I wonder constantly about my wife and how to pray for her. The generic petition for her blessing is constant, but what are her struggles, and what are her joys? Does she have any of the ache I have for not having my other half with me? I want to love her well!

I heard a discussion that mentioned the book “Why Churches Die: Diagraming Lethal Poisons in the Body of Christ”. A point was made from page 208, in case you have it in front of you, where it is stated: “Public sin, public confession”. One of the authors, Ergun Caner, held significant positions in the institutional church and seminaries. He turned out to be a rather significant fraud.

But the line “Public sin, public confession” I thought was more than interesting. The point was made, which I have made before, that the Matthew 18 is a discussion of what might be called private sins between two parties. Were as public sins, such as mentioned in Galatians 2:11 or Ephesians 5:11, are to be resolved publicly. I won’t reiterate the list, but I will remain public in my calling out those who refuse to repent or reconcile, and continue my appeal as a flawed man to reconcile with them.

The last thing I mention is that I just watched the attempt just about an hour ago where India was landing a spacecraft on the moon. It was a rather big deal and all was going well with less than a minute left. I saw on the faces of the people in the control room the joy of how well things were going. Then all went silent. At this moment, there is no clue what happened. Did it land softly or crash? For me the first thought is they tried. It is a rather difficult thing to do to send a spacecraft a quarter million miles away and land it safely. Russia and China have done it. The US even did it with men onboard of the craft and I watched it happen from a black-and-white TV while my future mother-in-law had my future wife in her belly. India tried and it appears got close but failed. There is little doubt they will try again and succeed.

While landing on the moon is difficult, it is easy compared to being obedient to Christ. But that too needs to be attempted with a whole heart. Flawed people have difficulties in their attempts, but they need to try anyway. Can we try together?

Dorothy-Jane, I love you!