Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Stepping Outside Decorum
“A man after God’s own heart” was David, Israel’s king.
Relocating the ark of the covenant made him dance with joy and sing.
Wife Michal was embarrassed at this undignified celebration,
inappropriate for his regal position as head of God’s chosen nation.
King David’s response to Michal? “I celebrate here with God
and will do even more ridiculous things than dance in a priest’s ephod.”
“But everything shall be done in a fitting and orderly way.”
Do we sometimes take this scripture beyond its intent today?
Worship can become like a funeral when spontaneity dies,
choking out vitality and joy, enthusiasm, surprise.
We can’t stand any type of change, must stay in our old rut
that soon becomes much like a grave, our minds and hearts long shut.
Christ stepped outside decorum in his ministry on earth,
gave a whole new view of compassion, exploding into rebirth.
He shocked the scribes and Pharisees by touching a loathsome leper.
The paralytic healed on the Sabbath became an instant high stepper.
Levi, a hated tax collector, extorter, Jewish traitor
was chosen as a disciple and became an apostle later.
Forerunner of the coming Christ was his country cousin, John,
who lived out in the wilderness, no normal clothes to don.
Eating locusts and wild honey, and never drinking wine,
he served in his own peculiar way, which seemed quite out of line.
He oft was called a nut and maybe crazy as a loon,
but he believed God’s promise that the Christ was coming soon.
We should enjoy the Christian walk, not stifle our spark of life
in dignified stoicism with no happy trumpet or fife.
New converts’ enthusiasm often is put to death
by the old and staid and cynical before it can hardly draw breath.
We must examine ourselves each day, our motives to discern,
looking for ways to grow and change, never too tired to learn.
Do we encourage, like Barnabas? Gladly suffer like Paul?
Give aid to the poor and downtrodden with their backs against the wall?
Can we dance with joy like David, or act like his hateful wife?
Rededicate, rejoice, re-spark, reclaim a redeemed new life.
God gave us a song; we should dare to sing and praise the sacrifice
he gave for our salvation–victorious Jesus Christ!
Cora Gail Trent
From a sermon by Neil Swain
www.cgtrent.com
cgtrent@att.net
Friday, March 20, 2009
Drivers Beware!
Our son-in-law had only a small sports car, so when he needed to take his large, crippled dad to Arizona, I suggested he use our minivan. But we didn’t think to tell him about the back doors that didn’t always lock electronically. After his return, someone in his neighborhood discovered this little loophole, crawled over the seats and unlocked the hood.
Later, when we started to town, the brakes began to lock down. Our excellent neighborhood mechanics found a foreign substance in the brake fluid, evidently put there by some malicious malcontent. It melted all the seals in the brake system, requiring a very costly repair job. When the fluid was poured into a jar, it separated like oil and water, so the insurance adjuster agreed that this was vandalism, and Allstate paid all our expenses. Similar cases were reported in Albuquerque.
Driver beware; lock your doors!!
Cora Gail Trent
www.cgtrent.com
cgtrent@att.net
Monday, March 09, 2009
The Most Amazing Creature on Earth
The Most Amazing Creature on Earth
If you were asked to nominate a form of life to be given the title of “most amazing creature on the earth,” what would be your choice? In this column, we have explained some pretty bizarre creatures over the 30+ years we have been writing. Some have been amazing in beauty, some in strength, some in what they can endure, and some in what they provide for us and other forms of life on the earth.
Cyanobacteria is the oldest form of life to appear in the fossil record. These life forms were present shortly after the earth was created, and they have come through time unchanged. The forms living today look no different than their ancestor from the beginning of the earth’s history. Evolution has not happened to cyanobacteria. In addition to this, they are the most resilient of all life forms on this planet. We find them in hot springs, in ice capped Antarctic lakes, in barren deserts, inside rocks, at the bottom of the oceans, and even in nuclear reactors.
Dr. Donald Bryant at Penn State University has detailed the reason for the resiliency of cyanobacteria. (1) Their nutritional needs are extremely simple. “All they need is light, CO2 and mineral salts like iron, phosphate, or sulfur.” (2) They can get along without water for huge periods of time—up to thousands of years. (3) They can adapt to all kinds of environments.
What is cyanobacteria good for? Well, for one thing, it has produced 20% of the oxygen in our atmosphere. Cyanobacteria provides a basis for all other life forms on this planet, concentrating nutrients and providing a foundation on which all other life functions. Cyano-80-80 bacteria can repair radiation damage, and they can stabilize other cells around them. They are getting a lot of attention from NASA because they may be useful in the colonization of other places in the solar system. And what is cyanobacteria? You know it as pond scum. These amazing creatures are part of the design of the whole biological system of the earth. They not only provide oxygen, but form the base of the food chain nourishing all forms of animal life. Scientists speak of pond scum “inventing photosynthesis,” but mindless bacteria do not invent. They are carefully designed and planned life forms that provided the foundation upon which all other living things exist. They speak eloquently of the planning and engineering that allow life to exist.
Source: “Scientists See Amazing Saga in Pond Scum” by Robert Boyd, South Bend Tribune, March 18, 1999.
—John Clayton, Dandy Designs, July/August, 2000
www.cgtrent.com
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