Christian Reflection and Prayer

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also
received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance
with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was
raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at
one time, most of whom are still alive, though, some
have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to
all the apostles. 1 Corinthians 15:3-7

My brother Tom, a highly intelligent inventor and part-
time philosopher, has called the modern cell phone the
"Swiss Army knife of technology."

By that he means it can do a little bit of everything. It
can give you directions, show you the weather, send
pictures, take video and, well, a little bit of everything.

Oh, one other thing, they can also be addictive.

Case in point: physicians are seeing people come in with
some interesting cell phone-related maladies. Some
doctors have seen dedicated smartphone use leading to
repetitive stress injuries. Do you like to text? If you do too
much texting, your thumb's tendons can constrict and you
can end up with the injury called "texting thumb."

Recently, a California man, a fellow who is dedicated to
the game Candy Crush Saga, after more than six weeks
of constant playing, actually managed to rupture a tendon
in his hand. You've got to love a game a lot to create that
kind of injury.

All of this is a roundabout way to get to the biblical individual:
James the Just.

This James was the brother of our Lord, an early convert to
the faith, a leader of the early church, and one of the first
martyrs for the faith. James should be known and respected
for all of those qualities ... and for one more.

The ancient church historian, Eusebius tells us, "(St. James)
was in the habit of entering alone into the temple, and was
frequently found upon his knees begging forgiveness for the
people, so that his knees became hard like those of a camel ...."

James' knees were callused because he spent so much time
kneeling in prayer.

Now, I just checked I don't have the condition I've called,
"prayer knees." You probably don't either, which, I guess is
a sign of where we're putting our priorities, isn't it? It's a sad
thing that so many of us feel naked if we don't have our cell
phones, but most of us don't feel the least bit strange when
it come to forgotten prayer.

This maybe means we need an adjustment in attitude. We
have a Savior who gave His life for our forgiveness and
salvation. For His gracious act we need to "thank and praise,
serve and obey Him."

And get down on our knees in faithful prayer.

THE PRAYER:

Dear Lord, help me keep my priorities straight. Help me invest
my time in that which glorifies You. This I ask in the Savior's
Name. Amen.

(Lutheran Hour Ministries)

Verse

Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness,
and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes his
neighbors work for nothing, and does not give them
their wages.
Jeremiah 22:13

Voice

A revolution which aims merely at changing official
policies and institutions with a view to an improvement
in material conditions has little chance of genuine
success. Without a revolution of the spirit, the forces
which produced the iniquities of the old order would
continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to
the process of reform and regeneration.
Aung San Suu Kyi

Prayer

Lord, remind us that we are resident aliens, called to
be in the world but not of it. Show us today what it
means to live as though your kingdom has come,
while trusting that it is still coming. Amen.

- Common Prayer

Proverbs 3:12, “the LORD disciplines those he loves,
as a father the son he delights in.”

So many people fall into the spiritual pitfall of thinking
that God is mad at them and that the relationship is
permanently damaged. In these cases, we distance
ourselves from God and not the other way around.
While God may hold us accountable, and even punish
us at times, God always loves us and is always close
to us. In fact, God especially loves those that He holds
accountable. As we read in Proverbs 3:12, “the LORD
disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he
delights in.”

Don’t think even for a moment think that God has
abandoned you because of your sin. God is with us, loving us, and
ready to cleanse us; it’s up to us to turn to Him. He’s
there waiting.

With prayers for shalom, peace,
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein