Pebbles on the Pathway

When you are starting your day, or ending it, there will be times when you simply need to catch a diamond on the fly! You may find it in a devotional called "Come Fly With Me" or "Going ‘Dutch,’" or "Have You Had an Affair?" or "Get Me Out Of The Box!" or "Running With the Horses"! Life-transforming moments may come out of a simple devotional called "Tank or Tummy."

Here is a treasury of spiritual gems bubbling to the surface, with all the prophetic punch that Pastor Guither can give. They are as unique and spectacular as the multitude of God’s minerals and crystals found in Nature’s play-ground. You may find yourself stepping just a bit higher in comprehending the height and the wonder of God’s love.

Some of these devotional thoughts are diamonds in the rough. Others are like the common crystalline structure of quartz, glinting in the sun, or now and then it is like finding a special gold nugget. Most of them will cause you to take a second look, and hopefully cause you to say, "Thanks God, for this golden moment with You."

Francis Guither is a retired United Methodist pastor with 60 years of experience in the pulpit, on radio and T.V., and writing for his congregations. He considers himself to be a man of conservative faith, but knows that his faith is broad enough to handle a pragmatic world in which difficult questions are being asked. He believes that God is not in danger of being overwhelmed by the creation, and that this same God is moving expectantly ahead, watching with baited breath as hopefully His children learn to walk, and then to run.

Guither has served Chicago suburban churches, a large inner-city Chicago church, and a variety of rural and urban parishes.

He was born near Walnut, Illinois, July 7, 1922 on a farm. He graduated from North Central College in Naperville, IL, and received his theological training from Evangelical Theological Seminary, also at Naperville.

He has been a member and officer of both Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs in various communities. He was co-organizer of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association in Chicago, and served as Chair. of the T.V. Comm. of the Dept. of Radio and T.V. of the Church Federation of Greater Chicago during that time. He was a board member of Riverdale Community Unit No. 100 Schools in Port Byron, IL. He served on the Mayor's Commission on Youth in E. Peoria. He was listed in Who's Who in Religion in 1976. He was a member of the Board of Ordained Ministry of Central IL Conf. of the United Methodist Church. He has had a radio ministry both at Clinton, IL, and also at Carthage, IL.

Articles have been published in a variety of church magazines since 1948. Devotional materials from his book, "THE QUINTUS PRINCIPLE or Spiritual Biscuits For Coffee Break Moments" have been used by several newspapers on a weekly or monthly basis. His newest published book is a religious science fiction novel called AMOON GLOW AND THE SPIRIT PEOPLE@. A sequel to this, called ATHE PHOBOS PHOBIA@ is in process. He has also written a layman’s theology called ATHE GOD CONNECTION@..

Rev. Guither retired in 1985 from the Carthage Illinois United Methodist Church, and lived in Nauvoo, Illinois, in a home he designed and built with a marvelous view of the Mississippi River. He is married to Katharine Wendorff Guither, and they now live in Quincy, IL.

COME FLY WITH ME

Have you watched the birds, and the soaring eagles, and sometimes thought, "How wonderful to be able to soar above the grime and slime and weariness of this old world, and see life from a different perspective."

A good friend gave me lessons years ago, and I finally did the big "solo" thing. "I could fly!...but I couldn't afford financially to continue, so I haven't done much since."

John Gillespie Magee, Jr. in "High Flight" said it so well:

"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

And danced the skies on laughter_silvered wings;

Sun-ward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun_split clouds__and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of__wheeled and soared and

swung...

High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,

I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle flew.

And while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

The high un-trespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."

I'm not an angel, and I would like to "touch the face of God", but my Bible tells me that I was made "just a bit lower than the angels". I may not have wings yet, but the potential is there.

This world is my home, and yet it is not my only home, for there is another dimension to this flat existence. A lot of my life is lived with my nose to the grindstone, and that's where it has to be much of the time. Nobody promised me a rose garden. But one of these days, I'm goin' to fly!

And Sunday after Sunday, I practice the process...of loving, and giving, and forgiving, and caring, and lifting my eyes to Him who can deliver me from this bondage of death, until with Jesus, I can fly.

Our Faith has regular "Fly_ins". Our Lord invites you and me to take the ground course, and "lift_off" is possible, whenever we need Him, and whenever we cry out in desperation.

Come fly with the Lord Jesus. Here is the only air_line that can give you an eternal guarantee.

STARTING A NEW HUMANITY

Someone has given us an interesting illustration: What if a musician in an orchestra would strike a sour note? It was not the fault of the conductor. He was competent. The music was not at fault, for it was correct. But a discord was introduced and there was no way to correct the situation.

That false note was now traveling at the speed of sound into space at over a thousand feet per second. As long as time would endure, that sour note would carry on.

Is there no way to correct it, and restore harmony? Would there be some way to stop it on its way...but still it would be a false one. Only one answer can be given. Someone from eternity could take that false note, and make it the first note of a new melody. And that, the author says, is precisely what Jesus Christ has done. The false note was struck at the fall of Adam and Eve. This sour note has gone down all through human history, and has infected the world.

But in the annunciation, God asked a woman to give Him a human nature, so that He could start a new humanity. And Jesus was born. As the first Adam brought death, so the second Adam (Jesus Christ) is the beginning of that new melody of life. And the great new music of Christ’s Kingdom has begun.

Sometimes, we inject the false note. Sometimes we send the music of discord into our homes and families. Sometimes we are the very instrument of the evil one to disrupt and spoil life’s symphonies.

But the Savior of the universe, takes the dissonances of our lives, the bad "vibes" of our sinfulness upon his own shoulder, and blends his marvelous vibrations into the great symphony of life.

I shudder to think of the many sour notes I have sent out into my world. But I thank God that there is One who can reach out and stop that terrible vibration, and transform it into an anthem of love. Very simply, that is what salvation is all about.