Crossroads: Where Love and Faith Intersect

" Well my goodness gracious let me tell you the news My head's been wet with the midnight dew I've been down on bended knee talkin' to the man from Galilee He spoke to me in the voice so sweet I thought I heard the shuffle of the angel's feet He called my name and my heart stood still When he said, "John go do My will!" - Johnny Cash     In the first several chapters of Isaiah the reader is confronted with conflicting prophecies of both suffering also also joy and happiness. This conflict is probably brought out best in Chapter 6, where Isaiah receives a vision from God in the temple shortly after the death of King Uzziah of Judah. According to 2 Chronicles 26: 16-23, Uzziah had been a extremely successful king, winning wars and gaining wealth and becoming popular among the great nations of the world, until he became unfaithful and contracted leprosy within the temple. Therefore, Isaiah is having this vision at a time of great uncertainty. ...

     The greatest speech ever given was Jesus' Sermon on the Mount Speech, no other speech as stood the test of time as well, and even to this day it is one of the most quoted writings. Even though the speech is still popular, some parts of the speech may be confusing, such as the part that follows the Beatitudes, Matthew Chapter 5, Verse 13, which says, "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and be trampled underfoot." Nowadays, to say to someone that they are the salt of the earth sounds like an insult, but for most of world history this would have been seen as a complement. Salt use to be extremely valuable and the word salary actually comes from the Latin word for salt ( salis). The question arises, who is the salt of the earth? Jesus says "you", but who is the you that he is talking about. Is it the people in attendance at the speech, or ...

     When I was in high school, the neighborhood that I grew up in was less than ideal. At the time I did not know this because I had lived there all of my life and didn't think that the living was sub par. The crowd that I was involved in, is hard to classify, but there is no doubt that they could have been bad influences. Many of my friends did drugs, and committed several cases of vandalism. We were a Parks and Recreation Department's nightmare. (One of my friends actually still uses a park bench he stole as furniture.) Although these friends can be classified as criminals, they are some of the best people that I could have met and I thank God for having them in my life. I still hang out with one of these friends every once in awhile. He usually spends his days drinking, playing guitar, and sleeping on my couch. I once was asked, "Why do you still hang out with this guy?" There also a psalms quote that would go against him being in my presence, "Blessed in ...

      Today, we remember one of the greatest men to have ever walked this earth. As an American, few can hold a candle to him. He sought equal rights for all, he fought for nonviolence, and among all this he was a preacher. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. hopefully will be remembered by all Americans for many years to come and, we hope, that his dream may be fulfilled. From the moment he was born to the moment he was assassinated on that hot April morning in 1968, Dr. King also practised what he preached. I encourage all of you who read this to look up many of Dr. King's sermons on YouTube. He was an immaculate preacher who could grip your attention with the mountains and valleys of his voice. In a sermon called "But If Not", he tells all of us to have the same faith that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did when they disrespected Nebuchadnezzar's order to pray to his golden statue. To have a "though faith" and not an "if faith", meaning to always believ...