On Keeping My Mouth Shut In Sunday School

This book is simply a written Sunday school lesson rather than the oral variety. The primary topic is war and the relationship of a Christian to it. While someday war shall be studied no more, that day has not yet arrived. This book chronicles with specific examples how a few Christians like Rev. J. J. Taylor, Alvin York, Vernon Grounds, Franz Jagerstatter, and the author himself have approached the topic. Dietrich Bonhoeffer also makes a guest appearance, as do Tolstoy, Gandhi, and MLK. The book does not advocate a pure pacifism. The author has not solved all the problems associated with that viewpoint and does not know anyone who has. But it does argue for peacemaking, the likes of which is addressed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and by St. Paul, who urges us to wrestle with principalities and powers, i.e., ideas, and not to wrestle with flesh and blood. This the author has tried to do within these peacemaking pages and the comparative safety of his laptop and life in bucolic and pastoral Jamestown, North Carolina.

In the absence of the preacher, Jim the elder was called to visit a woman who had lost her husband. She was desolate and was threatening to commit suicide! Jim was called by a mother of a child who attended the Sunday school. I went with him that morning. As we drove to this home, Jim was at a loss as to what he could do or say. This was something out of his realm of expertise! We had prayed before we left the house, but Jim was anxious! God was putting this woman's life in his hands! I picked up the Bible from the console and said, "Maybe I can find a verse that will help you!" I opened the Bible randomly, and a verse jumped right out at me. I read it to him, "For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour, what you ought to say!" (Luke 12:12, NIV). As we pulled up in front of her house, Jim said, "Mark that page!" We quietly walked into this home. Jim was directed to the woman in need. He talked with her, prayed with her, and read the scriptures of comfort and encouragement. He was with her a long time! When the situation became calm, we took our leave, and the woman who contemplated suicide continued to live. We never heard if she made a place for the Lord in her life, but we knew that He had taken up permanent residence in ours! We felt it! We saw it! We were lifted by His might and encouraged to keep on keeping on. God is real!

A volume of biting essays, recipes, and spiritual revelations by the actress and comedienne exposes the ridiculous in everything from class warfare and feminism to anti-depressants and Kabbalah.

In this vivid, original interpretation of Genesis, former Episcopal priest John R. Coats takes readers on a journey through the ancient text, inviting them to see its characters in a new light, not as religious icons, but as people whose day-to-day concerns, triumphs, and failures are like our own. In Coats’s telling, the relationships of Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Rachel and Leah, and Joseph and his brothers take on stunning contemporary relevance as these characters find themselves confronted with extraordinary situations and circumstances that they’d neither asked for nor had anything to say about. Using stories from his life as well as the lives of people he’s known, Coats creates a rubric you can use to examine your own life and to discover aspects of yourself in the characters whose lives unfold in these primordial stories. How has Eve’s story shaped yours? Is your life reflected in Jacob’s evolution to wisdom? In Joseph’s youthful arrogance? Coats explores the strengths and weaknesses of the men and women in Genesis, pulling back the wrappings that have hidden their humanity to reveal the vibrant drama of these foundational narratives. "Different clothing, yes, and language, and customs, yet at the human level," he writes, "they were just as greedy and generous as we are, as gullible and crafty, as moronic and brilliant, as cowardly and brave. They are us, their stories, our stories, mirrors in which to see our best and worst selves."

A challenging allegorical novel with a provocative and unique point of view. A one-of-a-kind novel that tackles the most important questions of the times. A novel for everyone concerned with making the world a safer and better place. A novel written for seekers after truth Synopsis An Allegory of the Times A protagonist with a heightened state of awareness is ignominiously dispatched by a former participant in a secret project code named MKUltra that was condoned by the Federal Government in conjunction with the CIA. In an attempt to determine the motivation for this crime and the factors that impact judicial verdicts, the author explores the psychological influence the vast Judeo-Christian-Muslim hegemony has had upon our attitudes and behaviors. This exploration opens a window of opportunity for the reader to experience the freedom to take a giant leap toward achieving a higher level of awareness... along with the motivation required to help make the world a better place for all humankind.