The Blue Church

How do we see Job’s confession (Job 42:2) play out in real life? If no plan of God’s can be thwarted, what does that mean for His children?

When our passion for worship wanes, it usually happens in the rough and tumble moments of life. We’ll get back to church later, when things smooth out. I’ll finish my through-the-Bible reading when life is less hectic. I can’t pray today because I’m so busy and distracted.

I was surprised by the estimate that 25,000,000 Christians chose not to vote in the 2016 presidential election. Actually, surprised and troubled. Were that many believers so busy that they could not take the time to vote? Did they not care enough to vote?

People everywhere seem to be wishing this year will end so that a better year can begin. COVID-19 brought lockdowns, slowdowns, and shutdowns, and racial tensions became the excuse for rioting, looting, and statue-toppling.

In my junior year of high school, our English teacher had season tickets to the Pittsburgh Symphony. On Mondays we would talk about what the orchestra had played the previous weekend, so she knew I enjoyed classical music.

It was just a day spent fishing with his dad, but the famous biographer James Boswell spoke of it often. He remembered it fondly in his adulthood, and even recounted many details of what his father had taught him that day.

The late Christian editor and author Joe Bayly (1920-1986) was once a member of The Blue Church. He lost three children, and out of that grief wrote a little book about death,The Last Thing We Talk About.

If you enjoy words, you will like this gem, which was published in the late 1800’s. It seems to have made the rounds like the old chain letters, in much the same way Internet memes are infinitely forwarded today.

There is a fascinating story that came out of World War II. A wealthy couple in London saw that Germany’s attack on Britain was imminent, and so decided to go somewhere safe.

Matthew is the only Gospel author to include this story of Judas:
“When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. ‘I have sinned,’ he said, ‘for I have betrayed innocent blood.’