i. 2007:  God at Work
ii. 2007: An Uneasy Feeling 

i. 2007: God at Work

I began sending e-pistles to all of you in August 2000.  Each year since, I have spent some time on the last Friday of the year looking back over the posts for that year, and every year I find in the prayer lists, announcements and reflections evidence of God’s work among us.  It’s fairly easy to see; you don’t have to be an ecclesiastical CSI to figure out what happened.  God didn’t leave us alone. He didn’t ignore our prayers and he wasn’t unmindful of our need for constant direction and help. And, he continued to surprise us with his grace.

Our year began with the sad news of the tragic death of Lois Anderson , who was gunned down in her beloved Kenya. We celebrated Mabel Miller’s 100^th birthday in February and then mourned her death and rejoiced in her life in August. George Harry, Olive Huberman and Will Logan were among others for whom we have a sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life. They are missed, but the witness of their faith continues to remind us of what life well-lived looks like. God at work.

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Joy to the Heart of God

The coming of joy is one of the great claims of the Christmas story. The baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaps for joy when the Virgin mother draws near. The angel brings the shepherds a message of great joy to all the people. The Wise Men “rejoice exceedingly with great joy” when at last they arrive in Bethlehem. “Joy to the world,” we will sing at both services on Christmas Eve. Surely joy broke into our world when the Son, refusing to cling to his royal prerogatives, emptied himself and took on human form (Philippians 2:6-8).

I wonder if there is a way in our celebration of “joy came down” that we can join the angels’ song and, like an antiphonal choir, make our voices heard in heaven’s throne room.

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Our Gigantic Secret

G.K. Chesterton called it the gigantic secret and C.S. Lewis says he was surprised by it and that his search for it finally led him to Christ.  It is the content of the good news the angel proclaimed to the shepherds who had been keeping watch over their flocks by night. It is joy. 

I’ve been thinking about joy.  The news flashes that will crawl across the bottom of our TV screens tonight and be splashed, hysterically, on the front page of tomorrow morning’s Beaver County Times will have to do with steroids, mud-slinging in Iowa and Britney Spears’ legal problems.  Not so the news alert brought by the army of heaven’s angels that night outside Bethlehem.

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Many of you are aware of the controversy surrounding the film version of Phillip Pullman’s The Golden Compass.

Included in this post are links to a number of articles, reviews and commentaries to help you make responsible decisions regarding your children’s access to the film. You will find a CNN news story, a comment by Albert Mohler, and reviews and comments from Christianity Today, Focus on the Family, and The Presbyterian Outlook.

I have tried to include a variety of viewpoints from within the Christian family and would encourage you to read them all.

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PNR - Grace Abounding

At first they were weekly and difficult, but after 26 weeks they became once every three months visits and then for the last couple of years once every six months. My trips to the oncologist’s office. Many of you know that in April, 2003, I was diagnosed with colon cancer. After the surgeons removed the tumor, I began to visit the oncologist every week for six months. I would receive a dose of poison dripped into my veins, chemicals designed to kill any errant cancer cells. I was fortunate. They called this particular chemotherapy “highly tolerable” and I was an all-star patient. I was fortunate; I know it. Still, it was a hard time and just getting through it was the best goal I could come up with.

When the weekly visits ended I began to feel better. I remember exactly where I was on that July day in 2004 when I realized I was feeling good. I had forgotten the feeling.

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