Also, I’ve actually become convinced that when Paul referred to his “thorn in the flesh” he was speaking of an individual who was trying to undo his work by visiting churches and imposing circumcision… the phrase was an old hebrew phrase for an adversary. Though that’s a topic for another day.

I think you’re right about the legal aspect of God’s revelation. The LORD I think was pointing out that they missed the point of the law. The law points us to love our neighbor, but the experts had obscured the law with minute picayune rules added on top.

I agree with God’s healing generally, but there are faithful followers of Christ who have to endure some debilitating condition, kind of like a thorn in the flesh. But I agree that God wants to bring complete healing to us, especially his forgiveness.

I agree with you about prayer. We often want to give up in prayer. We lose heart. It takes God’s power to persevere in prayer if we are convinced that something is God’s will. Perhaps the difficulty comes when we aren’t sure if something we’re praying for is God’s will or not.

Frank writes a lot about a church taking a significant amount of time with no instruments (he says at least a year) in Finding Organic Church. That book has a ton of practical stuff, but I can personally testify to the benefits of it.

Very cool about the song. Gina was telling us about how you do the songs A Capella to popular song tunes to prevent the musically inclined from being the worship leaders. Very good idea.

Hope you guys are doing well.

Eric

I just received a birthday card in the mail with a beautiful cat on the front saying “There are two kinds of people in the world……. on the inside it said….Cat people and Idiots.” I’m going to miss my boy Odie.