My Dog and I

My Dog and I

 I and my faithful dog lived in a small house perched on a little hill just a stone’s throw from the church. Sometimes the church bell would waken me on a Sunday morning just in time for services. I learned to be very quick in showering, shaving and getting dressed in those days! My dog whose name was Shadow was great company for me out in the country. Have you ever eaten a meal while talking with your dog? It can be quite interesting. They always appear to listen intently to what you are saying. I attempted to train my Shadow to fetch my slippers. I though it would be a novel idea for me to say “slippers” and have my dog fetch them for me. I put a lead on my dog, said the magic word “slippers” walked him to where my slippers were put them in his mouth walked him back to my chair and had him drop them on the floor. We did this several times before it was time for me to go to a prayer meeting service. It was late by the time I got home. I turned on my kitchen light to be greeted by my dog who was glad to see me and glad to go outside!!! My kitchen was in a complete mess. I had made the mistake of leaving my garbage in a bag in the corner. It was no longer in the bag and it was no longer in the corner it was all over the kitchen floor. In the midst of the garbage was a trace of something material like; you guessed it, my slippers! Lesson learned.

Political Correct Hymnology

Mainline Protestant denominations are engaging in a publishing frenzy to see who can produce the most politically correct hymnal for today's church-goer. The traditional language of worship is being revised in order to be more gender-neutral, and to avoid the possibility of minorities and people with disabilities being offended by what has been deemed "antiquated" language. For example:

From the United Church of Christ Hymnal

- "O Master Let Me Walk With Thee" becomes "O Savior, Let Me Walk With You

- "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" now appears in our hymnbook as; “Dear Father Lord of Humankind.”

- The doxology in our Book of Praise has been butchered, no longer "Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," but now; “Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise God all creatures high and low, Praise God in Jesus fully known, Creator, Word and Spirit, One.”

The new version of the Gloria Patri ("Glory Be to the Father") is "Glory to the Creator."

= The phrase “right hand of God” has been changed to “mighty” or “strong” hand of God, so that no left-handed people won’t feel insulted.

= The words “darkness” or “blind” can no longer be used to symbolize spiritual ignorance.

= No longer appropriate are such terms as “Lord;” “Ruler,” “King,” and “Master,” when referring to the Almighty. A truly democratic God is now addressed as the “All-inclusive One,” “Great Spirit,” “Architect Divine,” or “Source of Being.” On a more personal level, God is ferquently referred to as “Mother” and “Partner.”

= Rarely are personal pronouns applied to Christ, and hymns such as “Crown Him With Many Crowns” now appears as “Crown With Your Richest Crowns.”

= Jesus is referred to as “God’s only Child” rather than “God’s Only Son.”

< Other changes made to old favorites include “Faith of Our Fathers,” which is now “Faith of the Martyrs.” (OUR BOOK OF PRAISE HAS SIMPLY DELETED IT)

-“Dear Lord and Father of Mankind,” now appears in our hymnbook as “Dear Lord and Father of Humankind.”

< In Isaac Watts’ beautiful hymn “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” the phrase “On which the Prince of glory died” has been replaced by “On which the Christ of glory died.”

< And in “Just As I Am,” all reference to being “poor, wretched, and blind” has been eliminated.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
Ye soldiers of the cross!
Lift high his royal banner,
It must not suffer loss

has become

Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
stand up before his cross,
an instrument of torture,
inflicting pain and loss.  (OUR HYMN BOOK HAS SIMPLY DELETED IT)

- the words to Hark! The Herald Angels Sing have been changed to be 'gender inclusive' by removing the words 'man', 'men' and 'sons'. (LISTEN TO HOW OUR BOOK READS; “Born that we no more may die, born to raise the lost of earth, born to give us second birth.”)

-In our hymn book as well this time in the second verse; “Pleased as Man with men to dwell Jesus our Emmanuel has been changed to, “Pleased on earth with us to dwell.”

-Glory to the newborn King from the hymn Hark the Herald Angels in another church’s hymnbook has been changed to; “Glory to the Christ child, bring,” our church might follow in its next revision.

In other hymnbooks the carol O Come All Ye Faithful has its refrain changed from O come let us adore Him to O come in adoration, the reason given is that the original text sounded sexist.

-  The following lines from Joy to the Word was judged in 2008 to have been WORST political correct Christmas carol. The lines “Joy to the world, the Lord is come, Let earth receive her King” has been replaced with “Joy to the world, for peace shall come, Let this be our refrain.”

-The altering of lines from the original to make it politically correct saw churchgoers being told not to sing the words all in white during Once in Royal David’’s City in case they appeared racist.

Hard to believe isn’t it. Our hymnbook has us sing instead of “all in white shall wait around,” to “bright like stars, with glory crowned.”

The Apostles' Creed and Nicene Creed are both included in the affirmations of faith, but alternative versions are also provided, and it is these that will be used by ideologues. In the revised Apostles' Creed, Jesus is referred to as "God's only Child" rather than "God's only Son." The first sentence of the creed is now rendered, "I believe in God the Father-Mother almighty, creator of heaven and earth." The last section of the revised Nicene Creed becomes "We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Sovereign, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father-Mother, and from the Child."

 

A Positive Note To End On!

"What a way to learn great theology! That's what comes to mind whenever I sing one of those old hymns. "And Can It Be" is like putting the doctrine of salvation to music. "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" is a melodic lesson in grace. No wonder good hymns make for strong faith!

-- Joni Eareckson Tada

~

Living on an Island

   What is it like living on an Island approximately 550-600 miles from the nearest point of land? Well, the first thing I can say is that it is not a good place to get Island fever better known on the mainland as cabin fever! Bermuda has been my home for the past three years plus and I must say that it has been a great experience. When you add our time here with the time spent in the Bahamas you come up with a little over six years surrounded by nothing but water! Shortly after moving to Bermuda an elderly bishop in a sister church made the comment; “You know that Bermuda is built on an ancient volcano.” He then we on to say; “Every night we pray that God will keep the lid on it.” It was comical but certainly made one think of how far we are from our neighbors should an Island wide emergency occur.

   What is it like to live in Bermuda? Well, I always like to tell our visitors that one of the most beautiful things about the Island is our beaches. There is nothing like the pink sand on a Bermudian beach. One of the great challenges about living here is getting to the beach! There is nothing like driving on the Islands roads. First, unlike Canada and the US we drive on the left side of the road. To make driving a bit more interesting we keep our roads very narrow, very twisty and as an added bonus we don’t really have any places where one can pull off the road!! The top speed limit on the Island is supposed to be 23 mph! Because Bermuda only allows one car per household there is an abundance of motor scooters. The increasing number of scooter has resulted in what Bermudians call the “third lane.” What is the third lane you ask? Well, the third lane is that narrow space of pavement between two lanes of traffic travelling in the opposite direction! Due to the lower speed limits you might think that we seldom if ever have any serious accidents. WRONG! There are lots of accidents and many of them are fatal. Why? Well, no one abides by the speed limit, there are no real passing zones and that third lane has a nasty tendency of becoming narrower and narrower. If you happen to live off Island and are planning a vacation to Bermuda you don’t have to worry about driving a car on the left side of the road with no pull-overs. The reason for this is that we don’t allow foreigners to drive cars on our Island. You can’t even rent a car here. Have no fears though because we will rent you a motor bike! Plan to rent a bike? Make certain that your insurance is paid up!

   Next time I will tell you about shopping in Bermuda.

Your Friend:

Rev. John

Living on an Island

   What is it like living on an Island approximately 550-600 miles from the nearest point of land? Well, the first thing I can say is that it is not a good place to get Island fever better known on the mainland as cabin fever! Bermuda has been my home for the past three years plus and I must say that it has been a great experience. When you add our time here with the time spent in the Bahamas you come up with a little over six years surrounded by nothing but water! Shortly after moving to Bermuda an elderly bishop in a sister church made the comment; “You know that Bermuda is built on an ancient volcano.” He then we on to say; “Every night we pray that God will keep the lid on it.” It was comical but certainly made one think of how far we are from our neighbors should an Island wide emergency occur.

   What is it like to live in Bermuda? Well, I always like to tell our visitors that one of the most beautiful things about the Island is our beaches. There is nothing like the pink sand on a Bermudian beach. One of the great challenges about living here is getting to the beach! There is nothing like driving on the Islands roads. First, unlike Canada and the US we drive on the left side of the road. To make driving a bit more interesting we keep our roads very narrow, very twisty and as an added bonus we don’t really have any places where one can pull off the road!! The top speed limit on the Island is supposed to be 23 mph! Because Bermuda only allows one car per household there is an abundance of motor scooters. The increasing number of scooter has resulted in what Bermudians call the “third lane.” What is the third lane you ask? Well, the third lane is that narrow space of pavement between two lanes of traffic travelling in the opposite direction! Due to the lower speed limits you might think that we seldom if ever have any serious accidents. WRONG! There are lots of accidents and many of them are fatal. Why? Well, no one abides by the speed limit, there are no real passing zones and that third lane has a nasty tendency of becoming narrower and narrower. If you happen to live off Island and are planning a vacation to Bermuda you don’t have to worry about driving a car on the left side of the road with no pull-overs. The reason for this is that we don’t allow foreigners to drive cars on our Island. You can’t even rent a car here. Have no fears though because we will rent you a motor bike! Plan to rent a bike? Make certain that your insurance is paid up!

   Next time I will tell you about shopping in Bermuda.

Your Friend:

Rev. John

What Happened to the Word of God?

  A matter that is of great concern to me is how the church for the past number of years has been viewing the Bible. I had a minister in a sister denomination say to me that; “the Bible is not the Word of God but the Word of man.” I had someone say that they don’t read portions of the Bible especially in the Old Testament because they simply don’t agree with what is being said. Then, there are those who love to pick on the Apostle Paul and they will say with a laugh, “well you know that’s Paul and we all know what Paul is like.|” What about the overused claim, “that statement is simply a matter related to its time and really doesn’t have anything to say to us today.” Then, there is the coup de grace; “very learned people today tell us that certain statements mentioned in the Bible disagrees with modern science. And we prefer to accept modern science” Wow where does that leave us? If we are going to accept the words of specialists over Biblical statements and creeds then we might just as well toss the Bible out or rewrite it completely. I don’t know of a man or woman of science today who will tell you that a virgin birth is possible, that the miracles recorded in both the Old and New Testament are possible and certainly the resurrection of a dead body is possible. So whose word will we accept? We have literally torn the Bible up into little bitty pieces some of which we accept with modification of course while other pieces we will discard as totally unbelievable and therefore non applicable.

   I believe and I was brought up in a church that believed that the Bible in total is the Word of God. Whether it is the Apostle Paul that is speaking or Jesus it is one and the same; “God’s Word.” The Old Testament is every much the Word of God as the New Testament and so we cannot make the claim that we believe in the God of Love as proclaimed in the New Testament but we have problems with the God of Justice found in the Old Testament for they are both one and the same God. I tend to agree with a colleague in a sister denomination who once said; “I prefer to believe the words of those who were closer to the actual event than someone who is writing about it today.” I am one who still believes that the Bible is the inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God. We have to recapture the wonder and awe of God’s Holy Word and start living by it rather than playing with it.

What Happened to the Word of God?

  A matter that is of great concern to me is how the church for the past number of years has been viewing the Bible. I had a minister in a sister denomination say to me that; “the Bible is not the Word of God but the Word of man.” I had someone say that they don’t read portions of the Bible especially in the Old Testament because they simply don’t agree with what is being said. Then, there are those who love to pick on the Apostle Paul and they will say with a laugh, “well you know that’s Paul and we all know what Paul is like.|” What about the overused claim, “that statement is simply a matter related to its time and really doesn’t have anything to say to us today.” Then, there is the coup de grace; “very learned people today tell us that certain statements mentioned in the Bible disagrees with modern science. And we prefer to accept modern science” Wow where does that leave us? If we are going to accept the words of specialists over Biblical statements and creeds then we might just as well toss the Bible out or rewrite it completely. I don’t know of a man or woman of science today who will tell you that a virgin birth is possible, that the miracles recorded in both the Old and New Testament are possible and certainly the resurrection of a dead body is possible. So whose word will we accept? We have literally torn the Bible up into little bitty pieces some of which we accept with modification of course while other pieces we will discard as totally unbelievable and therefore non applicable.

   I believe and I was brought up in a church that believed that the Bible in total is the Word of God. Whether it is the Apostle Paul that is speaking or Jesus it is one and the same; “God’s Word.” The Old Testament is every much the Word of God as the New Testament and so we cannot make the claim that we believe in the God of Love as proclaimed in the New Testament but we have problems with the God of Justice found in the Old Testament for they are both one and the same God. I tend to agree with a colleague in a sister denomination who once said; “I prefer to believe the words of those who were closer to the actual event than someone who is writing about it today.” I am one who still believes that the Bible is the inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God. We have to recapture the wonder and awe of God’s Holy Word and start living by it rather than playing with it.

What Happened to the Word of God?

  A matter that is of great concern to me is how the church for the past number of years has been viewing the Bible. I had a minister in a sister denomination say to me that; “the Bible is not the Word of God but the Word of man.” I had someone say that they don’t read portions of the Bible especially in the Old Testament because they simply don’t agree with what is being said. Then, there are those who love to pick on the Apostle Paul and they will say with a laugh, “well you know that’s Paul and we all know what Paul is like.|” What about the overused claim, “that statement is simply a matter related to its time and really doesn’t have anything to say to us today.” Then, there is the coup de grace; “very learned people today tell us that certain statements mentioned in the Bible disagrees with modern science. And we prefer to accept modern science” Wow where does that leave us? If we are going to accept the words of specialists over Biblical statements and creeds then we might just as well toss the Bible out or rewrite it completely. I don’t know of a man or woman of science today who will tell you that a virgin birth is possible, that the miracles recorded in both the Old and New Testament are possible and certainly the resurrection of a dead body is possible. So whose word will we accept? We have literally torn the Bible up into little bitty pieces some of which we accept with modification of course while other pieces we will discard as totally unbelievable and therefore non applicable.

   I believe and I was brought up in a church that believed that the Bible in total is the Word of God. Whether it is the Apostle Paul that is speaking or Jesus it is one and the same; “God’s Word.” The Old Testament is every much the Word of God as the New Testament and so we cannot make the claim that we believe in the God of Love as proclaimed in the New Testament but we have problems with the God of Justice found in the Old Testament for they are both one and the same God. I tend to agree with a colleague in a sister denomination who once said; “I prefer to believe the words of those who were closer to the actual event than someone who is writing about it today.” I am one who still believes that the Bible is the inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God. We have to recapture the wonder and awe of God’s Holy Word and start living by it rather than playing with it.