YOUR SPIRIT DOES MATTER
A preacher wrote:
"Today we have people who claim to be Christians shouting ’God hates fags’ at the funerals of soldiers who have died in Iraq, because these ’Christians’ believe God is punishing America for its tolerance of homosexuals. A recent editorial in the paper invited people to leave the country who did not like the influence of Christianity in the United States. All of this sees people divided into two camps: those who are for God and those who are against him. It is an ’us and them’ mentality that Jesus knew nothing about. We see sinners and atheists as the enemy and therefore we feel it is acceptable to treat them in any way we wish and say anything we want. It doesn’t matter how ugly our spirit is." Of course, the writer is being sarcastic; your spirit does matter.
Two women were riding on a train together and began to argue over the window. They called the conductor and one of them said, "If this window is open, I will catch a cold and die." The other woman said, “If this window is closed, I will suffocate.” And the two women glared at each other.
Finally, the conductor didn’t know what to do, so he asked the advice of a man who was sitting nearby. The man said, "First, open the window, and that will kill one of them. Then close the window, and that will kill the other, and then we’ll have some peace around here."
(From a sermon by Steve Shepherd, "A New Beginning for America," 1/22/09)