“… those who are better off stand shoulder to shoulder with those who suffer. No one is fee until all are free. No one is safe until all are safe. No matter how ‘up’ I may feel personally, my place as a Christian in the larger scheme of things is not to bask in the continual sunshine of God’s presence, but, in repentance and prayer, to come alongside those who bewail the seeming absence of God. Pascal wrote, ‘Every religion which does not affirm that God is hidden, is not true.'” (Advent, Fleming Rutledge)
First Sunday of Advent
Life goals
I am working my way through Fleming Rutledge’s wonderful work on Advent (again). There was a description she gave of John Stott that stood out to me and I have set it in the form of a question for my life. Could this be my eulogy?
Will I have a single-hearted devotion to the glory of God and the spread of the gospel?
(LIFE GOALS)
The glorious church we miss seeing
We’re hard on the Church in general. We’re hard on the American Church in specific. We can take turns on the reasons each of us are hard on the Church.
I am hard on the American conservative Church because of its spiritual blindness. Yet… I stay with it. Why?
Continue reading “The glorious church we miss seeing”The thanksgiving meal and… ummm… “difficult” people
The past week or so has been a week of angst on social media and the media in general. How do you have a nice meal with people who are not in your political camp?
Mostly, it’s about “tolerating” the “difficult” people. (It never occurs to us that we’re the difficult ones at times.)
Continue reading “The thanksgiving meal and… ummm… “difficult” people”A Thanksgiving Prayer
Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have
done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole
creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life,
and for the mystery of love.
We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for
the loving care which surrounds us on every side.
We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best
efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy
and delight us.
We thank you also for those disappointments and failures
that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.
Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the
truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast
obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying,
through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life
again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.
Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and
make him known; and through him, at all times and in all
places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.
“If they stop they’ll die…”
A friend recommended the book The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero. It as a book influencing his life so he recommended it to me. I am grateful.
There is a chapter on Sabbath in the book that coincided with a podcast I finished on the same day. The podcast is an interview with A J Swoboda and it is well worth your time to listen.
Continue reading ““If they stop they’ll die…””