<html><body><div>Here's part 2</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Think about how Jesus felt about yet another debate staged by the clergy and the BAC of the Temple. “O God,” He may have thought, “Preserve Me from this tiresome confrontation. I’d rather talk with a pile of stones.” From somewhere, though, Jesus must have found the reminder that God was with Him. The time He was baptised by John; the Spirit in the form of a dove; the way that even dangerous animals took care of His needs. Perhaps memories of these flashed through His mind to help Him deal with the trick questions, the tiresome encounters. Perhaps this enabled Jesus to see how to phrase His response and come up with a story which the priests and elders would remember long after He left.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Jesus might have said, “There you go again!” But He didn’t. He sensed God’s inspiration and brought a practical solution, even if it wasn’t appreciated at the time.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>I know that I have to learn to lean on past experiences, and gifts, and good times, so that I can face up to whatever may be confronting me. I suspect that you find that this is true for you too.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>I’m <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>NOT</u></b> saying, “Learn from your mistakes.” I’m saying, as Moses heard, as Jesus heard, “Learn from your successes.” We <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>NEED</u></b> to remember that, even if we are the images of God in this world, we are <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>NOT</u></b> God, and we <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>WILL</u></b> do all sorts of things that would embarrass the heck out of us today if they showed up on Face Book.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Remember what Paul wrote once to a bunch of discouraged folk. “My friends, all that is true, all that is noble, all that is just and pure, all that is lovable and attractive, whatever is excellent and admirable – fill your thoughts with these things. Put into practice the lessons I taught you, the tradition I have passed on, all that you heard me say or saw me do; and the God of peace will be with you.” <sup>2</sup></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Think on these things, not as Pollyanna, but as a people who are blessed constantly by God.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Whatever it was that worked in the past, like that staff that Moses had been given, take it with you, bring it face-to-face with all the rocks we have in front of us. God will be there and, together with God, whatever we used in the past to bring things to a joyful and successful sense of relief, will be able to help us remember that we <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>WILL</u></b> overcome all difficulties, strengthened by the positive power of God.</span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>I don’t know if you heard or read that “</span><span lang="EN" style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>The small pharmaceutical company LiFeGen just <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/laughingindisbelief/is-this-satire/" target="_blank"><span style="margin: 0px; color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">published findings from its most recent clinical trials on the Alzheimer drug Educanumab</span></a>. The results show that the drug slows the creation of amyloid proteins in the<span style="margin: 0px; color: black;"> brain that are thought to cause cognitive deterioration as well as ‘clean up’ the amyloid proteins that are already present. What no one expected, however, is that the patients in the clinical trial who responded to the drug became atheists.” <sup>3</sup></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> This report, which is satirical, just in case you didn’t catch on, supposedly implied that having rationality, especially memory, drives faith in God out of people’s minds.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> In actual fact, there’s no way on earth to prove or disprove this. But there’s unlimited evidence that memory, especially of how danger and disasters were avoided or dealt with, <b><u>CAN</u></b> not only give us hope and encouragement, but also regenerates faith in a God who is not a manipulator, nut is fully present for us every day.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> So, if any of you find yourselves, if I find myself, edging towards a big whine, or an angry depression, or simply general malaise, what the examples of Moses and Jesus point out to us is the blessing of discovering and rediscovering all those times when things worked out. What our ancestral exemplars remind us about is that we each have some special gift which we may bring to bear on all the events and people who may threaten to drag us down.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> And, just as we have those great memories and grace-filled gifs, so we can be sure that we’ll be faced with crises, with temptations, with depressing thoughts again. But that’s O.K. Next time, we’ll know how to face them. We need just remember.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>DO</u></b> you and I have a God-complex? I hope not. It never seems to take us too long to get into trouble. But God will help us get through it or around it. Because God is God, and we are God’s people, God remains present with us – all the time!</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>NOTES:</span></b></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></b></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>[1]</span></span></span></span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/07/29/487609615/why-do-complex-systems-thrive-on-trial-and-error"><span style="margin: 0px; color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">“<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0in; border: 1pt windowtext; border-image: none;">Why Do Complex Systems Thrive on Trial And Error?</span></span></a>”</span></i><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> by Tim Harford, who wrote </span><span style='background: white; margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>“<em><span style='margin: 0px; padding: 0in; border: 1pt windowtext; border-image: none; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'>Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure”, </span></em></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“Failure is an Option”</i>,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> “TED Radio Hour”, </i>NPR Friday, July 29, 2016. <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/07/29/487609615/why-do-complex-systems-thrive-on-trial-and-error"><font color="#0000ff">http://www.npr.org/2016/07/29/487609615/why-do-complex-systems-thrive-on-trial-and-error</font></a> See the whole programme at <a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/487606750/failure-is-an-option"><font color="#0000ff">http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/487606750/failure-is-an-option</font></a></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><font size="2"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'>2</span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Philippians 4:8-9 Revised English Bible translation. </span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><font size="2"> </font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>3</span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span lang="EN" style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>“Religion Destroyed By New Alzheimer’s Drug” by </span></i><span lang="EN" style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/laughingindisbelief/author/ahall/"><span style="margin: 0px; color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Andrew Hall</span></a> September 25, 2017 </span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><a href="http://click1.mail.patheos.com/t.do?id=797244:542403:7DF2956C-D2F1-40D4-A777-98E450E58360"><font color="#0000ff">http://click1.mail.patheos.com/t.do?id=797244:542403:7DF2956C-D2F1-40D4-A777-98E450E58360</font></a></span></p></div></body></html>