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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=JoeParrish@compuserve.com href="mailto:JoeParrish@compuserve.com">Joe
Parrish</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=PROPERTALK.topic@ecunet.org
href="mailto:PROPERTALK.topic@ecunet.org">PROPERTALK.topic@ecunet.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, March 07, 2010 12:18 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Sermon Points - Luke 13:1-9 - Part 3</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=3>
<DIV><FONT size=4>In effect, Jesus is saying:</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV></FONT><FONT size=3 face=Calibri,Calibri><FONT size=3
face=Calibri,Calibri><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">I've just dumped a lot
of manure on you, and I'm giving you a year before I come back to see if you are
bearing good fruit or not. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">So pay attention to what I've just taught
you. Absorb it. Take it in. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">And let me activate in you what you are
already designed for. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">You don't have to become completely
different - become a whole new tree. Just bear the fruit that you already have
been created for; already have the capacity for. </FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=4><FONT size=4
face="Times New Roman"><A
href="http://www.holytextures.com/Luke-13-01-09.pdf">http://www.holytextures.com/Luke-13-01-09.pdf</A></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=4><FONT size=4
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV><FONT size=1>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">David Ewart,
www.holytextures.com</FONT> </DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=4><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=4><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">- - - -
-</FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">
<P><FONT size=4>I am fascinated by Chaos Theory. A relatively new branch of
physics that has been applied in many other fields such as biology and
meteorology. Chaos theory stated at its most simple, suggests that systems
evolve and are not static, that even orbits can become irregular over time due
to irregular actions of “strange attractors”.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>An early pioneer of the theory was Edward Lorenz whose interest
in chaos came about accidentally through his work on weather prediction in 1961.
Lorenz decided to cut time on running a very long computer programme, by
inserting values, (which the first half of the programme would have calculated),
at the halfway mark of the programme. To his surprise the weather that the
machine began to predict was completely different from the weather calculated
before. Lorenz tracked this down to the computer printout. The computer worked
with 6-digit precision, but the printout rounded variables off to a 3-digit
number, so a value like 0.506127 was printed as 0.506. This difference is tiny
and the consensus at the time would have been that it should have had
practically no effect. However Lorenz had discovered that small changes in
initial conditions produced large changes in the long-term outcome. Lorenz’s
discovery, which gave its name to Lorenz attractors, proved that meteorology
could not reasonably predict weather beyond a weekly period (at most).
</FONT></P>
<P><A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory"><FONT color=#000000
size=4>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory</FONT></A></P>
<P><FONT size=4>I think <STRONG>Jesus has an invitation</STRONG> for us as the
Church and as individuals.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>As we face the barrage of opinion and doctrinaire drivel that
spews with egotistical certainty from so many pulpits and podiums, we have an
opportunity to pause a moment and consider the mystery of all around us and then
respond, “It is not certain”</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>All that <STRONG>is certain</STRONG> is the mystery.</FONT></P>
<P><A
href="http://thelisteninghermit.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/“it-is-not-certain”/"><FONT
size=4>http://thelisteninghermit.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/“it-is-not-certain”/</FONT></A></P></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><FONT size=4><SPAN class=given-name>Peter</SPAN> <SPAN
class=family-name>Woods</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT size=4>- - - -
-</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT
size=4></FONT></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT size=4>No, said Jesus,
don't demonize your neighbor. Don't presume to invoke God's judgment on someone
else. You can't purchase God's favor by projecting your fears and anxieties onto
others. Then, as he often did, Jesus flipped the story so that its moral applied
to the living rather than to the dead. Jesus compared his audience to barren
fruit trees. </FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT
size=4></FONT></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><A
href="http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20070305JJ.shtml"><FONT
size=4>http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20070305JJ.shtml</FONT></A></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT
size=4></FONT></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT size=4>Daniel B.
Clendenin</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT size=4>- - - -
-</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT
size=4></FONT></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT size=4>It might help us
all whether nurturing or nurtured to grasp that in the 'great eternal plan' we
are all living in borrowed time, every extra day we're granted. (Heart surgery
brought that home more vividly than any sermon some years ago!) Time doesn't
belong to us, nor should it be allowed to master us. It's there to serve God's
ongoing love & compassion for us all, fruitful or not at this stage. Let's
none of us ever give up on ourselves or others. God doesn't. (N.B. It's not the
owner, but <I>the gardener</I> who represents God in this little parable!)
</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT
size=4></FONT></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><A
href="http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/laterallyluke/LLK1319LENT2.html"><FONT
size=4>http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/laterallyluke/LLK1319LENT2.html</FONT></A></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT
size=4></FONT></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT size=4>Brian
McGowan</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT size=4>- - - -
-</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT
size=4></FONT></SPAN></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT size=4>I cling to the
words of the vinekeeper, “Let the tree stand.” I hold fast to the willingness of
the vinekeeper to work on that tree some more if not on this earth, then in the
far reaches of heaven where I hear there is redemption and where I am told there
are no more tears.</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT
size=4></FONT></SPAN></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT size=4><A
href="http://teamnoah.info/Stirred/jm.html">http://teamnoah.info/Stirred/jm.html</A></FONT></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN
class=family-name></SPAN></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT
color=#000000 size=4>Sarah M. Foulger</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT size=4>- - - -
-</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class="fn n"><SPAN class=family-name><FONT
size=4></FONT></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></BODY></HTML>