A Living Memorial!

Memorial Day was Monday of this week. A day off for many, all in the Midwest, not so much here. The unofficial start to summer with vacations, pool openings, trips and sleeping in for children and school workers. Memorial Day is surrounded by images and remembrances of those who paid the ultimate price for this nation in giving their lives in service of this country and its ideals. Those who never came and home but also those who did. We remember their service and with inadequate words try to honor their service with “Thank You.” The simplest things or words often are discounted as less meaningful.

Thank you seems so small but no words can express true gratitude. We try to pay honor through memorials made of paper in recognition of an act or actions or in stone pillars and monuments to remember. We may also make memorials made of wood, not simple by any means just try carving stone or wood into something that looks like something. We try to make it fitting but it never really fits!

In Christianity we have the memorial of wood, the cross, the memorial of stone the empty tomb and most importantly the memorial of life, the risen Jesus. It is life and living that memorializes the actions of God. It was the life given that paid for the sin not the wood of the cross. It was the life returned that conquered death and the grave not the stone of the tomb. It is the LIFE that gives hope and meaning and purpose for a follower of Jesus. No other memorial is fitting except a life lived to the fullest and clearest walking in the shadow maybe the footsteps of Jesus.

This past Memorial Day one of the stations had a marathon of war movies. I watched a few minutes of one I had never seen. It was not one of the “happy beat back” movies but rather one of individual soldiers living and fighting in the aftermath of battles and brokenness. They were living. Saving Private Ryan begins and ends with scenes from the largest military cemetery outside of the United States located in Normandy, France overlooking Omaha beach. The story is of a military unit looking for and fighting to find one soldier to take him home. They struggle with the purpose and the price for such an action though out the movie. The movie concludes with and older private Ryan bringing his family and extended family before the cross marker of the unit’s commander to show it was worth it. Private Ryan lived his life to honor their sacrifice to get him home. His family was evidence of that living memorial.

As we go about each day is our life a memorial to our family, our nation and most importantly our Savior.

Do I/you live in such a way to prove their sacrifice was worth it?

What needs to change and what is the first step to change?

In HIS Service and Yours,

Bro G

Prayer provokes the power!

A divided Supreme Court ruled Monday (May 5) that legislative bodies such as city councils can begin their meetings with prayer, even if it plainly favors a specific religion. The court ruled 5 to 4 that Christian prayers said before meetings of an Upstate New York town council did not violate the constitutional prohibition against government establishment of religion; the justices cited history and tradition. The case involved the New York town of Greece, just outside Rochester, where the council regularly opened its meetings with a prayer delivered by someone from the community. The speakers were recruited from local houses of worship, which were overwhelmingly Christian.  By Robert Barnes, Published: May 5 http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-upholds-legislative-prayer-at-council-meetings/2014/05/05/dc142ede-cf9d-11e3-b812-0c92213941f4_story.html

The lawsuit was filed by two residents who objected on constitutional grounds. We see these cases all the time nationally and locally. Prayer proves power or at least the desire to use power in some way.

Prayer has great power and should be stopped!

A couple of things struck me about the reaction of people in this nation to prayer in the public setting. Here two individuals (one Jewish and the other atheist) were moved to the point to file suit against the city and see it through the appeal process all the way to the highest court in the land. Those actions seem to indicate a belief on their part that prayer has great power and should be stopped. Seems odd to me especially for an atheist (one who believes there is no god) to be so concerned about an action directed at and to nothing! From that perspective what difference does it make? Evidently it makes a difference, so their actions say.

Prayer what difference does it make?     

This is perhaps more troubling than the first. What concerns me is the attitude of those who DO believe in the power of prayer. We take it for granted. We act like it is of little importance. We complain that the government took prayer out of schools. No, we did. We stopped praying or never got around to it or were too busy. We failed to teach our children to pray before a test. Because we don’t. We ranted and raved instead of calling on God who is the POWER to change our hearts and the hearts of others. Our actions indicate a perspective that believes prayer make little to no difference!

Prayer, it changes everything!

It is not the act of praying that changes anything but God who changes everything. In prayer we communicate in a deeply personal, intimate level. Aligning our minds and hearts to THE heart that loves us so. Prayer tunes us into the ways of the Kingdom of God which are so vastly different from the ways of this world in which we are immersed. A believer is being fitted and shaped into a heavenly citizen. Prayer provides the opportunity to recalibrate our minds to the heavenly completion. Prayer provokes us to participate with the power of God to redeem this world. Prayer makes all the difference and has to be practiced to release the power.

Have you been practicing? It’s a good time to start regardless of *SCOTUS.

In HIS Service and Yours,

Bro G

*Supreme Court of the United States