Thought for October 20, 2023

•  1817: First Mississippi River Showboat leaves Nashville
• 1864: Lincoln establishes Thanksgiving as a National Holiday
• 1924: First Negro League World Series
• 1949: Last Thursday meeting of the Inklings
• 1967: All white jury convicts 7 in the murder of 3 civil rights workers in Mississippi
• 1973: OPEC oil embargo begins
• 1973: Nixon fires Archibald Cox and accepts resignations of Elliot Richardson and William Ruckleshaus
• 1983: DOS 2.1 released
• 1992: First World Series Game outside the U.S.--Montreal
• Born: Christopher Wren, Bela Lugosi, Jelly Roll Morton, James Chadwick [discovered the neutron], Arlene Francis, Grandpa Jones, Art Buchwald, Mickey Mantle, Kamala Harris, Snoop Dog
• Died: Grace Darling, Mary Lathbury ["Break Thou the Bread of Life"], Eugene Debs, Anne Sullivan, Herbert Hoover, Burt Lancaster, Jane Wyatt, Max McGee [Green Bay Packer], Muammar Gaddafi, Oscar de la Renta

I have written before about Grace Darling. When a ship hit the rocks near her home in 1838, she and her father rowed to the rescue. 48 of the 60 passengers were lost at sea, but the remainder were saved by Grace.

The Inklings--started as a Monday morning meeting between C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien to discuss politics, poetry, and theology. Eventually moved to Thursday nights with about 19 participants. There the men would read books they were writing and invite comment and discussion. Lewis read from "The Great Divorce," "The Problem with Pain," "Miracles," and the "Screwtape Letters." Tolkien would read chapters from "Lord of the Rings." Wouldn't you have liked to have been a part of that book club?

Thought:

Focused on 1 Peter 3:8-9 this morning. The second half of chapter 2 and the first part of chapter 3 discuss submission. We are told to submit to the government. We are not ordered to obey the government but to submit to its authority. Christ is offered as an example who submitted to a sham trial, a corrupt conviction, and crucifixion. And He did so without reviling those who were mistreating Him but asking for their forgiveness. [2:13-25]

Wives are told to submit to husbands [3:1-6] and husbands are instructed to honor their wives as fellow heirs in Christ [3:7] Then Peter gives a summary of how we should conduct ourselves under trials and in our relationships:

• Be harmonious. Trials may cause disunity. Live in harmony despite the trials. Think about the word harmony. When you hear a choir in harmony what a wonderful sound. Many different voices, several different parts, but harmonious. So we don't have to be the same, but we are called to unity. Think about an orchestra warming up at the beginning of a concert. All playing different notes--noice, cacophony. Then the concert begins and there is harmony. Why? They are playing off the same music and led by the same leader. Same for us--same Master, same book of instructions, same Holy Spirit. Be harmonious.
• Be sympathetic. When trials come we are to be sympathetic to those suffering trials even as we suffer trials--we don't say "well mine is worse so I deserve more attention." 
• Be brotherly. We act like family. Because we are family in Christ. 
• Be kindhearted. We increase our kindness to meet the level of trials or persecution. Rather than getting more bitter, more difficult, we become more kind.
• Be humble in spirit. We remain humble in spirit--we don't expect to receive greater attention, more recognition for service. 
• Bless in response to evil and insult. The others dealt mainly with the relationship among believers. This deals with those outside the faith, even those who are the source of our trials. We don't return evil for evil or insult for insult--we respond with blessings.

Aren't you glad you don't have to act this way in your own strength-the Holy Spirit guides us into all righteousness. 

Blessings

Larry