Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for the gift of this new day. One of the readings for last Sunday was taken from Deuteronomy 34:1-12, in which Moses had vision, and not just good eyesight. People of vision can see beyond seeing.
Several years ago Robert Fulghum wrote a #1 bestseller, All I Really Need to Know I Learned In Kindergarten. Most of what he really needed to know about how to live and what to do and how to be he learned not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but in the sand pile at Sunday School. We can learn the following from the life and testimony of Moses the servant of God.
When people say you are all wet, remember that Moses began his life in a basket in the river.
Stay fit. When you're 80 years old, God might ask you to do something REALLY big.
Be nice to your brother; some day he may be your spokesman.
Let God deal with your critics.
Listen to your father-in-law; he may have good advice.
The majority is not always right.
Giants may not be as big or as bad as people say.
Speed isn't always an advantage. It took forty years to get to the Promised Land, (because it took forty years to get Egypt out of the people).
When you see fire and earthquakes on the mountain, it just might be God giving directions.
Remember that God gives just enough manna for today.
Of all the lessons we learn, the most important one is to see Christ. His work accomplished for us our need to rest in Him. That truth is borne out in this final chapter of Moses's life. As Israel is about to take possession of the Promised Land, our final glimpse of Moses is his ascending Mt. Nebo, seeing the Promised Land, but not going there himself. The ending to this long journey is surprising, even tragic. The great mouthpiece of God and Israel’s mediator, after triumphantly leading the people to their new life in the Promised Land, is suddenly taken from the scene. The irony is severe, as Moses, God's instrument of Israel's deliverance, dies without ever setting foot in the Promised Land.
As we reach the end of Deuteronomy, the end of Moses’s life, we realize that this is the end of a chapter, but not the conclusion of the story. There is so much more to come. This is the commencement, the dawning of something far more. Having concluded the second reading of the Law, having finished the listing of blessings and curses and the Covenantal obligations down on the plains of Moab, across the Jordan River, Moses ascended Mt. Nebo to Pisgah. Moses, at 120, climbed the mountain. In verse 7, we are told his eyes were not weak so, with undimmed eyes, God showed him all that He would give to him. The land that had been promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the land for which they waited 500 years and traveled for 40, was now before them. His vista is described in a counterclockwise direction.
However, as Moses saw all this Promised Land, there is a statement which, to us, appears tragic. In verse 4 it the Lord told Moses, "I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there." If anyone were to go into the land, it should have been Moses. This is tragic. He spent 120 years being groomed for this event and he stayed but a few steps shy. Still, by looking at the land Moses had been given the unique privilege of legally taking possession of the entire country on behalf of its new people. It is for this reason that he was told to look out as far as he could see in every direction and discern the geographical features of its extensive territory.
You and I have this same type of mountain top view today, seeing what is ours in the world to come. Ephesians 1:18-23 reminds us of what is ours in Christ, our inheritance that is reserved for us. 1 Peter 1:4 – "we have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you." This is what the author of Hebrews is speaking of when he writes in Hebrews 11:13-16. There is hope of heaven.
Sometimes we forget this future orientation to our faith. We want what we want now. We imagine that heaven should be our possession immediately. We want victory now, completeness today, wholeness immediately. Heaven lies before us, not in us today. God shows us those things, but often from a distance so that we do not find our satisfaction in obtaining what we desire, but that we find our satisfaction, our joy, our happiness in the God who supplies what we need.
Further, not everything given is immediately acquired. We are heirs to a rich inheritance, but some of our assured possessions belong to a land we have yet to enter. It’s sad when we insist on heaven now; we become depressed when we still wrestle with sin, when our health fails, relationships crumble. But God’s Word is clear: the best is yet to come.
In Christ,
Brown
Wish I’d Said That!
The class distinctions proper to a democratic society are not those of rank or money, still less of race, but of age.W. H. Auden
Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough.Groucho Marx
Our whole life is in three – we have our Being, then our Increasing and finally our Fulfilling. The first is Nature, the second is Compassion, and the third is Grace.Julian of Norwich
Wed, 29/10/2008 - 12:42am Fr. Bernard Digal (48) dies, GCIC mourns another martyr of Orissa
1-GCIC mourns the death of Fr. Bernard Digal- He is the First Priest of,Tiangia village in Kandhamal who was battered for the Faith.
Nearly 2 months after being brutally battered by the radical elements Fr. Bernard Digal succumed to his injuries in St. Thomas Hospital in Chennai, in Tamil Nadu.
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=13606&size=AINDIAFr. Bernard Digal dies, India mourns another martyr of Orissaby Nirmala CarvalhoThe religious was attacked on the night of August 25, by a crowd of Hindu fundamentalists who beat him and left him in the forest for an entire night. Yesterday, his lungs collapsed and he fell into a coma. At his deathbed, Archbishop Raphael Cheenath.
posted in: Current Issue, Persecution, East India
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Tue, 28/10/2008 - 1:36pm Sadhvi(hindu saint) to undergo lie-detector test today for terror plot
Tuesday, October 28, 2008, (New Delhi)Sadhvi Pragya Thakur from Madhya Pradesh, charged with plotting the Malegaon blasts, will be put under narco analysis on Tuesday.
A Nashik court has granted permission to the Maharashtra Anti-terror squad to do brain mapping and polygraph tests on the Sadhvi.
But the police say that they are still looking for the main force behind the plot. The mastermind is believed to be a man from Indore.
They say Shashikala is not the main person; she is at best an ideologue. They have also clarified that there have been no further arrests.
posted in: Current Issue, Beliefs, West India
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Tue, 28/10/2008 - 1:12pm India: Bishops issue joint statement on Orissa-Christians are afraid
BIRMINGHAM - Orissa:27 October 2008 -
The Catholic Bishops of Orissa along with the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, (CBCI) the apex body of the Catholic Church in India have expressed their deep anguish and pain "that even after 54 days of attacks on Christians in Kandhamal, the situation in the district and in other parts of Orissa is still tense and insecure" in a joint statement.
The bishops said that Christians are afraid to return to their villages as threats of death have forced many of them to flee in to the forest or to live in dehumanizing condition in State-run relief camps. The camps have become half-sized - not because the people have returned to their respective villages, but because they have migrated to other districts and other states in search of safety. Christians of Kandhamal have lost faith in the State Government and they feel that their fundamental right to live has been totally taken away by the constitutionally elected Government.
posted in: Current Issue, , East India
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Mon, 27/10/2008 - 2:48pm Church burnt in Belgaum, Karnataka
On 26th October 2008 around 1.30 a.m., Telugu Brethren Christian Assemblies Church was set on fire in R.A. Line Camp Belgaum. This Church about 18 years old consisting 150 members. Mr. Yabu and A Paul are the elders of this Church. Petrol was used to burn the Church.
Complaint is given at Camp Police Station but FIR is not filed.
posted in: Current Issue, Persecution, South India
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Mon, 27/10/2008 - 10:33am Statement made by Sr. Meena to the media at the Indian Social Institute, New Delhi, on October 24, 2008.
On 24th August, around 4.30 pm, hearing the shouting of a large crowd, at the gate of Divya Jyoti Pastoral Centre, I ran out through the back door and escaped to the forest along with others. We saw our house going up in flames. Around 8.30 p.m. we came out of the forest and went to the house of a Hindu gentle man who gave us shelter.
On 25th August, around 1.30 p.m., the mob entered the room where I was staying in Prahald's house, one of them slapped me on my face, caught my hair and pulled me out of the house. Two of them were holding my neck to cut off my head. Others told them to take me out to the road, I saw Fr. Thomas Chellan also being taken out and being beaten. The mob consisting of 40-50 men was armed with lathis, axes, spades, crowbars, iron rods, sickles etc. They took both of us to the main road. Then they led us to the burnt down Jan Vikas building saying that they were going to throw us into the smoldering fire.
posted in: Current Issue, Persecution, East India
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ATM
A new sign in the Bank Lobby reads:
"Please note that this Bank is installing new Drive-through ATM machines enabling customers to withdraw cash without leaving their vehicles. Customers using this new facility are requested to use the procedures outlined below when accessing their accounts.
After months of careful research, MALE and FEMALE procedures have been developed.
Please follow the appropriate steps for your gender:
MALE PROCEDURE
1. Drive up to the cash machine.2. Put down your car window.3. Insert card into machine and enter PIN.4. Enter amount of cash required and withdraw.5. Retrieve card, cash and receipt.6. Put window up. 7. Drive off.
FEMALE PROCEDURE
1. Drive up to cash machine.2. Reverse and back up the required amount to align car window with the machine.3. Set parking brake, put the window down.4. Find handbag, remove all contents on to passenger seat to locate card.5. Tell person on cell phone you will call them back and hang up.6. Attempt to insert card into machine.7. Open car door to allow easier access to machine due to its excessive distance from the car.8. Insert card.9. Re-insert card the right way.10. Dig through handbag to find diary with your PIN written on the inside back page.11. Enter PIN.12. Press cancel and re-enter correct PIN.13. Enter amount of cash required.14. Check makeup in rear view mirror.15. Retrieve cash and receipt.16. Empty handbag again to locate wallet and place cash inside.17. Write debit amount in check register and place receipt in back of checkbook.18. Re-check makeup.19. Drive forward 2 feet.20. Reverse back to cash machine.21. Retrieve card.22. Re-empty hand bag, locate card holder, and place card into the slot provided.23. Give dirty look to irate male driver waiting behind you.24. Restart stalled engine and pull off.25. Redial person on cell phone.26. Drive for 2 to 3 miles.27. Release Parking Brake.
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