Blessings and Curses

Today's Devotion:Deuteronomy 28:1-2 (New International Version) - 1 If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God:

These are the words of Moses before the Israelites cross the Jordan River, into the promised land that God has given to them. It is a warning that God rewards those who obey Him and those who do not will receive their just punishment.

Today's Comments: Are we being punished for our misbehavior?

Yesterday, I attended a funeral of a long time parishioner. Father David, my pastor, asked me to do the graveside, my first true deaconal duty for the church. Although lay readers can perform commitments, this is not something that Father David asks us to do on a regular basis. The last time that I saw this done was more than twenty-five years ago, when I attended a graveside commitment done by Joe Arnold, a lay reader and Eucharistic Minister, like me, who was in the ordination process.

One of the guests, who was a minister in the Quaker Church was talking to me about the end times. He told me that he thinks that we are in them now. Of course, to the Lord, a minute can be a thousand years. But, will we see God's kingdom on earth within our lifetime? Is God becoming fed up with what he sees here, and is He ready to come back and take over. I reminded this guest, who also said that we Christians are moving to the left, away from God's will, toward man's, about the growth in orthodox and evangelical Christianity, especially in the Roman Catholic and Southern Baptist churches, while the mainstream churches are definitely moving to the left and are losing membership like the Episcopal Church.

So, will we finally right ourselves in our relationship with God, or will we continue in our apostasy as a nation and incur the curses that follow the verses in today's devotion? Only God knows, and only time will tell.