Imagine Christmas

The right candidate

If the great paradox of Christianity means anything, it means this -- that we must take the crown in our hands, and go hunting in dry places and dark corners of the earth until we find the one man who feels himself unfit to wear it. Carlyle was quite wrong; we have not got to crown the exceptional man who knows he can rule. Rather we must crown the much more exceptional man who knows he can't.

--G.K.Chesterton, from Orthodoxy (ch.7, "The Eternal Revolution")

Christians, Muslims erect cross in Baghdad

Michael Yon emails: "I photographed men and women, both Christians and Muslims, placing a cross atop the St. John's Church in Baghdad. They had taken the cross from storage and a man washed it before carrying it up to the dome. A Muslim man had invited the American soldiers from 'Chosen' Company 2-12 Cavalry to the church, where I videotaped as Muslims and Christians worked and rejoiced at the reopening of St John's, an occasion all viewed as a sign of hope. The Iraqis asked me to convey a message of thanks to the American people. 'Thank you, thank you,' the people were saying. One man said, 'Thank you for peace.' Another man, a Muslim, said 'All the people, all the people in Iraq, Muslim and Christian, is brother.' The men and women were holding bells, and for the first time in memory freedom rang over the ravaged land between two rivers."

Trumpet Duet

Fr. Tony Pascaretta and former professional trumpeteer Gene Greene performed Amazing Grace at Sugar Land Oaks Guest Home Sunday morning, October 21, shortly after Fr. Tony presented a very nice homily to the residents about aging and grace.

Lifehouse's Everything Skit

A Reminder to Pray

Confederate Soldier's Prayer

Confederate Soldier's Prayer

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health, that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy.
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for but got everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am, among all people, most richly blessed.

(Author unknown - Found on the body of a Confederate soldier at the Devil's Den, Gettysburg)

Attitude

There once was a woman who woke up one morning,
looked in the mirror,
and noticed she had only three hairs on her head.

 

Well," she said, "I think I'll braid my hair today?"
So she did
and she had a wonderful day.

 

The next day she woke up,
looked in the mirror
and saw that she had only two hairs on her head.

 

"Hmmm," she said,
"I think I'll part my hair down the middle today?"
So she did
and she had a grand day.

 

 

The next day she woke up,
looked in the mirror and noticed that she h ad only one hair on her head.

 

"Well," she said,
"today I'm going to wear my hair in a pony tail."
So she did
and she had a fun, fun day.

 

 

The next day she woke up,
looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn't a single hair on her ! head.

 

"YEA!" she exclaimed,
"I don't have to fix my hair today!"

 

 

 

ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING!

 

 

 

--------------<+>--------------

 

 

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...

It's about learning to dance in the rain.

 

 

--------------<+>--------------

 

 

Be kinder than necessary,

for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

 

Live simply,

Love generously,

Care deeply,

Speak kindly.......

and

Leave the rest to God

 

 

 

Blue world

Now here comes in the whole collapse and huge blunder of our age. We have mixed up two different things, two opposite things. Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to suit the vision. Progress does mean...that we are always changing the vision. ... We are not altering the real to suit the ideal. We are altering the ideal: it is easier.

...Silly examples are always simpler; let us suppose a man wanted a particular kind of world; say, a blue world. He would have no cause to complain of the slightness or swiftness of his task; he might toil for a long time at the transformation; he could work away (in every sense) until all was blue. He could have heroic adventures; the putting of the last touches to a blue tiger. He could have fairy dreams; the dawn of a blue moon. But if he worked hard, that high-minded reformer would certainly (from his own point of view) leave the world better and bluer than he found it. If he altered a blade of grass to his favourite colour every day, he would get on slowly. But if he altered his favourite colour every day, he would not get on at all. If, after reading a fresh philosopher, he started to paint everything red or yellow, his work would be thrown away: there would be nothing to show except a few blue tigers walking about, specimens of his early bad manner. This is exactly the position of the average modern thinker.

We may say broadly that free thought is the best of all the safeguards against freedom. Managed in a modern style the emancipation of the slave's mind is the best way of preventing the emancipation of the slave. Teach him to worry about whether he wants to be free, and he will not free himself. ...As long as the vision of heaven is always changing, the vision of earth will be exactly the same. No ideal will remain long enough to be realized, or even partly realized. The modern young man will never change his environment; for he will always change his mind.

G. K. Chesterton, from Orthodoxy, 1908 (ch.7, The Eternal Revolution)

...they shall mount up with wings as eagles

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.   --Isaiah 40:30-31

Childish things

It is greatly to be lamented that, when God has granted them strength to break other and stouter cords — namely, affections for sins and vanities — they should fail to attain to such blessing because they have not shaken off some childish thing which God had bidden them conquer for love of Him, and which is nothing more than a thread or a hair.   —John of the Cross (from The Ascent of Mount Carmel)

Encouragers picture album

I think I finally have the Encouragers picture album updated...at least the ones that I've taken over the past few weeks. We have several new members, so take a look and get familiar with their faces. By the way, if your picture is missing, or if you would like me to take a new one, just let me know.
There is also now an "alumni" section for those Encouragers who, for one reason or another, have moved away or are otherwise not active in our class. They are still Encouragers, however, and we love and miss all of them!
Cliff

Humility

...if a man would make his world large, he must be always making himself small. Even the haughty visions, the tall cities, and the toppling pinnacles are the creations of humility. Giants that tread down forests like grass are the creations of humility. Towers that vanish upwards above the loneliest star are the creations of humility. For towers are not tall unless we look up at them; and giants are not giants unless they are larger than we. All this gigantesque imagination, which is, perhaps, the mightiest of the pleasures of man, is at bottom entirely humble. It is impossible without humility to enjoy anything -- even pride.

G.K.Chesterton, from Orthodoxy (1908)

Reduce taxes for elderly and disabled

Please pass the word and vote FOR this constitutional amendment. Early voting will take place will April 30 - May 5 from 7 am to 7 pm; May 6 from noon to 6 pm and May 7-8 from 7 am to 7 pm.    Election day is May 12 from 7 am to 7 pm. Explanatory Statement for the Proposed May 2007 Constitutional Amendment

PROPOSITION 1 (SJR-13) SJR 13 would amend the Constitution to authorize the legislature to adjust the public school ad valorem tax or tax rates for taxpayers who are aged 65 or older, or are disabled, and who are owners of an exempted homestead.  The amendment would thereby allow the legislature to provide tax relief to such elderly or disabled taxpayers who did not receive tax relief as a result of the school tax rate reduction passed in the 79th Legislature, 3rd called session. The proposed amendment will appear on the ballot as follows:  "The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for a reduction of the limitation on the total amount of ad valorem taxes that may be imposed for public school purposes on the residence homesteads of the elderly or disabled to reflect any reduction in the rate of those taxes for the 2006 and 2007 tax years."

 

 

Oops.

I did something dumb...While experimenting with different templates for the website I accidentally deleted all of the links to Encouragers' businesses and personal web pages.  Please bear with me while I try to get them all back.  Sorry about that.  

Cliff

Friends and wives

A man's friend likes him but leaves him as he is: his wife loves him and is always trying to turn him into somebody else. 

--G. K. Chesterton (Orthodoxy, 1908) 

 

A Blessing for Easter

Mortgage Loans for the Encouragers, friends & family

1st Texas residential Mortgage and I want your loan business. Mortgage Loans of all kinds are available.

I am also looking for referrals to help your friends and relatives....anywhere in Texas

 

First, I'd like you to be aware that we are a major player in Texas, and we have our act together. We have ABA agreements with many builders as well as being the preferred lender for some of the largest builders

 

Some of the benefits to you, when working with me are:

 

• all parties involved...borrower, realtor, etc.fication by email as the file is being completed and requirements are filled.
• The closing Docs are delivered to the Title company 3 days before closing, giving  time to review the HUD 1 .
• As a result, you'll be confident that the loan will close on time and you will never again have to wonder about the status of a loan.
• We deal with over 50 lenders and have the ability to shop the loan that best fits your  needs.
• In addition to being a Loan Officer, I have over 25 years experience in the real estate business, including:

                        Having been a realtor,

A sales counselor for Builders

A Financial Planner

• I also have credentials in the financial arena:

Was a Floor Member of the N.Y. Mercantile Exchange

Chairman of many committees on the Exchange

Formerly Listed in Who's Who

Author of many financial strategy articles & columns

   in various financial publications.

Started up & ran the No. 1 profitable division worldwide

   For E.F. Hutton & Co.

 

 

24 HOUR SERVICE FOR PREAPPROVALS (usually same day)

 

STEVE GREENE

832-457-0223 direct

First Texas Residential Mortgage

www.firsttexasresidential.com

Email: quickloans@earthlink.net

 

 

STEVE GREENE
1stTexas Residential Mortgage
832-457-0223 direct
www.firsttexasresidential.com
Email: quickloans@earthlink.net

Leprochaun Party this Sunday at 5PM!!!

Why They Pray (Wall Street Journal)

HOUSES OF WORSHIP

Why They Pray
The trials of war strengthen many soldiers' faith.

BY ANDREW CARROLL
Friday, March 9, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST

"How can there be fairness in one man being maimed for life, suffering agonies, another killed instantaneously, while I get out of it safe?" Pvt. Walter Bromwich wrote to his pastor back in Pennsylvania during World War I. "Does God really love us individually or does He love his purpose more?" he continued. "Sounds rather calculating, doesn't it, and not a bit like the love of a Father."

Bromwich's sentiments are hardly unique. "If God's chief work has been the creation of this earth and man on it, to date He and His work have been a glorious failure," Lt. Russ Merrell concluded in a July 1944 letter to his wife after seeing the aftermath of the horrific Normandy invasion.

Whoever coined the now well-worn phrase that there are no atheists in foxholes--Ernie Pyle is believed to have been the first--was demonstrably wrong. They exist (there is even a statue, albeit small, erected in their honor in Alabama), and they have long argued that wartime faith cannot possibly be sincere or authentic but is merely a grasping and short-term reliance on divine intervention that desperate troops cling to in the maelstrom of battle.

Faith undoubtedly offers comfort and strength to those in need, especially troops confronting their own mortality. But this does not explain why so many soldiers go to extraordinary and potentially fatal lengths to worship a higher power. On May 25, 1952, Capt. Molt Shuler described to his wife, Helen, a church service he attended in the mountains of Korea. Despite the fact that gathering together made them vulnerable to mortar attacks, the soldiers were determined to have the ceremony and give thanks to God. With loaded rifles by their sides, they created an altar with ammo boxes and lined up their helmets on the ground as pews. (Makeshift services like these are common on the front lines of every conflict.) "Only a couple times in my life before this evening," Shuler wrote, "have I felt God's presence in such a way."

This presence becomes even more visible in the life-and-death context of war, where all that is frivolous and superficial is shorn away to reveal what is truly meaningful and lasting. Lt. Ray Stubbe, a young Navy chaplain serving in Vietnam in 1967-68, often reflected on this theme in his correspondence with friends in Wisconsin. "People benefit spiritually," he wrote in one letter, when they "face the loss of all the trivia of modern day society." After describing a litany of nightmarish hardships that his Marines had to endure, he noted: "You would be amazed at the faith expressed here. There are evidences of genuine and deep prayer life, of reading and knowing the Bible backwards and forwards, of sacrificial concern for others."

These two words, "sacrificial concern," represent the heart of the matter. Countless soldiers have demonstrated their faith by risking their lives for their comrades in arms. (Ray Stubbe himself often came close to dying when he flew by helicopter through hostile territory to minister at Marine bases in the remote mountains of Khe Sanh.) One of the most famous stories concerns the sinking of the USAT Dorchester, which was torpedoed on Feb. 3, 1943, by a German sub. The chaplains on board--Rabbi Alex Goode, the Rev. George Fox, the Rev. Clark Poling and Father John Washington--refused to get onto the lifeboats so that there would be more room for others. The last anyone saw of the chaplains was the four men, locked arm in arm, praying together as the ship went down.

This sacrificial concern, although it receives scant media attention, is evident in Afghanistan and Iraq as well. Staff Sgt. Brian Craig, who had lost and then regained his faith, handwrote a message to his father back in Texas, articulating how his newfound beliefs compelled him to act selflessly. "I think that the guys I work with know that I am different," he wrote on April 8, 2002. "I just pray that I make a difference in their lives. I pray that I am a good example of a man of Christ." It was his last letter home. Sgt. Craig, who had volunteered to seek out and destroy hidden ordnance that threatened both U.S. troops and innocent Afghans, was killed one week later when a bomb exploded in front of him.

"Some of my colleagues have wondered out loud how there can be a God with all of this suffering," Lt. Col. Scott Barnes wrote in an October 2005 email home from Iraq. It is a question that transcends war and relates to any catastrophe involving loss of life, and theologians and philosophers could not have provided a more impassioned answer: "Where is God?" Col. Barnes went on to write. "He is in the will of the sergeants helping organize a blood drive as only they can, He is in the hearts of the soldiers who immediately rolled up their sleeves to give what they had to save a dying brother whom they don't even know." Like those who came before and after him, Col. Barnes saw the worst of human nature in a war zone. But in the selflessness of his brothers and sisters in arms, he also witnessed the best.

Walter Bromwich would almost certainly agree. At the end of his letter to his pastor, the young World War I private finally decided: "God is in this war, not as a spectator, but backing up everything that is good in us. He won't work any miracles because that would be helping us do the work He's given us to do on our own. I don't know whether God goes forth with armies but I do know that He is in lots of our men or they would not do what they do."

And what such troops do, and the enormous sacrifices they make, are more than intimations of deep and abiding faith. They are proof of it.

Mr. Carroll is the editor of "Grace Under Fire: Letters of Faith in Times of War" (Doubleday), published this week.
Copyright © Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Amazing Grace

Lois and I just saw Amazing Grace, and it is one of the best movies we've seen in years.  Strong performances, beautiful music (of course!) and an inspirational story are unforgettable.  Everyone needs to know who William Wilberforce was and how his strong Christian beliefs changed the world. 

You can see a trailer for the movie at http://www.amazinggracemovie.com/.

 

"The Lost Tomb of Jesus"

HOUSES OF WORSHIP

Tomb of the (Still) Unknown Ancients
More Jesus hype of the "Da Vinci Code" type.

BY BEN WITHERINGTON III
Friday, March 2, 2007 12:01 a.m.

Year after year in spring, a new crop of religious dandelions pop up in our post-Christian culture. Like the real ones growing in my yard, they make a colorful splash that briefly captures our attention, until we realize that they are only shallow-rooted weeds, not beautiful flowers planted long ago in the deep rich soil of the past, such as Easter lilies.

Last year, it was the Gnostic nonsense of the "Da Vinci Code." We've had the "Gospel of Judas Iscariot," written centuries after the eyewitnesses were dead. This year it's a variation on the "Da Vinci" theme. We are not only being told that there was a Mrs. Jesus (a k a Mary Magdalene). We are also informed that her tomb and that of Jesus have been found in Jerusalem; that DNA testing has proved that they are not related and so must have been married (how exactly does it prove that?) and that an ossuary or small casket of at least one of their offspring has been found as well. News at 11! Or, in this case, on the Discovery Channel's documentary "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," scheduled for Sunday night.

In a surreal moment on "Larry King Live" earlier this week, the film's producer, James Cameron (of "Titanic" fame), told us with a straight face that we should all be thankful that we now have tangible evidence that Jesus existed. Actually, no serious historian of biblical antiquity has ever doubted that there was a historical Jesus. Yet it tells us a lot about the state of our culture that Mr. Cameron's remark, backed by pseudo-science, could be seriously made on national television and that the film's companion book has already shot up to No. 5 on Amazon's rankings. We are a Jesus-haunted culture that is so historically illiterate that anything can now pass for knowledge of Jesus.

No doubt there are those who welcome "evidence" that undermines the foundation of Christianity. Many people, though, are simply beguiled by the "obsolescence factor" in our technologically driven society--the "newer" must be "truer" and "better." This outlook, when applied to a subject like the historical Jesus, attracts all sorts of unbridled speculation, and worse.

 - - - = = = - - -

How momentous is the latest Jesus-as-you-never-knew-him story? Not very. It is simply not true, as Mr. Cameron's claims in his preface to Simcha Jacobovici's book, "The Jesus Family Tomb," that we have had no hard evidence for Jesus' existence before now except in the Bible. That ignores mentions in ancient Roman and Jewish historians such Tacitus, Suetonius and Josephus.

The "Jesus tomb" explorers trot out statistics on ancient Hebrew names, claiming that the ones in the tomb sound too much like known Jesus family members for the similarity to be a coincidence. But since we've only excavated a minority of archaeological and tomb sites even in Jerusalem, most ancient names are still buried in the earth, making meaningful statistical analysis difficult. What we can say for certain is that most of the names found in the Talpiot tomb on the outskirts of Jerusalem have been seen in many places elsewhere--in texts, on potsherds, in inscriptions, in the Bible itself. They are not rare even by the standards of the limited evidence we do have.

Any good scientific theory must account for all the evidence--in this case, all the names we find in the Talpiot tomb and not just the ones that match the holy-family theory. For instance, we have a Matthew in the tomb, but Jesus had no brothers named Matthew. And where are brothers like Simon, or the sisters mentioned in Mark 6, and where especially is brother James? We actually know that James was buried within sight of the Temple Mount, and Talpiot is miles from there. Eusebius, the fourth-century church historian, saw the tomb and the standing inscribed slab in front of it.

You also have to ask yourself: Why would most of the holy family from Galilee be buried in a middle-class tomb several miles outside of Jerusalem in some sheep pasture? They were, in fact, poor and could not afford an ornamental tomb like this one. This family was from Nazareth, too, with connections in Bethlehem. Why wouldn't its members be buried in one of those places?

We also know that crucifixion was considered the most shameful and hideous way to die, a blow from which one's family honor did not soon recover, if ever. So shamefully did Jesus die that his first followers and even most of his family abandoned him: He was not buried by family members or by the Galilean disciples. He was put in a tomb near the old city that did not belong to any of them.

 - - - = = = - - -

Of course, the main implicit contention of the documentary and book is that the Resurrection is demonstrably a fraud--and thus, we must assume, people like Peter and James, the brother of Jesus, were prepared to be martyred in grisly ways to perpetrate a fraud. Resurrection had only one meaning for early Jews--a miracle that happens to a person's body so that they are raised from the dead.

To skeptics, no amount of counterargument will matter. Yet it wouldn't hurt for the rest of us to exercise a bit of skepticism when listening to each year's new theories about Jesus and the "true" history behind the biblical narrative. Amos Kloner, the archaeologist who supervised work at the tomb when it was first discovered in 1980, has called the documentary's claims "impossible" and "nonsense." As a New Testament scholar, I will trust serious scholars like him. Make no bones about it--they have not found Jesus' tomb.

Mr. Witherington is professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky., and the author of "What Have They Done With Jesus?"

Copyright © 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

When I Say, 'I Am a Christian'

When I Say, 'I Am a Christian'

by Carol Wimmer

When I say, "I am a Christian," I'm not shouting, "I've been saved!"
I'm whispering, "I get lost! That's why I chose this way"

When I say, "I am a Christian," I don't speak with human pride
I'm confessing that I stumble — needing God to be my guide

When I say, "I am a Christian," I'm not trying to be strong
I'm professing that I'm weak and pray for strength to carry on

When I say, "I am a Christian," I'm not bragging of success
I'm admitting that I've failed and cannot ever pay the debt

When I say, "I am a Christian," I don't think I know it all
I submit to my confusion asking humbly to be taught

When I say, "I am a Christian," I'm not claiming to be perfect
My flaws are far too visible but God believes I'm worth it

When I say, "I am a Christian," I still feel the sting of pain
I have my share of heartache which is why I seek His name

When I say, "I am a Christian," I do not wish to judge
I have no authority — I only know I'm loved

Paradoxes of Christianity

The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. Life is not an illogicality; yet it is a trap for logicians. It looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its inexactitude is hidden; its wildness lies in wait. I give one coarse instance of what I mean. Suppose some mathematical creature from the moon were to reckon up the human body; he would at once see that the essential thing about it was that it was duplicate. A man is two men, he on the right exactly resembling him on the left. Having noted that there was an arm on the right and one on the left, a leg on the right and one on the left, he might go further and still find on each side the same number of fingers, the same number of toes, twin eyes, twin ears, twin nostrils, and even twin lobes of the brain. At last he would take it as a law; and then, where he found a heart on one side, would deduce that there was another heart on the other. And just then, where he most felt he was right, he would be wrong.

G. K. Chesterton, from Orthodoxy (Chapter 6, The Paradoxes of Christianity)

 

Prayer

PRAYER

When we are invited to a banquet, we take what is set before us;
and were one to call upon his host to set fish upon the table or
sweet things, he would be deemed absurd. Yet we ask the Gods for
what they do not give, though they have given us so many things.
--Epictetus


Thank you for the universe, the world,
for earth and water, fire and fresh air,
for sunlight and the night sky full of stars,
the million-petalled flower of being here,
for music that reflects time in its mirror,
silence, darkness, rest and sleep, and dreams,
wind and rain, forgetting and forgiveness,
the love that holds together all there is.

I might have wanted something else, of course,
but tell me how I could have asked for this.

--Michael Creagan, in National Review (12/18/2006)

The Loftin's daughter and family leave tomorrow.

Dear Encouragers,

 

Please remember our daughter Kelli, son-in-law Jason, and 16 month old granddaughter Daniela as they leave for Buenos Aires, Argentina tomorrow (Friday, Jan 5).  They are newly appointed IMB missionaries.  They will be part of a church planting team.  Their first appointment will be for three years (during which time they will not be able to furlough to the states). 

 

Pray for safe travel, luggage safety and delivery, and speedy visas.  Also, Daniela has been running a slight fever today which makes her cranky.  They are facing two flights with a four hour layover between (one flight over nine hours) with Daniela before reaching their destination.  Much patience will be needed for all concerned (including fellow passengers).

 

Thank you so much for praying for them.

Denise Loftin

Christmas card

To anyone who received Christmas wishes from me and was offended by the admittedly religious nature of said greetings, I offer my apologies and the following in atonement for my insensitivity:

 

"Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great.  Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere, and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishes. By accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself or himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher."

 

Happy Holy Days!!!

(oops)

Cliff

(from www.bennettmornings.com)