March 2022

There are moments in time were thoughts, phrases, questions and or stories grab our attention and refuse to leave. Here are just a few with some of my thoughts.

The Parable of the Prayer Nag (Luke 18:1-8)

Jesus is quite clear that as believers we should pray and never give up. The Apostle Paul reinforces Christ’s words in that we should pray continuously; or in other words we should have an attitude of prayer throughout our day and lives.

There was judge in town who could care less about people and most likely would call himself an atheist. However, this judge was unaware of who was about to come to his office. A widow who is not named repeatedly cried out to him, “give me justice in this ordeal I have going on with my enemy.” Day, after day she showed up at the judge’s office bright and early, and repeated, “give me justice in this ordeal I have going on with my enemy.”

The godless, unkind judge could no longer ignore her plea. The widow’s repetitive request drove the unkind judge crazy.

What is it that you keep praying to God about? When your prayers are not answered in the moment what does it look like to continue to trust God who is good, kind, and loving?

Billie Eilish & The Emperor’s New Clothes

Every so often there is a voice of reason and truth that comes from an individual that no one saw coming.

In a recent interview Billie Eilish, the popular American singer and songwriter said these words, “porn destroyed my brain.” It messed me up. It gave me nightmares. It made me compare myself to others, and it implied things that I thought was not the norm. It crossed boundaries. It was simply abusive. All along everyone I knew said it was cool, it was o.k., it was the thing to watch. What’s the big deal? (paraphrase)

There is a Literary Folktale called, The Emperor’s New Clothes. To make a long story short an Emperor loved fine clothing. Two men lied to him and told him that their clothing was the finest, even magical. The swindlers told him that when their clothes are worn, they would appear invisible to everyone else because they were stupid and incompetent. As the clothes were being made The Emperor sends two of his people to check on their progress. Each of the helpers see nothing but do not want to admit it due to being called stupid or incompetent.

One day The Emperor wore his new clothes as he marched before his entire Kingdom. All the people realized he had no clothes on, but out of fear, peer pressure or not wanting to be called incompetent or stupid they applauded their Emperor.

Finally, it takes a child to scream. “Look, The Emperor is not wearing any clothes.”

2 Lollipops

There is a story of a camera man who visited an African village ravaged by famine and malnutrition. He came upon a little boy suffering from its effects and handed the little boy two lollipops. Immediately this little boy put one of the lollipops in his mouth. As the camera man was focusing his camera to take a picture of this child, the boy took the extra lollipop, held it out in his hand, and offered it to the camera man.

The child had nothing to eat, but when he was given two lollipops, he offered one to someone else. It reminds me of the words of John the Baptist when he introduces Jesus to the world, “The crowds asked, “What should we do?’ John replied, “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with the hungry.” (Luke 3:10-11)

Moving towards Jesus, Pastor Rich