Mordor, The Road to Redemption; Habakkuk

May the mumbling commence!

Sometimes, it is not like father like son.  After Josiah died in battle, his son Jehoahaz came into being (also known as Shallum).  We learn from 2 Kings 23:31-37 and 2 Chronicles 36:2-5 that Jehoahaz was not the oldest (his older brother Eliakim was put on the throne of Judah by Pharaoh Neco and named Jehoiakim) and that he did evil in the Lord’s sight. 

Though Jehoahaz reigned only three months, he did much damage to the gains that his father Josiah had brought about.  It just goes to show us and remind us that what takes years and years to build can be totally destroyed in the matter of months by someone with an evil intent.  What exactly did Jehoahaz do?  Read from Jeremiah 22:13-17 –

"Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness,

       his upper rooms by injustice,

making his countrymen work for nothing,

       not paying them for their labor. 

He says, 'I will build myself a great palace

       with spacious upper rooms.'

So he makes large windows in it,

       panels it with cedar and decorates it in red. 

"Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar?

Did not your father have food and drink?

       He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. 

He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well.

Is that not what it means to know me?" declares the Lord. 

"But your eyes and your heart are set only on dishonest gain,

on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and extortion."

It matters how we get to where we are going.  Do we want to be remembered as great?  Then we must not build our wealth and power through unrighteousness and injustice – through shedding innocent blood, oppression and extortion.  These were the ways of Jehoahaz.  Through this great expense, Jehoahaz created the lap of luxury for himself at record pace.  In the Lord’s eyes, the beautiful palace of Jehoahaz reeked. 

Pharaoh Neco was once again giving the message of the Lord by removing and exiling Jehoahaz.  Perhaps Jehoahaz was not ready for being a king, but he used murder and oppression and extortion to get the throne after his father’s death. 

The Prophet Habakkuk mourned during the days of Jehoahaz.  At the beginning of his book, he mourns the destruction and violence that surrounded him.  Habakkuk pleaded for the Lord’s deliverance (1:2-3).  And God answered Habakkuk in a way that was surprising.  Read chapter one, verses 5-13:

"Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed.

For I am going to do something in your days

       that you would not believe, even if you were told. 

I am raising up the Babylonians,

       that ruthless and impetuous people,

who sweep across the whole earth

       to seize dwelling places not their own. 

They are a feared and dreaded people;

       they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor. 

Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk.

Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar.

They fly like a vulture swooping to devour;

       they all come bent on violence.

Their hordes advance like a desert wind

       and gather prisoners like sand. 

They deride kings and scoff at rulers.

They laugh at all fortified cities;

       they build earthen ramps and capture them. 

Then they sweep past like the wind and go on –

       guilty men, whose own strength is their god." 

O Lord, are you not from everlasting?

       My God, my Holy One, we will not die.

O Lord, you have appointed them to execute judgment;

       O Rock, you have ordained them to punish. 

Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;

       you cannot tolerate wrong.

Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?

Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up

those more righteous than themselves?

The Lord would purge the destruction and violence of Judah with the destruction and violence of Babylon.  Like Habakkuk, we might question why the wicked would prevail against those more righteous than them.  But the Lord does not separate levels of wickedness.  Perhaps this bitter road of restoration was the way of the Lord impressing upon the people of Judah that they were equally wicked as Babylon.  The Lord will not tolerate wickedness in any people, but God holds His people to a higher standard. 

Heal us, O Lord, so that we may take part in the healing of our land.  Calm the storms of our lives and make our way smooth (Habakkuk 3:13-15).

 

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out

Hearing the Word of the Lord from Unlikely Places; 2 Chron. 35

May the mumbling commence!

Do we recognize and listen to the Word of God when it comes to us from an unlikely place – from an unlikely person or source?  Even King Josiah had trouble doing so.  Read from 2 Chronicles 35:20-27 –

After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah marched out to meet him in battle.  But Neco sent messengers to him, saying, "What quarrel is there between you and me, O king of Judah? It is not you I am attacking at this time, but the house with which I am at war. God has told me to hurry; so stop opposing God, who is with me, or he will destroy you." 

Josiah, however, would not turn away from him, but disguised himself to engage him in battle. He would not listen to what Neco had said at God's command but went to fight him on the plain of Megiddo. 

Archers shot King Josiah, and he told his officers, "Take me away; I am badly wounded."  So they took him out of his chariot, put him in the other chariot he had and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. He was buried in the tombs of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him. 

Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah, and to this day all the men and women singers commemorate Josiah in the laments. These became a tradition in Israel and are written in the Laments. 

The other events of Josiah's reign and his acts of devotion, according to what is written in the Law of the Lord – all the events, from beginning to end, are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

Yes, even a great leader who led the people back to the Lord can be blind to the Lord’s voice when it is spoken from an unlikely source – in this case the King of Egypt.  Pharaoh Neco warned Josiah not to interfere.  He claimed that the Lord was speeding the destruction of Carchemish.  Neco told Josiah that he had no quarrel with Judah or Jerusalem.  Neco’s message was simple do not oppose me or the Lord will destroy you.

Josiah did not listen.  Josiah did not believe.  Maybe Josiah felt a duty to protect those who lived so near to him.  Maybe Josiah felt the duty to protect Judah because he feared that Judah would be next on the list for conquering by the Egyptians.  We will never know what was going through his mind at the time, but whatever it was it prevented Josiah from hearing the word of the Lord through Neco.

And Josiah went to battle.  Just as the Lord said through Neco, Josiah fell in battle.  Jeremiah and the rest of Judah were left to pick up the pieces and grieve for this great human leader.  But take note of what made Josiah great: he had listened and obeyed the Lord.  When he stopped listening and obeying, he fell from grace.

May we keep our ears and eyes open.  May we listen and hear from our hearts the word of the Lord regardless of the source.  May we test the spirits to see where they come from.  When we know they come from the Holy Spirit, may we follow them with reckless abandon – reckless faith in the Lord, who will protect us when we walk in his ways.

Enough mumbling for today…

Peace Out

Two Side to Repentance; 2 Kings 23; 2 Chron. 35

May the mumbling commence!

The coin of repentance has two equally important sides.  We see both of them clearly when we look at the life of King Josiah of Judah in both the Kings and Chronicler witnesses.  The King’s witness speaks mostly of the removal of the poison of sin.  Read from 2 Kings Chapter 23:

The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel.  He did away with the pagan priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem – those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts.  He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the Lord to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder and scattered the dust over the graves of the common people.  He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes, which were in the temple of the Lord and where women did weaving for Asherah. 

Josiah brought all the priests from the towns of Judah and desecrated the high places, from Geba to Beersheba, where the priests had burned incense. He broke down the shrines at the gates – at the entrance to the Gate of Joshua, the city governor, which is on the left of the city gate.  Although the priests of the high places did not serve at the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests. 

He desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech.  He removed from the entrance to the temple of the Lord the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the room of an official named Nathan-Melech. Josiah then burned the chariots dedicated to the sun. 

He pulled down the altars the kings of Judah had erected on the roof near the upper room of Ahaz, and the altars Manasseh had built in the two courts of the temple of the Lord. He removed them from there, smashed them to pieces and threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley.  The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption -- the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the people of Ammon.  Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones. 

Even the altar at Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin – even that altar and high place he demolished. He burned the high place and ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole also…

Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the Lord.  Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did – with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses. (Verses 4-15; 24-25)

What a long laundry list of removals!  Indeed, if one is to repent, then they must let go of all idols and destroy them and their memory.  But there is another side that the Chronicler points out to us from 2 Chronicles 35 – the other side of the coin, which is to return to the rightful worship of the Lord.  Read from the chapter below:

Josiah celebrated the Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem, and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month.  He appointed the priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of the Lord's temple.  He said to the Levites, who instructed all Israel and who had been consecrated to the Lord: "Put the sacred ark in the temple that Solomon son of David king of Israel built. It is not to be carried about on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel.  Prepare yourselves by families in your divisions, according to the directions written by David king of Israel and by his son Solomon. 

"Stand in the holy place with a group of Levites for each subdivision of the families of your fellow countrymen, the lay people.  Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves and prepare the lambs for your fellow countrymen, doing what the Lord commanded through Moses." 

Josiah provided for all the lay people who were there a total of thirty thousand sheep and goats for the Passover offerings, and also three thousand cattle – all from the king's own possessions. (Verses 1-7)

Josiah led the people and provided the animals for sacrifice so that the entire Passover celebration might happen.  What leadership King Josiah showed!  He paved the way for the people of Jerusalem, Judah, and the remnant of the kingdom of Israel to repent – to remove the poison of the sin and return to rightful worship of the Lord.  Help us to remove our sin and return to rightful worship of you, O Lord. 

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out

U-Turns Allowed; Jeremiah 16-17, 2 Kings 22, 2 Chron. 34

May the mumbling commence!

With exile close at hand, God gave the people of Judah a promise.  Read it from Jeremiah 16:14-15 –

"However, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "when men will no longer say, 'As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' but they will say, 'As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers.’”

Despite rampant unfaithfulness, the faithfulness of the Lord will continue from the past into the future.  What a promise in such a bad time!  The exile the Lord would be sending His people into was intended for restoration not for destruction.  So, why should we go anywhere else with our fears and concerns?  Read from Jeremiah 17:12-13 –

A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. 

O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame.

Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust

because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.

Without water, many things will turn to dust.  Without water, life is impossible.  You know, ashes will turn to ashes and dust to dust.  As I read this set of verses, I thought of the story recorded in the gospel of John.  People were gathering to stone a woman caught in adultery.  Jesus was asked what they should do with her.  The Law called for her (and the man with whom she committed adultery – who in this case was absent from the proceedings) to be stoned to death, but the Roman rule had removed the right for Israel to execute people.  Jesus stooped and wrote in the dirt, the dust of the ground.  And Jesus commanded the person without sin to cast the first stone (Jn. 8:1-11). 

Without the Lord Jesus in our lives, we are all written in the dust.  We all can be easily erased by the blowing of the wind (which, in Kansas, is quite prevalent).  Let us go to the Lord Jesus with all our concerns and fears and sins.  Jesus, the living water, will turn our destiny in the dust of death into a spring of living water within our very souls.  It is the great reversal.  God allows U-turns.  Read from the story of King Josiah of Judah from 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles:

Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. 

When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes.  He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king's attendant:  "Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord's anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us." 

Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to speak to the prophetess Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the Second District.  She said to them, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Tell the man who sent you to me,  'This is what the Lord says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people, according to everything written in the book the king of Judah has read.  Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and provoked me to anger by all the idols their hands have made, my anger will burn against this place and will not be quenched.'  Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, 'This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard:  Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people, that they would become accursed and laid waste, and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord.  Therefore I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place.'" (2 Kings 22:10-20a)

So they took her answer back to the king. 

Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.  He went up to the temple of the Lord with the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites – all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the Lord.  The king stood by his pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord – to follow the Lord and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, and to obey the words of the covenant written in this book. 

Then he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge themselves to it; the people of Jerusalem did this in accordance with the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. 

Josiah removed all the detestable idols from all the territory belonging to the Israelites, and he had all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God. As long as he lived, they did not fail to follow the Lord, the God of their fathers.

So, let’s turn this ship around and sail faithfully towards the Lord.  And we will turn from dust to transformed creatures of the living water.  So be it.

Enough mumbling for today…

Peace Out

Ruined Underpants; Jeremiah 13, 5-6

May the mumbling commence!

Today’s readings from the chronological Bible that I am reading from brings me to a passage that has great meaning for me.  The prophets of the Old Testament are difficult to read.  Sometimes they are difficult to read because they are hard to understand.  Sometimes they are difficult to read because I understand them – and what they are saying hits a little too close to home.  At the beginning of Jeremiah 13, the Lord asks Jeremiah to perform a symbolic action that would send a message to Israel.  Read verses 1-11 below:

            This is what the Lord said to me: "Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water."  So I bought a belt, as the Lord directed, and put it around my waist. 

            Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time:  "Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks."  So I went and hid it at Perath, as the Lord told me. 

            Many days later the Lord said to me, "Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there."  So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless. 

            Then the word of the Lord came to me:  "This is what the Lord says: 'In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.  These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt – completely useless!  For as a belt is bound around a man's waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me,' declares the Lord, 'to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.'  

This ruined linen belt to underwear, depending on the translation you are reading, was to be a bold reminder of how Israel was chasing after other gods.  In the preceding chapters, God had pointed to many different things.  They were going their own ways and throwing off the yoke of the Lord (Jeremiah 5:5).  They were lusting after others wives and coveting neighbors’ property (5:7-9).  They believed the Lord to be impotent (5:12-13).  They grew fat off the vulnerable, who they took advantage of (5:27-28).  They would not listen to the Lord, so they were ruined.  They were ruined for the task of bringing renown and praise and honor to the Lord.

But, one thing I am sure of is that God is not asking all of us to wear and not wash our underpants into oblivion.  If that is the message that you get from this passage, then you are woefully off course.  You are missing the point.

I am sure that those who witnessed my first sermon at Community Church of the Brethren of Hutchinson, Kansas, will remember this passage.  And they will remember the rap parody of General Larry Platt’s “Pants on the Ground” that I wrote and that Jud and I performed (called "Ruined Underpants").  The bottom line of the sermon was: do not be fooled by the surface events of Jesus’ cleansing of the temple.  In the act, Jesus was symbolically showing the Jewish people the coming destruction of the Temple and of worship as they had known it because they had not welcomed and shown the love of God to all people – including those on the fringes, the most vulnerable.

I spoke of a dream that I have in that sermon.  It is a dream that I continue to have.  Here is the dream from the text of my sermon: 

“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream.  I have a dream, too.  That Community Church of the Brethren, and all God’s church, can successfully communicate God’s love to all people. 

Let me say that again:  I have a dream that Community Church of the Brethren, and all God’s church, can successfully communicate God’s love to all people.” 

May it be so! 

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out

The Faithless and the Unfaithful; Jeremiah 3

May the mumbling commence!

It’s “The Faithless and the Unfaithful.”  It sounds a lot like a new soap opera.  But it is the situation on Israel and Judah respectively in the days of the prophet Jeremiah.  Which is better – to be faithless or unfaithful?  I would think that there is a measure of faith in the unfaithful, so that would be better, right?  Right?!?  Not so fast.  Read from Jeremiah 3:6-13.

            During the reign of King Josiah, the Lord said to me, "Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there.  I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it.  I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery.  Because Israel's immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.  In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense," declares the Lord. 

            The Lord said to me, "Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah.  Go, proclaim this message toward the north:

                        'Return, faithless Israel,' declares the Lord,

                                    'I will frown on you no longer,

                        for I am merciful,' declares the Lord,

                                    'I will not be angry forever. 

                        Only acknowledge your guilt –

                                    you have rebelled against the Lord your God,

                        you have scattered your favors to foreign gods

                                    under every spreading tree,

                                    and have not obeyed me,'" declares the Lord.

It is better to have no pretense than it is to do things sporadically – without rhyme or reason.  The faithless are more righteous than the unfaithful.  Think about it.  What kind of spouse would you wish for?  Would you want a faithless spouse who did nothing to hide adulteries?  Or would you wish for a deceptive spouse who carefully tries to hide the unfaithfulness of adulteries?  Less harm will come of the out rightly brazen.  This spouse can be easily seen as faithless and be sent away – just as Israel was sent first into exile.

More pain and suffering comes from the spouse who attempts to keep a pretense of love and relationship.  It is harder to let this spouse go, yet it is painful to stay in the relationship.  Little do we know what to expect from this spouse.  Trust atrophies.  The unfaithful spouse eventually falls further from grace than the faithless because more was expected of the unfaithful.

These are hard words for those of us who travel the road of faithfulness.  I am glad for Jesus walking along with me on the road of faith.  While there is much to gain, there is also much to lose.  Make no mistake – faith is a great risk.  To fall short into unfaithfulness is worse in ways than not trying at all.  I tremble at the thought.

Even as a count my blessings of my Lord and Savior Jesus in my life and the gift of the Holy Spirit, I must also acknowledge my own guilt.  Help me, O Holy Spirit, to recognize when my way of life rebels against the call of God in my life.  Help me to recognize and purge all the idols in my life so that it is easier for me to obey wholeheartedly the call of the Lord in my life.  Help me to leave all pretenses behind.  Because faith in the Lord is a risk worth taking!

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

May the mumbling commence!

The Judgment Day is a day of restorative justice.  We wait upon the Lord for His redeeming Word.  Read from Zephaniah 3:8-13 –

            “Therefore wait for me," declares the Lord,

                        "for the day I will stand up to testify.

            I have decided to assemble the nations,         

                        to gather the kingdoms

            and to pour out my wrath on them –

                        all my fierce anger.

            The whole world will be consumed

                       by the fire of my jealous anger. 

            "Then will I purify the lips of the peoples,

                        that all of them may call on the name of the Lord

                        and serve him shoulder to shoulder. 

            From beyond the rivers of Cush my worshipers,

                        my scattered people, will bring me offerings. 

            On that day you will not be put to shame

                        for all the wrongs you have done to me,

            because I will remove from this city

                       those who rejoice in their pride.

            Never again will you be haughty on my holy hill. 

            But I will leave within you the meek and humble,

                       who trust in the name of the Lord. 

            The remnant of Israel will do no wrong;

                         they will speak no lies,

                         nor will deceit be found in their mouths.

            They will eat and lie down and no one will make them afraid."

Wait on the Lord.  To wait on the Lord is, at times, excruciatingly difficult – especially when hard judgments are on the horizon.  The fierce anger and jealous wrath of the Lord will consume the entire world.  It sounds frightful – but, to what end?  The fire of the zeal of the Lord will purify.  All God’s people will be gathered and will be tested by the fire.  The dross will be removed – the prideful and the haughty. 

And the meek will inherit the earth.  (Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.)  These people are meek and humble because they trust in the name of the Lord.  No deceit will be found in them, and no one will make them afraid.  What wonderful promises for a people surrounded by threats and destruction!  Let us actively receive the call to trust in the name of the Lord and claim the promises found therein.

Do we have need of fear?  Of course we do!  But fear the Creator rather than the creation.  Read from the call of Jeremiah recorded in Chapter 1:4-10.

            The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 

                        "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

                                    before you were born I set you apart;

                                    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

"Ah, Sovereign Lord," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child." 

But the Lord said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.  Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the Lord.

Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth.  See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."

Great power has our Lord to form and create us for His purposes.  If we but trust in the Lord, great power will be entrusted to us – great power and great responsibility.  God promised to always be with Jeremiah.  God has promised to always be with us. 

Let us gather together as children of our Lord and learn to seek and trust in the Lord Jesus.  Wherever two or three is gathered, there is Jesus in our midst.  Together we can learn to trust in the Lord; divided we will fall to the wiles of Satan.  Let us gather together to learn the message God has for us to preach.  Let us scatter to our daily lives and faithfully proclaim that message – the best message of all The Good News.

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out