Everybody needs to hear this sermon (or one like it): How God acts when we suffer . It's by Rev. Joe Novenson of Lookout Mountain Presbyterian.

This was for my ethics students today. It's a way of understanding the Gospel that helps young people to understand the narrative in which they live and to help them turn from their self-centeredness. You can let me know what you think about it. *** The Christian life is a part of the story of Jesus. God has a plan to glorify His Son. He is to be His King - the Redeemer-Saviour King, who has a kingdom by rescuing it and cleansing it for himself. He did the work 2000 years ago on a cross, rising to victory and his throne. We come in later. We are conceived with a nature that could care less; our puny minds can only think of our selves; we are out of touch with what's really going on; in the Matrix. God steps into our lives and begins to make what Jesus has done for us to start to work - to do things to us. First, subconsciously, he changes our hearts. Then, he calls us, normally through his Church in some way, to follow Jesus (with the change in our heart, we are awake, we can...

Tomorrow, in the Anglican calendar, is the celebration of the Feast of the Transfiguration. As we have read, this is the occasion in which Jesus appears before the apostles in the glory He would have after his work on earth was done. God the Father also speaks to the apostles directly, identifying Jesus as His Son – which was synonymous with his being the King of God’s kingdom – and commanding them to “hear him;” to take heed to all that Jesus would say to them. One of the main purposes for the Church calendar is to help us to remember the basics of the Christian story; the Christian faith. Remembering is a very key ingredient to saving faith throughout the Bible. If we forget what we believe, we certainly cannot live by it, can we. In the Old Testament, the LORD had to frequently reprimand Israel for failing to remember things they had once known. Their failure to remember would lead them to unfaithfulness and idolatry and thus to the loss of their covenant blessings. The apostles ...