I wonder, might our lives sometimes run along a parallel path? Knowing what God says to be true but haunted by yesteryear’s sin, perhaps yesterdays? Instead of seeing the person God declares you are in Christ today, the image you see in the mirror is definitely not the Imago Dei (image of God) and the story being told by that person staring back at you is very different. One of a shameful, sinfully dark past that any fair and reasonable self-examination will find a despairing case of hopelessness. A story that from your vantage point trumps the new story God wants to write into your life; the story he has in fact already written.

The bible I read in Numbers 23:19 tells me “God is not man, that he should lie,” and in Hebrews 6:18 I found it to say that “it is impossible for God to lie.” That being true, and it is, the questions I then should ask become who I will believe him or me? Whose word is most reliable, his or mine? That’s a no-brainer, right? It should be, yes. But in spite of my best effort to go all-in with God’s divine assessment of who I am in Christ, there are still times I find myself wrestling with that vile man sneering at me in the mirror each morning. His rap sheet is just too long to be considered for a heavenly pardon, I sometimes think. How then can it be? I lack understanding. It’s too deep.

Then this morning while reading Calvin’s Institutes I ran across these waking words of encouragement*:

“We have come into the way of faith,” says Augustine: “let us constantly adhere to it. It leads to the chambers of the king, in which are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. For our Lord Jesus Christ did not speak invidiously to his great and most select disciples when he said, ‘I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now,’ (John 16:12). We must walk, advance, increase, that our hearts may be able to comprehend those things which they cannot now comprehend. But if the last day shall find us making progress, we shall there learn what here we could not,” (August. Hom. in Joann).”

I like that. I’m good with that.


*Calvin, John. The Institutes of the Christian Religion – Enhanced Version (p. 130). Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Kindle Edition.

Spiritual Warfare – Page Four

24 Wednesday Aug 2016

Posted by Patrick A Cooper in Bible, Bible Study, Blog, Christian Living, Christianity, Faith, Inspiration, Life, Opinion, Religion, Spirituality, Theology

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Slide1

 

Second Base: Run, Forest, Run

Good, you’ve tagged first base and you’re now at second. You’re half way home, yes, but don’t get cocky, remember Sceva’s clan. No matter how far you have advanced, no matter how fast you can run or how good at the game you think yourself to be, there is still as much distance ahead as there is behind and don’t think the guy in the outfield can’t throw the ball hard and fast. If in doubt, just ask the Oakland A’s Danny Valencia who felt the stinging results of New York Yankee’s, Aaron Hick’s 105.5 mph throw from beyond the base line getting him tagged out at home plate.

Spiritual warfare is an ongoing, continuous, and relentless war with breaks in the action far and few in between. What you do at second base is simple, tag and go, “run, Forest, run”. Yours may not be an up and over the wall slammer, it may be an Inside the Park homer (IPH). Although these home runs are somewhat rare (about 1 in every 158), it still puts a run on the scoreboard.

A caution concerning IPH’s I would want you to know about when on the spiritual battlefield, however, is this; most come on the heels of an error in the outfield. Why is it important to know that? The devil doesn’t commit many errors.

Understanding that, authors such as Christian apologist, and University of Houston Professor, William Lane Craig, speaks to the subject of spiritual warfare in two of his later books, “Reasonable Faith” and “On Guard”. In both offerings, Craig places usable tools in the believer’s hands to prepare and equip his readers to force the devil into committing those errors and get you around the bases. Using the tools he writes about in his books, he has successfully debated such renown atheists as Sam Harris and was turned down by Richard Dawkins who received four British invitations to engage Craig, conveniently declining each one. Following a 2009 debate with Harris and Dawkins fellow “Horseman of the New Atheism”, Christopher Hitchens (now deceased), the website, Common Sense Atheism commented: “Craig was flawless and unstoppable. Hitchens was rambling and incoherent. Frankly, Craig spanked Hitchens like a foolish child.” Check out Dr. Craig’s website at http://www.reasonablefaith.org/.

As followers of Jesus, we are all aware of the Great Commission to take the gospel to the far reaches of the earth making disciple as we go (Matthew 28:19-20). But we are not nearly as tuned into the instruction made equally clear to “contend for the faith” (Jude 3), “always be[ing] prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. . .” (1 Peter 3:15 NIV).

A problem we discover a little late is how underequipped and inappropriately prepared we are to counteract the enemy’s advances, much less to engage him. As I see it, the blame lies squarely in the hands of church leaders who fail to integrate apologetics in their discipleship programs training converts on how to “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12). As I have said repeatedly, we are in a war. I use the game of baseball and Babe Ruth in allegorical fashion to make things a bit more readable, but in no way am I attempting to make light of such a serious matter – too many souls are at risk.

In his classic work, “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction” (a book I highly recommend having a place on every Christian’s bookshelf), the author, Eugene Peterson, identifies the dilemma our modern church culture is being crippled by writing:

“There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness.”

Peterson’s point is clear and timely. Living in an on demand – microwave world, people want a quick fix to every issue. No one stands in line at the ticket booth anymore and why should we? It is easier, faster and much more convenient to purchase an admission voucher online, walk right into the theater, sit down and enjoy the show. Unfortunately, this approach has invaded the church. Come Sunday morning, you get an hour of my time then I better hear the choir singing, Just As I Am. Tragic but true, we just want God to see us in the pews (chairs) once a week, watch us drop our tip in the offering bucket then go home, roast a Ball Park frank and turn on the game.

If that shoe fits on your foot you can forget making it beyond second, honestly, you were out before you ever swung the bat. If you are willing to go the distance, however, as Paul told Timothy, to “do your best (“Study” in the KJV) to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15); to keep such Shakespearean  words (so thought today) as perseverance, persistence, tenacity and determination in your spiritual vocabulary then hey there friend, you are half way home and on your way to third – Run, Forest, Run”.

Page Five Coming Soon

Spiritual Warfare – Page One

06 Saturday Aug 2016

Posted by Patrick A Cooper in Bible, Bible Study, Blog, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Faith, Inspiration, Life, Opinion, Religion, Spirituality, Theology

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Writing on this subject, my friend, Trinity Family Church Pastor, Marty Reid, got the marbles in my head moving around a bit prompting me to throw in my two cents (maybe fifty cents or a dollar by the time I finish) on the matter.

Spiritual warfare is a topic grossly misunderstood, taught wrong and tragically misapplied to the detriment of so very many followers of Jesus. Years ago a southern gospel music quartet, The Florida Boys, recorded a song titled, “I Came Here to Stay”. A line in the chorus reads, “It’s a battlefield brother, not a recreation room, it’s a fight and not a game”. This is true, Believers are indeed involved in a conflict with a very real enemy who is as determined to keep people out of heaven as God is to get them through the gate. He has light years of experience and has taken down some of the greatest warriors ever to set foot on the planet. So then, before you head off to engage him, you may want to do some homework, some serious study actually. It’s like this; I wouldn’t advise an unlearned, untrained fighter to step in the ring and go a few rounds with Mike Tyson, nor will I suggest a Christian spin the wheel and take your chances with the devil. An unprepared soldier is as good as dead.

One problem is we read such passages of scripture as 2 Corinthian 10:4-6 telling us, “the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh (“carnal” in the KJV) but have divine power to destroy strongholds…”, without taking note of the fact the apostle is not telling the Corinthian church what weapons they have in their arsenal, but the weapons Paul and his entourage have in theirs. Goodness gracious, he doesn’t even say what those weapons are yet we somehow get blindsided into thinking they are in our quiver and we’re good to go – big mistake.

Here’s another problem I see tripping people up. Why is it we tend to think because Paul did it, I can too? That’s like saying because Michael Phelps won 22 Olympic medals in the swimming pool, I can jump in the water and take home the gold myself. Sound ridiculous – it should because it is. But no sillier than thinking we can do whatever someone else in the bible done simply because they did it as if it were an entitlement. Such reasoning is preposterous and not at all biblical. Have you seen or heard of anyone parting the sea with a staff lately, turning water into wine, or making an ax head float on water? I don’t think so and with good reason; I’m not Moses, I’m not Jesus and I’m not Elisha.

The ability to do the supernatural things we read of others doing in scripture is not a divine strand of DNA written into a Christian’s genetic code the moment we come to faith in Christ giving us supernatural powers; we won’t be pulling spiritual rabbits out of the hat nor should we be so foolish as to step into the ring with the devil expecting a KO in the first round. More than likely, you’ll be the one down for the count.

Granted, God is no respecter of persons, he is completely impartial loving every man equally.  “Christ in you, the hope of glory” is the gift offered to all without prejudice. However, if we are going to step up to the plate to engage the enemy, I highly recommend a whole lot of time in the batting cage first – you’re not Barry Bonds.

Page Two coming soon.

Does God Send People To Hell?

05 Friday Aug 2016

Posted by Patrick A Cooper in Bible, Bible Study, Blog, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Faith, Life, Opinion, Religion, Spirituality, Theology

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I recently read an article suggesting God sends people to hell – I strongly disagree. Whereas separation from God is indeed taught in scripture as the finale of matters for the unregenerate (those who reject Jesus), and that being in a fiery place that is both inescapable and eternal. It is the natural conclusion of individual choice, the logical consequence of a behavior as when a child acts in rebellion against the parent to suffer an emotional or physical injury. The parent doesn’t inflict the pain; the child brings it upon himself.

As is true of God towards you and I in the spiritual sense, the parent who is loving and kind towards his children wants for his child to grow up healthy, to navigate life successfully avoiding the pitfalls and bad habits that will result in harm. Thus parameters and boundaries are set early on to establish a safe zone; guidelines are put into place to promote a healthy lifestyle: “Eat your veggies; Don’t smoke; Don’t talk to strangers; Never get into a car with someone you don’t know; Don’t play with matches”, and so on. None-the-less, as the little ones grow up, they are free to choose.

For example, in rebellious disregard of the guidelines, I chose to be a smoker at an early age. Eventually, I gave up cigarettes, but not before having a heart attack two months and three days after my 54th birthday. Today, I have both coronary artery disease and COPD. Are the health problems I experience my parent’s fault? Did they inflict my body with these diseases? Of course not. The issues I cope with are self-inflicted, the logical consequence of the choices I made; the natural conclusion to not act responsibly and stay within the boundaries mom and dad had set for me years earlier as a child.

For that matter, even if a person is raised in a home where right and wrong is neither practiced or taught; still, we are by nature aware of a moral code of conduct to which all are responsible – no one has to tell you it is wrong to kick the dog. The great apologist, C.S. Lewis, begins his classic work “Mere Christianity” by making this case in like fashion and it is the intent of the apostle Paul who when writing to the church in Rome states,

“Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right” ~ Romans 2:14-15 NLT.

That a moral code has been written in the heart of all is self-evident, and to it, all are intuitively responsible. It then follows naturally that if indeed an organic moral code exists to which our conscience demands we be held accountable; a logical consequence must flow out of it.

Deuteronomy 30:19 reads, “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life so that you and your descendants might live!” ~ NLT.

Not only does God here speak to Israel as having a choice, he makes us aware of and establishes the logical consequence to be expected in the choice made. To this verse, David Guzik writes, “Man today, even outside the Old Covenant, is confronted with the choice. But the choice focuses first not on “Will I obey God or not?” but on “Will I trust in Jesus for my standing before God?” Jesus said, He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters Luke 11:23). Jesus is still asking the question, who do you say that I am (Matthew 16:15), and our choice in answering that question determines our eternal destiny.”

Scripture makes plain God’s desire is that none perish, “As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” ~ Ezekiel 33:11 ESV (see also 1 Timothy 2:3-4, and 2 Peter 3:9). Equally clear in scripture is the reality of hell, and eternal punishment for the wicked, but it won’t be God who one day grabs you by the nape of the neck and tosses you into the pit, you will do that yourself – the natural conclusion and logical consequence of a choice to reject the free gift of salvation available to all through faith in Jesus Christ.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned alread, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” ~ John 3:16-18 ESV.

Still Thinkin’ About It (Round 2)

13 Wednesday Jul 2016

Posted by Patrick A Cooper in Blog, Christian Living, Christianity, Life, Opinion, Religion

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In an earlier post I cited Hebrews 12:1-2 as it served to remind me to keep pushing forward in spite of setbacks, and that we should do; but in no way will I allow myself to be fooled into thinking a quick trip to CVS or Walgreens for a social ills pill will quickly turn things around for the better. The problems plaguing the world didn’t happen overnight nor will they be gone tomorrow, and we will not find the road to recovery being a fast drive down a smoothly paved expressway. So long as evil exists, progress will be met with delay, the highway to peace will always be under construction and you can bet when things start to go smoothly, someone will pee in the pool.

I don’t want to be labeled a prophet of doom, but I am a biblical Realist, and what I find pressed between the pages of sacred writ are warnings of a world that will continue down an ever-darkening path; a people moving further and further away from God until one day the sky is set ablaze with the glorious light of Jesus’ return; Then and only then will all things be made right. Having said that I must also say this: As Believer’s, we don’t want to super glue ourselves to the bleachers doing nothing but shaking our heads in disbelief waiting for the rapture. We want to be, need to be, must be, out front leading the charge; at work and at play, putting on a Christlikeness exhibition for a wanting world to see there is a better way. “Most important”, 1 Peter 4:8 tells us, “continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins” (NLT).

Albert Schweitzer once said, “Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. You must give some time to your fellow man. For remember, you don’t live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too.” I agree – do you?

 

Still Thinkin’ About It

12 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by Patrick A Cooper in Blog, Christian Living, Devotional, Editorial, Life, Opinion, Religion

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Early this morning while doing a little net surfing I ran across this nugget of wisdom from the pen of author/speaker, Michael McMillan who said, “You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep Re-Reading the last one” – how true. As we absorb the aftershock of recent events and join the expedition for solutions, we must keep the vehicle’s transmission in the Drive position, not Reverse. Yes, there is much to learn from the past. In the aftermath of such tragedy, finding the pieces and putting the puzzle together may well help us better understand the psyche behind such acts of violence and its perpetrators, but the social ills (the root of the problem) that seem to have a stranglehold on our nation will not be solved by dwelling on them. We must come to terms with the fact of living in a broken world alongside 7.4 billion broken people.

Friend, our best efforts will not alter what has been; the past is on lockdown and cannot be changed. Yes, yes, yes, it is a good thing to learn from it, but it isn’t a good thing to box up your life and move in with it. To do so will have you stewing in a pot of dismay serving up more bowls full of uncertainty, fear, and unhealthy grief to others. I am not saying, “just get over it”, NO! My stomach churns still, and my heart feels as though it is being run through a paper shredder even as I sit here writing. Let us mourn our losses in heartfelt sincerity, it is right to do so, but please do not allow the pain to fester or embitter. Personally, I find and take comfort in God’s word every day, and the passage I turned to this morning was Hebrews 12:1-2 which reads:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith” (NLT).

Pray for peace at home and abroad.

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