Coloring inside the lines

Yesterday at Marc's I bought three Bible stories coloring books for 99 cents each. The drawings probably aren't great art, but the stories of Noah, David, Adam and Eve, Moses and Job are accurate and faithful to Scripture. A Christian who knows the hope of a Redeemer for sin and how that story is woven through out the Old Testament can use this book easily to explain things to children.

I loved coloring books when I was a kid, and it didn't squash my talent at all (you are born with talent and no amount of "expressing" yourself throwing globs on canvas will create what isn't there). I drew and wrote stories all the time--especially about horses and dogs. I particularly enjoyed coloring as a group activity where we could discuss and debate the colors, and why you chose to do something a certain way. It was only the academics in art, teachers and the critics who decided learning to color inside the lines was bad for creativity. Hey! Not everyone can be a leader--this world needs some good followers, too!

Here's another example of "inside the lines" working outward. Mary Polin was a professor education steeped in the radical assumptions of deconstructivism--advancing her career by deciding authors didn't really mean what they said, and that truth was simply a social construction bound to culture and gender which today's academic could set free.

Then in 1993 she met Jesus and was really set free from radical feminism and secular humanism. She then began to write the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs out by hand, word for word, and as she did so, her mind began to heal. That's a beautiful story (found in "A professor reconstructed," A faith and culture devotional, by Kelly Kullberg and Lael Arrington, Zondervan, 2008). Kelly is on Facebook and so are the fans of this book. And I see her husband regularly at the coffee shop.

Strong verses for tough times

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29: 11

Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved. Psalm 55:22

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. John 10:27-28

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Psalm 23:1

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27

For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Romans 1:16

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1

Do not fear what you are about to suffer...Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. Revelation 2:10

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9

I found this list in a Concordia confirmation certificate pack, but just as they are good for the long haul, the are also good for the next day or week, which is about as far as we want to go right now.

A Lutheran pastor in Iraq

"We as Christians do not need to water down or make more manageable the one true faith of the one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, which we proclaim and confess. As we confess this faith clearly and confess this faith often, the Holy Spirit will use that means of salvation, the properly preached Word and the rightly administered Sacraments, to do his miraculous work on the hearts of the hearers. This is not abstract theologizing; it becomes concrete when we faithfully put it into practice. An example is to be found in this region of Iraq, which used to be known as Assyria.

Ever since Christianity arrived here in the second century AD, the Church has had a presence, in spite of the many and tumultuous power struggles over this piece of land. In recent decades, there has been an increase of violence here against our fellow saints in Christ. Their churches have been bombed and vandalized; their lives have been threatened and even taken from them, yet they have not stopped gathering for the Supper. Neither have they ceased in their outreach to their neighbors by word and deed.

So markedly different is their existence from ours that it bears investigation. These men and women do not concern themselves with proving their right to exist, nor with proving the success of their message. Instead, they concern themselves with matters far more profound: gathering as a body of Christ in a world that despises such gatherings and faithfully reaching out in word and deed to their pagan neighbors. Here’s an evangelism program that has its roots in the Early Church, by word and action proclaiming, in a hostile environment, Christ crucified. Here they are concerned only with fidelity to the One who has called them by the Gospel, enlightened them with his gifts, sanctified and kept them in the one true faith. Whenever we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are praying for these brothers and sisters in the faith, for the kingdom of God has come and is still coming in the midst of the upheaval in the Iraqi nation—as surely as it is coming in our less turbulent locales! How comforting for us and for them to know the timelessness of this message and its efficacious power, the blessed hope of the resurrection!" Preaching to the troops, Mark Nuckols, senior pastor, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Austin, Texas (U.S. Army Reserve brigade chaplain, deployed to northern Iraq from October 2004 to October 2005)