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<DIV><FONT size=4>In setting the child before the disciples as an example, Jesus
also puts his arms around it - holding it close - and honouring it. For a time,
as he predicted, his arms will be held fast - but in that dying, his arms become
open to all who yearn for love and those for whom the arms of Jesus rank higher
than any earthly throne.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.wellsprings.org.uk/weekly_wellsprings/year_b/sunday_25.htm">http://www.wellsprings.org.uk/weekly_wellsprings/year_b/sunday_25.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Catherine McElhinney and Kathryn Turner</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV><FONT size=4><FONT
color=#231f20 size=2><FONT color=#231f20 size=2><FONT color=#231f20 size=2>
<DIV align=left><FONT color=#000000 size=4>We can use resources, like those
Harris reviews in </FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#231f20 size=2><FONT
color=#231f20 size=2><FONT color=#231f20 size=2><FONT color=#000000
size=4>Caring for </FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=4>Children in
Crisis</FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#231f20 size=2><FONT color=#231f20
size=2><FONT color=#231f20 size=2><FONT color=#000000 size=4>, to prepare
ministries for children who suffer </FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=4>the
loss of their family in divorce, endure sexual abuse, or face </FONT><FONT
color=#000000 size=4>death. She reminds us to arrange our ministry to include
the </FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=4>entire family, and even pastors and
professional caregivers. </FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=4>Taking
seriously the grief that children experience is an important </FONT><FONT
color=#000000 size=4>first step. “Adults may assume that the young
person’s grief </FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#231f20 size=2><FONT
color=#231f20 size=2><FONT color=#231f20 size=2><FONT color=#000000
size=4>experience will be brief and have no long-term consequences,”
</FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=4>McClintock explains. “A well-meaning grown-up
may even </FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=4>attempt to expedite the ‘rebound’ by
engaging the child in </FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=4>cheerful activities. A
far more helpful response would be to </FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=4>guide
children in developing healthy patterns of
grieving.” </FONT></DIV></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.baylor.edu/christianethics/Childrenstudyguide5.pdf">http://www.baylor.edu/christianethics/Childrenstudyguide5.pdf</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Robert B. Kruschwitz</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV><FONT size=4><FONT
size=3 face="Book Antiqua"><FONT size=3 face="Book Antiqua">
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">Curiosity about the physical
world is another childhood trait </FONT><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">that
we should nourish. “Among the many holy tasks of Christians </FONT><FONT size=4
face="Times New Roman">is to foster, nurture, and develop children’s God-given
</FONT><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">sense of curiosity in such a way that
it will still be there when </FONT><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">they are
adults,” writes Scott Hoezee. “For this whole world <FONT size=3
face="Book Antiqua"><FONT size=3 face="Book Antiqua"><FONT size=4
face="Times New Roman">belongs to God—we should want to know more about it.” Are
</FONT><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">we nourishing this inquisitiveness at
church, or stifling it with </FONT><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">opaque
windows, lessons, and songs that ignore or diminish </FONT><FONT size=4
face="Times New Roman">curiosity about the natural world? “It’s easy to grow
up,” he </FONT><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">observes, “thinking that
there’s little connection between a </FONT><FONT size=4
face="Times New Roman">Thursday afternoon field trip when you tramp through a
wetland </FONT><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">and a Sunday morning in
church.” </FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3
face="Book Antiqua"><FONT size=3 face="Book Antiqua"><FONT size=4
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3
face="Book Antiqua"><FONT size=3 face="Book Antiqua"><FONT size=4
face="Times New Roman"><A
href="http://www.baylor.edu/christianethics/CreationStudyGuide6.pdf">http://www.baylor.edu/christianethics/CreationStudyGuide6.pdf</A></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV><FONT
face="Times New Roman">
<DIV><FONT size=4>Robert B. Kruschwitz</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoBodyText align=left><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><FONT
size=4>Sometimes we think we can’t be pushed any harder or stretched
anymore. Admittedly, there are some Christians that think they shouldn’t
be pushed at all. Yet, look at these twelve men, known only for their
normalcy prior to their call from Jesus. Look how hard Jesus pushed them;
beyond their livelihood, out of their homes, at odds with their faith and even
their own families. Jesus pushed until they reached a point where they had
nothing else and no one else. Until the only words they had left were;
“Lord, to whom shall we go?” [John 6:68b]</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoBodyText><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><FONT size=4>It is critical
to our growth that we are pushed and stretched beyond our comfortable
surroundings. We don’t like being pushed that hard; in fact we often
reject it. We don’t want to visit the sick, the alien, the incarcerated,
or the poor. Yet, to reach heaven, Jesus says that this is exactly what we
must do [Mt 25:41-44]. If we don’t let go of the comforts of this world we
will be very uncomfortable in the next, for it will be filled with the very
people that this world rejects [Luke 16:19-31].</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoBodyText><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><FONT size=4>So Jesus
pushed hard, but it hardened his follower’s resiliency without breaking their
spirits. Later, they would need every ounce of that courage to walk the
road ahead of them.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><A
href="http://onefamilyoutreach.com/bible/Mark/mk_09_30_37.html"><FONT
size=4>http://onefamilyoutreach.com/bible/Mark/mk_09_30_37.html</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4>Jerry Goebel: 2005 © </FONT><A
style="COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; text-underline: single"
href="http://onefamilyoutreach.com/"><FONT
size=4>http://onefamilyoutreach.com</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT face="Book Antiqua"><FONT face="Book Antiqua"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></DIV></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT>
<DIV><EM></EM> </DIV>
<DIV>The way of the cross is no less confounding or frightening today. Because
of this, It is fashionable in some circles to speak of Christianity as a set of
skills that one learns to practice, the way one learns the skills necessary to
be a woodworker or a research chemist. New pastors are advised to find the
masters of Christianity in their parish and apprentice themselves to these
giants of Christian practice. And if we are going to apprentice ourselves to a
master, we must learn who is the greatest.</DIV>
<DIV><EM><></EM></DIV>
<DIV>This gospel text’s bumper sticker might be, "Start seeing the invisible."
Start seeing the invisible, not because it is virtuous to do so, not so that we
can congratulate ourselves on being the greatest at seeing. Start seeing the
invisible because to receive the invisible one is to receive Jesus, and to
receive Jesus is to receive the one who sent him.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2896">http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2896</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Mary E. Hinkle </DIV>
<DIV>- - - - -</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In the ancient world, however, abandonment of infants was a normal
practice, a postnatal method of birth control, and no particular stigma was
attached to it. Oedipus is perhaps the most famous example -- the heir to the
throne of Thebes was exposed to the elements as a newborn because of the
terrible prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Infants
might be abandoned for a number of reasons, including illegitimacy, but usually
they were simply the offspring of parents who lacked the resources to feed
them.</DIV>
<DIV><></DIV>
<DIV>Menachem Schneerson, the famous Lubavitcher rabbi from Brooklyn, used to
stand every week for hours as thousands of people filed by to receive his
blessing or his advice about matters great and small. Once someone asked him how
he, who was in his 80s, could stand for so long without seeming to get tired.
The rabbi replied, "When you’re counting diamonds you don’t get tired."</DIV>
<DIV>The abandoned baby on the street, the stranger at the door, even our own
husband or wife or child, is a diamond, and in receiving and treasuring these
diamonds we are receiving the "pearl of great price" that was once hidden on
earth as a destitute child of uncertain parentage.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1995">http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1995</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Joel Marcus, 2000</DIV>
<DIV>- - - - -</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>