And Now, Some Good News - Amazing Grace

Yesterday, we all woke up to the news of horrific terrorist deaths overseas.  I will not name the group, because its name has been glorified (in a sense) far too much.  God is in control.  As Joni Eareckson Tada says, “He allows what He hates to accomplish what He loves.”

God is not surprised by this terrorist group.  God knew what would happen.  In fact, He foretold what would happen in Genesis.

How can I discuss Good News?  I can because Good News is all around us, if only we can stop grumbling and complaining enough to recognize it.

When I read the New York Daily News on line this morning, imagine what I found - an  advertisement for Amazing Grace on Broadway.  “The song the world knows, the story it doesn’t,” is the slogan for the show.  

When God wrote in Matthew 24:14 that the Word would be preached to the ends of the earth, he already had Broadway, the Internet, rapid transit, airplanes, and satellites in mind.

Have all the folks who say that Hollywood is all about unrighteousness noticed some of the fabulous television programming and movies being made these days about the Bible and the existence of God? 

Last Sunday, we were leaving Farm Fresh with our groceries in the cart.  Four young men in hip hop gear swarmed in the Out Door without realizing it.  When they saw we were coming out, they slowed down.  One of them looked Bruce straight in the eye, “Excuse us. Happy Father’s Day, Sir.”   How kind, how refreshing! Bruce and I don’t have children, but he has mentored enough young people to have earned the term “father.”

As I’m out and about for work, I listen to XM radio (which I pay for, not the state) to uplift me while I work in a dark profession.  This week I was so cheered to hear a newscaster being interviewed about her new book and her faith in God.  You GO Gretchen Carlson.

The City is replacing the sewer infrastructure in my neighborhood.  Most of the work is right in front of my house.  It has been terribly hot outside and the constant rumbling and beep beep beep of bulldozers has been a challenge. 

I was out mowing the lawn in the heat not long ago when I noticed that one of the big, heavy pipes was on a strip of the lawn I needed to mow next  The land is city property, but I am responsible to mow it.  I momentarily started getting grumbly and then checked myself.

 

The work has to be done. Maintaining a good attitude is the key.  I mowed the strip I could access.  As the bulldozer operator saw me coming, he “beeped beeped beeped” over, picked up the pipe and gently placed it back in an area which I had already mowed.  There is still good in this world.  I sent an email to the City praising how kind this work crew has been.

I stopped writing this entry because I had to get to work.  God’s biggest Good News surprise for today was yet to come.

Evil thought that it had won in South Carolina when a man was welcomed, a stranger of a different color, to a Bible study. He sat among these kind, prayerful folks listening for an hour and then killed 9.

My day started with Amazing Grace on Broadway.  My work week came to a close with Amazing Grace from my President as he provided the eulogy for Pastor Clementa Pinckney, one of the 9 lost last week.

I didn’t vote for Mr. Obama either time.  However, I know that God calls us to respect and obey those in authority.  We are called to pray for our leaders, whether we voted for or opposed them.  We are NOT called to write hateful things about Mr. Obama or his wife or his children and circulate them on Facebook. 

Hey Rush Limbaugh, we are not called to ridicule America’s First Lady by referring to her as ugly.  I think she is elegant and attractive, calling attention to many American clothes designers. She has a young, refreshing look.  I love how she puts a wide belt over a sweater. I guess when you can’t argue with someone effectively, you call them names.

Christians are also not called to forward on-line posters and quips which degrade the President or his family.  Remember what Thumper’s mother said, “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

Today I saw President Obama preach the gift of God’s grace in church. He gave a salvation message. Yep, Barack Hussein Obama did that. And I love him for it.

He’s been called Godless by the right, which I am a member of, by the way.  I hope it is pretty clear after today that he is not Muslim (eye roll) or Godless. And come to think of it, how paranoid do you have to be to believe that our President was not born in America? I guess you have to believe that the Honolulu Advertiser falsely publicized his birth announcement over 50 years ago in case he might decide to run for office some day.

Evil used a confused and, most likely, mentally ill young man to destroy.  God ultimately won when all of the victims’ families extended grace and forgiveness in court. God got the glory when a U.S. President preached his faith in God’s grace to sustain us and heal us. God won when our President talked about the grace that saved him.  Amazing Grace, indeed.

President Obama Eulogizes the Rev. Clementa Pinckney