Couldn't Help Noticing

Instant satisfaction

A friend of mine has just bought a place to live, and I've just bought a car. Yesterday, she and I were discussing the stresses of said purchases: weighing up the pros and cons of various options, balancing that with your budget, arranging all the details, etc.

Our conversation made me realise how little we are trained, by the society we live in (at least in Sydney), to compromise, or to wait for things. We're not taught to buy something that will do, rather than the ‘perfect’ car/house/clothes/furniture/whatever it is. Instead, we're taught to get everything we want immediately. So when we come to making a major purchase, we get very stressed because we keep thinking that there's a better deal just around the corner, or because the car/house we've found doesn't have everything we wanted it to have.

Shopping around can be a very wise thing to do, but if you have found something that is adequate for your needs, then shopping around can simply make you more and more dissatisfied. I have discovered this in the past week.

What a contrast, then, to read Matthew 6:25-34:

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

This is as true today as it was when Jesus said it. May we take it to heart.

Persecution

I couldn't help noticing, as I read through the articles being prepared for the May Briefing, the challenge presented in one of the daily Bible readings. If you haven’t read the Bible today, why not do this reading now?

Reading 13—2 Timothy 3:10-17

1. What does Paul say about being a Christian and suffering?
2. Why does this suffering arise out of a Christian’s desire to “live a godly life in Christ Jesus”?
3. What does Paul encourage Timothy, and us, to continue to do?

Ponder: Reflect on ways that Christians are persecuted in your own country.

Prayer Ideas: Pray for Christians being persecuted for their faith around the world. For helpful resources for prayer, visit www.persecution.org.

iDoll

A US toy company is putting the doll back in idol, with a “Jesus doll that quotes the Bible at the push of a button”, says this report from the LA Daily News (via christdot.org).

I could describe the historical unlikelihood of the ‘blue-eyed Jesus’ depicted, but instead I think I'd prefer to just quote the company's founder: “We are targeting the inspirational market, to do good things for children, something that adds to their quality of life and doesn't corrupt their minds.”

I personally can't see how distributing dolls which depict the ruler of the universe as a children's toy doesn't corrupt minds. One also wonders if one of the Bible passages quoted is Exodus 20:4-6.

Papal judgment

This letter made it past the editor and into the Australian...

The death of Pope John Paul II is a sharp reminder that even the greatest, wisest, and most religious of us must stand before the judgment throne of God alone.

Yours etc...

Maybe the death of the Pope is an important opportunity to ask Roman Catholic friends how they view their own mortality?

Putting the Pope into perspective

OK, somebody has to say it.

Amidst all the praise of Pope John Paul II—and he was certainly a remarkable man who charmed and changed the world in many respects for the better—it must be remembered that for 26 years he has led an organization that has distorted the truth of the Christian Gospel and deceived millions of people, without in any discernible way moving that organisation any closer to the truth.

On the day he was elected, he said:

Dear brothers and sisters, we are still all very saddened by the death of the very dear Pope John Paul I. And now the most eminent cardinals have called a new bishop of Rome. They called him from a far-away country, ... far, but always near in the communion of faith and the Christian tradition. I was afraid in receiving this nomination, but I did it in the spirit of obedience to Our Lord and with total trust in his Mother, the Most Holy Madonna.

I don't know if I can express myself well in your—in our—Italian language. But if I make a mistake, you will correct me. And so I introduce myself to you all, to confess our common faith, our hope, our trust in the mother of Christ and of the Church, and also to begin again on this path of history and of the Church with the help of God and with that of men.

Just how far the Roman Catholic Church has departed from the truth is a matter of great sadness and distress to all who put their hope and trust in the surer ground of the glorious Jesus Christ.

Last night, on the ABC's Lateline show, the auxilliary Bishop of Melbourne, Mark Coleridge, was asked what sort of person the Catholic Cardinals would be looking for as the next Pope. His reply was telling:

Look, I think that they will be looking for all of those qualities [a deeply spiritual man, a man steeped in prayer, a very humble man] and more, but I mean, if you make the profile of the ideal Pope, not even Jesus Christ on a good day would qualify.

Doesn't that say it all.