Motivational: Broken Dishes and Barack

Broken Dishes and Barack

Written by Roger Wright

Continued from page 1
Barack Obama's smile reflected repparttar

other man's own and while repparttar 122693

applause got louder upstairs and turned into a stomping of repparttar 122694

feet that drummed into repparttar 122695

very foundation of repparttar 122696

old political rooms so hard that even repparttar 122697

ghosts of all those old dealmakers kept watching. And what they saw was Barack Obama and Santiago Cruz picking up repparttar 122698

pieces of

shattered breakfast dishes until repparttar 122700

job was done. This Wednesday morning it looks as though repparttar 122701

world might be looking at those of us in repparttar 122702

United States with a head shaking bafflement. Just WHAT were these American’s THINKING! Or more precisely, just what were JUST under one half of them thinking. The story that came first on repparttar 122703

radio was of repparttar 122704

Oklahoma senators who want to simply ban ALL abortions. Then they want to make sure that no one who is gay or an unwed mother be allowed to teach in a public school. That compassion stands missing from repparttar 122705

national ethic is a given. The forecast calls for a lot of broken dishes on repparttar 122706

floor. But in repparttar 122707

dark morning of such a demoralizing loss-here on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago--praying not for easy lives: but instead for repparttar 122708

strength to meet what life brings: I found myself somehow in line for coffee and newspapers at repparttar 122709

exact same time as Greg. Don't remember what we said. Really doesn't matter. What does matter is that there we both were, two guys from repparttar 122710

same church home--matter of fact repparttar 122711

same church home that was ALSO repparttar 122712

SAME denomination of Barack Obama. . . . .there we were in repparttar 122713

very same line at repparttar 122714

very same time. Both of us in that line ready to help pick up repparttar 122715

broken dishes. Very same line at repparttar 122716

very same time. As if it was a message: that God is still speaking. Speaking. Speaking.

Roger Wright can be found on the salon.com blog CHURCH FOOD CHICAGO

Thoughts on the Road to Emmaus

Written by Staci Stallings

Continued from page 1

However, we have repparttar choice to open our eyes and commit ourselves to do God’s work here on earth. Rather than judging, we can reach out to repparttar 122692 lost souls—not by telling them about God's love, but by showing them how great God’s love is. Witnessing by how we live and how we treat one another, so that they look to us and say, "I want to be like them. I want what they have." And then maybe God's grace will touch their hearts and make them ask, "How do I get it? What do they have that I don't?"

But living this way hinges on whether or not we see Jesus in every single person we happen to walk down a path with in our day-to-day lives. When we look at another person, do we see someone who is worthy of Christ’s message? Someone whom God loves beyond measure? Do we see Jesus Himself—lost, hurting, and alone? Or do we see just another person.

I tell you truly, whatever you did not do for one of repparttar 122693 least of these, you did not do for me. —Matthew 25:45

Think about repparttar 122694 inherent admonition in these words. Our goal should be to treat others not as we want to be treated but as we would treat Jesus Himself. That is God's real work. We are commissioned to spend our time ministering to God’s children—rather than trying to improve our status in His eyes or to impress one another.

By opening our eyes to Jesus’ presence in repparttar 122695 those around us, we will come to see His spirit manifesting in our own lives. And thus we can say as repparttar 122696 disciples did at repparttar 122697 conclusion to repparttar 122698 Emmaus story,

“Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on repparttar 122699 road . . .”—Luke 24:32

Open your eyes. This opportunity is with you right now. Don’t waste this chance to get to know repparttar 122700 Jesus who is in your midst at this very moment.

None

<Back to Page 1