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.

The Apologists first question - by Ravi Zacharias

Take about 5 minutes to read this snippets version of The previous day's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Follow up by reading TODAY'S SLICE and forward any comments on your faith journey.

A Slice of Infinity Snippets:
I have little doubt that the single greatest obstacle to the impact of the Gospel has not been its inability to provide answers, but the failure on our part to live it out. I remember well in the early days of my Christian faith talking to a close Hindu friend. He was questioning the experience of conversion as being supernatural. He absolutely insisted that conversion was nothing more than a decision to lead a more ethical life and that, in most cases, it was not any different from other ethical religions. I had heard his argument before.

But then he said something I have never forgotten: “If this conversion is truly supernatural, why is it not more evident in the lives of so many Christians I know?”

The Irish evangelist Gypsy Smith once said, “There are five Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Christian, and some people will never read the first four.”

One ought to take time to reflect seriously upon the question, Has God truly wrought a miracle in my life? Is my own heart proof of the supernatural intervention of God?

Comments:
How often I get in the way of evangelism. I must rely on God, not my answers about God. It is for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, we have not need to be apprehensive when someone questions us. I need to not take offense when someone dogs my faith, but I should see it as opportunity to love. All too often I see it as an opportunity to dog back; when it should be an opening to love - if I truly have a supernatural conversion in my life.

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Apologetics Between Shadow and Reality by Jill Carattini

Take about 5 minutes to read this snippets version of Yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Follow up by reading TODAY'S SLICE and forward any comments on your faith journey.

PRAISE GOD AND TGIF

- One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, "Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." He said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, "We have seen remarkable things today." (Luke 5:17-26)

A Slice of Infinity snippets:
Unless we understand a person’s pain we will never understand a person’s soul.

Chad's Comments:
If you can find a persons greatest pain, you will likely find what they fear the most. If we can develop a relationship with someone, deep enough to personally touch that point of pain, we can minister to their soul.

*To comment on this thread, visit the blog.
*Read today's slice and email me with your comments/questions/prayers for
our next posting.
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*Invite friends and family to join us on this faith journey.

J.M. Njoroge-The New Atheism and Morality

Welcome God every morning by reading 'A Slice of Infinity' before work (~5 min). This daily 'snippets' version contains a quick synopsis of the daily reading. Please consider sharing your gift of faith by adding a comment at COUGARS-Daily

Verses pertinent to today's reading: What we do see is Jesus, who was given a position “a little lower than the angels”; and because he suffered death for us, he is now “crowned with glory and honor.” Yes, by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone. God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation. So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. For he said to God,

“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters.
I will praise you among your assembled people." He also said,

“I will put my trust in him,” that is, “I and the children God has given me.”

Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood.
For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had
the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. (Hebrews 2:9-1)

Slice of Infinity snippets: "Our failure to live up to what we know to be right provides empirical evidence for the need for God’s intervention in our lives."

Chad's comments: Congratulations to Capt. Dave and Mrs. Jenny Meece on the birth of Emma Grace!
See a picture of Emma on our blog.

Christian artist Aaron Shust has a song titled, 'My Savior My God'; The opening verse shows us the reality of our own lives:

I am not skilled to understand

what God has willed, what God has planned

I only know at His right hand

Stands one who is my Savior

I take Him at his word indeed (lyric?)

Christ died to save me this I read

and in my heart I find a need

of Him to be my savior

The reality of my life is that i constantly see my own sin and it reminds me of my need for Christ to be
my savior.

* Continue to make space for unbelievers
* 40 Days for Life campaign (ends 16 Mar):
* LIFE Devotions blog
* LIFE Prayers blog

Like Water Spilled

Welcome God every morning by reading 'A Slice of Infinity' before work (~5 min). This daily 'snippets' version contains a quick synopsis of the daily reading. Please consider sharing your gift of faith by adding a comment at COUGARS-Daily Remember that this email is generated from the Cougars Daily weblog.

Verses pertinent to today's reading: All of us must die eventually. Our lives are like water spilled out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God does not just sweep life away; instead, he devises ways to bring us back when we have been separated from him. (2 Samuel 14: 14)

Slice of Infinity snippets: "Ravi Zacharias once noted that God knows exactly how to exalt us without flattering us, how to humble us without humiliating us. At the image of 2 Samuel 14, his words are entirely fitting. I am at once humbled and exalted at the thought of myself as water spilled. Gathering spilled water is impossible. You and I are incapable of drying the child's tears if it means we must somehow reverse the fall of spilled milk. And yet this is exactly how the Father chooses to describe a world full of children and the means God takes to pursue them. The God of the impossible has devised a means so that the life spilled will not remain scattered. Life poured out can yet be gathered up again; what is lost can be found. As Jesus came proclaiming the great reversals of the kingdom, so he poured out his own life as a drink offering so that the lost can be gathered, the impossible made possible. Christ has done what we could never do: he has made a way to reverse what has been spilled. "

Chad's comments: Oh how many times i have spilled trust. Oh how i wish i could take it back. Thank you God for the courage to try again and thank you God for giving others the grace to trust me.

Yesterday, I was in conversation with an 86 year old retired Air Force man. He expounded on and on about how people who think they are the only ones going to heaven cannot be right. (All the Muslims and Buddhist can't be going to hell - etc.) In my morning scripture I was reading the opening chapters of Hebrews. 2:1-4 reads

1 So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. 2 For the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished. 3 So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? 4 And God confirmed the message by giving signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever he chose.

Jesus has received the just penalty for our transgressions. Everyone may believe. Our message of hope is not
only for the Jew, but also for the Gentile. For the Buddhist and Hindu, Muslim and Christian alike. Let us not
ignore or neglect so great a salvation, for truly, how could we escape?

Dale came through Hip surgery yesterday with great success. He is coherent and ready to go home.
There was a point where they were having difficulty waking him up. When he finally did, he was talking
about how he was in a race claiming, 'I won, I won'. Later, after coming to for a few minutes, he thinks
maybe he got second place. = )

Thanks for prayers that were offered on Dale's behalf.

* Continue to make space for unbelievers
* 40 Days for Life campaign (ends 16 Mar):
* LIFE Devotions blog
* LIFE Prayers blog