Fifth Sunday in Lent

It's once again Sunday -- the day when we feast and celebrate the resurrection of Christ! More details can be found at http://lentendevotions.blogspot.com/
Some things to think about this week:

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"I think joy and sweetness and affection are a spiritual path. We're here to know God, to love and serve God, and to be blown away by the beauty and miracle of nature. You just have to get rid of so much baggage to be light enough to dance, to sing, to play. You don't have time to carry grudges; you don't have time to cling to the need to be right."
- Anne Lamott, From http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080305/CULTURE/439077059


"At any given point in time, each of us, as believers, can take a look at the spiritual landscape and share from our perspective what we see. We can share the real impressions in our heart about what God's Spirit is doing in our lives, in the church, and in the world today. In fact, when we do that, we find greater revelation in the sharing of vision with one another."
- From http://kingdomgrace.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/prophetic-words/

"You are different. You are different because now you know that God exists, and [God] alone matters. It is an overwhelming, awesome thought.... You are different in the sense that now all people belong to you and are part of you, and you belong to all people. At the same time, you belong only to God, and you belong to [God] totally. There is a distinction between you and others, and at the same time, there is no distinction at all, but a blending of all into one. The demarcation that exists is a spiritual one, born of what you have lived and what you can never explain."
- Catherine de Hueck Doherty "Soul of My Soul", From http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/01/voice-of-the-day-you-are-diffe-1.html

President Jimmy Carter opened the conference with a challenge that strikes at the heart of division within the Baptist and Christian church at large. Carter named the wedge issues that have fragmented the church - from the ordination of women to homosexuality, abortion, capital punishment, etc. - and then asked the participants whether a shared belief in the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ and a commitment to spreading the gospel was more important than all these divisions combined. Carter compared these divisions to the ones that Paul addressed in his letters to the early church in Corinth. According to Carter, "these animosities have become a cancer that is mestacizing in the body of Christ."
- From http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/02/a-new-baptist-unity-for-social.html