Prata Potpourri: Mocking, Notre Dame, Good Friday, more

By Elizabeth Prata

Good, Good Father on Good, Good Friday. He was pleased to crush His Son, so that we may live. Enjoy your holy weekend, whatever you have planned.

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I agree with this article, and also include photography in the 'no mocking' standard.There are ethics that go along with online communication, whether you're a blogger or a tweeter or a facebooker... We should not mock people for their name, appearance, or disabilities. In addition, I have known journalists who, instead of ethically choosing a photo that is a standard profile pic, or a photo that shows the person in a good light, deliberately choose the worst photo in order to visually mock them. Brethren, don't do it. Michael Coughlin at Something To Think About has more-

Be Careful with Your Mocking

There is no excuse for mocking someone's God-given looks, disabilities or impediments, or incidental things like the name their parents gave them. It is not only ungodly behavior, but it is ineffective even from a pragmatic point of view. It sends the wrong message to anyone we are trying to convince of our religious views, as well as any onlooker to the conversation.

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The Notre Dame fire wasn't the only tragedy...as French citizen Eric Davis explains-

The Tragedy of Notre-Dame de Paris

As a French citizen, I, along with many, felt that Notre-Dame was a rich part of our heritage. Needless to say, the burning of the cathedral on Monday was a tragedy. However, as tragic as the fire of this great structure was, there is a greater tragedy concerning Notre-Dame de Paris.

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I don't mind that there is heightened religious activity around Good Friday. I was evangelized by a third grader today as she invited me to her church's play Friday evening and explained what it all meant, lol. Our own church is having a Good Friday worship night with songs and scripture reading. However, I DO agree that if the Week or the Easter weekend becomes rote, then it becomes devoid of meaning and a rite that would anger rather than please God. Spurgeon with more-

Good Friday Is No Funeral

Charles Spurgeon was no fan of Good Friday. Too many people in his day ignored the church until "Holy Week," a week so sacred that attendance on Good Friday and Easter apparently atoned for neglecting the church for the remainder of the calendar year. (Sound familiar?)

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Rebecca Stark reminds us, as the Hebrews did, how to courageously and joyfully chose a path that we know would bring more trials to us-

Look for the Helper

I knew a young man who embraced the gospel joyfully (or so it seemed), began to attend church, but then rejected it all when his old friends rejected him. His friends thought he’s gone nuts, especially when they found out what Christianity teaches about sexual morality. Their insults and ridicule were too much for him to bear, and before long he chose his friends' approval over Christ’s. 

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Busy? John Calvin preached several times a week, had a house full of kids, pastored, was trying to reform a city and work on a magnus opus in two languages? Here's how he did it, and we can too-

John Calvin, Teething Children, and Serving Christ in the busyness of Life

Probably not, and here Calvin leaves us such an encouraging example. Timothy George reminds us that, "For most of his life Calvin’s house was full of little children." [3] When Calvin’s wife Idelette died in 1549, she left him two children from her previous marriage. He assured her he would care well for them after she passed, and he did. Beyond these two, Calvin's brother Antoine and his family, including eight more children, also lived with Calvin. Other friends and relatives would stay periodically at Calvin’s "modest dwelling." [4] Despite the picture often painted of Calvin as the stoic intellectual, "we should not imagine that . . . his life was free from the rush and bother of daily domesticity." [5] 

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I am a fan of talking about the blood. My favorite praise song is The Last Blood. There is a fountain, filled with blood. So anyway, Samuel D. James talks about the blood and does it well, as usual-

Blood Calls to Blood- Why I am a Christian

When we checked into the hospital I brought in all sorts of romantic ideas about watching a life come into the world. I didn't realize it at the time, but I now know that most of these ideas were sterile, almost offensively so. I expected to see a beautiful infant glide effortlessly into the room. I expected to hear cries as soft as whispers break my mental rendition of Creed's "With Arms Wide Open." I looked forward to the moment of my son's birth as a moment that I knew would transform me in its greatness, exorcise my demons and balm the proud callouses of my soul. I was going to be a different person just for having seen this, I thought. What really happened was blood.

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In these racially charged times with all the wokeness and whiteness and blackness, here is a movie review of The Best of Enemies where, according to this true story, two people who opposed each other found out that sitting down and spending time together changes hearts.

A time to embrace

It's so simple yet so marvelous: Spending time with someone can radically change your opinion of him or her—for the better! The new film The Best of Enemies is based on the true story of C.P. Ellis, a Ku Klux Klan chapter president, and Ann Atwater, an African American community organizer, who couldn’t stand each other until they sat down together.

Friday happened, but Sunday's comin'!!!