Stushie’s Stuff

Luke 16:31 “He said to him, ‘If they do       not listen to Moses and the Prophets,         they will not be convinced even if                 someone rises from the dead.’”

Over the years, I’ve been fascinated with the story of the Turin Shroud. It’s the famous medieval cloth that purportedly is meant to be the cloth that Christ’s Body was wrapped up in when He was placed in the tomb. The image found on the cloth is centuries old and it looks like the outline of a crucified man, especially after photographs of the Shroud were looked at in their negative prints.

I’ve never been convinced that this is the true shroud. To me, it’s a discarded canvas that Da Vinci, Michelangelo, or their artistic associates worked on and never finished. The local church in Turin capitalized on their community’s fascination with venerated objects. I guess if the shroud had been recently discovered in someone’s attic, it would end up being sold on Ebay, along with slices of toast that have Christ’s face on them.

Some people need tangible proof of Christ’s Resurrection before they will begin to believe that it actually happened. They want factual evidence, not faith. They want someone to prove that it occurred before they will place all of their lives, hearts, and souls into Christ’s keeping.

But that’s always been the important issue with God: are we willing to trust Him simply on His Word? Are we willing to trust the truth of the Gospels without question, or will we wait until the end of Time to discover it, when all will be revealed? To coin an old Southern preacher: if we wait, it will be too late.

Prayer:            Lord Jesus, faith is a hard burden to carry, especially when we try to pin it down and rationalize it. God has set us this test in order to see if we really trust Him. If we fail, we let go of any eternal hope. If we have faith, we win everlasting life. Keep us from complicating this simple challenge. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you have any comment s about today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Deuteronomy 4:12 Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.

There must be about 1300 teenagers at the Montreat Youth Conference this week. Throughout the campus, many of the young people are wearing red,orange, and yellow t-shirts which carry the message “World on Fire.” It’s the theme of the conference and the message is about the chaos that’s in the world today. The hope is that our young people, who are passionate about global warming, equality, and justice, will be on fire with their faith in order to change the world.

That’s a tall order and one that we all can identify with. We all go through that special stage of wanting to do something that will make a difference in the world, but few of us really get the opportunity to do so. Our young people are growing up into a world that is vastly different from anything that we have ever experienced. The planet is suffering, the environment is out of kilter, the economy is fragile, and the Church is declining in the West. Gone are the days when the Christian faith dominated the social, cultural, and political standards in this country. These Montreat kids are going to have to fight for the existence and relevance of their faith decades from now.

What can we do to help them? We can try to understand their ways. We can listen to what they have to say and pay attention to what they’re feeling. We can strengthen our congregations and build up our own commitment to the Lord, so that they will have a solid base for the future. What we leave behind is just as important to their spiritual well being as anything that we have now. If we invest our time, talents, and money in our faith, then we will be giving them a strong start which will help them pass on the faith to their children.

So today, let’s think about how God speaks to us through Christ in the midst of a world that’s on fire. And as we do this, let’s also remember the struggle that our young people are facing now and thank God that despite us, they still remain faithful to Christ.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we thank You for the blessing of our young people. Help us not to take them for granted. Make us more aware of what they are experiencing. Grant us patience and wisdom, tolerance and enthusiasm in order to support and bolster what Christian faith they have. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Ephesians 1:18a I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you...

I’m back at Montreat, North Carolina to spend the first part of the week with our Youth Group. Every year our church sends our young people to experience a whole week with their peers praising God. As usual, the worship is energetic and our teenagers are enthusiastically enjoying being here. It’s a wonderful opportunity to focus on Christ and I pray that it is something special that they will keep with them throughout the years to come.

I’m glad that they are joyfully sharing this together. Our Youth leader Becca has been here sixteen times. Her faith grew through her own Montreat experiences and led her into church leadership. I know that she wants each of the participants to embrace the fellowship and grow in faith. Her dedication to these young people is helping them to develop their own spirituality and faith in the Lord.

But what happens when they come back amongst us? Having had a wonderfully enlightening and enthusiastic experience at Montreat, aren’t they in for a spiritual culture shock when they get back home? It’s something that often bothers me and I personally wonder what we can do to blend more of their way of worshiping back at Erin.

At the end of the week, our young people lead the morning worship service at church. It gives them an opportunity of relating their experience to the rest of the church. But is it enough? Shouldn’t we be doing more now to embrace their ideas so that both the light in the eyes of their heart and the hope they carry in their souls are not extinguished nor diminished? Instead of seeing them as the future church of tomorrow, how can we embrace them as the living church today?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, open the eyes of our heart and help us to truly see what Your Spirit is doing amongst our young people today. Give us the courage to boldly hand over important aspects of leadership in our churches today, allowing them to help us grow through their faith. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s devotion, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Ten of my Digital Glass drawings are being exhibited at the Bear Creek Coffee House on Middlebrook Pike starting today – Saturday 13th June. This is my first official exhibition.

Acts 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. (NIV)

Almost thirty years ago, I visited a university town in Spain called Valladolid (pronounced ‘baya-dolith). It was originally a castle town and had some beautiful medieval buildings, cathedrals and colleges all over it. I was there with a friend of mine who had once trained to be a priest. We were visiting his old haunts and he introduced me to a lot of good Spanish people.

One evening, we went to a school building, where many people gathered together for prayer. Handicapped persons, people in wheelchairs, and all sorts of sick people were at the meeting. We sat in a circle, and the priest, who was leading the group, began to pray. Other people followed him and then I spoke my prayer. It was in English because I didn’t have enough Spanish to put a sentence together. After I prayed, the priest interpreted and re-prayed my prayer. Once he had finished, a holy hush fell upon the room, and then, suddenly, people began singing in tongues.

I had never experienced anything like this before. It was beautiful and everyone, even those who were sick or sitting in wheelchairs joined in. The sound was like a hundred songs being sung at the same time, with different melodies and rhythms, but they harmonized perfectly. Then things began to quieten down, and after another time of silence, people started to go home.

It was a profound experience and one that I have never encountered again. The only explanation I can give is that the Holy Spirit descended upon all of us, and gave us a great gift of angelic song that evening. One glorious day, I hope to sing like that again, in the heavenly halls of glory, with millions upon millions of people and angels.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for sending the Holy Spirit amongst us and for giving Your Church a wonderful source of comfort and counsel, guidance and love. Fill our hearts with Your Holy Spirit and lead us by His presence in our lives. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

As I looked out from the pulpit yesterday morning,

I could see all the people

In our living Memorial Committee.

A lady in a wheelchair

Who, at the age of twelve

On her home island of Hawaii,

Watched Japanese planes

Fly across the sky

On their way to bomb

Pearl Harbor.

Across the aisle

Sat another lady,

Whose young Jewish parents had given

Her away to a Dutch couple,

Just before they were arrested

By the Nazis

And taken to a Concentration Camp

Where they died.

Three rows behind her,

Was a man who had been

Amongst the first American troops

To liberate European Jews from

Hitler’s Death Camps.

Behind him was a farmer’s wife,

Whose brother

Had been seriously wounded

On a beach in Normandy

June 6, 1944.

Four pews in front of her

Sat another man

Whose father

Had been a fighter pilot

Over the English Channel

And into France.

On the other side

Sat another woman,

Whose husband

Fought alongside

Fellow marines

Across several

South Pacific islands.

In the soprano section

Of the church choir,

Sat the preacher’s wife,

Whose father had been rescued

Off the coast of Italy

After his British destroyer

Was torpedoed and sank by

Enemy aircraft.

And sitting quietly,

At the back of the choir

In the tenor section,

Was a paratrooper,

Who at the age of twenty,

Had miraculously survived

The Battle of Bastogne

In that deadly winter

Of December 1944.

With such members

In our Memorial team,

We will never forget

Those who served

And died for Freedom.

Liverpool Cathedral, in the hometown of John Lennon, will perform his peace anthem ‘Imagine’ using the church bells. Even although Lennon’s song includes the lyrics “Imagine there’s no heaven,” church officials have given the go ahead for this special pealing of church bells to take place.

As one church spokesperson said, “Allowing ‘Imagine‘ to be pealed on our bells does not mean we agree with the song’s lyrics. We recognize its power to make us think. As a cathedral, we do not shrink from debate. We recognize the existence of other world views.”

When Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono heard about the tribute, she told the BBC that the idea was ’so beautiful, it made me choke up’.

So I’ve been reading and hearing a lot of people talking about this torture business and how they want to prosecute the last Administration for doing it. Critics and politicians of GWB want him to be put on trial as a war criminal.

They want this because it’s inhumane to torture terrorists. They find it repugnant, evil, and wicked. Waterboarding is a terrible thing to do and it should be stopped immediately. How dare the government and covert operations make foreigners endure torturous drowning. It’s inhuman, vile, and totally un-American. Scores of hostile prisoners have been treated badly and it has to stop.

Meanwhile, during the last eight years, millions of unborn American innocent babies have been stabbed through the brain, vacuumed out of the womb, torn apart, or left to painfully, coldly and slowly die on a surgical table.

Get real people! Abortion makes waterboarding look like a summer sport.

WARNING!!! – www.abortionno.org has a graphic video of an abortion that America does not want to see