"Sometimes it helps to pause in our pursuit of happiness to just be happy." - Gershwin

Oh, Francis. You've let being pope go to your head. Or maybe not. Maybe you're just taking seriously R.C. dogma that says your authority outranks everything, including the Word of God.
The Pope said we need to change the text of what's called "The Lord's Prayer" because it's inaccurate. One line reads, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Francis says it should better read, "do not let us fall into temptation" because a good father does not lead his children into temptation. A good father helps his children get up immediately.

Maybe the Pope should drop the Latin (a'la Martin Luther's good counsel) and take a peek at the Greek. If he did he'd discover that the word temptation is peirasmon, which has two meanings. It can and often does mean "a solicitation to evil," as in James 1:13 (which, coincidentally, makes Francis' point for him). The word peirasmon can also mean struggles, trials, difficulties, as it does in James 1:2.

Note: this distinction in the two meanings is the only explanation for two verses in the space of a dozen that seem to say opposite things. It also explains why English Bibles typically use two different words to translate peirasmon in these verses - because each uses it in one of the two senses. We're told that God sends us peirasmon, trials, to develop us (vv. 2 and 12) but that he does not send us solicitation to evil (v. 13).

Lesson: if something in the Bible doesn't make sense to you consider two possibilities:

1. Some things only make sense in the infinite mind of God, and our very limited perspective and mental capacity means we have to take his word for it. I'm fine with that.
2. It doesn't say what you think it says.

The third option - what it says is wrong - isn't an option. Ipsissima verba.

Did you know...

The name Palestine comes from the same root as Philistine? That's why an attentive Jew will never refer to it as the land of Palestine; that word attaches it to Gentiles. He will call it eretz Israel, the land of Israel. 

And that the Philistines lived in the strip of land along the Mediterranean now known as the Gaza Strip, one of the places where the Palestinians live? There's no connection between the Philistines and the Palestinians except perhaps in certain characteristics of each. 

I like the U.S. Ambassador to the U. N., Nikki Haley, at least what I read of her. She's plain spoken and completely disinclined to play the games of international politics.
In a speech yesterday she said all the criticism and ado over recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is nonsense. Everybody knows Jerusalem is the capital and has been from the beginning...of Israel.
OK, in that specific she's a bit off. David made what was then a small village his capital shortly after taking the throne in 1001 B.C.
But that city is where Israel's parliament (the Knesset) sits and where the Prime Minister and all of his cabinet have their offices, as well as all other federal departments. Denying Jerusalem is the capital of Israel makes about as much sense as saying Omaha is the capital of the U.S., not Washington D.C.
Haley also took a stab at all the U.N. countries denouncing the U.S. for this move. She pointed out that every peace agreement between Israel and Arab countries has been brokered by and signed in the U.S., NOT by or at the U.N. That body has, however, consistently denounced Israel and taken the side of the Palestinians in every conflict.

Our pastor did a good job this morning preaching a difficult section of Judges. He explained the narrative and made it relevant by drawing practical life application from the text.
He also sent me a pic yesterday of his new (to him) car.

Before the sun was fully up we got down to 20 F. When I got up this morning (3 a.m.) it was 59 inside MoHo and the same when we got home from church. Beginning tomorrow our highs will get into the 40's and by Tuesday our overnight lows will be above freezing. That will make life here on Baker Rd. easier. No more carrying buckets of hot water out to the barn in the morning to thaw what's in the goats' buckets and the chicken's water.
Yes please.