Stumbling About for Truth

I was all set to write a post telling you the story of how even though I wrote the below post on Peace for an Advent Guide the organization I work for publishes, I have very little peace in my life. And, somewhat hypocritically, I don't follow my own prescription for peace that I wrote about. But a funny thing happened today. This was perhaps one of my more busy and stressful days I have had in the last few months. You'd think I would just implode with stress and crack under the pressure seeing as how I already don't have much peace in my life. It really shouldn't take much to put me over the edge into anger, frustration and despair. Not so. At least this time. I had a new, if only temporary, purpose at work today. I had to get a 2-3 day project done in one day. Plus I have more of the same coming up due on Monday that I haven't even gotten copy on yet. Once I got rolling, I work pretty hard all day to get the project done. I was extremely focused. And I was at peac...

I was asked to write a devotional about Peace - one of the weeks in the Advent season. I was to write for an Advent guide that the organization I work for, Buckner International, publishes each year. I was pretty excited about it as I had the chance to write for something other than my blog and its 4 or 5 readers! Well I wrote my it and it is now being used as a bible lesson rather than a devotional. The text of it is below. More tomorrow on why I am posing it here. Our Peace is Not of This World John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Peace is hard to come by in this world. It seems like there is always something just around the corner – some event that can alter our lives forever. Some unknown medical condition come to light. A sudden accident. A lost job – especially in the current economic situation we find ourselves in these days. Those are things we cannot control. We...

I was reading through Romans 8 just now and ran across this in vs. 35-37: Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he know longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? (Even the scriptures say, "For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.") No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. Overwhelming victory in Jesus! Careful now! I might begin to sound like a raving charismatic! Seriously, there is nothing more comforting to read and understand that no matter the trials we are faced with, Christ loves us. He says He is always with us - he has left us a seal to guide us - namely the Holy Spirit. We are not alone.

There is a discussion going on at Christianity Today about whether or not executives at Christian organizations should limit salaries. I have a friend there who strongly disagrees with me. In the unlikely event he shows up at my blog, he might try this article I wrote last year on why I believe what I believe: that we should not seek to limit salaries - that would be the wrong focus. Usually, when people want to limit salaries, there is jealousy on their part involved. We should instead, challenge each other to look at what we believe about money and whether or not Christ would approve of what we believe in principle and in practice.