Remember Fulton J. Sheen?

A long time ago Fulton Sheen said "salvation begins when the ego dies." I am still wrestling with that one.

EASTER...The Will of God

My favorite sermon  illustration of the Easter story is still the one I read many many decades ago from a book of sermons on The Will of God preached by Leslie Weathered to his war weary congregation in London.  

"A young woman, widowed in an accident, says to me, 'My man has been killed and my two little children are fatherless.  I'm young and life stretches on in infinite loneliness. How  can God ever reach, in my life, His ultimate will?  His intentional will was surely home and married happiness.  His will is destroyed forever."

'Let me tenderly say one or two things.   On Good Friday night eleven men, in their deepest gloom felt like you.  They said in their hearts, 'We trusted him, we followed him.  It was his will to establish his kingdom.  He told us so.  And evil has been allowed to take him from us. It's the end of everything.'

"But they were wrong, weren't they. It was only the end of their mistake and the most wonderful use of evil which God has ever effected.  And if you give way one day to despair, you are wrong, too.  And one day, like them, you'll find out how wrong you were and be sadder at your despair than at your loss.  "

"For you know your loved one is not lost.  He is alive. He is working out a plan.  And God is still using him in his plan.  Maybe from the other side he is helping you."

"Big words, these,  but underneath them is the evidence of all the saints and the supreme evidence of the crucified that God is a father, and that the ultimate meaning of the whole universe is love, and that God will never fail one of his family unless that one opposes Him forever."
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Isn't that glorious?  It's in the little book, "The Will of God" by Leslie Weatherhead, available in religious bookstores and online.  

No No Noah!

I do not propose to tell God what to do.  But I sorta kinda hope He will richly bless those who refrain from making a big religious thing of the "Noah" film, asking silly questions like "Is it Biblical enough?"

MY Bible says ......

I turn off when I hear  "My Bible says."  Using the Bible to prove you're right about something is a pointless exercise.

Lent

It's the Lenten season.  I kind of like the idea of giving up something.  Ashes on the forehead is OK, too.  I must respectfully fail to agree with many friends who believe that traditional religious practices get in the way of true spirituality.  Sometimes they enhance it. But then those who are into alternative spirituality are a whole lot younger than I am.

Rehashing my fequent rant

Is there a church someplace that is not populated mostly by folks that are recovering or escaping from some other church that done 'em wrong and taught 'em bad stuff they have to un-learn?  Probably not.

Saint, Apostle, whatever

What an interesting fellow Paul was. The apostle.  Or the saint if you like that better.  I was raised Methodist and we didn't talk much about saints.  I don't know why.  I kind of like saints.