When Is A Good Time For Turning Away? - October 1, 2010

Daily Lectionary Reading for October 1, 2010
Psalm 78:40-72
Hosea 4:11-19
Acts 21:37-22:16
Luke 6:12-26

Psalm 78:40-72
After recounting God's action in leading the people out of Egypt like a shepherd with a flock a familiar refrain in v.56 -
"Yet they tested the Most High God,
and rebelled against him.
They did not observe his decrees,
but turned away and were faithless
like their acestors;
they twisted like a treacherous bow."
And again as we read we are reminded these verses don't really come to us as mere descriptions of how a people in a particular place at a particular time turned away from God whose provision was constant; they come to us as a call to listen, to pay attention, to observe - to be thankful to God and to try very hard not to forget that the God we run to quickly in adversity is the God we are called to be faithful to all of the time.

September 30 Revisited
Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the service at St. Charles Presbyterian Church in St. Charles, Missouri when I was ordained.  Five years as Associate Pastor there (under the remarkable, invaluable, and most excellent of mentors, Robert R. McGruther), ten years as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Prestonsburg, Kentucky and now five years as pastor (the first four Designated and now installed) at Hebron Presbyterian Church in Shepherdsville, Kentucky (not really in the actual sense of being in Shepherdsville, but in the post office sense of Shepherdsville casts a wide net).  Each congregation has had much to teach and has showed remarkable patience as I tried to figure our what I was and am called to do.  Twenty years in and I feel like I'm still working at the figuring out part.  Thanks to all who have shared the journey to this point; you have all helped, challenged, inspired and been great companions.  I commented on Facebook that it seemed more like six or seven years than twenty.  Somehow, here we are in 2010.  Looking forward to what's to come.
Celebrate Life!
(Bob always signed his newsletter articles that way and I borrowed that from him as well.)