January 22, 2008

Number 3

VIEWPOINT

January 22 is the 35^th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that permitted unrestricted abortions in the United States. 

There will be many pro-life rallies Tuesday, mainly at state capitals and in Washington, D.C.  But sometimes a rally must take place personally.  I noticed this article by Bryan Jarvis at the Central church in Valdosta:

At the National Prayer Breakfast in 1994, Mother Teresa went to the podium.  She had been asked to address the topic of world peace.

Barely tall enough to be seen over the lectern, this tiny woman began her address by speaking words of thanks for the invitation.  Then she stunned the assembled dignitaries, including the president of the United States, Bill Clinton, and vice-president All Gore, by saying, “The greatest danger to world peace today is abortion – [for] if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, then how can we tell other people not to kill each other?”

When she finished her speech, she walked down to the president pointed her finger at him and said, Stop killing babies.” 

“Mother Teresa,” wrote one observer, “was polite and respectful; but she did not flinch when it came time to speak the truth.” 

Do we flinch when speaking the truth?  Do we speak the truth no matter the position of the person of the consequences of doing so?     In my son’s   room there is a banner that reads, “Stand up for what’s right, even if you stand alone.”  There are some things in life that are just right and we must not be afraid to stand up for them.  But we must always remember that while we are called to speak the truth, we must always speak it in love condemning the sin but not the sinner.

This week let us all stand up for what is right, even if we stand alone.

--------------

I look forward to seeing you Sunday with a Bible, a smile and a positive word!  RA

Winter

Quotations on winter to stir heart and mind.

AS LONG as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease (Genesis 8:22, NRSV).

[GOD] gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down hail like crumbs— who can stand before his cold? (Psalm 147:16-17, NRSV).

IT IS a pleasure to the real lover of nature to give winter all the glory he can, for summer will make its own way and speak its own praises (Dorothy Wordsworth).

LET US LEARN our obligation to thankfulness — for warm houses, clothes, and beds; for comfortable food and fuel to relieve us against the rigor of the cold! (William Cooper, A Winter Sermon)

HAVE YOU entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail? (Job 38:22).

IN SEEDTIME, learn; in harvest, teach; in winter, enjoy (William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell).

SPRING, summer, and fall fill us with hope; winter alone reminds us of the human condition (Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic’s Notebook).

IF WINTER COMES, can spring be far behind? (Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ode to the West Wind”).

Compiled by Richard A. Kauffman