It's Tuesday: "How Not to Bring Relief After Hurricane Ida" and More

How Not to Bring Relief After Hurricane Ida

Well-meaning Christians and their churches can make disaster relief efforts more difficult. Here are seven things Christians and their churches can do to help without causing harm.

Back-to-School Time Influences Congregations’ Decisions on Masking and Meeting
The Delta variant surge is prompting many churches and other religious organizations to re-evaulate and rethink how they are going to do worship and children's ministry.

How to Lead When You Are facing Constant Loss and Continual Bad News
As hopes of a return to normalcy fade with the Delata variant surge, pastors and other church leaders are being forced to come to grips with the COVID-19 era.

Overcoming Objections to Leading Small Groups
Recruiting small group leaders can be a challenge but it is not insurmountable. The first step is to pray.

What is Wicca? An Expert on Modern Witchcraft Explains.
Wicca and witchcraft is a growing segment of the US religious landscape. Christians wishing to reach out to Wiccans and other practioners of witchcraft would be wise to learn what attracted them to Wicca and witchcraft.

Northwest Texas Conference Signals Its Post-Seperation Plans
Northwest Texas Conference adopted a non-binding resolution expressing the conference's intention to leave the United Methodist Church under a proposed seperation plan and join a new traditionalist denomination.

All Hallows Evening Prayer for Wednesday Evening (September 1, 2021) Is Now Online

All Hallows Evening Prayer is a service of worship in the evening for all pilgrims on the journey to the heavenly city.

The photo for this Wednesday evening’ service shows a boy launching a kite into the air at sunset. We can learn a lot from kite flying. When we stack two kites, fly them in tandem, they fly higher than they would fly alone. When we stack several kites, they will fly even higher. The wind to a kite is like the Holy Spirit to a Christian. Two Christians linked together can fly higher than one Christian alone; several Christians linked together can fly even higher. The link lines for Christians are our relationships with each other. They tie us to each other and enable us to do far more than we would do by ourselves. For this reason and to show our love for Jesus, it is very important for us to maintain good relations with our brothers and sisters in Christ, to not let anything come between us, including our inward desires which may tempt us not to love each other as Jesus loved us and loves us still.

The Scripture reading for this Wednesday evening is James 1: 1-16 The Christian Can Even Welcome Trouble.

The homily is titled “No Temptation Comes from God, Only Highest Good.”

The link to this Wednesday evening’s service is—

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/2021/08/all-hallows-evening-prayer-for_31.html

Please feel free to share the link to the service with anyone whom you believe might benefit from the service.

If an ad plays when you open a link to a video in a new tab, click the refresh icon of your browser until the song appears. An ad may follow a song so as soon as the song is finished, close the tab.

Previous services are online at

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/

May this service be a blessing to you.

It's Monday: 'The 30-40-30 Hypothesis for the Post-Quarantine Church' and More

The 30-40-30 Hypothesis for the Post-Quarantine Church

Thom Rainer draws our attention to what may be an emerging church attendance pattern in North America. He noteds that more research may be needed and invites readers to share their own observations.

2 Priorities Every Pastor Must Embrace During the 2020s
Scott McConnell gives his opinion of what whe believes should be the two priorities of pastors in this decade.

When You Can’t Gather: Help and Hope for Those Worshiping from Home
The Gospel Coalition website has been posting a series of 9-Marks articles dismissing online church as a valid form of the church. Amomg the problems that I have with the their authors' theology is that they have a very narrow definition of what it means to gather. They associate the Body of Christ solely with the physical gathering of church and make such assertions like the church does not exist if one of its members is absent from this gathering. They also reject multiple services as well as online church. Their theology of the church makes little or no room for the invisible church and the believer's mystical union with Christ and others believers through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. In this Gospel Coalition article the author recognizes that a need exists for online church but only in a very limited way.

The Top 7 Reasons Guests Return To Your Church
Dan Reiland identifies 7 of the most common reasons people return to your church after their first visit or two.

7 Posts to Help Your Determine God's Will
Discerning God's will in a particular set of circumstances can be a challenge. We want to align our will with God's but how do we discern his will in these circumastance.

Songs That Preach

While David W. Manners offers solid advice in this article, I have a problem with his assertion that all songs must preach. As Betting Pulkingham wrote in Sing God a Simple Song, the hymns and songs that we use in our services should release the whole congregation into praise. Edifying the congregation is only one purpose of the hymns and songs in our services. It is an important purpose but it is not the sole purpose. The hymns and songs are not a preparation for the sermon or an adjunct to the sermon.

10 Ingredients for an Awesome Children's Ministry
Dale Hudson looks at 10 ingredients it takes to make an awesome children's ministry.

Learning to Be Quick to Listen, Slow to Get Angry, and Slow to Speak

 

The gist of the sermon that Jeffrey Rudy, pastor of Murray First UMC, preached this morning may be summed up in three brief statements. “Be quick to listen. Be slow to get angry. Be slow to speak.” This was the essence of his sermon. He would elaborate on each statement, what it means in practice. He would also make connections between these three principles and God’s own character as described in the Bible. He would draw to the congregation’s attention that in following these principles we would be emulating Jesus and gave an example. It was an encouraging sermon.

As is my wont, I reflected on the sermon later in the day. It is something that I am in habit of doing. At some point in the day, I will think about the sermon. I may not do it intentionally. Thinking about the sermon may begin with thinking about something else, something that may be going on in my life.

Today I was thinking about how forgiving other people’s failings, real or perceived, can be a struggle for some of us. It can be really hard for us to let go of our anger toward someone who has said or done something which has triggered angry feelings in us. What they did or said may not have been done or said with malicious intent, but it set off a strong emotional reaction of anger in us. This anger may be disproportionate to what they said or did and may not be entirely related to that stimulus. It may be anger that we have been bottling us because we learned at some point in our life that it was not safe for us to express our anger. It would evoke a negative response from our environment. Because we may be hanging onto a lot of anger, it may be difficult for us to forgive. Forgiveness essentially involves stopping any feelings of anger or resentment toward someone for something that they said or did and not holding what they said or did against them.

My thoughts would turn to today’s sermon. It would also turn to some experiences which I have had in the past.

I believe that God puts people in our lives for a purpose. Our meeting with someone in life’s way is not merely by random chance. We may not gather what that purpose is. God may have more than one purpose. God may put them in our lives to be a means of grace to us. We may be surprised how God may use them to be the means by which he shows us grace, by which he works in us to will and do his good pleasure, by which he inspires and enables us to grow more like Jesus, to grow in our love of God and our love of our fellow human beings.

Jesus taught that God is good to everybody, even the wicked and the ungrateful. What God does is meant for our good, not our ill. Some things which to our perceptions do not appear to be for our good, are not intended for our ill. They may be intended to teach us to be more caring, more compassionate, more forgiving, more honest, more generous, gentler, more helpful, kinder, more loving, more merciful, more open-handed, more patient, more self-controlled, more tender-hearted, more thoughtful, more truthful; to pattern our lives in other ways on what Jesus himself taught and practiced.

Here are my thoughts on being quick to listen, slow to get angry, and slow to speak.

Being quick to listen. While we may want to hear someone out, to listen to what they say without interrupting them, to check with them to make sure that we understand them, they may not be able to tell us what is troubling them. They may be afraid that they may lose their temper. We may wish to make things right between them and ourselves, but they may not be prepared to do so at that particular time. We may need to give them space.

This may prove hard to do because we may care a great deal about them and experience pain ourselves when we see that they are hurting. We may be in the habit of blaming ourselves when things go wrong between someone else and us. We want to get to the root of what has happened and to do what we can to fix it.

All we can, however, do is show that we are willing to hear them out and provide them with a safe environment in which they can talk with us in the event they bring themselves to talk with us. We can show that we are not going to jump down their throats because of what they might say.

The other thing we can do is keeping on loving them. We do not know what they may experienced in their lives and how these experiences may have affected them. Our love for them, however, must have no strings attached. We love them with the love that God has for us. It is the kind of love that we would show a fussy baby. At the same time, we seek to see what is causing them to cry and what is keeping them from sleeping. It is love accompanied by caring and concern.

Being slow to anger. We need to know ourselves. We need to know our own emotional triggers, the things that set off feelings of anger and resentment in us. We need to monitor our internal dialogue, what we are saying to ourselves in our minds in reaction to what they are saying. What we are saying to ourselves may be what is triggering our own angry or resentful feelings. What they have said or done may have triggered unpleasant memories of what has happened to us in the past. It may have stirred up old feelings, unwanted feelings, feelings with which we are not comfortable or which we tend to avoid. When we experience such feelings, we may choose to feel angry or resentful in place of these feelings. It is our way of keep away from or stopping ourselves from feeling these feelings.

On the other hand, we may experience anxiety rather than anger. This is not uncommon in people who learned very early in life, it was not safe for them to directly express their anger. Any direct expression of anger elicited a negative reaction from their environment. They learn to express their anger in indirect ways. They also are likely to experience anxiety where other people would experience anger. We frequently experience anxiety when we are overstimulated by a stressful environment or when we perceive someone or something as a threat to us while at the same time perceiving ourselves as unable to cope with that threat. Unacknowledged and unexpressed anxiety often may turn into frustration, which may trigger anger. When this happens, psychologists tell us, it is because we may have an underlying fear about something in our lives. We may not be aware of what we are afraid of. When something worries or frightens us, we frequently may unconsciously choose anger to cope with our anxiety. This helps us feel that we are in control of our anxiety.

Both anger and anxiety can interfere with our cognitive functioning and keep us from thinking straight. They can influence how we perceive reality and high levels of anger and anxiety can severely distort our perceptions of reality. They can in turn influence how we choose to respond to what someone is saying or doing. I have learned that from experience, misinterpreting the words and actions of a store clerk because I was frustrated and angry about something else.

For these reasons it important for us to know ourselves in order to not respond with anger or resentment to what someone is saying or doing. We need to have a measure of self-knowledge if we are going to give them our full attention and not let our own thoughts and emotions prevent us from hearing them.

Being slow to speak. This means weighing careful what we are going to say and what impact our words may have for good or ill. We give thought to the consequences of our words, not just their immediate consequences but also their long-term consequences. If we are following Jesus’ teaching and example, our aim is to build up, not tear down; to heal, not injure; to reconcile, not to alienate; to set to rights, not make things worse; to restore relationships, not further damage them.

We need to be mindful of the temptation to blurt out the first thing that comes to mind.

We need to be sensitive to the nudging of the Holy Spirit while at the same time not confusing the urging of our deceitful heart with the Holy Spirit’s nudging.

As with being slow to get angry, we cannot underestimate the importance of knowing ourselves.

While we may rely at times on our intuition, we need to keep in mind that despite what we may hear, our intuition can make mistakes. Our “hunches” and “gut feelings” will not be right all of the time. They may alert us to something that does not feel right, that may out of place, but they may not accurately identify what is the cause. Nor may they help us in determining the best thing to say or the best course of action to take. What Transactional Analysis, a popular form of psychology, calls the Little Professor may be heavily invested in reinforcing what are unhealthy perceptions of other people, ourselves, and the world.

Being quick to listen, slow to get angry, and slow to speak sounds pretty challenging. But it is how Jesus lived and how God wishes us to live. God does not ask anything of us without supplying us with the grace to have the will to do what he is asking us to do and when we have that will, to enable us to do what he is asking.

God loves us. God does not want anything to come between those who he loves—misunderstandings, hard feelings, distrust. God wants us to love each other as he loves us. God gives us the grace to do that. What we need to do is to open our hearts and our minds to God’s grace.

Saturday Lagniappe: 'Amid a Boom of Plus-Sized Churches, One Catholic Church Wants to Keep It Small' and More

Amid a Boom of Plus-Sized Churches, One Catholic Church Wants to Keep It Small

Smaller churches, Thom Rainer has pointed out, may be a trend in the 21st century with the younger generations preferring the positives of a small church community.

Study: Gen Z Doubles Down on Spirituality, Combining Tarot and Traditional Faith
Having lived and worked in New Orleans where foretune tellers have set up tables in front of St. Louis Cathedral, I am not surprised by this trend. While Gen Z may see no conflict between tarot and other occult practices and traditional faith, Jesus address this issue when he said. "No one can serve two masters. They love one and hate the other." Sensitive church leaders will want to explore what needs these occult practices are meeting that traditional faith is not and then address meeting those needs traditional faith is not meeting.

Harvard’s New Chief Chaplain Does Not Believe in God
Whatever we may think of this appointment, we need to recognized that attitudes toward spirituality and religion are changing in the United States. We cannot close our eyes and pretend that we are still in the 1950s or the 1980s. It is 2021.

9 Things You Should Know About Secular Humanism
Joe Carter offers 9 things that he believes we should know about secular humanism.

What Mask and Vaccine Mandates Mean for Religious Liberty
Russel Moore draws to our attention that most objections to mask and vaccine mandates on religious grounds are not legitimate or valid. Masks and vaccine mandates are really not a religious liberty issue.

Daniel Darling Fired from NRB After Pro-Vaccine Remarks
The National Association of Religious Broadcasters terminates its spokesperson for championing the COVID-19 vaccine. His termination prompts me to wonder what this world is coming to. Earlier this week I had a lengthy conversation with an individual who maintained that he had no responsibiliyy for other people, just for himself. He was under no obligation to look out for other people's health, safety, and wellbeing.

All Hallows Evening Prayer for Sunday Evening (August 29, 2021) Is Now Online

All Hallows Evening Prayer is a service of worship in the evening for all pilgrims on the journey to the heavenly city.

Psychology can provide us with helpful insights into why we do what we do. These insights we can use in our effort to live our lives in accordance with Jesus’ teaching and example. They can help us to recognize dangers and difficulties that we otherwise might not recognize in a life of doing good, doing no harm, and growing in our love of God and our love of our fellow human beings.

The reading appointed for this Sunday evening’ service is Mark 7: 1-8, 14-23 Jesus exposes the danger of man-made traditions.

The homily is titled, “It Is What Is In Us That Matters.”

The link to this Sunday evening’s service is—

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/2021/08/all-hallows-evening-prayer-for-sunday_28.html

Please feel free to share the link to the service with anyone whom you believe might benefit from the service.

If an ad plays when you open a link to a video in a new tab, click the refresh icon of your browser until the song appears. There may be a short pause before a song begins on a video. If the video begins playing partway, pause, move the track slider back to the beginning, and then play. An ad may follow a song so as soon as the song is finished, close the tab.

Previous services are online at:

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/ 

May this service be a blessing to you.

Point of No Return in Discipleship

If you've been in church for as long as I have, hearing or seeing the word "discipleship" can almost send you into a coma. The picture that comes to mind is nearly universal: a group of people – it could be students or adults (the program is numbingly the same), sitting in uncomfortable chairs arranged in a circle, listening to a teacher talk on and on about the life and teachings of Jesus.

The success of a discipleship program is measured in attendance and memorization of Biblical trivia. Can you name the village near the well where Jesus spoke to the woman drawing water? How many times did Joshua tell the Israelites to walk around Jericho? If you can answer these questions correctly, you are deemed a "spiritual person."

For most of us, we will stay committed for a while but then we will get bored or busy and we will drop out. Occasionally, we will complain about the shallowness of the sermons we hear every Sunday, but few of us will put any real energy toward digging deeper into Scripture. Life is complex and difficult, and we don't see how a book with 2000-year-old words can help us negotiate our modern challenges.

How did the word "disciple" go from someone we are to something we do to an achievement to be mastered, like graduating from college? In the day of Jesus, a disciple would move in with their rabbi. They would be with the teacher 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Sure, the student wanted to learn what the teacher knew, but they also wanted to learn how the rabbi lived. When Jesus asked if the disciples wanted to leave, Peter responded by saying that only Jesus had the words of life. I find Peter's response interesting. Notice, he didn't say Jesus had the words of righteousness, or the way to get to heaven. Peter said Jesus had the words of life. More than having a lot of good knowledge, Jesus knew how to live.

It was that life Peter and his friends wanted from Jesus. You learned how to live life by living with Jesus. Read More

It's Friday: 'Suicidal Teen: What Youth Leaders Need to Know" and More

Suicidal Teen: What Youth Leaders Need to Know

As a former mental health counselor, I would argue that we all need to know SLAPP. I have not only worked with suicidal clients, but I also had a friend commit suicide.

Neuro-diversity in Your Church: Why it Matters
A short but fascinating article. Definitely worth the read.

No More Ghost Towns
Is your church a ghost town for latecomers? I learned the value of having greeters and hospitality ministers available to help latecomers when I was a member of the guest services ministry team at the Journey Church in Murray, Kentucky. I manned Journey Cafe during the both services and assisted latecomers to the services.

BSA Bankruptcy Concerns Church Leaders
The Boy Scouts of America's bankruptsy has opened a can of worms for United Methodist Church congregations. They, however, may not be the only churches that are affected.

How Can I Make Daily Bible Reading Authentic?
More authentic? A better title would have been "How can I get more out of my daily Bible reading?"

5 Suggestions When the Pastor Leads a Small Group
While I believe that a pastor should show his commitment to small groups by leading one himself, I also believe that he should encourage other participants in his small group to lead. Every small group leader should equip the group's participants to become small group leaders themselves.

10 Reasons We Should Welcome Muslim Refugees
In this article, Craig Greenfield suggest that as followers of Jesus, the most Christlike thing we could do in the face of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, is to welcome Muslim refugees into our communities with open arms.

Building Bridges to Our Muslim Neighbors
A growing number of churches and church leader are recognizing new opportunities for witness in an increasingly diverse world. Rather than turning their backs on people of other faiths or no faith at all, they are actively seeking to reach and engage them.

Which Master Do You Serve?

I wish that I could say that I am amazed at how selfish people can be, but I am not amazed at all. Selfish people feel no concern for other people. They feel no obligation to look out for anyone but themselves. They feel no sense of responsibility for the safety, health, and wellbeing of other people. Their primary motivation is their own self-interest, what benefits them and not what may benefit the group.

If humanity had been as selfish as these individuals are, humankind would have not survived to this date. Human survival depends on a balance of the interests of the individual and the interests of the group. At some point in the distant past our ancestors stopped running for the trees and the illusion of safety and started to defend their little group against a marauding predator. They stopped hunkering down in the tall grass in hopes that the predator would not spot them and rose up and drove off what threatened the group. They learned that humans on their own were easy prey for hyenas and other flesh eaters.

Americans have been influenced by a longstanding belief in rugged individualism, a belief nourished by the myth of the lone mountain man fending for himself in the American wilderness. He survived and did it on his own! It is a myth that has caught the imagination of the modern-day survivalist. It is a myth on which astute entrepreneurs are capitalizing, selling survival manuals; conducting survival training courses; selling guns, ammunition, survival equipment, and freeze-dry foods.

What is not told is that for every man who survived in the wilderness and returned to tell his tale, several men did not survive. What remains of their bones lie scattered in the wilderness. They broke a leg. They ran out of gunpowder and starved to death. A bear or wolves killed them. They encountered unfriendly Indians. They did not store enough fuel for the winter and froze in their make-shift cabin. They lost their footing and fell from a height. Their stories go untold.

Human beings are social beings. They flourish when they are looking out for each other and not just for themselves. The pioneer farmer was able to thrive because he had neighbors upon whom he could call when he needed help and who, when asked, would lend him a hand. His success was not tied solely to his own efforts. He was a part of a community. His neighbors may have lived at a distance from his homestead, but they were neighbors to him.

What did Jesus teach when he walked the earth? He taught neighborliness—being well-disposed toward our neighbors and being friendly and helpful to them. He also taught that our neighbors were not just our family, our kin, or our tribe. Our neighbors were everybody! Treating other people exactly as we would to be treated by them—in a spirit of kindness, Jesus taught, was the essence of all true religion.

Among the reasons that Jesus was critical of the Pharisees and the Law was that they looked out solely for themselves. This, he drew to their attention, was not how God wanted humanity to live. God desired that we should be merciful toward each other as God was merciful toward us—forgiving, compassionate, generous, showing divine grace, forbearing, kindhearted in our words and actions, considerate of other people’s feelings, willing to do good, and not harm.

In today’s “me first” culture Jesus would be dismissed as out of step with the times because he taught that we should look out for each other. He taught that we are responsible for other people’s safety, health, and wellbeing as well as our own. He would be pilloried for teaching that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. This is one of the reasons that we are seeing in a number of local churches, members and attendees who maintain that they are followers of Jesus but do not emulate his life and his teaching. Jesus’ way of thinking, what he taught and practiced, does not fit with their other beliefs. They are elevating their other beliefs over his teaching and example. They have become disciples of those beliefs.

As Jesus pointed to his disciples’ attention, we cannot serve two masters. We will hate one and love the other. This means that we cannot be disciples of a set of beliefs that conflict with what Jesus taught and practiced and be the disciples of Jesus. We must choose which master we will serve—the beliefs of the “me first” culture or Jesus.

All Hallows Evening Prayer for Saturday Evening (August 28, 2021) Is Now Online

All Hallows Evening Prayer is a service of worship in the evening for all pilgrims on the journey to the heavenly city.

In this Saturday’s evening service, the Phos hilaron is F. Bland Tucker’s translation, “O Gracious Light, Lord Jesus Christ,” and is performed by the late singer/song writer/retreat leader Fran McKendree. The tune is McKendree’s arrangement of Thomas Tallis’ EIGHTH TUNE, popularly known as TALLIS’ CANON. Tallis originally composed the tune for Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker’s metrical psalter.

The Scripture reading for this Saturday evening is James 6: 17-27 Hear God’s Word and Put It into Practice: That Is Real Religion.

The homily is titled “Learn from the Word and Live What You Learn.”

The link to this Saturday evening’s service is—

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/2021/08/all-hallows-evening-prayer-for-saturday_26.html

Please feel free to share the link to the service with anyone whom you believe might benefit from the service.

If an ad plays when you open a link to a video in a new tab, click the refresh icon of your browser until the song appears. An ad may follow a song so as soon as the song is finished, close the tab.

Previous services are online at

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/

May this service be a blessing to you.

It's Thursday: "Envisioning the Post-Virus Church' and More

An Afghani field

Envisioning the Post-Virus Church

This article makes some good points. Its title, in my opinion, is overly-optimistic and its initial paragraphs suggest that it may have been written before the latest surge of COVID-19 cases across the United States. That said, I recommend reading it.

They Refused the Vaccine but Still Want Our Empathy. Can We Deny Them?
Melissa Florer-Bixler who is pastor of Raleigh Mennonite Church and the author of How to Have an Enemy: Righteous Anger and the Work of Peace, shares what she sees is the proper Christian response to COVID-deniers and vaccine opponents.

5 Ways to Optimize Your Church's Giving Page
As more people give online, chuches will want to make online giving easier.

vHow Much Should You Shepherd Church Members on Social Media?
This podcast addresses what is a very important issue in the local church today. Some pastors do an excellent job of shepherding church members and attendees on social media. Other pastors' shepherding is not just woefully inadequate, it is downright harmful and a disgrace to the teaching and example of our Lord.

Why Good Theology Matters in Prayer
Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as bad or wrong prayer.

Prayer Tips: Keep Attentive
For me I find the best time to pray is when I am not struggling to stay awake; the best place, outdoors, while taking a quiet qalk. Walking helps me to be more attentive.

Prayer in Time of Plague
As the world has changed so has The Book of Common Prayer's theology of sickness.

How to Pray for Afghanistan—and the Taliban
No matter how we see the Taliban, Jesus teaches us that we should pray for them.

Taliban’s Religious Ideology – Deobandi Islam – Has Roots in Colonial India
Learning more about the Taliaban and their beliefs enables to better understand them and to better pray for them.

It's Wednesday: Ed Stetzer: "5 Future Trends of Church Planting" and More

Ed Stetzer: 5 Future Trends of Church Planting

In this article Ed looks at what he sees will 5 future trends in church planting.

Imagining New Methodism: A Denomination That Prioritizes New Churches
Allan T. Stanton looks beyond the 2022 UMC General Conference and expresses the hope that the new denomination will be built around the reality that small membership churches will make up the majority of its congregations.

Among the trends about which Thom Rainer has written on Church Answers is that most churches in the twenty-first century will be small, neighborhood churches. Rainer also see a place for microchurches and house churches.

Eight Ways to Fill Your Pews
How are churches going to fill their pews this year. Rebekah Simon-Peter looks at some options.

9 Ways the Modern Worship Service Is Changing
The world has changed a lot since the late 1990s. So has the average church worship service.

Building a Set List: Where to Start
Jamie Brown introduces the concepts of "the core" and "an angle" in the selection of songs.

Some Christian Leaders Advise Parents on COVID-19 Exemptions
A religious exemption for a face mask or vaccination for a child may put the parents at risk. Children are bringing COVID-19 home from school with them and infecting their parents and grandparents and non-school age siblings.

All Hallows Evening Prayer for Wednesday Evening (August 25, 2021) Is Now Online

 

All Hallows Evening Prayer is a service of worship in the evening for all pilgrims on the journey to the heavenly city.

C. S. Lewis in his Perelandria series and The Screwtape Letters tackles the subject of unseen spiritual forces that work in the world, some for good; others for evil. He reminds us that because we cannot see something or otherwise sense it does not mean that it does not exist. It simply means that our senses are limited. Insects can see in bands of electromagnetic spectrum in which we cannot see. Cats, dogs, and whales can hear sounds that we cannot hear. We therefore should not be too quick to dismiss the existence of spiritual forces that are outside our ken.

The Scripture reading for this Wednesday evening is Ephesians 6: 18-24 A Request for Prayer.

The homily is titled “Why We Need to Pray for Our Fellow Christians and Ourselves.”

The link to this Wednesday evening’s service is—

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/2021/08/all-halows-evening-prayer-for-wednesday.html

Please feel free to share the link to the service with anyone whom you believe might benefit from the service.

If an ad plays when you open a link to a video in a new tab, click the refresh icon of your browser until the song appears. An ad may follow a song so as soon as the song is finished, close the tab.

Previous services are online at

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/

May this service be a blessing to you.

It's Tuesday: 'What If the Prodigal Never Comes Home in the Nordics?'

What If the Prodigal Never Comes Home in the Nordics?
In Jesus' parable the prodigal returns home and the father races to welcome him. But what would have happened if the prodigal had stayed in the far country?

Virus Bedevils UMC General Conference Planning
After two postponements, organizers of the United Methodist Church's General Conference are hoping to hold the denomination's top law-making body in 2022. The delta variant may throw a monkey wrench into their plans.

The World Is Catechizing Us Whether We Realize It or Not
While Kevin DeYoung's article focuses on how the world is influencing young people's view of sexual identity and human sexuality, it is also influencing how we treat our neighbors, our fellow Christians, and those whom we dislike or who dislike us. It is becoming more acceptable to be unkind and even to be cruel.

Episcopal Clergy Entertain and Evangelize in the Virtual ‘Town Square’ of TikTok
I thought that readers might be interested in how Episcopal clergy are using TikTok to reach and engage young people. TikTok enjoys wide use among Millenials and Generation Z. You won't find them on Facebook but you will find them on TikTok. We ignore this video editing and streaming app at our own peril.

How to Welcome People with Disabilities in Your Church
We need to be more pro-active in welcoming people with disabilities in our churches. God dearly loves them and treasures them too.

Checklist: Sound Gear You Really Need
This article, while it contains helpful informations, makes certain assumption about worship in the local church, which may not apply to your church.

What Is a Tween: A Close-up Look at Preteen Kids
We really do need to know to whom we are ministering. We cannot assume that we know how we should minister to young people, based upon our own experience at their age.

Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus: Prayer

Jesus did not urge his disciples to pray like the apostle Paul urged the different churches to whom he wrote letters. Jesus assumed that they prayed. Rather Jesus focused on how his disciples should pray.

What are the ways that Jesus taught his disciples to pray? What were the principles of prayer to which he gave emphasis?

“The new life is not an outward show” is how J. B. Phillips describes Jesus’ attitude toward prayer. The Pharisees wanted the praise and adulation of other people for their piety, so they put on a show of their piety for other people—a show of their ritual purity, of their giving, of their fasting, and of their prayer. They would be deliberately late for the prayers at the local synagogue so that they would have to pray in the street where everyone could see them. As a corrective Jesus taught his disciples to go into the storage room of their houses and pray there where only God could hear and see them. Jesus was not prohibiting them from praying in public. Rather he was teaching them to avoid making a show of praying like the Pharisees.

Jesus himself prayed in public on occasion, but he did not make a show of praying. His prayers were short and pithy. The High Priestly Prayer in the Gospel of John is the longest prayer that the New Testament records him praying.

Jesus also taught his disciples not to imitate the prayers of the Gentiles. Their prayers were long and wordy with frequent and pointless repetitions. They were intended to impress those who might overhear them as well as the gods and goddesses to whom they were addressed. God, however, is not impressed by such prayers. He knows our needs before we ask.

Jesus gave us what we call the Lord’s Prayer. It was originally an outline of what we should include in our prayers, but we have come to use it as a prayer itself.

Jesus taught his disciples to call God their Heavenly Father. The Jews did not address God by his name which he revealed to Moses. It was far too sacred. Rather than address God by name, they addressed God by the Hebrew word, “Adonai,” which means “Lord.” Jesus’ choice of the Aramaic word, “Abba,” “Father,” shocked them as did his instruction to his disciples to address God as “Father.” They regarded it as blasphemous. They believed that it showed a lack of reverence for God.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray that God’ name be honored. By God’s name, Jesus mean God’s character, not the name that God had revealed to Moses.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom, his righteous rule in the hearts of all humankind, in the very core of our physical and spiritual being, in our inner most selves. In other words, God would hold sway over every aspect of ourselves and our lives—every thought, every desire, every wish, every word, every deed.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray that God’s will would be done on the earth as it is in heaven. When we pray this prayer, we are asking God to align our own will as well as the wills of other people with God’s will. Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane illustrates that kind of prayer. Jesus prayed three times that God would spare him suffering and death but each time he concluded his prayer with the acknowledgment that it was not what he wanted but what God wanted that mattered the most. “Your Will must be done.”

Jesus taught his disciples to pray for their daily needs, “Give us today the bread we need.” This includes not only praying for food to nourish the bodies of our neighbors, our brothers and sisters in Christ, and our enemies and our own bodies but also for whatever is necessary for our their and our own spiritual growth, health, and wellbeing. It includes praying for grace—God’s merciful kindness and his holy influence in their lives and our own lives, enabling them and us to will what is pleasing to God, and having such a will, with the help of his grace to do his will.

Jesus taught his disciples to ask God to forgive them as they had forgiven other people. “For if you forgive other people their failures, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive other people, your Heavenly Father will not forgive you your failures.” This is one of the reasons why praying for grace is so import for grace enables us to forgive and in turn be forgiven. When we pray for grace for other people, we ask God to enable them to forgive and also in turn be forgiven. It is one of the many ways that we express our love for them.

Jesus also taught his disciples to pray, “Keep us clear of temptation and save us from evil.” When we ask the same things for our neighbors, our brothers and sisters in Christ, and our enemies, we are also expressing our love for them. If we truly love someone, if we treasure them as dear to us, if we keep them in our hearts, we will not want any harm to come to them. We will not want them to fall into temptation and we will not want evil to overcome them but will want them to overcome evil. This includes the evil which they may have stored up in their hearts and from which, Jesus taught, evil deeds come.

Jesus taught his disciples that God answered prayer. If we who are evil give good things to our children, he taught, how much more likely it is that our Heavenly Father would give good things to those who ask him. God’s generosity could be expected to exceed our own.

When Jesus describes us as evil, he is talking about our natural inclination to be self-willed, to act in ways that do not do good, to act in ways that do harm to ourselves and to other people, to act in ways that negatively affect our relationship with God. While God is steadfast in his love for us, we can grieve God with our words and actions. We can cause distress to God.

Jesus often went to a deserted place to pray, to be alone with God. With this practice he set an example for his disciples, for us.

While we can pray in the midst of our daily activities, in the hustle and bustle of daily life, a place that is quiet, where there are few if any distractions is the most conducive to prayer. When you want to talk earnestly with a friend, the two of you go to some place where you can speak freely with each other and where you are not likely to disturbed. Prayer is, after a conversation between God and us, not a monologue but a two-way conversation, one in which we listen as well as speak.

It is noteworthy that Jesus often prayed outdoors, in the open air and not in a building. On the night of his betrayal, he prayed in a garden.

Jesus taught us to pray not just for our loved ones but also for those who have treated us badly.

Jesus taught his disciples to persevere in prayer, to be persistent in petitioning God and not to give up. He told the story of a man who knocked on the door of his neighbor’s house late at night, begging for three loaves of bread to feed an unexpected visitor to his house. The man had no bread of his own to feed his guest. The man kept knocking and the neighbor eventually got up and gave him the bread. Jesus also told the story of a widow who kept pleading with an unjust judge until he relented and ruled in her favor.

While God knows our needs before we ask them, God wants to have fellowship with us. There is a passage in the Book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, which describes God walking in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the evening. He desired to have fellowship with his children, the man Adam and the woman Eve.

God continues to desire fellowship with us. He wants to hear our anxieties, our cares, our dreams, our fears, our hopes, our joys, our troubles, and our sorrows. God is like a caring friend who takes the time to be with us and to listen to us. He gives his full attention to us. When we seek him in prayer, we will find him waiting. It is true that we cannot see him. And we sometimes may feel that he is not there. But he is. We would not have sought him if he had not sought us first. We can draw near to God because he draws near to us. 

No, C.S. Lewis Would Not Tell You to Ignore the Coronavirus

In times of crisis, there’s nothing Christians love more than a C.S. Lewis quote, real or fake.

Matching the spread of the coronavirus, a passage from Lewis’ essay “On Living in an Atomic Age” went viral in its own way, as Christians shared the words across social media.

In his admonitions, can we simply replace the words “atomic age” with “COVID-19 age” or was Lewis getting at something deeper and even more relevant for the church today? Read More

7 Ways to Draw the Unchurched to Your Church

Christians often wonder how to gain a hearing with non-Christians. What can we do to increase the chances they will listen to us as we talk about our faith in Jesus?

In a 2016 study, Lifeway Research asked 2,000 unchurched Americans exactly that. It turns out, they are more likely to listen if Christians … act like Christians.

n general, however, the unchurched aren’t running away from having faith conversations. Almost half (47%) say they would discuss it freely if someone wanted to talk about their religious beliefs. Few (11%) say they would change the subject as soon as possible.

Among the unchurched who say they have at least one Christian friend, less than 1 in 4 (23%) believe their Christian friends talk about their faith too much. Almost 4 in 5 (79%) say if their friend really values their faith, they don’t mind them talking about it.

So, the unchurched are already open to talking about Christianity, but if they saw several actions among Christians, they would be more likely to pay attention.

When Lifeway Research asked, “Which would make you more interested in listening to what Christians had to say?” here’s what the unchurched said. Read More

Surprise! Surprise! Non-Christians "are more likely to listen if Christians … act like Christians." Then the corrolary may also be true. Non-Christians are less likely to listen to Christians when they do not act like Christians! Get heavily involved in partisan politics. Go on social media and urge people not to wear face masks or get vaccinated in a county that experiencing a surge in COVID-10 infections and hospitalizations. 

Walking in Footsteps of Jesus: Further Thoughts on the Golden Rule

I have been reflecting further on Jesus’ teaching which we call the Golden Rule—“Treat other people exactly as you would wish to be treated by them….”

I have been reading J. B. Phillips’ translation of the Gospels into modern English. It is one of the earliest translations of the Gospels into the vernacular. The Gospels are the part of the Bible with which I am the most familiar. I have read the Gospels dozens of times in several different translations. The Gospels are the part of the Bible to which I turn again and again.

You can search the Gospels from one end to another and you will not find any passage in which Jesus countenances any reason for not treating other people with kindness. We may convince ourselves that we have a good or legitimates reason for treating someone unkindly. We may convince our family and friends that we have a good or legitimate reason to be unkind to someone. But we are not going to sway Jesus.

Jesus says, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who treat you badly.” He says nothing like you can let this guy off the hook, but that guy you can let him have it. Jesus says, “You must be kind as your Father in heaven is kind….”

We may say to ourselves. “Jesus can’t mean that. I’m sure he’ll understand why I am sticking it to this guy. He did…..” But Jesus does not give us that option. If we are going to be his disciple, if we are going to emulate his life and teaching, then we must treat other people exactly as we would wish to be treated—in a spirit of kindness. This does not mean that we must go along with what they may have said or done, but it is does mean treating them with kindness.

Being kind goes beyond just being nice. When we are kind to other people, we do good to them whether or not they deserve it. We are generous to them. We are careful not to do them any harm. We are kind regardless of how difficult it may be.

Kindness is grace. We show goodwill and mercy toward other people, the same kind of goodwill and mercy that God shows toward us.

God sees our innermost selves. God knows if we are acting out of self-will or an intentional desire to do evil or if we are simply “a bungler with good intentions.” Nothing is hidden from God. God knows the truth of a matter irrespective of whether we conceal it from ourselves and other people.

While God is unwavering in his love for us, God grieves when we do not live in accordance with the way Jesus taught and showed us to live. God feels pain and sadness as a result of what we have said or done. While God is slow to become angry at us, rich in love, and ready to forgive, God is not unaffected by our words and actions. They do not go unnoticed. Our relationship with God suffers.

Here again I am reminding myself of these truths as much as I am reminding the readers of my blog. We may prefer to forget such truths when they are inconvenient to us, when they get in the way of what we want to say or do. But our conscience, that part of our mind that recognizes right from wrong, will not allow us to forget them. It is our conscience that helps us to decide what we should say or do under the circumstances—what is the right path to take.

Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus: The Golden Rule

In my reflections on Jesus’ teaching and example I discovered that I had overlooked this important teaching.

What would come to be called the Golden Rule appears in two places in the Synoptic Gospels—in Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31.

In Matthew’s Gospel the Golden Rule is sandwiched between Jesus’ teaching about God giving good things to those who ask him and his teaching about going in by the narrow gate. In Luke’s Gospel it forms one of a series of teachings about how we should treat our enemies. These teachings include being kind as God is kind, not judging other people harshly, not condemning them, and making allowances for them.

J. B. Phillips in his translation of the Gospels renders Matthew 7: 12 with these words, “Treat other people exactly as you would like to be treated by them—this is the essence of all true religion.” He renders Luke 6:31 with these words, “Treat men exactly as you like them to treat you.” By “men,” he means human beings--men, women, and children.

The Golden Rule was the first teaching of Jesus, which I learned as a child. I was led to understand that the spirit of this teaching was to treat other people with kindness. How we treated them should do good to them and should do no harm to them. This meant that some ways that we might like other people to treat us would not be in keeping with the spirit of the teaching. They would not be kind to other people. They would not do good to them but might do harm to them. They might make us happier, but they would not have that effect upon other people.

What my grandmother and my mother were teaching me was basically what Jesus is teaching in Luke’s Gospel. But it was also what Jesus was teaching in Matthew’s Gospel. Treating other people as I would like them to treat me—in a spirit of kindness, was entering the narrow gate and taking the hard road.

All Hallows Evening Prayer for Sunday Evening (August 22, 2021) Is Now Online

All Hallows Evening Prayer is a service of worship in the evening for all pilgrims on the journey to the heavenly city.

A common colloquialism is that dogs are “man’s best friend. Dogs can be loyal companions, welcoming us home with wagging tails and adoring eyes. Their devotion to us can outlive our lives. Greyfriars Bobby was a Skye terrier that is said to have guarded his owner’s grave for fourteen years before he himself died and was laid to rest near his owner.

Without any prejudice to our canine companions, we have a far greater friend whose faithfulness surpasses theirs, stretching throughout eternity. He was faithful to those who have gone before us and will be faithful to those who come after us. In the person of Jesus, in the person of the Son, he taught and showed us how to live and put things right between himself and us through his suffering and death on a cross.

The reading appointed for this Sunday evening’ service is Joshua 24: 1-2b, 14-18 The Tribes Renew the Covenant.

The homily is titled, “Our Faithful God.”

The link to this Sunday evening’s service is—

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/2021/08/all-hallows-evening-prayer-for-sunday_21.html

Please feel free to share the link to the service with anyone whom you believe might benefit from the service.

If an ad plays when you open a link to a video in a new tab, click the refresh icon of your browser until the song appears. There may be a short pause before a song begins on a video. If the video begins playing partway, pause, move the track slider back to the beginning, and then play. An ad may follow a song so as soon as the song is finished, close the tab.

Previous services are online at:

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/

May this service be a blessing to you.

Saturday Lagniappe: "Hannah-Kate Williams Sues SBC Leaders for Covering up Sexual Abuse' and More

Hannah-Kate Williams Sues SBC Leaders for Covering up Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse perpetrators can be anybody. In most cases someone they are someone known to the victim. Organizations, religious or otherwise, have a poor record of protecting the vulnerable, children and adults, from sexual abuse, harassment, and exploitation and of treating victims with compassion and fairness. Blaming the victim is not uncommon as is going to great lengths to protect the organization.

Vax Facts: San Diego Researchers Debunk 7 Common COVID-19 Vaccine Myths
All kinds of misinformation and disinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines are circulating on the internet. In one western Kentucky new infections and hospitalizations are skyrocketing. In the same county a local pastor is spreading false and inaccurate information about the vaccines, wearing face masks, and other public health measures. He may be making a name for himself with one group of local residents, but he is doing irreperable harm to the health, safety, and wellbeing of the larger population.

COVID Booster Shots Are Coming. Here's What You Need To Know
This article explains why those who have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine need a booster shot and who will be first to receive a booster shot.

EXPLAINER: Don’t Count on a Pastor’s Letter to Help You Avoid COVID Vaccine Mandates
Some churchgoers are seeking religious exemptions from vaccination upon very shaky legal grounds. Their objections to vaccination upon close examination are motivated by politics and/or anti-vaxx ideology.

Why It Is a Sin Not to Wear a Mask
For those who claim to be a Christian, refusing to wear a face mask and to protect others from the aerosol transmission of the COVID-19 virus, particularly its highly infectious Delta variant, is arguably a repudiation of Jesus' commandment to love our neighbor and by extension a disavowal of Jesus and his teaching and example before the world.

Why We Miss Hugs
One of the harmful effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a deficit of tactile stimulation necessary to human wellbeing--what psychologists call "touch deprivation."

How Difficult was the Book of Revelation’s Journey into the Canon?
Michael J. Kruger shares with interested readers some of the highlights of Revelation's journey into the canon.

Recruit Coaches Before You Recruit New Leaders
Critical to the successful launch of new small groups is to provide their leaders with coaches and not leave them to flounder along by themselves.

All Hallows Evening Prayer for Saturday Evening (August 21, 2021) Is Now Online

All Hallows Evening Prayer is a service of worship in the evening for all pilgrims on the journey to the heavenly city.

In this Saturday’s evening service, the hymn of the day, “Wisdom’s Feast,” equates the feast to which Wisdom, invites the simple with the Holy Eucharist. The dismissal song, “Come and Seek the Ways of Wisdom,” equates Wisdom of the Old Testament with Christ of the New Testament. This song is performed by AwakeningSoul, the ensemble of which the late singer/song writer/retreat leader Fran McKendree was a co-founder.

The Scripture reading for this Saturday evening is Proverbs 9: 1-6 Wisdom’s Feast

The homily is titled “Wisdom’s Feast.”

The link to this Saturday evening’s service is—

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/2021/08/all-hallows-evening-prayer-for-saturday_20.html 

Please feel free to share the link to the service with anyone whom you believe might benefit from the service.

If an ad plays when you open a link to a video in a new tab, click the refresh icon of your browser until the song appears. An ad may follow a song so as soon as the song is finished, close the tab.

Previous services are online at

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/

May this service be a blessing to you.

Walking in the Steps of Jesus: Knowing Jesus

I must confess that I find Jesus to be something of an enigmatic figure. We know only the details of his life and ministry that the Gospels, the Letters, and a Revelation of the apostles tell us. We know his teaching through what may be described as their filter—what they themselves picked up from their own personal interaction with Jesus, the oral tradition, what may have been earlier writings which have not survived, and in John’s case a vision. What is missing are the more intimate details, those details that intrigue us.

What did Jesus look like? Was he tall, short, average height? Fat, thin, medium build? Did he have a favorite food? A favorite wine? How did he smile? How did he laugh? What was it like to sit around a campfire with Jesus under the stars, to walk the dusty roads of Galilee, Samaria, and Judaea with him? We want to envision him in our mind. We want to get a feel for his humanness as well as for his divinity.

The apostles passed on what they knew about Jesus, what they thought important, what the Holy Spirit prompted them to record. We want to know more.

We can glean some things from what they wrote or dictated to someone else to write for them. Jesus had a sense of humor. He was very observant of nature, of first-century daily life, of little things. He was not standoffish, maintaining a distance between himself and other people. He was warm-hearted. He was kind and solicitous toward children. He enjoyed wedding feasts and dinner parties.

Among the reasons that we want to know more is that we want to model ourselves upon Jesus. He is our exemplar. We are Jesus’s disciples, Jesus is our teacher, our master, and we want to emulate his life and his teaching as a disciple would. The Holy Spirit nudges us to become more like Jesus, to walk in his footsteps. God works in us to have the desire to be like Jesus and when we have the desire, God strengths it and works with us to fulfill that desire.

We want to rid ourselves of those things that are not Jesus-like—false pride; hatred; ill-will; grudge-holding, malice—the desire to do harm; spitefulness; vengefulness, unkindness; cold-heartedness, careless words; thoughtless deeds; dishonesty; vanity, self-will; and the like. None of these things are the fruit of God’s grace, the power of God’s presence, working in us. Jesus was humble, loving, forgiving, tender-hearted, gentle, compassionate, truthful, perceptive--adroit in choosing the right thing to say or do, self-effacing, and obedient. As his disciples these qualities are ones that we would wish to cultivate in ourselves with God’s help. They are qualities that we need if we are to grow up in every way in Jesus who is our head, the head of his body which is the church—the family of those who love God and love others.

One way we can get to know Jesus better is to read and mediate upon the Gospels and those places in the Letters of the apostles, which draw attention to the example that he set for us, or which echo his teaching.

A second way is to pray. Prayer has a way of not only reminding us of what Jesus said and did, but also of giving us fresh insights into his words and deeds. In prayer we converse with our Father in heaven with whom Jesus is one. While we may address the Father as Jesus taught us, Jesus himself and the Holy Spirit are also party to our conversation with the Father. Praying is like participating in a conference call. We have all three Persons of the Godhead on the line. We pray in the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father.

A third way is to fellowship with Jesus’ family, those who love God and love others, his church. Jesus is present in his gathered people. Fellowshipping with our fellow Christians goes beyond chatting with them after church over a cup of coffee and a piece of pie after church or sharing a potluck supper with them. It means having spiritual conversations with them. It means building each other up in the Christian faith and way of life, encouraging each other, simply ministering to each other with our presence. The Holy Spirit not only knits us together in the Body of Christ, but also unites us to Jesus. We enjoy a mystical union with Jesus as well as with each other.

A fourth way we can get to know Jesus better is to serve him in the last and the least, in the poor and the destitute, in the hungry and the homeless, in the prisoner and the captive, in the sick and the dying.

A fifth way is our children and grandchildren, the children and grandchildren of kin, the children and grandchildren of friends, and the children and grandchildren of strangers. We too often forget that Jesus took a child and placed the child in the midst of his disciples. He then pointed to the disciples’ attention that not just that child alone, but all children were his representatives. Those who minister to the children minister to him.

One day we will see Jesus face to face. In this life we must be satisfied with meeting Jesus in the Scriptures, in prayer, in our fellow Christians, in those in whom we serve Jesus, and in the children. We ourselves are called to embody Jesus in the world, not just his hands and feet as we so often hear but also his heart and mind. We are to look at the world through the eyes of his love and compassion. We are to speak his words of peace and healing. In embodying Jesus, we will come to know him more.

Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus: Loving God with Every Atom of Our Being

When Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment, Jesus quoted not one commandment but two. He then added that these two commandments sum up the Law and the Prophets, what was the Bible in the days of Jesus’ earthly ministry, what was the Bible for those who flocked to hear him, for the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who disputed with him.

The first commandment that Jesus quoted was Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “The Lord, the Lord alone, is our God. And you must love the Lord your God with all your mind and all your soul and all your strength.” Jesus went on say that this commandment was the first and great commandment.

Loving God with all our mind and all our soul and all our strength, with every atom of our being, goes beyond assembling together, singing God’s praises (or, in many churches, hearing someone else sing God’s praises), contributing to an offering, listening to a sermon, and receiving communion. It means showing him the reverence and honor that is due him in the way we live our lives.

Loving God with all our mind and all our soul and all our strength, with every atom of our being, means loving Jesus. As Jesus said, those who love the Father love the Son whom he sent. Those who love Jesus do what he taught. His words were not his own. They were the Father’s. They were what he had heard from the Father.

Loving God with all our mind and all our soul and all our strength, with every atom of our being, means loving our fellow Christians, our brothers and sisters in Christ. As the apostle John wrote, how can we say that love God whom we have not seen if we do not love our fellow Christians whom we have seen. If we do not love our brothers and sisters in Christ, we do not love God.

Loving God with all our mind and all our soul and all our strength, with every atom of our being, means doing God’s will. We not only pray as Jesus taught us, “Your will be done on earth as in heaven,” and say with Jesus, “Your will, not mine, be done,” but like our Lord we do God’s will. In doing God’s will, we become one of those whom Jesus called his family. We become his mother, his sister, and his brother.

Loving God with all our mind and all our soul and all our strength, with every atom of our being, means loving what God loves in the way that God loves it. We can learn what God love and how God loves it from the story of God’s relationship with the children of Israel, with Jacob’s sons and daughters. God delivered them from slavery in Egypt and settled them in a new land, a land which he had promised them. The children of Israel were a headstrong and rebellious people. Despite their waywardness he did not reject or abandon them. At the same time God did not overlook their waywardness. He allowed them to suffer the consequences of their self-will. He forgave them when they turned back to him and was merciful toward them. God’s love for his chosen people was unwavering. His kindness toward them was without limit. God kept forgiving them repeatedly. God would deliver them from captivity in Babylon, restore Jerusalem, and reestablish Judaea. God enabled them to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

What we learn from this story is that God does not love us due to some outstanding quality in us. God loves us because he chooses to love us. God's love for us is an act of his will on his part.

We also learn that God is not capricious in loving us. His love for us is steadfast. It does not wax and wane like the moon. It does not ebb and flow like the tide.

At the same time, we please God when we obey him. We give joy to God when we do his will. We can also grieve God with our disobedience.

Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son illustrates our relationship with God. The younger of two son demands his share of the inheritance from his father. This is the same as wishing that his father was dead since an inheritance is normally shared after the one from whom it is inherited is dead. What is even more surprising is that the father gives it to him! The younger son then goes to a far-off land and spends his share of the inheritance on booze and prostitutes! He does not put it to wise use. He wastes it!

When the money is gone, the younger son falls on hard times. He is forced to tend someone’s pigs. For the Jews pigs were unclean animals and they did not keep them or eat them. In the mind of the Jews herding swine was not a fitting occupation for anyone, much less a Jew. Those who tended pigs became unclean like the swine that they herded. The younger son was so hungry that he wished that he was able to eat the pods that the pigs were eating.

This one detail shows us how sore were the straights into which the younger son had fallen. The pods were those of the fava bean. The mature pods are tough and covered with fuzz. While pigs may be able to eat them, humans are not. Humans can eat the beans that the pods contain provided that, they are boiled, and they do not eat too many of them. The same detail suggests that the younger son was not paid enough to buy sufficient food for himself or that he was paying off a debt which he owed. It also suggests that he may not have abandoned his wastrel habits. When he had money, he was still spending it on booze and prostitutes.

In any event he decides that he would be better off as a slave in his father’s house. He returns home. We are not told whether he experienced any difficulty in returning home. He most likely did.

When the younger son returns home, he finds his father waiting for him. The father is not sitting in his house waiting for the son’s return. He is outside, scanning the horizon for his returning son. When he spies his distant figure, he rushes to welcome him home. I can see him in my mind’s eye, running barefoot, his robes flying, his beard streaming behind him, his neighbors covering their eyes at the sight of such an unseemly spectacle. The father has not stopped loving his wayward son. He has not given up on the younger son. That is the way that God loves us. What we do may grieve him, but he does not give up on us.

What does God love, or put another way, who does God love? God loves the wayward as well as those who do his will. In what way does God love us? God works in us to enable us to will what he wills and when we will what he wills, he enables us to do his will. When we turn from our waywardness, he rejoices. He shows us forgiveness and mercy. He does not hold our waywardness against us.

We love God when love others in the same way. When someone wrongs us, we keep on loving them despite what they said or did. While we may be grieved by their words and actions, we forgive them and do not hold the wrong that we suffered at their hands against them. We are merciful as God himself is merciful.

Loving God with all our mind and all our soul and all our strength, with every atom of our being, means that we give God our full devotion. Our devotion is not divided between God and someone else or something else. As Jesus pointed to his disciples’ attention, we cannot serve two masters. If we love one, we will hate the other. This does not mean that we cannot show devotion to our family, our friends, and our church. It does mean that God should be first in our devotion.

If it sounds hard to love God, remember that God is a loving and compassionate God. God does not leave us to love him solely in our own strength. In his merciful kindness God supplies us with grace, grace that enables us to love him more than we can love him in our own strength alone. If we step out in faith, we will discover that God is already working in us to enable us to love him. God knows our need before we ask him.