It is my prayer that . . . .

True instruction will be in my mouth,
and nothing false will be found on my lips. 

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. 

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these things were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. 

"Dampening the toilet paper slightly before wiping
   will allow it to clean better and be less abrasive."

I have no idea how that came up in our conversation, but that advice was given to me by one of my policyholders early in my State Farm career of 20 years. It was emphasized that "dampen" was the key word, because getting toilet paper too wet will cause it to disintegrate in your hand. But, I am ever grateful to him for his tip. It has saved me a lot of aggravation over my lifetime. 

"Charting the unknown possibilities of life."

. . . . you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.

 — Matthew 15:6-9 (NIV)

Money is simply a thing we created to keep track of the values for the exchange of goods, and services. It has no intrinsic value in and of itself, especially now that it is often just numbers on a computer screen, rather than paper, silver, or gold. Not that those are all that much better in truth, but they at least have some potential functional uses. I often use paper to help me start campfires. Perhaps that was one of the uses for Confederate dollars after the American Civil War, which is an excellent example of the artificial nature of money. Yet, money is a common "god" in our culture. 

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Time keeping (clocks, watches, calendars, etc.) is the artificial system we devised to calibrate change, especially cyclical change, but also what we deem progression. Daylight Savings Time is a perfect example of the fickle nature of our trying to schedule life, rather than harmonizing with it. Speaking of which, our local newspaper had an article with some interesting trivia about DST in it late last year (Grand Ledge Independent, November 7, 2021). Here it is: 

"Get ready for the 'better' time change as we end daylight saving time by moving our clocks back one hour on Nov 7. Unlike when we lost an hour in March to 'spring ahead' into daylight saving time, most people look forward to autumn when we 'fall back' into standard time and gain an extra hour of sleep. That switch happens this year on Nov. 7, when at 2 a.m. the time officially rolls back an hour to 1 a.m.

Here are some interesting factoids to consider as we prepare to change our clocks: 

Fact 1:

Daylight saving time was created to conserve power and electricity by optimizing the use of daylight hours during seasonal changes.

Fact. 2:

The U.S. made daylight saving time an annual event in 1966 after passing the Uniform Time Act. 

Fact 3:

The first official use of daylight saving time was in 1916 when Germany and Austria used a one hour clock shift to save electricity during WWI. 

Fact 4:

Daylight saving time was first proposed in New Zealand by George Vernon Hudson in 1895, but he was unable to get the time shift approved. 

Fact 5:

In 1905 a British man named William Willett proposed an 80 minute time change in fall and spring he called 'summer time.' The plan never made it through Parliament. 

Remember, while most of your clocks on cell phones, computers and other technological devices will change automatically, you may need to reset clocks on appliances or your car's clock radio. It is also a good time to change batteries in your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors, change vent filters and other timely household tasks that are often forgotten."  

"The Church Song"

Refrain: We are the church, the body of our Lord; We are all God’s children
We have been restored.

The church is not a building where people go to pray;
It’s not made out of sticks and stones, it’s not made out of clay. (refrain)

You can go to worship but you cannot go to church;
You can’t find a building that’s alive no matter how you search. (refrain)

The church is not a business, a committee or a board;
It’s not a corporation for the business of the Lord (refrain)

The church, it is the people living out their lives,
Called, enlightened, sanctified for the work of Jesus Christ. (refrain)

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The following Sunday I was questionably mentioning to my wife I wonder how many people actually pay attention to the words they are singing, reciting, or saying in response, during a worship service. I had just used The Lord's Prayer as an example since it is often a weekly part of worship services, especially in the liturgical churches. The version I am most used to reciting says, "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." I proposed that every time we speak those words we are asking God to treat us the same as we treat others. That should cause a heart to pause, if we truly realize that. Then the song "Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service" came up as a communion hymn. The third verse particularly caught my attention. 

Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service

3   As we worship, grant us vision,
till your love's revealing light
in its height and depth and greatness
dawns upon our quickened sight,
making known the needs and burdens
your compassion bids us bear,
stirring us to ardent service,
your abundant life to share.

I perceive the words of the song have more than one way of being interpreted, yet it seems to me it is focused on "others." This would mean, we are asking God to make known the needs and burdens of others, so we might be stirred to "share." Are we paying attention to the words that come out of our mouths. I suspect God is. Matthew 7:2 (look it up) frequently comes into my mind. 

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"The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing."  — John 6:63

However, having said that, the songs that would definitely be in the top ten of my very favorites are relatively new by Christian hymn standards. One of those was a part of the January 8, 2023 worship service at Immanuel Lutheran Church where my wife is a member. I have sung "Borning Cry" many times in my 28 years as a domestic missionary, so its words are familiar to me. 

Yet, when I began to get choked up, as I always do, while singing the last words of verse three, I decided I needed to share the song here for others who might not be familiar with it.