Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16: 24-25)

These words of Our Lord come very close to those of the prophet Ezekiel: “You say, ‘The Lord’s way is inscrutable, mysterious, and above all, not fair!’”

This week we are confronted once again with the question of God’s fairness. It is a matter of expectations.

Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah mounted the podium of the world’s biggest stage to address the UN General Assembly, speaking not only on behalf of his “beloved Jordan” and as representative of His Majesty King Abdullah, “but also as a member of the greatest generation of young people in history”.

The Bible is in not against all alcoholic drinks whatsoever. So how do we interpret Proverbs 31:7?

Proverbs 31:4-7 (RSV):

[4] It is not for kings, O Lemuel,
it is not for kings to drink wine,
or for rulers to desire strong drink;
[5] lest they drink and forget what has been decreed,
and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.
[6] Give strong drink to him who is perishing,
and wine to those in bitter distress;
[7] let them drink and forget their poverty,
and remember their misery no more.

Following is an articles titled, "In search of a leader" posted on oasiscenter.eu which tackles current world affairs from a new perspective:

Marking the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which was widely celebrated in the Middle East, churches celebrated Holy Mass which is reminiscent of the crucifixion of Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, pomegranate beads and pomegranate juice, which symbolize the blood of Lord Jesus Christ, were also distributed as a tradition and fires were lit in all squares adjacent to churches.

The Lord himself takes away the veil of our human understanding to show what is really happening, spiritually, to us on earth.

The Gospel begins, “The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard.”

If we think of Jesus as waiting patiently for us to honor him, we’re wrong. In fact, Jesus himself takes the initiative. He is up early, looking for us, approaching us and inviting us.

And when he finds us, he sends us to his vineyard, not to enjoy a reward — but to get to work.

When Germans go to the polls this Sunday, September 24, they are likely to re-elect Angela Merkel as chancellor, an office she has occupied since 2005. Merkel’s expected victory will be all the more remarkable given that the recent populist backlash against the global establishment has tended to see her as its chief enemy. Many had thought she would not survive the anger that her handling of the refugee crisis inspired.

On June 14, 2009, Asia Bibi was thrown into jail. A year later she was sentenced to death for blasphemy, and since 2013, after two transfers, she has been languishing in one of the three windowless cells on death row in the southern province of Multan in the Punjab Penitentiary. A year after the Supreme Court of Pakistan postponed her appeal amid death threats by 150 muftis (Muslim legal experts) against anyone who would assist “blasphemers,” the case has not progressed by one iota. On August 30, Asia Bibi had spent 3,000 days in prison.

Never letting a serious crisis go to waste, climate change advocates seized upon hurricanes Harvey and Irma as evidence that climate change is real and happening, its effects devastating, and without drastic remedial measures global cataclysm is inevitable.

Joining in was Pope Francis. While Irma was hammering the Florida coast, El Papa warned against inaction, predicting, “History will judge our decision.”

I love this quote from the Lebanese Maronite mystic and poet Kahil Gibran: “An eye for an eye and the whole world would be blind”, for it sums up in one pithy sentence a lot of what we struggle with in Christian life.