Month: July 2015
Roz Picardo – Loving Our Communities: A Heroin Epidemic Prayer Vigil
July 30, 2015
Testimonies were shared of life transformation by folks in recovery who moved from a life of brokenness to blessing. The evening culminated with the group going outside in the parking lot, clasping hands, sharing names of lives personally affected by heroin, and praying in unison the Lord’s Prayer.
Tom Fuerst ~ I Pledge Allegiance to…Jesus Christ, His Only Begotten Son, Our Lord
July 29, 2015
By claiming that the church is “one,” we announce that the church throughout time and space (that is, geographic location…i.e. nations) is united, not by some abstracted idea of freedom, but by the Holy Spirit who liberates us from the claims of human structures and governments.
Why You Don’t Have to Be Anxious
July 27, 2015
We don’t need to get anxious because of what that produces. “Do not fret – it leads only to evil.” Think about how much that causes pain comes from fear.
Elizabeth Glass Turner ~ The Dismembered Body of Christ
July 25, 2015
Are we willing to present our bodies as a living sacrifice? To discover what it means to live in the freedom of holy sexuality? To fight for our cardiovascular health so we can continue to be Christ’s hands and feet to others? To step out in deep courage and faith and bear a child we may raise or may put in the care of someone else to raise when the pregnancy represented chaos or uncertainty or crisis? To swab the inside of a cheek so that we’re entered in a database of potential bone marrow donors?
Ken Loyer ~ Infant Baptism and Beyond
July 23, 2015
Another factor in baptism pertains to ongoing spiritual instruction and development after the actual baptism. While not limited to infant baptisms—since post-baptismal nurture is important for any person regardless of that person’s age at the time of baptism—this factor has particular significance in the case of infants who are baptized.
Jean Watson ~ The Power of Thanksgiving
July 22, 2015
Though I didn’t understand at the time, out of reluctant obedience, I began to thank God instead of complaining. Each day, I determined to find something to be thankful for rather than complaining. I even started to thank God for the things I didn’t like in my life like the snow and cold! As I chose to give thanks regardless of my feelings, a miracle happened inside my heart. I discovered that the place I had resented was becoming a place where my desires were fulfilled. The land where I did not want to be was becoming the land of my blessing.
Harley Scalf ~ Secular and Sacred
July 20, 2015
Jesus does not divide the sacred from the secular. Instead, He takes the secular and redeems it, thus making it sacred. There is no divide as we understand it, because Jesus stands in the gap reaching with one nail-pierced hand to each side, uniting all of creation into one holy Kingdom.
Mark Trotter ~ How to Be a Blessing
July 18, 2015
Jesus did not come to give us answers. He came to give us himself. And Bonhoeffer says that that’s what it means to live in the penultimate as a Christian, to live in it the way Jesus did. It means that we are to join others in their suffering, to try and understand what other people have to put up with in their lives.
Carrie Carter ~ Love in Pen & Ink: The Weight of Words
July 16, 2015
Breathe strength and life into someone this week. Even if words aren’t your “thing,” write them anyway, so that the recipient will have the option of enjoying them for days, even years to come.
Philip Tallon ~ The Gospel According to Some Really Good Artists: Seeing the Unseen God
July 15, 2015
John of Damascus grounds the making of image in the incarnation (the “taking on flesh”) of Jesus Christ, who “married” heaven and earth through the union of God and man. If the God-Man Jesus is the “express image” of God, as Hebrews 1:3 says, then the artist is free to express himself creatively, using the material of the world to faithfully image God in Christ.