EDITOR'S NOTE: The following has been re-posted periodically on this blog over the last few weeks ... thank you for your patience with the repetition ... please bear with me one more time and - please, PLEASE, PLEASE - pray with me.
The Session of 1st Presbyterian Church - Midland, Texas has called a Congregational meeting on November 1, 2015 to discuss and vote upon the following question: "Shall the First Presbyterian Church of Midland request the Presbytery of Tres Rios to dismiss it to the Reformed body of 'ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians?'"
The Session recommends, for the unity of our Congregation and to fulfill our mission, that the Congregation vote in favor of seeking dismissal from PC(USA) to ECO.
An informational packet from Session has be provided to members of the congregation in preparation for TOMORROW's vote.
The Sunday morning schedule on November 1 will be changed due to the importance of the congregational meeting. There will be ONE combined worship service at 10:00 a.m. in the Sanctuary. The congregational meeting will begin at 11:00 a.m. All church members are required to register in order to vote at the meeting. Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. in Lynn Hall. Breakfast will be available. Sunday School will NOT be held although the nursery will be available as well as activities for our elementary age children.
Saturday, October 31, 2015
In the News ... "A Strong and Stable Mind"
• Speaking today at Unitarian Universalist Church of Midland.
Kelsang Chondzin, Bodhichitta Kadampa Buddhist Center of Lubbock
Special to the Midland Reporter-Telegram
MIDLAND, TEXAS - Life has many ups and downs but we can deliberately develop a strong and stable mind that keeps us emotionally balanced whether things are pleasant or unpleasant. This is like being a ship that has a deep, strong hull that rides through waves securely. In Buddhism, we call this strong and stable mind, patience. It is a mind that is like a solid mountain ...
• read the rest of this column
Special to the Midland Reporter-Telegram
MIDLAND, TEXAS - Life has many ups and downs but we can deliberately develop a strong and stable mind that keeps us emotionally balanced whether things are pleasant or unpleasant. This is like being a ship that has a deep, strong hull that rides through waves securely. In Buddhism, we call this strong and stable mind, patience. It is a mind that is like a solid mountain ...
• read the rest of this column
C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading
Some writers use the word charity to describe not only Christian love between human beings, but also God’s love for man and man’s love for God. About the second of these two, people are often worried. They are told they ought to love God. They cannot find any such feeling in themselves. What are they to do? The answer is the same as before. Act as if you did. Do not sit trying to manufacture feelings. Ask your- self, ‘If I were sure that I loved God, what would I do?’ When you have found the answer, go and do it.
On the whole, God’s love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him. Nobody can always have devout feelings: and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian Love, either towards God or towards man, is an affair of the will. If we are trying to do His will we are obeying the commandment, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.’ He will give us feelings of love if He pleases. We cannot create them for ourselves, and we must not demand them as a right. But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him.
• From Mere Christianity
• Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis
Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook
Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 31, 2015
PRESBYTERIAN MISSION AGENCY - As the ministry and mission agency of the PC(USA), the Presbyterian Mission Agency, in partnership with synods, presbyteries, congregations, Presbyterian-related organizations, and ecumenical partners, strives to offer the world a visible witness of Jesus Christ. Five ministry areas carry out the mission work of the Presbyterian Mission Agency: Compassion, Peace, and Justice; Evangelism and Church Growth; Racial Ethnic & Women’s Ministries /Presbyterian Women; Theology, Worship, and Education; and World Mission ...
• CLICK HERE to read more.
Friday, October 30, 2015
From @FWMission ... Friday Story: "A Gift for Gertrude"
GOING ON NOW ... double-down with Free Wheelchair Mission and 1st Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. Turning 1 wheelchair into 2, then 4!
"Because no one should have to crawl!" was Don Schoendorfer's comment when he recognized the need for strong and inexpensive wheelchairs. Due to the DOUBLED matching funds set-up again this year, you can send FOUR wheelchairs for the price of ONE. That price is the same as last year - $78.00. The drive started September 27th and ends October 31st. For more information, please contact local drive coordinator
Maxine Hannifin at (432) 682-8740 or (432) 684-5352.
"Because no one should have to crawl!" was Don Schoendorfer's comment when he recognized the need for strong and inexpensive wheelchairs. Due to the DOUBLED matching funds set-up again this year, you can send FOUR wheelchairs for the price of ONE. That price is the same as last year - $78.00. The drive started September 27th and ends October 31st. For more information, please contact local drive coordinator
Maxine Hannifin at (432) 682-8740 or (432) 684-5352.
Founded in 2001, Free Wheelchair Mission
Greetings, and Happy Friday!
Gertrude Musenero is 29 years old and lives in Busolwe, a small town in Uganda. At age three, she contracted a severe fever with long-lasting repercussions. Its ravages included loss of strength in her legs and she found herself unable to stand or even support herself with a cane. So for more than 25 years, Gertrude has been unable to walk ...
• read the rest of this story ...
Want to take one of these wheelchairs for a test drive? During normal business hours, visit the lobby at the Texas Street entrance of First Presbyterian Church-Midland, at the northwest corner of Texas and A streets, on the west side of downtown Midland. You can give the gift of mobility. The cost of $72.00 is a bargain to us ... but it is a life-changing gift to impoverished and disabled recipients ... and there are times when your contribution will be matched, reaching not one - but TWO, and sometimes FOUR recipients. Please note on your check "Wheelchair Gift."
In the News ... "Missionary plans return to Malawi"
 |
| OA Photo by Edyta Blaszczyk |
By Bob Campbell, Reporter
Odessa American
ODESSA, TEXAS - Odessan Shirley Bailey overcame a lot of obstacles to achieve her lifelong ambition of becoming a missionary in Africa, and she hopes to return to Malawi for the third time in March after a fundraiser from 5 to 10 p.m. Oct. 31 at Ector County Greater Works at 2616 N. Maple Ave.
Bailey first went to the small southeastern Africa nation three years ago, visiting an orphanage and meeting the Rev. Alinune “Allie” Msongole. The Rev. Msongole asked her to return, and she went back July 11-25 this year, traveled 350 miles in a dilapidated van and preached in seven remote villages.
The retired nurse also bought 30 tons of maize to feed Malawians whose food supply had been lost in a flood. “God put Africa on my heart when I was a little girl,” said Bailey, 62, who grew up on a ranch between Wink and Kermit ...
• read the rest of this OA report ...
C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading
“Son of Adam,” said Aslan, “you have sown well. And you, Narnians, let it be your first care to guard this Tree, for it is your Shield. The Witch of whom I told you has fled far away into the North of the world; she will live on there, growing stronger in dark Magic. But while that tree flourishes she will never come down into Narnia. She dare not come within a hundred miles of the Tree, for its smell, which is joy and life and health to you, is death and horror and despair to her.”
... Aslan suddenly swung round his head ... and fixed his large eyes on the children. “What is it, children?” he said, for he caught them in the very act of whispering and nudging one another.
“Oh—Aslan, sir,” said Digory, turning red, “I forgot to tell you. The Witch has already eaten one of those apples, one of the same kind that Tree grew from.” He hadn’t really said all he was thinking, but Polly at once said it for him. (Digory was always much more afraid than she of looking a fool.)
“So we thought, Aslan,” she said, “that there must be some mistake, and she can’t really mind the smell of those apples.”
“Why do you think that, Daughter of Eve?” asked the Lion.
“Well, she ate one.”
“Child,” he replied, “that is why all the rest are now a horror to her. That is what happens to those who pluck and eat fruits at the wrong time and in the wrong way. The fruit is good, but they loathe it ever after.”
“Oh, I see,” said Polly. “And I suppose because she took it in the wrong way it won’t work for her. I mean it won’t make her always young and all that?”
“Alas,” said Aslan, shaking his head. “It will. Things always work ac- cording to their nature. She has won her heart’s desire; she has unwearying strength and endless days like a goddess. But length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery and already she begins to know it. All get what they want; they do not always like it.”
• From The Magician's Nephew
• Compiled in A Year with Aslan
Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook
Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 30, 2015
PRESBYTERY OF WESTERN NEW YORK - Domestic violence knows no boundaries. It doesn’t stop at the border of a town or city and crosses all demographic strata. The police in Amherst, a suburb of Buffalo, report handling over 1,500 cases of domestic violence every year. And with so many victims afraid to come forward, it is likely that there are far more victims than reported cases ...
• CLICK HERE to read more.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading
On the Fall
The doctrine of the Fall (both of man and of some “gods,” “eldils” or “angels”) is the only satisfactory explanation. Evil begins, in a universe where all was good, from free will, which was permitted because it makes possible the greatest good of all. The corruption of the first sinner consists not in choosing some evil thing (there are no evil things for him to choose) but in preferring a lesser good (himself) before a greater (God). The Fall is, in fact, Pride. The possibility of this wrong preference is inherent in the v. fact of having, or being, a self at all. But though freedom is real it is not infinite. Every choice reduces a little one’s freedom to choose the next time. There therefore comes a time when the creature is fully built, irrevocably attached either to God or to itself. This irrevocableness is what we call Heaven or Hell. Every conscious agent is finally committed in the long run: i.e., it rises above freedom into willed, but henceforth unalterable, union with God, or else sinks below freedom into the black fire of self-imprisonment. That is why the universe (as even the physicists now admit) has a real history, a fifth act with a finale in which the good characters “live happily ever after” and the bad ones are cast out. At least that is how I see it.
• From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis
• Compiled in Words to Live By
Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook
Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 29, 2015
• CLICK HERE to read more.
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Invitation to Prayer from Faces of Children ... TODAY
Faces of Children is an ecumenical prayer ministry under the auspices of First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. Our mission is to initiate ministries of prayer for children in churches, communities, and neighborhoods. In doing so, we seek to provide an opportunity for people of God to join together, learn about children and their needs throughout the world, and celebrate Christ's love (especially as it relates to children).Hello Friends,
I hope you'll be able to join us TODAY (Wednesday, October 28) for prayer at 11:30 in the gym conference room followed by lunch together. I'm keeping my email brief because I want to ask you to pay particular attention to our first set of prayer requests this week, sent to me by Hannah Schorr from Jerusalem. See you today!
Dear Intercessors,
This week, I visited my neighborhood elementary school. It's the school where my oldest daughter might attend Kindergarten next year. I asked if I could get involved this year, hoping to get to know the school better before we decide what to do and thinking there might be at least a few children who could benefit from an adult helping them with their reading or a teacher who might need someone else to make the copies for once. The Assistant Principal's response was an enthusiastic yes and through the course of our conversation, it became achingly clear the need ran much deeper than copies and reading practice. In our quiet little town, there are hundreds of children who feel lonely and on their own. I'm sure it's the same in yours. These kids may have a roof over their heads and food on their plates, but emotionally they are on their own. And the splinters of their broken hearts hurt them, the children around them, and their entire futures. They need more than adults to sit and read with them. They need grown-ups who help them see their own value and worth.
In our prayer time this week, I'd like to ask you to lift up these children. Below I share a prayer request from China, where a cultural phenomenon of economic opportunities in faraway cities has created a generation of Left Behind children. But we don't have to look all the way over to China to see kids who have been emotionally abandoned. There are kids in our own neighborhoods and churches who feel no less alone. It's hard to believe that God loves you and sees you as immeasurably worthy if you feel invisible and unimportant to the people who are supposed to love you the most. So whether the children are here or in Asia or somewhere else entirely, please ask God to open your eyes to kids who need a warm hug, a helping hand, or an encouraging pat on the back. Ask for His wisdom and creativity and energy to fall on organizations like Young Life, Teen Flow and countless charitable organizations and ministries working on behalf of children around the world. Pray for teachers, youth pastors, children's ministry leaders, and volunteers. And most of all, pray that those children who believe no one cares would have an experience this week that tells them otherwise.
China: Pray for "Left Behind" children.
From Love Without Boundaries | For the rural children of migrants who move to China's booming eastern cities and economic hubs to work, childhood all but disappears. They are left behind in their hometowns to be cared for by elderly extended family; though in many situations, it is actually the children caring for the elderly or children being left to their own devices.
Amy Eldridge is the Executive Director of Love Without Boundaries, a charitable organization working in China with orphans and other vulnerable children. In a recent trip, she met one of these left behind children; a little 10-year-old boy trying to help his grandmother walk along the road into a village. As she approached, she realized the little boy was totally overwhelmed and unable to decide whether he should help his grandmother walk or carry their possessions... the weight of responsibility he carried was more than any young child should bear, and as kind strangers approached him to offer help, he broke down in tears. Amy and her medical director, Cindy, spent the afternoon with the child and helped as best as they could. She shares the whole story of their interaction quite beautifully, but one part in particular gripped my heart.
"Cindy had written her cell phone number on a piece of paper for him, telling him to call her if he ever needed anything. He was sitting right in front of me on the river bank, and I watched him take out that piece of paper a hundred times during that afternoon. At one point I heard him slowly saying the numbers to himself over and over again. I realized he was committing Cindy's number to his memory in case he ever lost the tiny scrap of paper. I tapped Cindy on the shoulder to show him what he was doing, and both of us got tears in our eyes as we watched him trying his best to memorize the phone number which could bring him help in an emergency."
According to an article in The Guardian, experts estimate there are nearly 60 million left behind children in China, and nearly 50 percent of these children suffer from depression and anxiety. In a country with few support systems for vulnerable children, there have been multiple cases of left behind children dying due to poor supervision, unmet needs, and suicide. Pray for family, teachers, neighbors, and community leaders to step in and help provide nurture, support, and encouragement for these children. Pray that, when possible, their parents will find employment opportunities in their hometowns so that they do not leave their children. Pray for a change of heart and priorities for parents who put economic success above the emotional well-being of children. Pray that God supernaturally provides the kind of support and tender care these children need to know they are precious, valuable, and loved.
Blessings,
Carrie J. McKean
Faces of Children Director
First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas
(432) 684-7821 x153
If you have prayer requests about children, those who care for them, those who have authority over them, or those who harm them (the really hard prayers to say sometimes), please send them to info@facesofchildren.net
C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading
Though Christian charity sounds a very cold thing to people whose heads are full of sentimentality, and though it is quite distinct from affection, yet it leads to affection. The difference between a Christian and a worldly man is not that the worldly man has only affections or ‘likings’ and the Christian has only ‘charity’. The worldly man treats certain people kindly because he ‘likes’ them: the Christian, trying to treat every one kindly, finds himself liking more and more people as he goes on—including people he could not even have imagined him- self liking at the beginning.
This same spiritual law works terribly in the opposite direction. The Germans, perhaps, at first ill-treated the Jews because they hated them: afterwards they hated them much more because they had ill-treated them. The more cruel you are, the more you will hate; and the more you hate, the more cruel you will become — and so on in a vicious circle for ever.
Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.
• From Mere Christianity
• Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis
Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook
Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 28, 2015
• CLICK HERE to read more.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Invitation to Prayer from Faces of Children ... Tomorrow
Faces of Children is an ecumenical prayer ministry under the auspices of First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. Our mission is to initiate ministries of prayer for children in churches, communities, and neighborhoods. In doing so, we seek to provide an opportunity for people of God to join together, learn about children and their needs throughout the world, and celebrate Christ's love (especially as it relates to children).Hello Friends,
I hope you'll be able to join us tomorrow (Wednesday, October 28) for prayer at 11:30 in the gym conference room followed by lunch together. I'm keeping my email brief because I want to ask you to pay particular attention to our first set of prayer requests this week, sent to me by Hannah Schorr from Jerusalem. See you tomorrow!
Dear Intercessors,
This week, I visited my neighborhood elementary school. It's the school where my oldest daughter might attend Kindergarten next year. I asked if I could get involved this year, hoping to get to know the school better before we decide what to do and thinking there might be at least a few children who could benefit from an adult helping them with their reading or a teacher who might need someone else to make the copies for once. The Assistant Principal's response was an enthusiastic yes and through the course of our conversation, it became achingly clear the need ran much deeper than copies and reading practice. In our quiet little town, there are hundreds of children who feel lonely and on their own. I'm sure it's the same in yours. These kids may have a roof over their heads and food on their plates, but emotionally they are on their own. And the splinters of their broken hearts hurt them, the children around them, and their entire futures. They need more than adults to sit and read with them. They need grown-ups who help them see their own value and worth.
In our prayer time this week, I'd like to ask you to lift up these children. Below I share a prayer request from China, where a cultural phenomenon of economic opportunities in faraway cities has created a generation of Left Behind children. But we don't have to look all the way over to China to see kids who have been emotionally abandoned. There are kids in our own neighborhoods and churches who feel no less alone. It's hard to believe that God loves you and sees you as immeasurably worthy if you feel invisible and unimportant to the people who are supposed to love you the most. So whether the children are here or in Asia or somewhere else entirely, please ask God to open your eyes to kids who need a warm hug, a helping hand, or an encouraging pat on the back. Ask for His wisdom and creativity and energy to fall on organizations like Young Life, Teen Flow and countless charitable organizations and ministries working on behalf of children around the world. Pray for teachers, youth pastors, children's ministry leaders, and volunteers. And most of all, pray that those children who believe no one cares would have an experience this week that tells them otherwise.
China: Pray for "Left Behind" children.
From Love Without Boundaries | For the rural children of migrants who move to China's booming eastern cities and economic hubs to work, childhood all but disappears. They are left behind in their hometowns to be cared for by elderly extended family; though in many situations, it is actually the children caring for the elderly or children being left to their own devices.
Amy Eldridge is the Executive Director of Love Without Boundaries, a charitable organization working in China with orphans and other vulnerable children. In a recent trip, she met one of these left behind children; a little 10-year-old boy trying to help his grandmother walk along the road into a village. As she approached, she realized the little boy was totally overwhelmed and unable to decide whether he should help his grandmother walk or carry their possessions... the weight of responsibility he carried was more than any young child should bear, and as kind strangers approached him to offer help, he broke down in tears. Amy and her medical director, Cindy, spent the afternoon with the child and helped as best as they could. She shares the whole story of their interaction quite beautifully, but one part in particular gripped my heart.
"Cindy had written her cell phone number on a piece of paper for him, telling him to call her if he ever needed anything. He was sitting right in front of me on the river bank, and I watched him take out that piece of paper a hundred times during that afternoon. At one point I heard him slowly saying the numbers to himself over and over again. I realized he was committing Cindy's number to his memory in case he ever lost the tiny scrap of paper. I tapped Cindy on the shoulder to show him what he was doing, and both of us got tears in our eyes as we watched him trying his best to memorize the phone number which could bring him help in an emergency."
According to an article in The Guardian, experts estimate there are nearly 60 million left behind children in China, and nearly 50 percent of these children suffer from depression and anxiety. In a country with few support systems for vulnerable children, there have been multiple cases of left behind children dying due to poor supervision, unmet needs, and suicide. Pray for family, teachers, neighbors, and community leaders to step in and help provide nurture, support, and encouragement for these children. Pray that, when possible, their parents will find employment opportunities in their hometowns so that they do not leave their children. Pray for a change of heart and priorities for parents who put economic success above the emotional well-being of children. Pray that God supernaturally provides the kind of support and tender care these children need to know they are precious, valuable, and loved.
Blessings,
Carrie J. McKean
Faces of Children Director
First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas
(432) 684-7821 x153
If you have prayer requests about children, those who care for them, those who have authority over them, or those who harm them (the really hard prayers to say sometimes), please send them to info@facesofchildren.net
C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading
TO MARY WILLIS SHELBURNE: On the lessons learned about grieving.
24 September 1960
As to how I take sorrow, the answer is ‘In nearly all the possible ways.’ Because, as you probably know, it isn’t a state but a process. It keeps on changing—like a winding road with quite a new landscape at each bend. Two curious discoveries I have made. The moments at which you call most desperately and clamorously to God for help are precisely those when you seem to get none. And the moments at which I feel nearest to Joy are precisely those when I mourn her least. Very queer. In both cases a clamorous need seems to shut one off from the thing needed. No one ever told me this. It is almost like ‘Don’t knock and it shall be opened to you.’ I must think it over.
My youngest stepson is the greatest comfort to me. My brother is still away in Ireland.
• From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis
• Compiled in Yours, Jack
Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook
Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 27, 2015
• CLICK HERE to read more.
Monday, October 26, 2015
From ChinaAid: "China Aid learns Gao Zhisheng is back home"
The China Aid Association is a non-profit Christian organization - based in Midland, Texas - with a mission to uncover and reveal the truth about religious persecution in China, focusing especially on the unofficial church. They do this, they explain in their website, by exposing the abuses, encouraging the abused and equipping the saints to advance the kingdom of God throughout China.China Aid learns Gao Zhisheng is back home
Distributed by ChinaAid, September, 2015 ...
Gao asked China Aid founder and president, Bob Fu, to “thank everyone who cares” about Gao ...
• more on this story from China Aid
C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading
‘Charity’ now means simply what used to be called ‘alms’—that is, giving to the poor. Originally it had a much wider meaning. (You can see how it got the modern sense. If a man has ‘charity’, giving to the poor is one of the most obvious things he does, and so people came to talk as if that were the whole of charity. In the same way, ‘rhyme’ is the most obvious thing about poetry, and so people come to mean by ‘poetry’ simply rhyme and nothing more.) Charity means ‘Love, in the Christian sense’. But love, in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will; that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to have about other people.
• From Mere Christianity
• Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis
Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook
Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 26, 2015
Our presbytery has “deconstructed” much of its structure so that people are free from old work and able to live out new creative and innovative ideas for mission ...
• CLICK HERE to read more.
Sunday, October 25, 2015
C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading
“It isn’t Narnia, you know,” sobbed Lucy. “It’s you. We shan’t meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?”
“But you shall meet me, dear one,” said Aslan.
“Are—are you there too, Sir?” said Edmund.
“I am,” said Aslan. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”
• From The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
• Compiled in A Year with Aslan
Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook
Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 25, 2015
MINUTE FOR MISSION: REFORMATION SUNDAY - Europe in the early 16th century witnessed not only the Protestant Reformation but the near total transformation of its political scene with the passing of the Holy Roman Empire and the emergence of city- and nation-states in different configurations.
Calvin, in his Institutes, after exhaustive focus on the “inner man and eternal life,” shifted attention to social justice, governance, and civil society ...
• CLICK HERE to read more.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
In the News ... "A Need for More Sackers"
 |
| KOSA Photo |
Staff report
KOSA-TV
ODESSA, TEXAS - “Food 2 Kids” is in need of volunteers to help sack lunches for students across West Texas.
According to Director Craig Stoke, this group meets to sack lunches twice a month.
Those lunches are then given to students who cannot afford it ...
• read/watch the rest of this KOSA report
C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading
On Evil
I think one may be quite rid of the old haunting suspicion—which raises its head in every temptation—that there is something else than God—some other country . . . into which He forbids us to trespass—some kind of delight wh. He “doesn’t appreciate” or just chooses to forbid, but which wd. be real delight if only we were allowed to get it. The thing just isn’t there. Whatever we desire is either what God is trying to give us as quickly as He can, or else a false picture of what He is trying to give us—a false picture wh. would not attract us for a moment if we saw the real thing. Therefore God does really in a sense contain evil—i.e., contains what is the real motive power behind all our evil desires. He knows what we want, even in our vilest acts: He is longing to give it to us. He is not looking on from the outside at some new “taste” or “separate desire of our own.” Only because He has laid up real goods for us to desire are we able to go wrong by snatching at them in greedy, misdirected ways. The truth is that evil is not a real thing at all, like God. It is simply good spoiled. That is why I say there can be good without evil, but no evil without good. You know what the biologists mean by a parasite—an animal that lives on another animal. Evil is a parasite. It is there only because good is there for it to spoil and confuse.
Thus you may well feel that God understands our temptations—understands them a great deal more than we do. But don’t forget Macdonald again—“Only God understands evil and hates it.” Only the dog’s master knows how useless it is to try to get on with the lead knotted round the lamp-post. This is why we must be prepared to find God implacably and immovably forbidding what may seem to us very small and trivial things. But He knows whether they are really small and trivial. How small some of the things that doctors forbid would seem to an ignoramus.
• From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis
• Compiled in Words to Live By
Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook
Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 24, 2015
• CLICK HERE to read more.
Friday, October 23, 2015
From @FWMission ... Friday Story: "A Wheelchair for Walter"
GOING ON NOW ... double-down with Free Wheelchair Mission and 1st Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. Turning 1 wheelchair into 2, then 4!
"Because no one should have to crawl!" was Don Schoendorfer's comment when he recognized the need for strong and inexpensive wheelchairs. Due to the DOUBLED matching funds set-up again this year, you can send FOUR wheelchairs for the price of ONE. That price is the same as last year - $78.00. The drive started September 27th and ends October 31st. For more information, please contact local drive coordinator
Maxine Hannifin at (432) 682-8740 or (432) 684-5352.
"Because no one should have to crawl!" was Don Schoendorfer's comment when he recognized the need for strong and inexpensive wheelchairs. Due to the DOUBLED matching funds set-up again this year, you can send FOUR wheelchairs for the price of ONE. That price is the same as last year - $78.00. The drive started September 27th and ends October 31st. For more information, please contact local drive coordinator
Maxine Hannifin at (432) 682-8740 or (432) 684-5352.
Founded in 2001, Free Wheelchair Mission
Greetings, and Happy Friday!
In collaboration with like-minded partners, Free Wheelchair Mission specializes in providing mobility to those in need. But did you know our partners serve people with disabilities in other ways as well? Today’s story highlights our work with our partner, FUSAL in El Salvador and their relationship with Padre Vito Guarato Center ...
• read the rest of this story ...
Want to take one of these wheelchairs for a test drive? During normal business hours, visit the lobby at the Texas Street entrance of First Presbyterian Church-Midland, at the northwest corner of Texas and A streets, on the west side of downtown Midland. You can give the gift of mobility. The cost of $72.00 is a bargain to us ... but it is a life-changing gift to impoverished and disabled recipients ... and there are times when your contribution will be matched, reaching not one - but TWO, and sometimes FOUR recipients. Please note on your check "Wheelchair Gift."
In the News ... "Midland Constable Displays In God We Trust"
• Reminder that his life is in God's hands
Kaci Jones, Reporter
KMID-TV
MIDLAND, TEXAS - The "In God We Trust" bumper sticker making an appearance on a Midland County Constable's county-issued car amid atheist groups asking for many law enforcement officials to stop displaying the phrase.
David Criner Precinct 1 Midland County constable has served since 2013 and he sees no harm in showcasing the nation's motto on the back of his car. He says he followed the example of many other American law enforcement officials.
"When I heard about 'In God We Trust' bumper stickers, God told me to take it and run with it," Criner said ...
• read/watch the rest of this KMID report
Kaci Jones, Reporter
KMID-TV
MIDLAND, TEXAS - The "In God We Trust" bumper sticker making an appearance on a Midland County Constable's county-issued car amid atheist groups asking for many law enforcement officials to stop displaying the phrase.
David Criner Precinct 1 Midland County constable has served since 2013 and he sees no harm in showcasing the nation's motto on the back of his car. He says he followed the example of many other American law enforcement officials.
"When I heard about 'In God We Trust' bumper stickers, God told me to take it and run with it," Criner said ...
• read/watch the rest of this KMID report
C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading
TO MARY WILLIS SHELBURNE: On being overconcerned about the past of others and of our own.
5 June 1961
We must beware of the Past, mustn’t we? I mean that any fixing of the mind on old evils beyond what is absolutely necessary for repenting our own sins and forgiving those of others is certainly useless and usually bad for us. Notice in Dante that the lost souls are entirely concerned with their past. Not so the saved. This is one of the dangers of being, like you and me, old. There’s so much past, now, isn’t there? And so little else. But we must try very hard not to keep on endlessly chewing the cud. We must look forward more eagerly to sloughing that old skin off forever—metaphors getting a bit mixed here, but you know what I mean.
• From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis
• Compiled in Yours, Jack
Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook
Today in the Mission Yearbook: October 23, 2015
PRESBYTERY OF NORTHERN NEW YORK - It was October 2012. Food pantry boundaries had recently been realigned, and the pantry once responsible for the village of Dexter had been replaced by a new one. The poor of Dexter had become accustomed to receiving food and toys at Christmastime, but the new food pantry announced that it wouldn’t be doing anything for Christmas. When pastor Gail Roberts and the deacons of First Presbyterian Church in Dexter became aware of the situation, they decided that First Presbyterian would step up to meet the need ...
• CLICK HERE to read more.
Thursday, October 22, 2015
In the News ... "Odessan’s novel dealing with addictions offers solution"
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| OA Photo by Jacob Ford |
Staff Report
Odessa American
ODESSA, TEXAS - Five college students in Houston, each with a serious problem, strive to establish order in their lives, which brings them together to find a common solution. That’s the outline of “Angel Academy: The Gathering of the Watchers,” a faith-based 244-page novel written by R.W. “Warren” Verner, an Odessa resident and a traffic engineer with the city.
Published Sept. 19 by Westbow Press in Bloomington, Ind., the book’s main purpose is to help raise money for a 2,000-seat building at the church of which Verner and his wife Elia and 16-year-old son Jerry are members, Odessa Christian Faith Center at 8860 N. Andrews Highway, Verner said ...
• read the rest of this OA report ...
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