Unfaith Follows

Today's Link
Carpoolqueen's Blog

Today's Saying
A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell. ~C.S. Lewis

Today's Picture
First blossom on hanging tomato plant

When we left James yesterday he was having a great deal of success in Chile. His congregation was growing. People were being Baptized in the Spirit. Lives were being changed. The congregation had become a center for social change and helping the poor. Life could not have been better. He wrote home to a friend that he was expecting a revival like the world had never seen.
Then a horrible thing happened. The Socialist government of Chile was toppled by a right wing dictator. The new government set out to purge the country of Socialists and Communists. Because of its work with the poor Jim’s congregation was on that list. . He became very good at hiding people and keeping them just out of the reach of the government.
But some Church members died. James could have handled that. After all the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church
But the unthinkable happened. Born again, Baptized in the Spirit, Holy people turned in other church members to save themselves. This Jim couldn’t handle. His theology demanded that once you had the Baptism you were changed forever. Holy people didn’t turn in neighbors. They just didn’t. His theology collapsed and with it his belief in God. He decided that if there was a God this could not happen. It just could not happen.
The government ordered him and his wife to leave the country and they did so. He came back to Chicago a defeated , broken man but still a man of integrity. He could have pretended to believe in God. He could have played at being Pastor. He knew all the words, all the motions. He would have done well. But he told the Church he no longer believed. Indeed he proclaimed his unbelief. He sent letters to his pastor friends and told them he had found the truth.
This was one of those times when the Church , which doesn’t always care for its wounded and broken soldiers acted magnificently. It got his wife a job in the office of the Mission Board and they got James into a Ph.D program at the seminary. The idea being that while he worked on his degree the grief would end and his faith would return. It was during this period he and his wife had two children which he refused to allow her to Baptize .
He earned a Ph.D in Theology but still was an atheist. That made the degree worthless. No Church college would hire a professing atheist. They might hire a quiet atheist but not an outspoken one. So James took odd jobs in the Chicago area Sometimes he was a janitor and sometimes the seminary let him teach Greek part time .
The pressure of all this got to him and he began to drink heavily. His wife and children left him. He lost all hope of getting any job. He became just another drunk on the streets of Chicago.
To be continued next Tuesday

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal
Yesterday the search for Tommy UK and Tammy was finally called off. Neither they nor any giant spider were found though they have gone over all the forest around where the broken cell phone was found. They have simply vanished.
Petrovich still hasn’t returned from vacation. But people are beginning to remember his driblets with nostalgia. At least then they had some idea of what was going on . There was always a solution. But now there was only silence and empty woods.
Nancy says several more people have reported seeing the man in black near the Town Hall. Mrs. Trumble was asked about the sightings when she stopped in for coffee. She reminded Nancy that the man black is seen every time there is a crisis but he never seems to do anything. She wonders if he isn’t some sort of group hallucination. The only thing they know for sure is that Tommy and Tammy have vanished.
Willie says that as he was going home from the Fly Inn last night the lights were on behind the Town Hall. He could see standing in the trench a man dressed in black. He was waving his arms and saying things Willie couldn’t understand. Then a door opened at the end of the trench and the man went through and the lights went out.
Eino checked the video. It shows Willie standing near and empty trench and Willie can just barely stand. So Eino has concluded that Willie is seeing things again. All the talk of a man in black must have gotten to him.

Wrap UP

Writing these two blogs was very hard for me for reasons which I will explain next Tuesday. I had trouble with Vista today it just hung everything up for no reason at all. Just when I begin to think it's not such a bad operating system it does this>It tells you the program is not operating but then it won't let you close it or use it. What a pain. I end up pulling the plug. A member of my last parish called today just to do a little remembering. That was very nice. So many good memories came flowing back. Then my sister-in-law called. Betty and I went to super at the Church. I visited all the blogs that left comments yesterday. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

*************************