The Apologetic of Now by Jill Carattini

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. 2 Corinthians 4:5

Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
John 13:35

The foundations of law and order have collapsed. What can the righteous do?”
Psalm 11:3

But the Lord is in his holy Temple; the Lord still rules from heaven. He watches everyone closely, examining every person on earth. Psalm 11:4

The need for a coherent and compelling apologetic is reiterated daily. From time to time, it is a need I meet with despair. How do you present the gospel when words are constantly being redefined and the lines between fiction and reality are spoken of interchangeably? ... It is not my ability to communicate or my winsome personality, but the gospel itself that speaks with power, and it is this power that speaks in my life: "For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus's sake" (2 Corinthians 4:5). It is a mindset imperative not only in understanding the Christian story, but the very nature of truth itself. Namely, that which is real, that which exists and has meaning, exists whether we choose to stand beside it or not. Even in the throes of postmodernity, Jesus is Lord and the gospel is powerful. And this we forget when we focus on our ability or inability to answer powerfully the current line of questioning.

C.S. Lewis once asked, "Where, except in the present, can the eternal be met?" In my dismay over the immeasurable need for truth and coherence, in my frustration for lack of words, and despair for not seeming to get through, I fail to live entirely in the present. Whether wishing I had paid more attention in philosophy or hoping to find one more book on effective ministry, I fail to remember that within the hope of the kingdom I want to bring even on an airplane is the person of Christ, present and relevant today...What are we communicating to our neighbors right now?

Comments: I want to be "All-in". A shining example of one who is all-in is Kirk Cameron. Whether you agree with his method in way of the master, or even if you do not think him to be a great actor. We must agree that he is all in for Christ. I remember seeing a news story about how tired and raveged he was after several hours of questioning from an audience. I remember seeing him simply spent and saying something like, "I knew this would be tough, but I didn't realize there would be so many angry people."

Like Kirk, no matter what pressures comes our way, may we, having done all to stand, Stand. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:18

Memorials of Faith or Fear? by Margaret Manning

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. 1 John 4:18

...In some ways, a culture of fear invaded our nation on 9/11, just as it often invades my heart. Even as I write this, fears over our economy loom large as investment banks fold and the stock market declines. There are always fears, but as people of Christian faith, what do our fears say of our witness in this world? What do they say about what we love and value? Do our lives memorialize what we are afraid of, rather than giving witness to the God who tells us “fear not”? Oh, fear is real--there are always situations, issues, and trends that keep us awake at night. The issue is not the absence of fear, but whether or not our posture toward our world is one that memorializes fear or faith. Memorials are not built to help us hang on to fear. Rather, they remind us of what or who we love. The epistle of John encourages us to build a memorial of faith: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out all fear” (1 John 4:18). As we think about this kind of love, may our own hearts be filled to overflowing with faith that conquers our fears.

Comments: Last week our fellow COUGAR, Pat Castle, heard the news that his family had been in a car accident. Brian Curtis, a fellow Cougar, has a mom with cancer. Across our world, child trafficking is an epidemic. I cannot think of three things that would cause more fear in my life than those listed above.

I used to think that the opposite of love was hate. Nonetheless, today's verse speaks to the idea that the opposite of love is fear.

How can I develop such a perfect love for God and for my brothers and sisters that I do not fear, cancer, abduction and pain? I think the answer lies in our closeness to God Himself. If we can hear God speak to us, and if we love and trust His decisions, how could we fear?

For why fear man who can only kill the body? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

I am almost finished with William P. Young's book, 'The Shack'. It is a compelling read and a roller coaster of fear/anger/trust. It is a novel, not a theological text, but I do highly recommend reading it. I think it is something that would be worthwhile purchasing several copies and giving them out.

Love you in Christ,
Chad

The Lost by Jill Carattini

Sorry you got this before it was finished - I accidentally hit the enter key.


Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

Am I a God who is only close at hand?” says the Lord.
“No, I am far away at the same time.
Can anyone hide from me in a secret place?
Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?”
says the Lord. Jeremiah 23:23-24

...I wonder how often I behaved similarly with life, drawing fences around questions that haunt or convictions I don't want to see, hiding sin or sorrow until it is forgotten. How often are we the cause of our own blindness or the hands that work to conceal the thing we need most to see? We are so easily misled by own distractions, lost by our own intentions--while our truest thoughts are like hidden cemeteries in the great worlds we build for ourselves.

For centuries, God has been calling us out of these hidden worlds and lost ways. Since Eden, God has been positing the question to people hiding behind trees: "Where are you?" (Genesis 3:9). As with Adam, it is not for God's sake that God inquires--it is you and I who need to be asked. The Father knows precisely where we are, and yet He seeks the lost, longing to gather them unto Himself like a hen gathers her chicks. To those who are hiding from themselves and from Him, He calls them to love with all their heart, soul, and mind. To those who have forgotten, He urges them to remember. To those who do not see, He moves them to sight. And to those who are lost, the Father sends the Son to save. "For the Son of Man was sent to seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10)

I Would Not Have Known by Jill Carattini

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

I did not recognize him as the Messiah, but I have been baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel.” John 1:31

...I wonder how often I do not see the person in front of me--the loved one, the colleague, the friend I sell short as an image bearer of God. John was so taken with what God revealed about Jesus that he realized he had never really known him. This distant cousin, present at family gatherings and near on holidays, was the Lord, the one he had been waiting for all his life. Without questioning God, without doubting Jesus, John immediately reframed his perspective and bowed before the Lamb of God. For the remainder of his days, John gave this testimony of Jesus: "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me... I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God" (John 1:32-34).

How quick are we to adjust our eyes to what God would have us to see in the person beside us? If we are unwilling to let God transform the world before our eyes, there will be people we will never really know, dynamics that will go unnoticed, signs we will miss completely. In the kingdom of God, astonishment should not surprise us.

The Big Narrative by I'Ching Thomas

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Matthew 28:19

...If you are part of the body of Christ, then you, too, have a role in this big narrative. When we consider our faith within the framework of time and history, we see why it is necessary to share the story, to live out the Great Commission. And we see why Paul was wary of silence: "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:16). The good news of life as God intended is a story crying to be heard in every nation, tribe, and language. May it be so.

Comments: Break my heart for what breaks yours oh Lord.

Our Father by Jill Carattini

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
John 14:2-3

...such is the startling, radical message of Christ. There is a Father who knows you by name, in whose house you are invited to be who you are, to live and work and play as God created you. There is a Father who waits, who longs to gather his children together and take them into his arms. Some will be transformed, some will be broken, some will refuse to be gathered. But God offers us a place, positioned within the greater offer of adoption. He is our Father whose name is hallowed and whose kingdom we seek, whom we know through the Son and worship as children. His name is Abba.

Comments: In his new book titled, "The Shack", William P. Young depicts God as saying, "And let's say that I know it will take you forty-seven situations and events before you will actually hear me-that is, before you will hear clearly enough to agree with me adn change. So when you don't hear me the first time, I'm not frustrated or disappointed. I'm thrilled. Only forty-six more times to go. And that first time will be a building block to construct a bridge of healing that one day-that today-you will walk across." Ch 13 ppg187

Contours of Grace

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, Lost Son
Luke Ch 15

Some of us are so familiar with it (the story of the Prodigal Son) that we might even fail to see the rich contours of grace presented in its narrative. Familiarity with the story assumes its central figure to be a son who leads a wasteful and extravagant life. But a careful reading presents the multi-faceted contours of God's extravagant display of grace towards all wayward sons and daughters.
...it is a prodigal, or wastefully extravagant, grace. The prodigal nature of the father's grace compels him to keep looking for his son--he saw him while he was still a long way off. And despite being disowned by his son, the father feels compassion for him. With wasteful abandon, the father picks up his long garments, exposing his legs and customarily shaming himself, and runs to his son to embrace him and welcome him home. The father orders a grand party for this son who has been found, "who was dead and has begun to live"--brought to life by the rich, grace of God, a prodigal grace, both unexpected and undeserved.
But the prodigal nature of God's grace is also a disruptive grace. God's grace disrupts and sometimes even offends our sense of justice. It seems unjust, for example, that such an extravagant party was thrown for such a reckless, rebellious son. It seems equally unjust that the faithful older brother was not celebrated in the same way as his wayward, younger sibling. Clearly, the prodigal nature of God's grace disrupts us because of how it is given--extravagantly and seemingly wastefully.
...
The final contour of God's grace is perhaps the most obvious point in Jesus's parables. God's grace is a seeking grace. God's grace searches relentlessly until what is lost is found. The prodigal nature of the father's grace compels him to keep looking for his son and to feel nothing but compassion when he finds him. With abandon, the father runs towards the son who was lost and now is found! If this story didn't make the seeking nature of grace obvious enough, Jesus follows it with two other stories about a lost sheep and a lost coin. In both, a relentless search for what is lost ensues until it is found.

If you've lost the wonder of God's grace by over-familiarity to the story, may you rediscover the rich contours of grace--prodigal, disruptive, and relentless in its pursuit of you. If you have never known the richness of God's grace, may that grace find you today!

Comments: Is there some way that you can give unexpected and undeserved grace today? Perhaps something that takes someone off guard because it is so freely given? Seek out this way. For it is the way of Jesus.

When God Was Hungry by Jill Carattini

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

(Matthew 25:41-43)

"There are no ordinary people," said Lewis. "You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit." - C.S. Lewis memorial oration given at Oxford University Church in 1941

Scripture is replete with reasons to live in perpetual awareness of the image of God around us. Our neighbors--known and unknown--are of the same birthright as we. As the New Testament puts it, we are all God's offspring..
Few of us have had someone physically knock on our door asking for food and water. But all of us have had someone knock on our door...

What would the world be like if we took Jesus at his word? "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you invited me in." What would happen if Christians everywhere treated everyone they came in contact with as if they were treating Christ himself? Lewis gives us an idea: "This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously--no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.... Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses."

The great metaphor of a world of souls confronts us daily in literal flesh. And the King is still replying: I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these siblings of mine, you did for me.

Comments: May we endeavor to give dignity to those we come in contact with. May your light shine.

Does the Bible Condone Slavery? by L.T. Jeyachandran

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

"Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.

(Exodus 23:9)

lamentably, it must be admitted that the Church has taken many centuries to live out what Scripture taught long ago, and no doubt we continue to drag our feet. The time delay between the Word of Scripture and its implementation in society is often due to the “holy huddle” mentality prevailing among Christians who are largely unconcerned about issues outside of their immediate periphery. Another reason many Christians continue to remain silent in the face of injustice is the platonic view of the cosmos we have adopted, implying that life in the hereafter is the only issue to be addressed, while we watch the world go by in its destructive way. Both mentalities are sadly misguided.

Those of us who say that we believe the Bible to be the Word of God have to raise our level of awareness and involvement regarding social issues. Having failed to do so, we have let these issues pass into the hands of those who may not be Christians, but are better informed about social injustice and concerned enough to fight wrong practices through legal means. While they have no logical basis to do what they are doing, the real tragedy is that we who do have a basis to address these issues remain largely indifferent. May the Lord of Scripture open our eyes to see that God is interested in the redemption of the whole of creation and not just disembodied souls and spirits!

In Remembrance by Jill Carattini

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

"This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD -a lasting ordinance. (Exodus 12:13-14)

Israel's history is wrought with commands to remember. God told the Israelites that they would remember the night of Passover before the night had even happened. From that day onward, celebrating the Passover was nonnegotiable, and with good reason. God had spared his people by the blood of a lamb. From that day onward, the command was passed down from generation to generation: "You shall remember this day as a statute forever" (Exodus 12:17). And so they remembered the Passover each year.

But just as we recall more than the wedding itself on an anniversary, the act of birth on a child's birthday, or the grave events of a tragic day in history, the Israelites were remembering far more than the act of Israel's exodus from Egypt; they were remembering God Himself--the faithful hand that moved and moves among them, the mighty acts which indeed shout of God's timely remembering of God’s people. They were remembering God among them.

Centuries later, the disciples sat around the table celebrating their third Passover meal with Jesus, an observance they kept long before they could walk. Everything perhaps looked ceremoniously familiar. The smell of lamb filled the upper room; the unleavened bread was prepared and waiting to be broken. Remembering again the acts of God in Egypt, the blood on the doorposts, the lives spared and brought out of slavery, they looked at their teacher as he lifted the bread from the table and gave thanks to God. Then Jesus broke the bread, and gave it to them, saying something entirely new: "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19).

I have always wished that Luke would have described a little more of the scene that followed. Did a hush immediate fall over the room? Were the disciples once again confused at his words? Or did their years of envisioning the blood-marked doorposts cry out at the Lamb without defect before them?

They had spent their entire lives remembering the sovereignty of God in the events of the Passover, and on this day, Jesus tells them that there is yet more to see: In this Passover lamb, in this the broken bread is the reflection of me. As you remember God in history, so remember me. For on this day, God is engraving across all of time the promise of Passover: “I still remember you.”

From this day onward, the disciples celebrated Passover with a new call to remember. Might we similarly be ready to remember, and wary to miss, all that weights these days with hope. For to be sure, to forget what was witnessed in the upper room on that Passover in history carries the force of forgetting so much more.

Scandalous Windows by Jill Carattini

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down,
That the mountains might quake at Your presence--
As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil--
To make Your name known to Your adversaries,
That the nations may tremble at Your presence!
When You did awesome things which we did not expect,
You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence.
For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear,
Nor has the eye seen a God besides You,
Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.
You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness,
Who remembers You in Your ways
Behold, You were angry, for we sinned,
We continued in them a long time;
And shall we be saved?
For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;
And all of us wither like a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls on Your name,
Who arouses himself to take hold of You;
For You have hidden Your face from us
And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.
But now, O LORD, You are our Father,
We are the clay, and You our potter;
And all of us are the work of Your hand. (Isaiah 64:1-8)

It is reminiscent of Bonhoeffer’s description of a mining accident and the hope of the Incarnation as the distinct sound of knocking to those trapped beneath the weight of the earth. There is someone coming, and he is calling your name.

The great window of a torn-open heavens and the massive ladder of a God who descends are the expectant images that remind us God is scandalously near. Picturing this hope, our imaginations can run wild at the thought of quaking mountains, awesome deeds, and great reversals we did not expect. But so these windows and ladders are the stirring and expectant vessels of smaller and seemingly insignificant glimpses of a God among us. Even in the soul who can admit that he is a wandering child is something of the radical reach of a Father’s love. In the company of a friend through cancer is the image of the one who is nearer than a friend.

In Isaiah’s particular cry is an invitation to pay attention to the unlikely and the unexpected in the great things of history and the small things of our daily lives. Isaiah’s particular cry is an invitation to hear the cries of those before us as well as the cries of our hearts, which may just be answered by the cry of God Himself. Indeed, how scandalous is the image of the infant Christ looking up at his young mother, his cries joining humanity’s own. There was a particular moment in history when humanity heard God weep. And there will be a day in history when this same Christ will dry every tear from our eyes.

Information War by Margaret Manning

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32)

Ultimately, the truth of the gospel sets us free and liberates us from fear as we follow Jesus. Liberation can serve as our guidepost as we persevere against fear, divisiveness, and a propensity to judge first and listen later--especially towards those enlisted in the same battalion. Our Lord’s words were that we should abide, remain, and rest in him because even the gates of hell--in whatever form they take--would not prevail. Abiding in Christ liberates us to seek the truth through the sea of information, and frees us from the fear of being ensnared by it. Yes, abiding, liberating, and remaining in Christ may seem a simple response to the onslaught of the information war--maybe even simplistic. But perhaps it is necessary regardless, and somehow, by God's grace, it is corrective as well. In the war of information, the truth of Christ cuts a clear path and issues a clarion call. Our confidence is found in Jesus--confidence that liberates rather than wounds, confidence that inspires us to speak the truth in love to a world warring over information.


Comments: About a week ago I decided that I wanted to bathe my wife in the WORD of God so that she would be overflowing with the truth when an onslaught of information comes her way. (So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Romans 10:17) I have begun listening to 'the Daily Audio Bible' podcast the past few days and I am already seeing the 'benefits' of hearing the word of Christ. There was a verse that came up two or three times in my devotional episodes yesterday. I have always wanted God to give me appropriate versus for situations but rarely have I felt like I could recall scripture the way God would have me do it. However, yesterday, I was able to 'hopefully' encourage a fellow minister through this verse. The verse was at the top of my mind because I was bathing myself in the Word.

If you are struggling with doubt or questions, may I encourage you to begin bathing yourself in the Word of God. Faith through hearing! Try the Daily Audio Bible podcast, or some other form of getting the WORD into you. In the famed words of Michael Jackson, JUST EAT IT!


Prayers: My Aunt Barb is in Rehab. Kathy Curtis, the wife of my childhood pastor and good friend of my parents, has been diagnosed with cancer in her Lymph nodes. Widows and Orphans. Justice. Our leadership.

As Is by Jill Carattini

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.
You do not want a burnt offering.
The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. (Psalm 51:16-17)

Brokenness is usually not something we are comfortable admitting, let alone presenting it as something that is pleasing to anyone. Whether in ourselves or in others, we are at times almost averse to fragility. Even as Christians who hold knowingly to the cruciform image of Christ, we seem distinctly uncomfortable with broken and grieving people, defeated and weakened lives. Yet it is by the Cross we live

Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5)

Such words run counter to cultures anywhere and everywhere Isn't it strange that we who are saved by one who was broken should struggle in the presence of brokenness at all?

Like the psalmist, the apostle points to the great potential within fragility. "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body (2 Corinthians 4:7-10).

Whether we come to God shattered by our own sin, like David, or broken from living in an imperfect world, we are never so near Him as when we come with nothing in our hands to offer. God's desire is that we would come as we are--weary or heavy laden, defeated or broken by life. Before the Cross, there is no lost cause or irreparable flaw. For in life, as in an antique shop, there would be no recognition of brokenness if there were not such a thing as wholeness.

In No Strange Land by Jill Carattini

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, that the mountains would quake at your presence!” (Isaiah 64:1).

A Slice of Infinity 'Snippets'
“[T]he failure of the elect and the called to see God’s vision, to hear God’s voice, and to rise above human goals of pride, striving, and independence adds a tragic dimension to the vision [of Isaiah]. To the bitter end a large proportion of the people cling to their version of the past as the only acceptable pattern for their present and their future. They demand that God conform to their concept of what his plans ought to be and thus preclude themselves from participation in God’s new creation.”

Both Thompson (see poem below) and Isaiah use the power of image and metaphor to bid us to look again and again, and learn to live as eyes of the kingdom. While it is true that God sometimes comes down and unmistakably transforms time and place, other times we fail to see the sacred in our midst simply because we do not want to see anything subtle. We pass over what God has extended, whether a sign of grace, a moment of transcendence, or a richer lifetime of seeing his presence. And we ironically miss the images of God all around us within a world that is made in God's image. As the unlikely poet laments:

Let's endeavor to add one person to our prayers this week.

The poem is titled “In No Strange Land” and was written by a man whose life oscillated between brilliant writer and homeless addict. Francis Thompson lived on the streets of England, slaking his opium addiction in London's Charing Cross and sleeping on the banks of the River Thames.

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-no-strange-land/

The Prophet and the Newspaper by Jill Carattini

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, that the mountains would quake at your presence!” (Isaiah 64:1).


A Slice of Infinity 'Snippets'
“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity” (64:6-7).

It is unavoidable when looking at injustice--even weeping over injustice--to cry foul at the other team, the other group, the other side. There are also times when looking at injustice that we would put God Himself in the dock, interrogating the one we deem distant and responsible. Yet in this incessant finger-pointing, however justifiable it might seem, we fail to see the unjust things we do ourselves, our own inconsistencies, our own ironic ways of persecuting--indeed, our own ways of contributing to the very things we lament. The ancient cry of Isaiah is one that is rightfully weighted with both an awareness of the injustice around him and admittance of his people’s own depravity, of their own guilt. Reading the prophet’s words with our daily newspaper in hand, we might well see the importance of adding to our cries for the injustice of West Africa the lament over our own involvement--and the will to turn this, too, around.

“Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD,
and do not remember our iniquity forever.
But consider now: we are all your people” (64:8).

Indeed, Isaiah’s vision of a world that revolves around the kingship of God at the center of all things is a vision that pivots on the urgency of the present moment, shaped not by nostalgia for what once was, but remembrance for who God was, and is, and ever will be. Again and again, God stirs us back to the urgency of the present. Again and again, the Cross reminds us of the fierce urgency of now within a world in need not of more pointing fingers and dividing speeches, but of people willing to rise and work as if now we are all God’s people.

Let's endeavor to add one person to our prayers this week.