The Quest for Meekness and Quietness of Spirit

From Matthew Henry: In a word, quietness of spirit is the soul’s stillness and silence from intending provocation to, or resenting provocation from, any with whom we have to do… It is for want of meekness that we are so impatient of contradiction in our opinions, desires, and designs; that we must have our own saying, right or wrong, and everything our own way; that we are so impatient of competitors, not enduring that any should stand in our light, or share in that work of honor which we would engross to ourselves; that we are so impatient of contempt, so quick in our apprehension and resentment of the least slight or affront; and so quick to imagine injuries where there are none or none intended…In a word, the wilful doing of anything to disquiet others, slandering, backbiting, whispering, tale-bearing, or the like, is too plain an evidence that we are not ourselves rightly disposed to be quiet.

PeruMission furniture export business...

Business that Builds Community "Business done well changes lives, lifts societies, and glorifies God." -Thomas Sudyk, quoted in "The Mission of Business", Christianity Today We are pleased to announce that our long hoped-for furniture export business and training facility for carpenters is about to become a reality. "Parish", as the project is currently named, was first conceived of by missionary Brad Ball and developed together with Chris Bolton as a thesis project in Brad's MBA program at the University of Tennessee. In line with Peru Mission's philosophy of ministry, we plan to disciple men to become godly leaders in the community while also providing them with jobs and training. In the process, we hope to introduce North American households to beautiful handcrafted Peruvian woodwork, produced in a fully sustainable way. We have already begun construction on a facility in Trujillo that includes workspace, warehousing and offices. The facility should be fully equipped and operational by late May 2008. This summer we will begin working with a small group of carpenters on producing initial designs and samples, and training them to become future managers at the facility. In addition to developing their carpentry skills, we hope to invest in their personal and spiritual lives. Your prayers are needed! The next twelve months will be crucial, from selecting the Peruvian carpenters we work with to finding US distributors for our first designs. We still need to fundraise approximately $125,000 to complete the facility by the end of this year, and Brad Ball and Don Charlet are still raising their personal support. All are somewhere in the process of relocating their families to Peru. In addition to your prayers, you can also help our project by raising awareness among your friends and churches. In the context of a developing country, where opportunity is limited to a wealthy few and the rest scrape by on a day-to-day basis, creating jobs is a crucial part of social justice. By starting a medium-sized sustainable business, we hope to give Peruvian workers a dignified job and the ability to run their own businesses. To find out more about the project, or to receive Parish's quarterly newsletter, please contact Brad Ball at bball@perumission.org or Chris Bolton at cbolton@perumission.org. All profits will be reinvested in the business and in our church community here in Northern Peru. In His Grace,The Peru Mission Team To read the recent cover story in Christianity Today about Business-as-Mission, which highlights our project, click here.For a recent article about the need for mid-sized businesses in poor countries, called "What Micro-loans Miss", click here

Trinity Presbyterian Biblc Study Mini-Conference

You're invited.....

Reading and Understanding the Bible The Text as Joke The Text as Music ...a Bible study mini-conference With guest speaker Dr. Peter Leithart Friday, July 18, 6:00 PM-8:30 PM Berney Points Baptist Church facility 2250 Blue Ridge Drive, Hoover, AL 35226. Saturday morning July 19, 8:30 AM men’s breakfast Q&A, same location Sunday morning July 22, 9:00 A.M. Rev. Leithart will be our pulpit guest at TPC morning worship. Covered dish lunch afterwards. Bring your friends and enough food to share. Pastor Rich Lusk E-mail: rwlusk@bellsouth.net Trinity Presbyterian Church Meeting at Berney Points Baptist Church 2250 Blue Ridge Boulevard Hoover, Alabama 35226

Dr. Peter Leithart is an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America, pastors Trinity Reformed Church, Moscow, Idaho, and currently serves as Dean of the New St. Andrews graduate program and senior fellow of literature and theology at New St. Andrews College. He holds a Master of Theology from Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. Among his publications are 1-2 Kings, Deep Comedy, and Solomon among the Postmoderns. He is a contributing editor to Touchstone magazine. Peter and his wife Noel have ten children and one grandson. 205 980 5739 www.trinity-pres.net Church office: 2245 Vanessa Drive Birmingham, Alabama 35242

RWOS Wine and Cheese Party date set...

Mark your calendars now to attend the biennial Republican Women of the South

Wine and Cheese Party

featuring a Live and Silent Auction with

Master of Ceremonies and Auctioneer, Senator Hank Erwin July 19, 2008 , 6-9PM Dogwood Room at the Vestavia Civic Center

on MerryVale Road in Vestavia

Won't YOU participate and help us raise money to elect Republicans to serve in public offices!

All proceeds go to the RWOS PAC and will be used to support local candidates.

....thank you Chief Justice Roberts

Important Supreme Court Decision Rejects UN High Court over US Treaty Obligations Undermines radical pro-abortion groups attempts to force liberalization of abortion laws using UN agreements

By Piero A. Tozzi NEW YORK, April 11, 2008 (C-FAM.org) - A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision reaffirmed the right of the United States to govern its affairs in accordance with the US Constitution rather than specific provisions of international treaties. In the process, the Court rejected a directive of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Medellín v. Texas not only reaffirmed principles of sovereignty and self-government, but also undercut arguments of international pro-abortion activists that accession to international treaties requires nations to disregard domestic constitutional protections for the unborn.In a 6-3 decision authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court rejected the argument that Texas law enforcement officials were required to notify a Mexican murder suspect of his right under international law to contact his country’s consulate following his arrest. An order by the ICJ – the United Nations’ “principal judicial organ” headquartered at The Hague, also known as the “World Court” – had directed that the Mexican national was entitled to have his case reviewed by the state court based a provision of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, a treaty which the U.S. has ratified.The Bush Administration had urged compliance with the ICJ decision, arguing that the executive branch had authority to direct a state court to give it effect.

Analyzing the separation of powers set forth in the Constitution and case law dating back to the early decades of the Republic, the Supreme Court ruled that the President lacked such authority. As the treaty provision at issue was not “self-executing” – in other words, it did not become automatically binding upon ratification by Congress – it could not bind states without further Congressional action. The U.S. Constitution requires action by the legislative, not the executive, branch to transform a non-self-executing treaty obligation into domestic law. The principles underlying the U.S. Supreme Court decision have application beyond the immediate case.

In recent years, radical pro-abortion NGOs like the Center for Reproductive Rights have argued that sovereign nations must liberalize abortion laws based on non-binding recommendations of certain UN committees, even though such reinterpretations of treaty obligations are inconsistent with the original language in the treaties. Abortion advocates were successful in convincing the Supreme Court of Colombia in 2006 to overturn Colombia’s pro-life laws based on such arguments. A similar challenge is currently pending in Mexico, where the Mexican Supreme Court is weighing the constitutionality of a municipal law passed by Mexico City that allows first trimester abortion.

The Medellín decision, however, while premised upon the importance of the United States fulfilling its treaty obligations, would not allow outside parties – in this case the ICJ – to dictate how such obligations would be fulfilled. Rather, the outcome was dictated by reference to domestic constitutional principles. Medellín thus marks an additional chapter in the on-going debate over the interrelationship between democratic self-determination and the scope of obligations imposed upon sovereign nations participating in international legal regimes.

April 10th, the day to remember Bonhoeffer....sorry two days late!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer 10 April 1945 Bonhoeffer was born in 1906, son of a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Berlin. He was an outstanding student, and at the age of 25 became a lecturer in systematic theology at the same University. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Bonhoeffer became a leading spokesman for the Confessing Church, the center of Protestant resistance to the Nazis. He organized and for a time led the underground seminary of the Confessing Church. His book Life Together describes the life of the Christian community in that seminary, and his book The Cost Of Discipleship attacks what he calls "cheap grace," meaning grace used as an excuse for moral laxity. Bonhoeffer had been taught not to "resist the powers that be," but he came to believe that to do so was sometimes the right choice. In 1939 his brother-in-law introduced him to a group planning the overthrow of Hitler, and he made significant contributions to their work. (He was at this time an employee of the Military Intelligence Department.) He was arrested in April 1943 and imprisoned in Berlin. After the failure of the attempt on Hitler's life in April 1944, he was sent first to Buchenwald and then to Schoenberg Prison. His life was spared, because he had a relative who stood high in the government; but then this relative was himself implicated in anti-Nazi plots. On Sunday 8 April 1945, he had just finished conducting a service of worship at Schoenberg, when two soldiers came in, saying, "Prisoner Bonhoeffer, make ready and come with us," the standard summons to a condemned prisoner. As he left, he said to another prisoner, "This is the end -- but for me, the beginning -- of life." He was hanged the next day, less than a week before the Allies reached the camp. His works in print include the following: The Martyred Christian Letters and Papers from Prison Creation And Fall and Temptation (bound together) Meditating On The Word Life Together The Cost Of Discipleship Ethics Spiritual Care The Psalms: Prayer Book Of The Bible Christ The Center Some of his later writings insist that many Christians do not take seriously enough the existence and power of evil. Because of this and other statements of his, some theological advocates of "secularist Christianity" in the 1960's attempted to claim him as their own. In my judgement, a study of his writings (even his later writings) as a whole does not support this claim. However, it is true that he never had a chance to edit his prison letters and papers, or put them into context, and accordingly it is not surprising that they contain some statements that baffle the reader. The following hymn was written by him in the concentration camp, shortly before his death. By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered, and confidently waiting come what may, we know that God is with us night and morning, and never fails to greet us each new day. Yet is this heart by its old foe tormented, still evil days bring burdens hard to bear; Oh, give our frightened souls the sure salvation for which, O Lord, You taught us to prepare. And when this cup You give is filled to brimming with bitter suffering, hard to understand, we take it thankfully and without trembling, out of so good and so beloved a hand. Yet when again in this same world You give us the joy we had, the brightness of Your Sun, we shall remember all the days we lived through, and our whole life shall then be Yours alone. This hymn appears in the 1982 Episcopal Hymnal (695). The translator is F. Pratt Green (1903- ) listed in hymnal indexes sometimes under Green and sometimes under Pratt Green. The translation copyright is Hope Publishing Company 1974. written by James Kiefer

family photos...wedding celebrations for RobMartin/BetsyCrum.....

We visited with our extended family on the Douglas side at the parties for Robert Martin and Betsy Crum....we have been blessed with nice extended family...on both sides. Praise the Lord for establishing new homes amongst our children....