Just a Thought . . .

Are we so afraid of death that we are now afraid of life?

Jesus died and rose again not just to give us life later, but life now.

Set free from the fear of death, we can now live.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

~ John 10:10b

My Yesterday

So yesterday I had to report for Jury Duty! The trial I was considered for was a rape case that was going to last 3-4 days. Ugh. Even though attorneys usually don't like having pastors on their juries, I was a little worried. However, that, coupled with the fact that I have given pastoral counseling to women who have suffered sexual abuse over the years (but never to someone accused of sexual abuse) was enough to have me stricken by one (or both) of the lawyers. The guy next to me was a clinical psychologist who had treated patients in this situation also, and he was excused as well.

We were in the courtroom, though, for a good 1.5 hours, as the attorneys asked their questions and made their notes. What I thought was interesting and had never seen or heard before was that when one of the potential jurors wanted to explain something privately at the bench, the judge had a switch to turn on "white noise" through the speakers in the courtroom, to make sure no one else could hear. It worked. I heard nothing. But after a while, it got to be annoying.

Last night, then, I got to attend my youngest daughter's school orchestra concert. And, just like her big sister, she has ascended to principal, or first chair, in her orchestra. (Quite an achievement for a 7th grader in the Advanced Orchestra in her Middle School!) Below is a picture from the program. (Sorry the quality is not better, but it wasn't my idea to print this on red paper!)

Twas the Week Before Christmas . . .

One week until Christmas. Now, things calm down a bit for me! Is that backwards? I don't know. Yes, I still have Christmas shopping to do, but I don't worry about that too much. Most of the extra stuff I have to do is now done: annual report, annual meeting, open house, newsletter, cards, decorating, bulletins . . .  From Thanksgiving through the first half of Advent it is quite hectic. But now, things slow down and I really enjoy this part of Advent. A few sermons to write, but mostly, for me the stress is now off. Now, time to enjoy. :-)

A couple of other comments . . .

My prayer list is getting rather long! It always varies in size as people are added and removed, but it seems as if these days there is an unusual amount of people with troubles to pray for. I am glad to do so, but my heart breaks for them.

And two verses that jumped out at me this morning in Morning Prayer, both from Isaiah:

The fear of the Lord is Zion treasure. (Isaiah 33:6b)

For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; he will save us. (Isaiah 33:22)

That first one is just plain cool. But that second one, think about it. We usually connect judge and lawgiving with condemnation, but here Isaiah is connecting them with saving. Hmmm . . .

New Chapter

Hope you all had a good weekend and Memorial Day. I spent yesterday helping my newly-minted-college-graduate son (see previous entry for pics of that!) move into his new apartment. He is now living about 30 minutes west of us, close to where he will be working. He found a nice, new apartment building. It kind of has an industrial feel in the hallways of the building, but the interior is nice and modern. Wide hallways, high ceilings. He chose well.

I forgot to take any pictures! We were too busy carrying and putting together furniture. But we got it almost all done and now he just basically has some boxes left to unpack and to settle in. He still has a few weeks to do so before starting his new job. So all-in-all, a good day for us as we begin a new chapter in our lives.

I suppose all parents go through it, but now we have a house much too big for what we need! Five years ago, we moved into a larger house, primarily because we needed a dedicated space for my father who was moving in with us. He stayed with us for about three years before beginning to need more care than we could provide. So he moved to a Memory Care place very close to us. We still go see him every day, but he is no longer in our house. I was able to move my study/office from the basement up to the room he used to occupy.

Now with my son moved out, another room has freed up. My college-aged daughter is also mostly out of the house, having an off-campus apartment where she spends most of her time, even when school is not in session. We've kept her room largely in tact, but soon it will be open, too. So, we can set up a guest room or two, or maybe now move my wife's desk up from the basement into one of those rooms for her office. That might be nice for her.

We'll still get to see our son every week (or mostly) in church - that'll be nice. And we still have our youngest daughter home for six more years before she is ready for college - that'll help keep us young! :-)

Some people say changes like this are sad - and I guess they are a little. When I see pictures of my kids when they were little and remember those days, there's a twinge. But these are good days, too. Happy days, proud days, to see your children grow and mature and become their own person. And I look forward to seeing how my son continues to grow and develop and become his own man in the future. His apartment and furnishings are already much nicer than mine were starting out! :-)

Money

An interesting series of events and readings of late . . .

First, a few weeks ago, I met a woman named Paula on the DC Metro. She was upset and I helped her out a bit then, and have a couple of times since with a place to stay and with some food. I found out later that she was a plaintiff in a rather large lawsuit with a lot of other women, which settled with a hospital in our area. She is due something like $7.5 million, which I believe she is to begin to receive soon. But until then, she needed some help. That's all fine, but here's why I bring her up: the pastor of the church she was attending said to her that God told him that she should give him (or his church) $1 million. . . . She's not going to that church anymore.

In the readings for Morning Prayer today, money was front and center. Balak, the king of Moab, tried to get Balaam to curse Israel for him and promised him great riches to do so. But Balaam replied: "Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God to do less or more." Then, right after that, we read of Judas agreeing to betray Jesus for money . . .

Finally, in the adult Bible Class yesterday, this from Proverbs:

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom [Christ],
    and the one who gets understanding,
for the gain from her is better than gain from silver
    and her profit better than gold.
She is more precious than jewels,
    and nothing you desire can compare with her (Prov 3:13-15).

How often money steals our hearts and becomes a false god. I am grateful that among the myriad temptations that I face each day, money is not one of them. The Lord has provided me and my family with all that we need - sometimes more and sometimes less - but we've always been in a position where we can be generous with our money and give. And I like doing so. My wife handles the finances for us and tells me when to slow down and cool it. But she's the same way. I remember Luther and Katie being like that as well.

So why do I bring this all up? I don't know - just because it was interesting how those four things all came together over the past couple of days.

Catching Up and A Thought About Communion Practice

Been a bit since I posted. Still basking in the glow of Villanova's victory! :-) Got my National Championship hat in the mail yesterday. Way overpriced, but I wanted to have one.

In other news . . .

+ The Walk-Run-Ride for Life was today, to benefit our local pregnancy center. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and the ride was a great success. Right now, they have raised 88% of their goal, which I'm sure will updated higher at the beginning of the week. That is (I believe) better than they usually do - so good news! It also seemed to me like they had more participation this year, which is also good!

+ Going to Wisconsin next week for a pastoral conference, and really looking forward to it. It is always nice to get away from the usual routine and spend some time with my brothers. Also have the District Board of Directors meeting, which will not be as much fun. Have some tough things to discuss and decisions to be made.

+The Phillies are off to a pretty good start - their record is 5-6 right now, but they have some really good talent on the cusp, so they are trending in the right direction. Last night, however, was abysmal. I got to watch as they played the Washington Nationals and so were on TV here, but they got smoked. Hopefully they'll do better tonight.

And now a thought I've been having . . . regarding Close(d) Communion practice in the Church . . .

It seems to me that not many churches actually practice what is called "open" communion. Oh, I'm sure there are a few that will commune anyone, anywhere, at anytime. But I think the great majority follow some sort of guidelines as to who may commune. So here's what I think the issue REALLY is: Who gets to decide? Is it the individual, or the pastor (in the name of the church/congregation)?

That, I think, is the crux of the issue. Our hyper-self focused, self-identifying, self-actualizing, self-centered, self-exalting culture puts the responsibility for deciding on the individual, while the Scriptures give that responsibility to the church. In our world today the former is acceptable, the latter is not.

To be brief, I'll just mention two Scriptures that speak to the church as having this responsibility. In the Old Testament, it was given to the priests to distinguish between the clean and the unclean, the holy and the profane. They did not announce a general description of what these things were and leave it up to the individual to decide where he or she fell - this was a task give to the priests. And even in Jesus' day, when He healed lepers, Jesus told them to "go show themselves to the priests." This was the church's culture.

Then in the New Testament, it is the apostles (and their successor) who are the stewards of the mysteries of God. They are the ones tasked with the proper distribution of the master's goods, to give them as He wants them given. It, again, is not left to the individual.

So that (I've been thinking lately) is really the crux of the issue - it is a clash of cultures. The world which believes authority lies in the self, and the Church which believes authority lies in God and His Word. Of course they're going to disagree! But what will the Church do?

A Small World

My father is 91 years old and has been living with me and my family for about two years now. He has some dementia; he is somewhat forgetful. I have begun to notice that his world has become very small. What I mean is that his focus is very narrow, on the task at hand. If he is eating dinner, that's his focus and he really doesn't seem to be cognizant of the rest of us eating with him. He goes about his routines, which give needed structure to his life, and does not consider much else. It seems that with age, and maybe because of the dementia, his world has become very small. I don't know how else to describe it.

That's interesting to me for when one is a child, the world is so very big, with lots of things to explore, things to try and experience. But now, for my father, the exact opposite seems to have taken place - there is where he is and what he is doing, and not much else. Perhaps that is a blessing, I'm not really sure. It hasn't been easy for him or us making this life transition, but the Lord has given us some extra years and extra time with my father, and I am learning a lot about myself and serving and patience. And that's good.

Been a long day. I'm going to bed. :-)

Strange Noise . . .

Ok, so I get up this morning and make my way down to my study in the basement. To do so I walk past the laundry room and hear the water running. Strange. Sounds like the washing machine, but it's early so no one up but me. The water noise is coming from the sump pump hole.

Oh no.

For those of you who do not have sump pumps, let me tell you this: there is no good scenario for what is happening at this point. None. Nada. This is bad no matter how you slice it.

So I gently move the cover to the sump hole and water starts squirting out. Okay, it just got worse. Images of my basement flooding are running through my head. So I unplug the pump and remove the cover . . . and thankfully, the water is not running out of the hole. This is probably the best case scenario! One of the couplings connecting the pump output to the output pipe had come loose and the water was squirting out of there. But what caused it to all of a sudden come loose?

I grab some buckets and bail the water out of the hole. It is as warm as bath water! Our pump must have been running quite some time. My guess is that with all of our extremely cold weather, the line has frozen somewhere and the pump just kept running and running, trying to push out the water until the coupling came apart under the pressure. Then the pump kept pumping but the water never left the hole, i.e. infinite loop.

So, I'll keep an eye on it for now and see what happens. Reminds me of another story when I heard water running in the middle of the night . . . but that's a story for another day. :-)

UPDATE: Confirmed line was clogged (and assumed frozen), so ran a new, temporary line to the waste sink in the laundry room. So now the water can get pumped out until the spring thaw, when I'll remove the temporary line and reattach the permanent one. (My wife will just have to watch her step until then!) And now I'll have the emergency line ready for it this ever happens again.

This is nuts!

This is what it's like in Boston. Crazy. I like snow, but . . .

A Modern Parable

Go read this. Really. Now. Go.

Road Trip

My wife, youngest daughter, and I are in Connecticut this weekend for a wedding. Two of my member are being married up here at his home congregation, a beautiful old church in Bristol. We left early yesterday morning to get here for the rehearsal and purposely went a little out of our way to make the drive nicer. Our choice was: (1.) I-95 and the NJ Turnpike - mostly cities, industrial, and lots of traffic, or (2.) up through the mountains in PA - country, scenic, and less traffic. We went for . . .

The only traffic we really hit was for the last 15 miles in Connecticut, which took us about an hour! But, I was to find out, driving around here was going to be like that. Well, actually, like this:

Yeah, the roads here are tough. I got a little lost going to the church for the rehearsal, coming back to the hotel to pick up my family for the rehearsal dinner, going to the rehearsal dinner place, AND coming back to the hotel! Maybe it's just my age, but I used to be good at driving and finding things! But we got everywhere we needed to be and relatively on time - thanks to my smartphone and its navigation app. Without that, I'd still be out there driving around somewhere!

Here's an interesting tidbit for you all: in New York, they don't just have Rest Stops off the highway anymore - they have:

A sign of the times, I guess.

The hotel we're staying in - Homewood Suites - is very, very nice! Not too far from the sprawling ESPN campuses. (I don't think I've ever seen more satellite dishes in one place before!) 

So, takin' it easy this morning. I'll rehearse my sermon a few times, my sister is driving up to hang out with us a little (she lives about an hour from here), and then off to the church. Should be a good day . . . as long as I can get back to the church! :-)

The Best Laid Plans . . .

We're back from vacation and back from dropping my son off at college. He is attending Western New England University in Springfield, MA.

We had everything planned out. Since I would be in Florida for my Board of Trustees meetings, my wife would drive him up to Hartford, CT on Thursday and stay over for the night there. I would fly up from FL first thing Friday morning. They would then pick me up at the airport and we would drive up to the school and settle my son in - maybe even returning on Friday night. Easy, right?

Well . . . except that our van broke down. About 30 minutes south of the Hartford airport. So around dinner time on Thursday, I am on the phone with my wife trying to figure out what to do. But here's the good news: they broke down in Southington, CT which is where the parents of one of my members lives! So AAA towed the van and my family was able to stay with my member's parents for the night. Good so far.

In the morning (while I was in the air) my wife found out that the water pump had failed. (Which it shouldn't have, since it was not all that old, but that's another story.) That's a big, labor-intensive repair, so my wife rented a van, loaded my son's stuff from our van, then drove to the airport to pick me up. That delayed us a bit, but we made it to the University around noon - just enough time to move my son into his room and then for my wife and I to dash off to a parents' meeting.

My son's dorm, Windham Hall.

After our meeting, my son had a meeting and a bunch of other things to attend to, so we went off to get him a cell phone. (Yes, he still didn't have one of his own!) I had found one with a very customizable plan at WalMart, so we went there. Got back to campus after purchasing the phone but it wouldn't activate. Spent a bunch of time on my phone with their less-than-helpful customer service, who then finally told me I should take the phone back and get another. Sigh. So back off to WalMart, return, get an exchange, but this phone wouldn't activate either! Different reason, but same problem. So back on the phone with their less-than-helpful customer service, who after a bunch of time told me to take the phone back and get another! Really? Okay, I've learned. So back to WalMart, return, but NO exchange this time for this piece of junk! Found another phone, a little more expensive plan, but they activated it for me so at least I got a phone for my son!

Now it getting close to 9 pm. Say our good-byes and head back to CT so we return the rental van in the morning and get our car. Not cheap. But now the van is running well with a new water pump and timing belt (since you always replace them together, there's so much labor involved). Got home about 6 pm Saturday.

Youngest Peasant child, with the Golden Bear, mascot of WNE.

All-in-all, a very tiring and frustrating few days! But our son is there and settled in. I really think this school was a good fit for him, so I look forward to hearing from him how things work out.

Oh, and by the way, do NOT purchase the LG Pulse Virgin Mobile Custom phone from WalMart. They are junk. You will just wind up returning them.

Life and Death

This is VBS week for us. I don't have any pictures to post yet, but the week has been going well. A couple of hiccups - I won't get into them here. But while it is always a busy and tiring week for me, it is also always a good week. I enjoy teaching the kids and they soak it up and are always disappointed when the week ends. We are using the Higher Things VBS curriculum "Crucified." I highly recommend it to you. It isn't filled with lots of flashy stuff - just the Word. Jesus' death to give us life. Nothing better than that.

Last night I was on my way out to Bible Study and our street was filled with police cars. Not sure what was going on, but they were at our neighbor's house across the street and diagonal from us. I stood a watched for a moment and heard my neighbor cry out a few things. My guess from what he said: I think his wife committed suicide yesterday. I hadn't met this neighbor yet, but my heart went out to him, he was in such agony. If I am right, his wife died and he felt like he had died. His wife died, I don't know why. Maybe this life was too painful or hopeless for her. The police were still there when I got home from the study, still taking pictures and investigating. Procedure, I guess. But today in VBS I get to teach the kids about the resurrection of Jesus and the promise of life. I get to teach our hope and victory over death. Boy do we need it.

Finally, my vacation is coming up! About a week and a half away now. We are going up to Michigan for my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary. It will be a little shorter than usual, but it will still be good to get away and leave the computer and internet and schedule behind, and just relax a bit.

A Very Cool Story

File this in the "Don't underestimate what you can do" department.  :-)

This story is confirmed in Elmer Bendiner’s book, The Fall of Fortresses.

Sometimes, it’s not really just luck.

Elmer Bendiner was a navigator in a B-17 during WW II. He tells this story of a World War II bombing run over Kassel, Germany , and the unexpected result of a direct hit on their gas tanks. “Our B-17, the Tondelayo, was barraged by flak from Nazi antiaircraft guns. That was not unusual, but on this particular occasion our gas tanks were hit.

Later, as I reflected on the miracle of a 20 millimeter shell piercing the fuel tank without touching off an explosion, our pilot, Bohn Fawkes, told me it was not quite that simple. “On the morning following the raid, Bohn had gone down to ask our crew chief for that shell as a souvenir of unbelievable luck.

The crew chief told Bohn that not just one shell but 11 had been found in the gas tanks. 11 unexploded shells where only one was sufficient to blast us out of the sky. It was as if the sea had been parted for us. A near-miracle, I thought.

Even after 35 years, so awesome an event leaves me shaken, especially after I heard the rest of the story from Bohn.

“He was told that the shells had been sent to the armorers to be defused. The armorers told him that Intelligence had picked them up. They could not say why at the time, but Bohn eventually sought out the answer. “Apparently when the armorers opened each of those shells, they found no explosive charge. They were as clean as a whistle and just as harmless.

Empty? Not all of them!

One contained a carefully rolled piece of paper. On it was a scrawl in Czech. The Intelligence people scoured our base for a man who could read Czech. Eventually they found one to decipher the note. It set us marveling.

Translated, the note read: “This is all we can do for you now…”

HT: Fr. Z

A Few Things . . .

Not really having a good week . . . tired, hard to focus, but pushin' through.  :-)  Some items:

(1.) + Klemet Preus +  Rest in peace, my friend.

(2.) Laurie and Robbie have left for Western New England University for his orientation. So I have to hold down the fort for the next three days.  :-(

(3.) The Senate Harry Reid is already introducing legislation to counteract the Supreme Court ruling in the Hobby Lobby case. Here's the story. Boy, Harry, that didn't take long. "Do nothing Harry" can act fast when he wants to!

Ash Wednesday Surprise

Imagine arriving for the Divine Service on Ash Wednesday and finding . . .

. . . part of the chancel gone

. . . new carpeting cut and lying loosely about

. . . new lighting being installed

. . . construction stuff lying around

. . . dust and dirt everywhere

. . . and a workman who upon questioning says: "Oh, didn't they call you?"

AAHHHHHHHH! NO THEY DIDN'T!

And people wonder why I have gray hair.

Yes, this is the one of the joys of not having our own building to meet in. The Adventists from whom we rent space decided to renovate their church and did not tell us.

Now, you might be asking, don't you have a contract? Yes, yes we do. It says we pay a certain amount on money for use of the building on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. And yes, last night was Wednesday evening. Our night. We pay for it. Why were they there? Why did they even think they could be there, tear the place apart, and just give us a phone call the day before and we could just up and move our service? Why?



(crickets)



Sadly, this is not even the first time they've done this to us. If we had another location we could rent for anywhere near the same price (which still isn't cheap, but everything else in this area is really expensive!) we'd move. But for now, we're kind of stuck.

So we have to suck it up.

But it would be so nice . . . so nice to just be able to go to church on a Sunday morning or a midweek service and not have to set everything up, and not have to wonder: what surprises await us today?

Sigh.

Fortunately, we arrived early enough to make do, clean up, and set up for church. It was hectic and tight for time, but we did it. And the workman was very nice and helped us as well.

But this is where God has put me, to preach to these people and give them His gifts. To labor under this burden of church-homelessness. So here I stay. And the people are wonderful! I wouldn't trade them for the world. Just wish we could afford our own place.

Someday. Maybe. Someday.

Catching Up, Snow, and . . . Really?

Well, as the title says: Catching up. No, not on my work! That will never happen. By here on the ol' blog with what's been going on . . .

Last week and a half were pretty busy. A couple of deaths, and then a funeral, a memorial service, and an interment in three different states kept me hopping! But it is so great to preach the Gospel at such times, and focus so clearly on Christ's victory for us over what defeats us. "Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" (1 Corinthians 15:57)

Next, it is snowing again today. Pretty much everything is closed or cancelled today. So a day to watch the beauty of the snow falling out the window, and to watch the birds coming to our feeder to eat and our bird bath to drink. They're fun to watch.

And finally, in the "What were they thinking" department . . . my mother-in-law got my daughter (8 years old) a "Bible Word Search" puzzle book for Christmas. She got it out over the weekend and starting doing some. And then we found this page:

Really? Do we really need such a page in a kids word search book?

Wrapping a Lot of Things Up

Well, another busy week has flown by. I was down in Florida most of the week for my Lutheran Haven Board of Trustees meetings. Left early Tuesday morning and returned late Friday night. The meetings weren't bad - we actually have an exciting building project just beginning, so lots to consider and think about. If all goes well, I think this will be an good addition to the campus and help turn the place around. Our new CEO has been doing a good job of that on the operations side, now we need to do so on the long range planning and facilities. The only bad part of the trip was that my flight was delayed 3 hours coming home. but JetBlue surprised me with a $50 rebate the next day, so that says something.

We settle on our housing this week - Tuesday. So this will be another busy week! At 11 am we sell our current house, and at Noon we buy the new house! Then we get to work cleaning and fixing and moving. My father, brother, and sister are all coming to help, and it will be nice to all be together again. That doesn't happen too often these days.

School is starting back up for the semester as well. This summer of moving has set me back a little. I am hoping to take my French exam in the not too distant future, and then try to buckle down on my reading. I was hoping to have all my exams done this fall, but as I said, this summer has set me back a little and now it looks like Spring.

I'll try to post some stuff a little more often now that most of the summer's upset is winding down. We'll see, right?  :-)

Easter Monday

Some Easter Monday thoughts . . .

+ The joy of Easter lives on.

+ I have not been impressed with the April Fool's offerings I've seen so far. Too obviously fake.

+ I found an old friend's blog the other day. I think about him often but had lost touch after his great fall. His writings seemed filled with a sadness. Made me sad.

+ I will go back to my tradition today of playing golf the day after Easter.  :-)  I could not last year because of school - I was in over my head with deadlines and papers. I still have much to do, but not so much this year. A nice day outside in the air is going to be nice.

+ I watched many of the Holy Week services from the Vatican this week. Gives me a break from things. I enjoy the ceremonial and how precisely and respectfully it is all done, but I will never get used to the Pope being treated like a rock star by screaming crowds. Just doesn't sit right with me.

+ Singing Easter hymns and giving the Lord's Body and Blood to a shut-in yesterday with ALS and who has lost almost all muscle function is what our Lord's resurrection is all about!

+ I hate it when I request a book through inter-library loan and I get sent the wrong book!

+ Speaking of books, my Amazon wish list is getting long. Any takers?  ;-)

+ Speaking of books, if you haven't read Bill Hecht's "Two Wars We Must Not Lose" you must read it. It is not short, but the amount of information he brings together and synthesizes will change how you look at what is happening in our world today and how you listen to the news. Eye opening.

+ A good wife is a gift from the Lord. Amen!

UPDATE: I now have a greater appreciation for Luke 15:8-10, having just looked for the last hour for my wedding ring. It fell off while I was getting ready to play golf (I thought. At least, that when I noticed). Since I usually notice that pretty quickly, I looked all around the area, but nothing. I began expanding my search, even retracing walking my daughter to the bus stop - twice. Nothing. I search everywhere. Nothing. It's only a ring. But it's more than a ring. I saw my neighbor. He said I looked "pensive." I explained to him, then continued my search. FINALLY, search again (for about the fourth time) around where I thought I lost it, there it was! I don't know why I didn't see it before, but in any case, I am so thankful to have found it. And you know what the first thing I wanted to do was (after thanking God)? Go tell my neighbor! "And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the [ring] I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Inauguration Day

This day takes over the DC area unlike other parts of the country. In Indiana, I'm sure it will be mentioned on the evening newscasts, but here, the local news stations have wall-to-wall coverage, some starting at 4 am! Truthfully, it gets tiresome. We'll be having a Bible Study during the event, so I won't be watching. No, it is not a special study for that reason, but our regular Monday afternoon Psalms study. But it will be good to have our minds on Scripture and not on the craziness and obsession of the inauguration. And at our Bible Study, as well as in Morning Prayer this morning and in church yesterday, we will pray for our president, that our good and gracious Lord grant him wisdom and strength to fulfill his vocation with honesty and integrity and for the good of all people. We may not always agree with him or like what he does, but he needs our prayers. And it is the best thing we can do for him (or anyone!) as Christians - bring him before the throne of our Father in heaven.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2