Lent and Easter

Dave Russell is an American Baptist Pastor in Ames, Iowa. He publishes his sermons regularly on Geocities at the following address: http://www.geocities.com/fbcames/ I look at them regularly because he typically follows the Lectionary which my own Pastor does not. I'm not sure he even knows that there is one.

For the 1st Sunday in Lent Russell calls our attention to Jesus' temptation in the wilderness for 40 days. He points out a fact of interest that it is the Devil who tempts Jesus. The middle temptation is for power. It is suggested that we Americans often fall short here because we think of our selves as a powerful nation. Jesus, of course, turned the Devil down. He would not be the "decider" and at the same time worshp at the shrine of evil. Makes one wonder as to what temptations to power our own President has.

Another thing Russell said of particular interest to me was that Jesus never told his Disciples "what to believe". He simply asked them to "follow me!" Our newly proposed by-laws at First Baptist talk at length about what to do with those whose beliefs may differ greatly from the majority. I can accept the fact that my own beliefs (for example about "gay unions" and "abortion") probably differ from the majority, but I'm not going to get in a big fight about it in the congregation. But I can't see "churching" a person because his or her beliefs are outside the main stream.

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!

A good visit

This picture was taken Saturday February 3, 2007. Left to right are Annie, David, Ken, Jim and Pete. David came for a visit the previous Monday night and left for Texas early Sunday morning. He works with Sally Beauty in Denton, TX. Ken came down from Helena on Thursday for a couple of nights. Annie came in Saturday morning with husband, Bill, and Pete lives with me at the present time. The cause for this Saturday gathering was a promise to take them all to Lunch Saturday so we could be together for at least a brief time. We did all get to lunch after which Ken left for home. Annie took David and me and Bill to supper that evening. Pete was working at Jake's Restaurant recently mentioned in TIME magazine as one of Montana's finest steak restaurants. I took most of them to Famous Dave's for David's birthday dinner. He will be 51 come Saturday - a birthday he shared with his older brother, Jimmy, who succumbed to lung cancer last August. Jimmy would have been 53 this week. David took Ken and Dad to dinner at Santa Fe Red's Friday night. That's a fairly new place in town. We'd call it "West-Mex." It is no stretch of truth to state that I ate to much.

Now they are all gone, but it was a great week and Mom would have loved it.