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Prayers, Lent, and Justice
There are two different threads I have been thinking about in the past few days. One is concerning prayer and Ukraine. We pray for the people of Ukraine. We pray for the million plus refugees. How do we pray for Putin. There are some guidelines in Scripture.
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Ancient of Days
A song for our time of prayer lifting up Ukraine and their plight. Though the nations rage, kingdoms rise and fallThere is still one King reigning over allSo I will not fear for this truth remainsThat my God is, the Ancient of Days None above Him, none before HimAll of time in His handsFor His throne it shall remain and…
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Fasting and freedom
This Lent has been a challenge in my heart to not focus as much on my personal piety and fasting as it has been on setting the captive free. Isaiah 58 has been my base text. This is a note from a study Bible I reference from time to time on Isaiah 58:6. Fasting and following religious rituals will not…
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Setting the oppressed free
Is not this the fast that I choose:to loose the bonds of injustice,to undo the thongs of the yoke,to let the oppressed go free,and to break every yoke? (Isa. 58:6) Let the oppressed go free. Israel had those definitions set early in their history and it was repeated through the generations.
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Reset toward justice
Isaiah 58 will be my grounding text for Lent. I can get caught up in fasting “correctly” and making sure I do some readings. What I am challenged in this season is the walk I have in this world.
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FOCUS… it is Ash Wednesday
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Gal. 6:14) “The Cross is the great revealer, exposing the temporary stuff of earth and directing our hearts and minds toward the everlasting substance of eternity.” — Jay Kim
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The journey of Lent
It is coming to the time of Lent in the Church calendar. This is a time of “penitence, fasting, and prayer, in preparation for the great feast of the resurrection” (BCP 2019). I have appreciated Easter far more since entering into the Anglican tradition. Lent gives me the pause and reflection needed to truly sense the power of the Resurrection.
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“Why did you help me?”
“Land” is a movie focusing on a woman in grief. Robin Wright plays a woman who has suffered a deep loss, but we don’t know why. In her grief she moves away from the city she knew and buys a remote cabin in the mountains of Wyoming without any wilderness experience. The cabin is completely rundown, without running water or…
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Recapturing a vision of hope
I spent the last week with people of hope. It was a conference attended by people practicing mission to the “least of these” around the nation and they talked about ministering in hope to continue restoring shalom to our world. My upbringing was steeped theologically in the mentality of “it’s all gonna burn.” We were waiting for the rapture.
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I Thank God
I was at a conference this week and this song was used in one of our worship times. It deeply moved me. I am finding when I am coming across new music that moves me this deeply it is from Maverick City right now.
