Just Another Reminder - God Is In Control

This past week I was stricken with a mysterious illness - temperature, aches, pains, nausea, chills... you get the idea.  On the first day of this illness I thought - I must have picked up a bug.  I will be up and well by tomorrow.  The next day came and I was not up and well I was still very ill.  Then I began to bargain and rationalize - God I am sure this isn't going to last longer than today - if that is the deal then I will be perfect from now on (right).


The third day came and went and I still was not better.  Finally on the fourth day I woke up feeling better, very weak and dizzy but better.  I was able to eat real food - cautiously.  Now I am definitely on the road to recovery.


As I reflect on this ordeal (yes I have been known to be a little dramatic) I have to confess until the third day - I was determined to be in charge.  I had a childhood notion that I could control being sick.  I even bargained with God.  On the third day I gave in and in my prayer told God that I understood - nothing I was going to do other than rest and drink plenty of liquids - was going to hurry this up.  God was in charge.


Why does it take things like this to help me remember (I mean really remember) that God is in charge.  I am not in control and if I give over the controls to God I will be taken care of in ways I could not even begin to invent.


Thank you God for a bout with the flu (I think).  I don't believe God caused me to be sick but I do know that God was with me every moment and prepared the way for me to be well again.  I do believe that God can help us to turn our "mourning in to dancing" if we will just give over control.


Glimpses of the world the way God would prefer it shine through when we release our tight grip on control.  (If I could just remember that.)

Eerie Predictions

Did any of you see these eerie predictions from 1969 about the church?  Deborah Cole Wise from Iowa discovered this newspaper article.

Looking into the future - a view from 1969

The Fort Dodge Messenger Farm Edition July 26, 1969

Shocking Forecasts:

Predicts no sermons in churches of the future

by George W. Cornell AP religion writer

NEW YORK (AP) - Out of the murkiness of the present commotion and changes in the churches, a Protestant scholar has taken a long look at the eventual results of it all - and he sees some shockers ahead.

Among them: The disappearance of sermons and Sunday morning church services; growing interest in Jesus and less in the mystery of God; broad church consolidations; multiple memberships by some believers in more than one church.

The Rev. Dr. Roland W Tapp of Philadelphia, a United Presbyterian specialist in religious education, says "part of the upheaval now going on in the churches is temporary, but much of it will have permanent effects."

Recently on a three month research assignment for analysis and planning, Dr Tapp said in an interview that indications are that the organizational structures of churches "are not going to make it" to the end of the century."

"The long-range prospects are good for essential Judeo-Christianity, but not for the institutions.," he said.

Dr Tapp, a one time missionary, California pastor and World War II bomber pilot, is a former professor of psychology and philosophy of religion at Kentucky's Center College and of Biblical languages at San Francisco Theological Seminary.

He offered his lively preview of the future church at a recent gathering of religious publishers.

Items on the forecast included:

- A re-enactment of the fundamentalist-liberal fight of 60 years ago...It already has resulted in a marked polarization of the church at all levels...the split may become irreparable.

-With Protestants and Roman Catholics "no longer in real dispute" over major doctrines, they wil move increasingly toward "merger at practical levels" - between fundamental Protestants and fundamental Catholics and between liberal Protestants and liberal Catholics.

- Most institutional members will be 45 years old, and up.  "There will be a steady decrease in total membership...fewer youths will join the church."

-On the other hand, there will be "increasing interest in religion and Christianity" among college students and young adults but "they will continue to avoid the institutional church."

-Christian teachers will see themselves "more as fellow-seekers" rather than "transmitters of heritage."  They "will be more interested in Jesus and less in God"  even though this seems a "flat contradiction in Biblical terms."

- The Consultation on Church Union will bring unification of major Protestant denominations among "great wailing and gnashing of teeth," but the new connective church "will be no more of a monolith than it is now."

-"Sermons are out.  And so is the Sunday morning worship service at 11 o'clock.  The death rattle will be long and loud and gruesome."

-The main theological shift will be away from doctrine of divine transcendence toward a "doctrine of panentheism," which holds that "God is in everything," in contrast from pantheism, which says "God is everything."

- Racial integration "will be a fact within the churches...It already is a workable everday truth at headquarters levels."

- Church property, valued today at over $80 billion, will go on tax rolls.  "In a pluralistic society with Christians rapidly becoming a minority, this kind of tax exempt welath simply cannot be tolerated.  It won't be."

God's Presence

God has been present in my life since I was forming in my mother's womb.  How do I know?  I had two grandmothers and a father praying for me and working to keep me rather than put me up for adoption.

God has been present in my life as a teenager.  How do I know?  I was fortunate to have top notch  youth group directors, Sunday school teachers, pastors and opportunities to grow my faith.

God has been present in my life even when my child died.  How do I know?  There was a church that would not stop calling and telling us how much they and God loved us.  They assured us that it was okay if we were mad at God.  Through their tenacity we returned to the church.

God has been present in my life... always.  How do I know?  I believe in a God who came to earth to dwell in our midst as John 1 says.  One translation even says that God came and pitched tent in our midst.  After Jesus could no longer be present here on earth he assured us that we would not be left alone.

God has been present in my life everyday through the people I meet, those I love, those who irritate me, the teachers, mentors, friends, family, husband, children... all of these have been physical reminders of God's presence in my life.  I am never alone and God has given me so much to carry me.  How do I know?  I know through the love of those around me.

I hope that God is present in your life.  If God is not present I would encourage you to begin to look for God. Contemplate your life and discover those times in your life when God has come to you in the form of those around you.

God is present.  Always.  When we can't sense God's presence the absence is caused by the scales on our eyes and hearts.  May God's presence be constant in your life.