Daily Devotions: The Wrong Path

Psalm 119:104 I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.

There’s a controversy brewing over an ad that the World Wild Life Fund had commissioned in Brazil. The ad depicts over one hundred airplanes heading directly to Manhattan with the intention of impacting the skyscrapers. Beside the Panda logo is a line which reads: "The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it."

Many people, especially New Yorkers, are outraged about the ad. With the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks just a week away, it is tasteless and insensitive. If the ad company just wanted to shock people, then they’ve obviously succeeded, but if they wanted to get people to support the World Wildlife Fund, they have seriously gone down the wrong path.

What is it with people these days? Do they have no conscience? Is 9/11 so far removed from our hearts and thoughts that we can mock it like this? I remember that apocalyptic day very well and it changed my life forever. I’m certain that those who lived through Pearl Harbor have kept December 7^th sacred in their hearts and memories, so why can’t we respect and honor those who innocently died on that tragic day in 2001?

One of the important qualities about the Christian faith is that it is meant to show us how to take the right paths in life and avoid the wrong ones. As Christianity diminishes in Western society, it makes me wonder how many wrong paths we will brazenly take over the next 25 years. Will there be no moral boundaries? Will there be no honor or respect? Will humanity just drag itself down into a morass where faith, hope, and love no longer survive?

I honestly hope not, because I think we were created for higher, nobler, and greater things. So my prayer today is that we all return to Christ’s teaching and God’s precepts to show us the way forward and keep us from going down the wrong path.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we appear to be fragmenting as a faithful society and Christian community. We follow our own paths and march to the sound of our own drums. Forgive us for our foolish notions, wasteful ways, and misguided choices. Help us to return to Your words, so that we can we can be restored to God’s love and kingdom. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Vision Decisions or How casting aside vital opportunities can cause churches to decline

Colossians 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (NIV)

It was Rear Admiral Grace Hopper who coined the phrase “It’s better to ask for forgiveness afterwards than to wait for permission.” She also initiated the term ‘computer bug” after literally finding a bug in one of the Navy’s large computers. Years ago, one of my daughters had to do a project on famous people and somehow we chose Grace Hopper. It was a great experience exploring her life and when we went to visit Washington, we took time to find her grave in Arlington.

Forgiveness is the fuel that separates churches from other clubs and organizations. Within a congregation, different groups and entities are always vying for finite resources, time, and space. Almost twenty years ago, when I ministered to the two churches in Scotland, both congregations started to really grow. One of the churches didn’t have a lot of space, so I wanted to take out some of the back pews and build a narthex, where our church children could have Sunday School during the worship service. They were meeting in the village hall about four miles away from the church. I realized that if they couldn’t meet in the church itself, then eventually the young families would fall away from worship. I couldn’t convince the Session or the Board that this was the right thing to do. When I left, so did the families. Worship still continues at the church, but there’s never a children’s sermon given by the pastor. It’s sad.

I guess some people wouldn’t have forgiven me back then, if I had managed to take out some of the back pews that they were sitting in. They refused to see the bigger picture and ended up with a dying church.

I guess the lesson for us this morning is to learn to forgive one another in our congregations, so that we can move forward into a bigger and better future for the Lord. For in the end, what we say and do reflects what we accomplish and achieve for His kingdom through our churches. And sometimes the vision and the opportunities that we set aside, are the very ones that will bless our congregations in the years to come.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, please grant us the rare gift of discernment, so that we may know what is right, good and proper in Your eyes to enhance the life, work, and ministries of our churches. Teach us how to bear with one another lovingly and grant us the grace to forgive each other graciously. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.