Claude King's blog

I am deeply touched by anyone who is filled with joy when they welcome back somebody who was, up to that point, given up on and believed to be "lost." Lost is a term that has many meanings. Among other things, it could mean a wayward person, a wild child, or a stubborn and hard-hearted person who often did not care about doing what was even in her or his own best interest. In other words, someone who is considered a hopeless case.

How are we dealing with the ups and downs of our life in Christ? As we travel on our faith journey, are we evaluating the life we live from one day to the next? I have often considered how I did at the end of a particular day. Did I do good according to God's will that day or was I being led by my own selfishness, which is against God's will?

We are the children of God. As children, we are aware of how we act in relationship to our God. We find ourselves doing things that we know are honorable and helpful to others and for our own life. We reach out to help those in financial distress and those who are broken by death and the hardships in their lives spiritually, emotionally, and physically. We pray to God, learn and meditate on God's words, and seek to lift up and strengthen others to do the same.

We are in a place of transition and fundamental change. Not necessarily because we wanted to be, but because we must change in order to live as God created us to live. There is nothing that can completely prepare us for the times and stations in our lives where we must become vastly different in ways that we did not want to. One word that describes it is metamorphose - "to change into a wholly different form or appearance; transform."

The time is right for a better social standard to be put into practice. Many people are yearning for a freer existence that allows those who wish to, each have the ability to experience this world with none of the hindrances that the stereotypes, labels, bigotry, and hatred that so many people have suffered under and which has diminished our collective humanity from time immemorial.

The idea of how we address those who are reduced to the lowest rung of this society is a constant concern for everyone from the President to Congress and law enforcement and especially, to the faith-based leadership of this country. The executive, legislative, and judicial branches of our government, both nationally and locally, are constantly working to remedy this overwhelming problem.

How do we know when God is leading us to something that will be a blessing? We do want God's blessings but what can we do to keep our minds and hearts in tune to not only receiving God's blessings but becoming a blessing to others in return?

The imparting of a divine gift or favor is one definition for blessing. With that acting as our working definition, we may need to adjust our idea of what a blessing from God means. It's an extraordinary gift because it comes from God, and not always a material gift necessarily.

What does it mean to live by the words of Jesus? I want to be a follower of God's word as spoken and taught by Jesus. For the most part, that once meant to take care of the people who needed care and to treat people like you would like to be treated on a daily basis.

Weddings are opportunities to witness God's love and divine authority manifest themselves in how God relates to humanity. Weddings serve as signs of how God cares for the people who believe that God is their only source of joy and contentment and who wants that relationship to never end. The lives of the couples that come together at a wedding are reshaped because the love they freely give to each other has its origins in the only love that is unconditional and has no beginning and no end, God's love.

As a child, I once sang a well-known Christmas song's verse like this, "Deck the halls with balls of bolly fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la." At the time that I misguidedly sung that verse, I was sure that the words were all correct. But when somebody explained to me that I was singing the wrong words, I listened to them as they sung them correctly, "Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la."