The Cracked Acorn: News – Good or Bad

Prayer is that beautiful English word – the Biblical word that offers us spiritual nourishment: “In seasons of distress and grief, My soul has often found relief and oft escaped the tempter’s snare, By thy return, sweet hour of prayer.”

A February 8th newspaper article took me back to Ethiopia and a desert road across the Great Rift Valley. Millions of years ago, the earth was torn here and had left a deep canyon. In the 1940s, Italian engineers built this road that breached the canyon wall, crossed the floor, and ascended the opposite wall. They had placed prayer shrines on either side of the canyon walls, a place to cool the brakes, have a drink of water, and thank God for your very life!

Dennis McConaty, a recovering alcoholic, had the vision to build a prayer stop near one of the metro area’s busiest traffic corners, where more than 19,000 cars pass each day.  This came to fulfillment, and passersby left notes, “Cancer spreading, please pray.” “Help me off heroin addiction,” “I am homeless, pray that I find a job.” The 8′ by 12′ shack became a fixture for prayer to those in distress; people entered and prayed silently for help and comfort from God and then, refreshed, went on with their daily lives.

Anything out of the ordinary in today’s world seems to have a short shelf life. Five days after the prayer stop opened, McConaty’s church received phone calls from people familiar with his past. He failed to reveal that he was listed in the county’s sex offender registry. The county detective and the church agreed that Dennis, 62, had made a clean break with his past, but the detective said that he worked on the premise that “once a sex offender, always a sex offender.” So now, the prayer stop will be closed for some undetermined date in the future.

At a church we once attended, it became known that one of our returning visitors was a homosexual. Imagine this! We who represent the church exist for the purpose of reaching sinners, and one walks in off the street. He had AIDS, and members were concerned. But not for long; he was found murdered in his apartment, probably for a small lottery winning.

Saul of Tarsus persecuted Christians to the point that they were delivered in chains and suffered unto death for believing that Jesus was the Christ, the son of God. Saul (Paul) was converted and baptized, but fellow Christians were anxious about his past. (Acts 9:26)

The Scriptures abound with help and encouragement for us to leave behind our old nature and look forward to our wealth in our God. He is our everything! Martin Luther summed it up by writing, “There but for the grace of God go I.”

In I Peter 5:7-8: “Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you, Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”

Let’s close with a verse from #922 (Songs of FAITH and PRAISE)

I HEAR THE SAVIOR SAY, “THY STRENGTH INDEED IS SMALL; CHILD OF WEAKNESS, WATCH AND PRAY, FIND IN ME, THINE ALL IN ALL. JESUS PAID IT ALL, ALL TO HIM I OWE; SIN HAD LEFT A CRIMSON STAIN, HE WASHED IT WHITE AS SNOW.