On this day, Fuchida sent the message, "Tora, Tora, Tora." Later, he proclaimed the message of Jesus Christ, Saviour and Lord. Read his story here.

Working on a Sunday School class for the 12th; thoughts from this morning: Our challenges help us to remember our helplessness and need for the Rock of Israel (Deut. 32).  God pinches us awake.  We are to live per Hebrews 12.  Instead of forgetting our God, we are eagerly pursuing God, not merely remembering him so we can be thankful.  If our lives are preoccupied with this world, we will pursue finite goals for this life, and eventually God will fade from importance and even from mind.  If we remember what we are about, who we are, why we are here, what story we are in, where everything is headed, then we keep the spell of the world broken. We stay alive and awake. We live in fellowship with the Spirit, pursuing the glory and vindication of our Lord, warring a good warfare - not settling down as if this were our home. We will also be thankful for the honour and privilege of it all.  We will hate idolatry with a vengeance!  [Image: public domain.]

FYI, I've just sent off an article for the blog of the Anglican Diocese of the South (ACNA) about dealing with grief - should be posted in a week or so.  I'll provide the link here. I have also just sent off an article for Good News Magazine on particular sins we need to examine during lent (it's the December issue) related to our divisions in our country today.  You'll be able to find it on their website when the December issue comes out:  link is here .  I've written several for them in the past.

Today is Oct 31, celebrated by Protestants as Reformation Day.  It is the anniversary of the day that Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of Wittenburg Church.  That event is said to be the start of the Protestant Reformation.  Luther, however, was not trying to start a movement in the Church.  He did not intend for his action to lead to the events that followed.  He was actually following a common practice.  If a professor at the university where he taught had a subject he wanted debated, he would go and post a set of theses on the subject for debate.  It's just that by that time, there was a lot debate throughout Germany going on about the subjects he covered, and there was the printing press.  Someone removed his 95 these, printed them, and one thing lead to another. The Reformation was, of course, a very complicated event that spread over many years.  The result was a split in Western Christendom between the Roman Catholics and...

 Lee Gatiss gives us a good lesson on the reforming work of men in England before Luther: 

You will recall from last week's gospel reading and sermon, that Jesus is walking to Jerusalem with his disciples to face his death.  He is already suffering the emotional stress of what he is to undergo, so much that he is walking ahead of everyone, which was unusual for him, causing them to be anxious about what is going on.  Because of the route he has taken, he is headed for Jericho, so he can approach Jerusalem from the East along the Jericho road.  However many disciples may have been with him, by the time they get to Jericho, a crowd is gathering to go up to the city, for it is time for the Passover.   As was probably his custom, a poor blind man - according to Mark's rendition - was sitting along their route and as he heard the crowd coming, he overheard the mention of the name of Jesus, and he started to wonder if maybe Jesus was part of the crowd passing.  He would have heard of Jesus and his miraculous healing - even to the point of healing a man...

     When it comes to our Gospel reading this morning and our ongoing observation of how Jesus is training the future apostles, those of us who are familiar with this story and with sermons on this story easily remember lessons about personal ambition, jealousy, and about how we should follow Jesus' example and live a life of service, in contrast to seeking people to serve us instead.  And all that is very valuable, very appropriate for this passage, and I'll touch on some of that.  However, this morning, you'll forgive me if I want to zero in on a particular situation that we all can face at some point in our lives: getting along with people we are trying to help, such as aging relatives in your family, or other people you can run into as a care-giver.  Trying to help people can sometimes be a huge challenge.  I suspect some of you immediately hearken back to your own experience in a situation like this and how difficult it can be.  Let's take a ...