Comments on Presidential Decency.....

Well...it’s been a week or so since my last post….and I revisited the article Max penned about Trump and decency (or his lack there of) to read some of the comments. They run the gamut from agreement, to indignation, to accusations that criticizing Trump is an offhanded way to  support Hillary. Some accused Max of being a liberal pastor who is for social justice (the disgrace….Jesus would never stand for that social justice nonsense) and that Max probably has a tolerance for homosexuality. (We all know decent Christians do not tolerate homosexuality)

Some commenters complained that, in the interest of fairness, he should have also criticized the Democratic candidates. And, of course many comments brought the issue back around to Obama…..the guy everybody loves to hate. Another commenter warned about spite voting...a vote to get back at who was elected….or was not...in the last election.

Some accused Max of “giving up the truth of the Gospel years ago” so he could sell more books (Really? Have you read a Max Lucado book, maam?)

Some commenters plugged their candidate of choice….Trump, Rubio….Carson (who is no longer a candidate) Kasich….there were some Hillary supporters and a few comments in favor of Bernie Sanders.

The comment that captured my attention

I think it’s pretty clear there is only one decent person who is a contender in this race. It’s the wild-haired Jew who talks about caring for the least of these.

Bernie...the secular Jew.

And things have gotten even crazier in this presidential race….especially within the Republican party. What a spectacle.

Has politics always been this crazy?

Max and Anne - Views on Prayer

While scrolling down through my Facebook feed, I came upon a snippet of an interview on the 700 Club with Max Lucado. Max is my all-time favorite Christian author. His book, He Still Moves Stones, was one of the first Christian books I ever read. I love his writing style….I love how clearly he expresses the love of God for his children. 

They talked about two things in the interview:

His support of Husain Abdullah in a recent USA editorial where he said:

Which is why the sight of Abdullah, a Muslim who sat out the 2012 season to go on a pilgrimage, being penalized was hard to watch. Tim Tebow brought gridiron prayer to the forefront with his iconic kneeling in gratitude. And countless other professional football players have been seen kneeling in an end zone prayer. 

For decades competitors have bowed their heads, crossed their hearts, kissed their rosaries and lifted their eyes to heaven as they sought favor on the fields of competition. Is a little petition or gratitude so bad? If the act is sincere toward God as opposed to insincere, for show, what is the harm?

Indeed, what is the harm? And while so many evangelical Christians got themselves all worked up at Tebow’s critics, where was the outrage about Abdullah’s fifteen yard penalty? Oh yeah…..he was bowing to the “wrong” God.  I think it was quite gutsy of Max to come out in support of Abdullah.   
         

And anyway, the story had a happy ending because the NFL apologized and said the official was wrong and that players can, indeed, pray.

The other topic of the interview was his new book, Before Amen. Max admits to being a prayer wimp. He’s mentioned his difficulties with prayer in other books he's written. He said “doing something for God” comes more naturally to him that “praying to God.” (That is a paraphrase, by the way) Through the years he’s developed what he refers to as the pocket prayer. He studied all the prayers in the Bible and summed them up into six short sentences.

Father, You are good. I need help. So do they. Thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.

I love it. He succinctly sums it all up in those short sentences.

I rarely say a traditional prayer. I truly believe I always have God’s ear. I feel like he is paying attention as I go about my day….typing reports, checking my email, eating lunch, going to the bathroom.  Doesn’t “pray without ceasing” mean that I thank him for small blessings throughout the day, tell him I love him, ask his to watch over my children or let him know I am quite miffed at the way he is allowing some things to play out.

Anne Lamott (another of my favorites) also has a book out about prayer. In my next post (no, not an empty promise) I’ll talk about “Help, Thanks, Wow: The ThreeEssential Prayers” by Anne Lamott.  

Tony Campolo and Max Lucado on Hell...

This is sort of an afterthought about yesterdays post. I recently posted excerpts from a discussion between Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo about interfaith dialogue. Within In the course of the discussion Tony said the following...

Catholicism would say that at the moment of death every person is confronted in that split moment with Christ and is given the opportunity of saying yes or no. To say otherwise is to say God has got to be a pretty unfair deity, to condemn three quarters of the human race to hell without them ever having a chance.

Max Lucado says something quite similar in his book Traveling Light

What of those who die with no faith?  My husband never prayed.  My grandpa never worshiped.  My mother never opened a Bible, much less her heart.  What about the one who never believed?

How do we know he didn’t?

Who among us is privy to a person’s final thoughts?  Who among us knows what transpires in those final moments?  Are you sure no prayer was offered?  Eternity can bend the proudest knees.  Could a person stare into the yawning canyon of death without whispering a plea for mercy?  And could our God, who is partial to the humble, resist it?

He couldn’t on Calvary.  The confession of the thief on the cross was both a first and final one.  But Christ heard it.  Christ received it.  Maybe you never heard your loved one confess Christ, but who’s to say Christ didn’t?

We don’t know the thoughts of a dying soul, but we know this. We know our God is a good God. He is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”  2 Peter 3:9 NKJV

He wants your loved one in heaven more than you do. And he usually gets what he wants.

 Grace for the Moment, Volume II Originally excerpted from

Traveling Light

Max is not a universalist…for sure….he makes it very clear in his book 3:16 The Numbers of Hope…but this is pretty close…or as Shane Claiborne says: " If those of us who believe in God do not believe God's grace is big enough to save the whole world... well, we should at least pray that it is.”

It is Shane…it is….

The Chapter about Spirituality...

Last Sunday, in my Seeing Gray Sunday School class, based on the book by Adam Hamilton, we talked about the chapter on "The Messy Truth About Spirituality."  The bottom line of the chapter...we are all sinners saved by grace.  From those considered the "greatest" to those considered the "least"...the icons of the faith...the heroes of the Bible...we are all basically in the same boat.

We talked about authors who have impacted us the most.  Max Lucado came to mind first for me.  Max has helped me understand some very vexing spiritual issues...using simple word pictures a child could understand.  Although there are points of theology where I vehemently disagree with him (an eternal hell for example) he has impacted my spiritual life greatly.  Phillip Yancey is another author we talked about.  In Reaching for the Invisible God he says:

As one who writes and speaks publicly about my faith, I have also learned to accept that I am a "clay vessel" whom God may use at a time when I feel unworthy or hypocritical.  I can give a speech or preach a sermon that was authentic and alive to me when I composed it, even though as I deliver it my mind is replaying an argument I just had or nurturing an injury I received from a friend.  I can write what I believe to be true even while painfully aware of my own inability to attain what I urge others toward.

I came across a related thought on a blog called Ethereal Existentialism in a post called One Person's Trash:

I wrote that people (which would include me) continue to write about the same 5 or 8 things over and over because someone may happen along who needs to hear or read exactly what we happen to be writing about. While that's true, I certainly didn't mean to imply that I was a wisdom-dispensing guru who has it all together passing out tidbits for the poor slobs who are completely lost.

I write about what I learn because God told me to. This is stuff I'm learning...today, every day...constantly.

I can relate to what he is saying.  I write about what I learn.  I can't not write about it which is why I think "God told me to."  My hope is that every once in a while, what I write might be exactly what someone needs to hear.

As a side note...I ran across Adam Hamilton's blog this morning.  There are quite a few of his sermons there...dating back to 2007. 

The Face of My Father....

Sometimes, while trying to figure out some of these spiritual quandaries, riddles, puzzles and brain teasers, it is good to get back to the basics. So today, as I headed out the door to the gym, I grabbed one of the first Christian books I ever read…back to basics….to take along with me. He Still Moves Stones by Max Lucado. Shortly after becoming a Christian, the book caught my eye while I was browsing at the library. It began a ten plus year “relationship” with Max Lucado, my all time favorite Christian writer. Although I disagree with some of his theology, his writings are anointed in revealing the Father heart of God. And to me that is one of the most basic basics. God is Father. There was a short excerpt in the book that I want to share here:

I have a picture in my mental scrapbook that illustrates this principle. In the scene, my father and I are battling a storm in a fishing boat. We are surrounded by a mountain range of white tops, most taller than either of us. The coastline is hidden, the fog is thickening, and we are honestly beginning to wonder if we will make it back to shore. I am young, maybe nine. The boat is small, perhaps ten feet. And the waves are high, high enough to overturn our craft. The sky rumbles, the clouds billow, and the lightning zigzags.

Dad has directed the boat toward the nearest beach, taking us bow first into the waves. He sits in the rear with a hand on the throttle and his face into the wind. I sit in the front looking back toward him. Rain stings my bare neck and soaks my shirt. One wave after another picks us up and slaps us down. I grab both sides of the boat and hang on.

In vain, I search for the coast. It’s buried by fog. I look for the sun…it’s hidden by the clouds. I look for other boats…I see only waves. Everything I see frightens me. There is only one reassuring sight, the face of my father. Rain-spattered and grimacing, he peers into the storm. Water drips off the bill of his baseball cap, and his shirt is stuck to his skin.

Right then I made a decision. I quit looking at the storm and watched only my father. It just made sense. Watching the waves brought fear; watching my father brought calm. So I focused on Dad. So intent was my gaze that three decades later I can still see him guiding us out of the billows.

God wants us to do the same. He wants us to focus our eyes on him.

And all the riddles and puzzling theological equations will fall into place when we keep our eyes on our Father’s face.

You have said, "Seek my face."My heart says to you,    "Your face, LORD, do I seek." Psalm 27:8 (ESV)

What Jesus Did For Us...?

Lately I am not sure what to think about Jesus. A friend of Keith’s recently pointed out in an email how so many writings these days seem to bypass the importance of Jesus. He is almost an afterthought. But is he? I’ve pretty much ruled out the line of thinking that proclaims that he is just one of us. I know that scripture proclaims him as the firstborn of many brethren but, as Dena says, he is not just the guy who “went first” to lead the way. I don’t have my thoughts about Jesus figured out but I believe he is much more than that.

And you know….I really want to continue to believe in the virgin birth…and that Jesus is God “with skin on” in a way that I am not.

This snippet, from Max Lucado’s Cure for the Common Life, touches me. It seems to hint of the penal substitution theory which I completely disagree with….but other than that….I think it demonstrates in a simple word picture what Hebrews 2 tells us:

¹⁴Because God's children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—Jesus also became flesh and blood by being born in human form. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the Devil, who had the power of death. ¹⁵Only in this way could he deliver those who have lived all their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

¹⁷Therefore, it was necessary for Jesus to be in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. He then could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. ¹⁸Since he himself has gone through suffering and temptation, he is able to help us when we are being tempted. NLT

Or…to word it the way Max does….

Little Blake Rogers can help us understand Jesus’s heart stopping act of grace. He offered a remotely similar gift to his friend Maura. Blake and Maura share a kindergarten class. One day she started humming. Her teacher appreciated the music but told Maura to stop. Itn’s not polite to hum in class. She couldn’t. The song in her head demanded to be hummed. After several warnings, the teacher took decisive action. She moved maura’s clothespin from the green spot on the chart to the dreaded blue spot. This meant trouble.

And this meant a troubled Maura. Everyone else’s clothespin hung in the green. Maura was blue, all by herself.

Blake tried to help. He patted her on the back, made funny faces, and offered comforting words. But nothing worked. Maura still felt alone. So Blake made the ultimate sacrifice. Making sure his teacher was watching, he began to hum. The teacher warned him to stop. He didn’t. She had no choice but to move his clothespin out of the green and into the blue.

Blake smiled and Maura stopped crying. She had a friend. And we have a picture, a picture of what Christ did for us.

You Think Your Job Is Bad?

Today is Saturday...evening.   Tomorrow is Sunday (which is usually how it works out :) First Saturday....then Sunday...at least most weeks anyway....

The day went so fast!! The weekends always do.  Friday night starts out filled with promise and anticipation....Saturday morning comes...and goes before you know it.  Sunday morning follows (too closely) on its heels.  About 3 pm on Sunday, I get this sinking feeling.  The weekend is over.  Bummer. 

My job is not bad.  It is not the highest paying job...but neither is it the lowest.  My boss is a great guy.  He and I hit it off.  We are friends.  He is great to work for/with...BUT....some days I am bored to death with the details of what I have to do.  Data entry...meeting minutes (the WORST)...financial tracking...report writing...and answering the always ringing phone.  In addition to doing all the secretarial stuff, I also have to help man the help line.  Answering and processing the calls for service from all three hospitals...service or repairs needed from biomedical, housekeeping, dietary, maintenance, couriers and lately they have added patient transport to the list.  So the phone rings all the time.  ALL the time. 

I mentioned the Max Lucado book I read on our trip...The Cure For the Common Life. The gist of the book was to offer guidance and suggestions about how to devote our workday lives to God.....not confining our faith and Christian witness to Sunday but to live it out every day of the week (sort of like the comtemplatives in the market place way of thinking) To make him look good through us.

Heaven’s calendar has seven Sundays a week. God sanctifies each day. He conducts holy business at all hours and in all places. He uncommons the common by turning kitchen sinks into shrines, café’s into convents and nine to five workdays into spiritual adventures.

Ideally, he guides us to a job we both like AND excel at.  However, if we find ourselves stuck (for whatever reason) in a job we are not all that crazy about...or even a job we hate...well, bloom where you are planted. Do it as unto the Lord.  And as he often does, Max offers a story about someone who did just that. 

Hold it there. I saw you roll those eyes. You see no way God could use your work. Your boss has the disposition of a hungry pit bull; hamsters have larger work areas, your kids have better per diems. You feel threatened to the outposts of Siberia, where hope left on the last train. If so, meet one final witness. He labored eighteen years in a Chinese prison camp.

The Communist regime rewarded his faith in Christ with the sewage assignment. The camp kept its human waste in pools until it fermented into fertilizer. The pits seethed with stink and disease. Guards and prisoners alike avoided the cesspools and all who worked there, including the disciple.

After he’d spent weeks in the pit, the stench pigmented his body. He couldn’t scrub it out. Imagine his plight, far from home. But somehow this godly man found a garden in his prison. I was thankful for being sent to the cesspool. This was the only place where I was not under severe surveillance. I could pray and sing openly to our Lord. When I was there, the cesspool became my private garden.” He then quoted the words to the old hymn, I Come To The Garden Alone.

"I never knew the meaning of this hymn until I had been in the labor camp” he said.

God can make a garden out of the cesspool you call work, if you take him with you.

Now this guy had a really bad job.  This would be hard to top...even on the TV show about the world's worst jobs.  And yet...against overwhelming hardship, he knew how to look beyond this temporal realm and commune with God.  I am so not there yet.....

Back to Reality...

I started this yesterday morning...but have been having some trouble getting back into the swing of things...and so....a day and a half later it is still in draft form. After a quick sprucing up, I am going to post it and then be on my way, here, there and everywhere to pick up/drop off/ and pick the girls up again.  Back to reality.....and......

Back to work today after ten days off. ….ugh. To say I would much rather stay home is an understatement!! Kind of ironic since the book I chose to take to read on the plane(s) was by Max Lucado….The Cure For the Everyday Life. Max’s point was that we all have a sweet spot…which is where God intends for us to live and work. Like all Max Lucado books, I found a lot to be edified by. I marked passages that struck me…quotes and ideas that I will probably write about in tomorrow’s post. We’ll see. Nothing like that is ever a sure thing, though, since so often something else swoops in and carries off my focus.

Today, though, I am going to post a quick summary of the trip (because I have to get ready for work in just 15 minutes…oh, say it ain’t so!!!!)

We arrived in Corpus Christi on Sunday evening…flew out Friday at noon. We spent about a day in San Antonio (from 2ish on Tuesday to 2ish on Wednesday) where we, of course, toured the Alamo and the Riverwalk. So cool. So very cool. We ate Mexican food at Casa Rio…the oldest restaurant on the Riverwalk. Neither of us is particularly fond of Mexican cuisine but we ended up there anyway. From where I was sitting, I literally could have stuck my foot in the water with minimal stretching. Several ducks swam nearby…no doubt waiting for the inevitable floating nacho chip.

On Wednesday, on a whim, after a quick google query, we decided to check out one of the missions on the San Antonio Mission Trail. There were five missions (including the Alamo) that were built in the early 1700’s by Franciscan missionaries….to “save” the natives (convert them to Catholocism) and to colonize the area for Spain. Supposedly, a large part of their purpose was humanitarian.

The natives were in the midst of a drought….people were starving. The missionaries promised to teach them a trade (blacksmith, stone mason etc) and how to grow their own food. The natives were hunter-gatherers and didn’t grow any of their food but lived off the land. Sometimes this worked. Sometimes this didn’t. Whether the Franciscan’s methods and their purpose were noble…and whether they were kind to the natives is debatable. Some sites I read depicted the Franciscan priests who ran the missions in a negative light…but I didn’t get that feeling from the visit to the mission.

Our guide was a retired nurse, single, full time RVer…a volunteer guide… very knowledgeable and full of so much information she got frustrated trying to convey it all. She followed us around a bit after the tour, talking…answering some of our questions. She told us that the Franciscans were very protective of the Indians. The trades they taught them seemed to stick. The farming methods seemed to stick….but as far as their conversion to Catholicism, long term…not so much. She said the Indians slipped back into the spirituality of their own cultural. This makes me believe that the emphasis was more on helping than converting.

I was so taken by the first mission we visited (San Jose) that we went on to visit all four of them. Conception, San Juan, Espada….each with their particular history and personality. All four have active parishes. The churches were open to tour at all four missions.

Even though the Catholic Church is a bit too ritualized for me, there is a certain awe about standing in a church where people have worshiped for three centuries.

The churches were all fairly small…and very quiet. I think that if we lived in that area, I might visit the sanctuaries once in a while…just to sit there in the hushed quiet.

Very cool… the day we toured the Missions was probably my favorite part of the trip ….

Max Lucado on the 2008 Election...

While searching around a bit for different perspectives on the election and the different parties,I came upon the following about this year's election by Max Lucado.  Gotta' love Max... 

“I’m genuinely hopeful about the next few years in the US. Our democracy has given the citizenry the right to select a leader and we have. Now is the time for us to pray for President-elect Obama and the next administration. I, along with a group of religious leaders, met with Senator Obama last June. We discussed a wide-range of faith-related issues. He expressed his belief in God, trust in Jesus and need for a Savior. I left the meeting with the feeling that I had met a man of genuine convictions. I hope you will join me as we pray for his wisdom, discernment and safety.

I also offer prayers of gratitude for President Bush. He has weathered one of the most difficult eras in American history. His personal conduct has been exemplary and devotion, inspirational. He has kept his pledge to keep America free from attack and the Oval Office free from scandal. For that we can be grateful.”

Max Lucado,
November 11, 2008

In the last election...the one the Republicans won, Max gave his views in an interview for Beliefnet called Red State Values/Blue State Values.  Some notable excerpts from the article:

Is there a way that religious leaders like you can help heal the rift?

I think so. I certainly have a responsibility in my church. You know, I can't pastor the whole world but in our church, the Sunday after the election, we all got on our knees and we asked God to heal the country.

Really.

We all got on our knees. And we're not a kneeling church. We don't even have kneelers-I wish we did--but I said, This is such a big deal. And I said, We're not Democrats or Republicans in here. We believe nations exist to serve God; God doesn't exist to serve the nation but we serve him. Let's ask for him to take over now. And I think that's the role of the clergy.

About the Democrats, he said:

Traditionally, they've had a deeper concern for the poor, for the forgotten among us--greater equality among the cultures, especially for immigrants. They've been more concerned over men's and women's equality; I think that's still something that needs to be addressed. The Democrats have traditionally really helped our nation in the area of racism; I mean where would we be if not for the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 70s? Jimmy Carter was one of the best presidents America's ever had; there's a man who entered the office in faith and, like George Bush, was criticized for making decisions on his knees. I can remember reading an article like that in 1979; he said he made a decision on his knees. Well, now Bush gets the criticism.

I know this beliefnet excerpt is from four years ago..but the same sentiment and humble spirit is expressed in both writings.  I am thinking Max is probably a conservative...and there are things he believes that I do not agree with, but what a balanced view...what a unifying spirit....

I love Max....

Hem of His Garment....

In the comments section, Jack posted the following excerpt from a sermon by James Smith called Wait on the Lord. In it he mentions the women with the issue of blood...and how, by simply touching the hem of Jesus' garment, she was healed.

No case can be desperate that is brought to him. The poor woman in the Gospel had spent all her money, tried all the physicians, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, until she came to Jesus; and then, by only touching his garment, she obtained a cure. So, let your case be as bad as it may, having tried what means you will, the Lord can with one word deliver you, set you up on high, and save you forever. He loves to undertake difficult cases. He gets glory by appearing for poor souls in their extremity. He has so appeared for millions, and he will yet appear for you. Fix your eye on his strength, and your heart on his promise.

It was not too long after becoming a Christian, I read one of my all time favorite books...He Still Moves Stones, by Max Lucado. About 10 years ago, I found it (and the beginning of my "relationship" with Max) on the shelf in a public library on the outskirts of Nashville TN. I had never heard of Max Lucado before that day. In the book, there is a chapter about the healing of this woman with the issue of blood...and the profound impact it had on her life. I hadn't realized how being a Jewess with nonstop bleeding affected every aspect of her life. Everything she touched was considered unclean. She was considered unclean and untouchable. Shunned, an outcast, untouchable for 10 years. Talk about restoration in a single touch....

There is a song by Jeff and Sheri Easter called "Last Thread of Hope." The first verse talks about the women's seemingly hopeless situation. Following is the You Tube video of Sheri Easter singing the song. The first minute or so of the video is an interview...but after that the song. Very moving....

Last Thread of Hope

I Love Max Lucado

Girard, with all of his sophistication and insights into anthropology and human behavior....and with all the reading I've done on sacrifice and atonement.....pondering it, discussing it, dissecting it.....and all the blogs I have listed in my bloglines account that deal with complicated and deep theological issues, I've yet to come across anything or anyone who can so clearly give a glimpse of the love in the heart of our Father for us, his children, as Max Lucado. Granted, he does not see UR....and I am certain that he sees the atonement from a penal substitutionary standpoint....but time and time again his writings have touched me deeply at the place where I am, answering questions, giving inspiration and hope. I am a huge fan of Max Lucado.

One of the first Christian books I ever read was a book I found on the library shelf not too long after becoming a Christian. It was "He Still Moves Stones" by Max Lucado.

Max Lucado, in one of his books concerning evil and suffering, writes that he sees the whole concept as a scale......you know....one of those old fashioned kinds of scales with the weights on one side and the stuff you weigh on the other? I think they call them a pan scale? Well, on the one side are all the hurts and heartaches and trials and problems we experience and suffer through. Plunk goes the scale....and he does not remove any of the things that we have suffered....yet.....after this life is over.....this life the Bible compares to a wisp of vapor......he so loads down the other side of the scale with incomprehensible glory that it totally and completely outweighs the bad things.

In one of his books (can't remember which one) he recounts the story told by a college professor about one of his students, a blind boy with an invincible, can do attitude. They became friends and the professor told the student how impressed he was with his attitude in spite of his disability. "It wasn't always that way" the student said...and he proceeded to tell the story of how he lost his sight (I forgot the details but it was an accident) and how for months he moped around in his bedroom, bitter and angry, convinced his life was over. He demanded that his family wait on him hand and foot. Nothing could rouse him from the depression and misery he was wallowing in.

Finally one day his dad had all he could take. He knew that if his son did not snap out of his all consuming self pity his life was pretty much over. So as he left for work he told his son that when he came home that night he expected to find all the storm windows on the house....a job his son had done many times. The son was outraged!! How could a blind man put storm windows on....he thought to himself that he would show them and when they came home that evening, they would find him with a broken neck or other serious injury....having fallen from the ladder. But he set about the task....slowly, painstakingly going through the motions he remembered from having done the very same job many times. When the dad came home from work that night the storm windows were all installed. During the process, the son had the life changing revelation that his life was not over and that he could do anything he chose to do in spite of his blindness. It was a turning point. It was not until several years later that the son found out his dad hadn't gone to work that day. The whole day his dad has stood by silently, watching, in case his son got into a predicament that he could not get out of. Suffering with his son, wanting nothing more than to step in and help....but he knew that ultimately the greatest "help" would be in letting his son do it himself. He had never been more than a few feet away, even though the son was not aware of his presence. And so it is with God....

Another concept I always had a problem with was God's acknowledged pursuit of broadcasting his glory to the point of obsession (and conceit). Again, in a Max Lucado book, I found a reasonable explanation. Again, a word picture.


Dark, foggy night, at sea, explosion at sea, some survivors floating in the frigid waters....some with life jackets, some hanging onto debris. Through the night, in a lifeboat, comes the captain of the ship. He is shouting out loudly....calling out for survivors. He needs to shout so all will hear him and he can pull them from the water into the safety of the lifeboat. God needs to shout too. That is why his glory is so important to him....not for his sake....but for ours. So we see, so we know that he is a "strong captain that can pull us from the waters." It works for me. Prior to the reading of that story I could not help but think he was a bit on the conceited side. But alas...this word picture put things into perspective. Thanks Max.