Table of Contents Devotion                                        Memory Verses        Poem                                               Quotes For Thought   July  2004

Go into all the world & preach the good news  to all creation.     Mark 16:15(NIV)

Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away. Luke 21:33

 

 

Devotion

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. (John 14:1 NRSV)

In the opening line of the Apostles Creed, that little word "in." In the Creed I do not say that I believe that God exists. I say simply, "I believe in God." There is a great difference here--the difference between belief as fact or idea and belief as commitment. We can see the difference immediately if we put it in another context. If I say that "I believe that Michele is a good person," I mean simply that I have the impression that she is a good person. On the other hand, if I say, "I believe in Michele." I am saying that I know her character well enough that I trust her and am willing to commit myself to her.

Similarly, when I say, "I believe in God..." I am not saying that I know all about God. Christian Faith means that I believe that I have come to know God's character in such a way that I am willing to put my trust in God.

True faith in God isn't easy. If some of us have come to believe in God, it has only been after a stiff struggle with our doubts. I do not think that Christians should ignore their doubts. I think we all ought to bring our doubts out into the open and deal with them honestly. I believe that doubt is a prerequisite to a genuine faith. Without doubt, we would be liable to fall for any wild scheme that comes our way.

I heard a story of a man who visited a saintly monk on a secluded island. He asked the monk, "Do you still wrestle with the devil?" "Not any longer, my child," replied the godly man, "I have grown old and he has grown old with me. He does not have the strength. I now wrestle with God." "With God!" exclaimed the man with astonishment. "And you hope to win?" "No," answered the monk.. "I hope to lose."

Our call is to lose ourselves and believe in God.

Prayer: God of all, as I move through the days you've given me, may I grow more like you and less like myself. Amen.

Ronald Newhouse

Daily Devotions

Memory Verses

The Lord is my light and my salvation;  whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life;  of whom shall I be afraid?  Psalm 27:1 (NRSV)

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. (John 14:1 NRSV)

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. John 15:7(NIV)

 

Poem

RAGGED OLD FLAG

I walked through a county courthouse square,
On a park bench an old man was sitting there.
I said, "Your old courthouse is kinda run down."
He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town."
I said, "Your flagpole has leaned a little bit,
And that's a Ragged Old Flag you got hanging on it.
 

He said, "Have a seat", and I sat down.
"Is this the first time you've been to our little town?"
I said, "I think it is." He said, "I don't like to brag,
But we're kinda proud of that Ragged Old Flag."
 

"You see, we got a little hole in that flag there
When Washington took it across the Delaware.
And it got powder-burned the night Francis Scott Key
Sat watching it writing _Oh Say Can You See_.
And it got a bad rip in New Orleans
With Packingham and Jackson tuggin' at its seams."
 

"And it almost fell at the Alamo
Beside the Texas flag, but she waved on through.
She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville
And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill.
There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard, and Bragg,
And the south wind blew hard on that Ragged Old Flag."
 

"On Flanders Field in World War I
She got a big hole from a Bertha gun.
She turned blood red in World War II
She hung limp and low by the time it was through.
She was in Korea and Vietnam.
She went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam."
 

"She waved from our ships upon the briny foam,
And now they've about quit waving her back here at home.
In her own good land she's been abused --
She's been burned, dishonored, denied and refused."
 

"And the government for which she stands
Is scandalized throughout the land.
And she's getting threadbare and wearing thin,
But she's in good shape for the shape she's in.
'Cause she's been through the fire before
And I believe she can take a whole lot more."
 

"So we raise her up every morning,
Take her down every night.
We don't let her touch the ground
And we fold her up right.
On second thought I DO like to brag,
'Cause I'm mighty proud of that Ragged Old Flag."
 

Written by Johnny Cash