There's An Understanding Of Common Prayer That

Most Of The Ugliness In The Human Narrative Comes From A Distorted Quest To Possess Beauty. Coveting Begins With Appreciating Blessings: Murder Begins With A Hunger For Justice. Lust Begins With A Recognition Of Beauty. Gluttony Begins When Our Enjoyment Of The Delectable Gifts Of God Starts To Consume Us. Idolatry Begins When Our Seeing A Reflection Of God In Something Beautiful Leads To Our Thinking That The Beautiful Image Bearer Is Worthy Of Worship.

Maybe We Are A Little Crazy. After All, We Believe In Things We Don't See. The Scriptures Say That Faith Is "being Sure Of What We Hope For And Certain Of What We Do Not See" (heb. 11:1). We Believe Poverty Can End Even Though It Is All Around Us. We Believe In Peace Even Though We Hear Only Rumours Of Wars. And Since We Are People Of Expectation, We Are So Convinced That Another World Is Coming That We Start Living As If It Were Already Here.

A Pastor Friend Of Mine Said, "our Problem Is That We No Longer Have Martyrs. We Only Have Celebrities.

I Have This Certain Reluctance When It Comes To This Idea That We Are Spiritual But Not Religious And We Want Jesus But Not The Church. Why Can't We Have Both?

There Are Folks Who Burn The Koran And Hold Signs Saying, "god Hates Fags" And All Sorts Of Sick Things - And They Often Hijack The Headlines With Hatred. We Know That Is Not What Christ Was Like.