Today's Devotion: 1 Timothy 4:12 (New International Version) - Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

According to this passage, Timothy must have been younger than many of the other apostles. Age does not have a monopoly on wisdom. It is by our example that we are known as Christians.

Today's Comments: I haven't been much of a good Christian example lately. My girlfriend and I are going through a break-up, and I have said many things that I regret. At times, our anger consumes us, and it is difficult to set a Christian example when that happens. Our emails are nasty, and it sounds like two lawyers fighting a court battle. That is sad.

What is even sadder is that the Episcopal Church is doing the same thing. Except, instead of just emails, they are using real lawyers. Whether rightly or wrongly, parishes and dioceses have broken off from the Episcopal Church, and they are being prosecuted so that the Episcopal Church might reclaim and take over their property. Yes, this is very sad. Congregations who, with their hard earned money, have built churches are now seeing a denomination with which they no longer want to associate, take these churches away from them.

Our local bishop, Ed Little, who is shepherding my parish, Blessed Sacrament, under alternate Episcopal oversight says, "First, I believe that the withdrawals themselves are severely disordered. Schism never solves anything. When the unity which St. Paul talks about in Ephesians 4 is shattered, the Church’s ability to commend the Gospel is compromised, and almost inevitably further schism follows. Second, however, I am convinced that the Episcopal Church has responded to the withdrawals in an awkward and destructive manner. Since some of our brothers and sisters are leaving – that’s a “fact on the ground” – it is better, I think, to allow them to depart peacefully and without recrimination. Instead, the withdrawals have been accompanied by canonical actions. The House of Bishops deposed the departing bishops (Bishop John-David Schofield of San Joaquin, Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh, and retired Suffragan Bishop William Cox) and hundreds of priests and deacons have been deposed by their dioceses. In addition, lawsuits have been filed against departing parishes and dioceses, with legal fees whose price tag already runs in the multiple millions of dollars. These actions will sow a harvest of bitterness and may well close the door to the reconciliation for which we all yearn."