ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 26, 2020Scripture: John 14:3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. Thought for the Day: Tomorrow, I will reference these beautiful words from John’s Gospel, yet I learned that a single space can significantly change the meaning. I was typing this verse very quickly
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 25, 2020Scripture: Romans 12:13Contribute to the needs of God’s people, and welcome strangers into your home. Thought for the Day: What will it mean to be the church in a post-pandemic world? I have done some reading, though not a lot, on what life was like after the Spanish Flu (1918-1920) as things returned to normal. Actually, from what I have read, it was a bit
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 24, 2020Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:9We are God’s coworkers, and you are God’s field, God’s building. Thought for the Day: Have you ever had a coworker who might have better been described as a couch potato observer? When I was in high school, one of the dreaded lines was, “Your grade is going to be a team grade. You will do the project together.” Occasionally, depending on
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 23, 2020Scripture: Genesis 33:4-5But Esau ran to meet Jacob, threw his arms around his neck, kissed him, and they wept. Esau looked up and saw the women and children and said, “Who are these with you?” Jacob said, “The children that God generously gave your servant.” Thought for the Day: It was this week in 1806 that Lewis and Clark returned to St. Louis at the
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 22, 2020Scripture: Isaiah 32:6-8Fools speak folly; their minds devise wickedness, acting irreverently, speaking falsely of the LORD, leaving the hungry empty, and depriving the thirsty of drink. As for the villain, his villainies are evil. He plans schemes to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speak justly. But an honorable person plans honorable things and stands up for what is honorable. Thought
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 21, 2020Prayer for the Week: You are present, O God, to every beginning and every ending. Before our eyes open to glimpse a new day, you are there. After the day has concluded, and we have fallen asleep, you are there. Whether it is the delight of a birth or the sorrow of a death, you are there. The cycle, from birth to death to rebirth,
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 20, 2020Scripture: Ephesians 4:3…make an effort to preserve the unity of the Spirit with the peace that ties you together. Thought for the Day: I just came across these words from John Lennon: If everyone demanded peace instead of another televisions set, then there’d be peace. In today’s world, I don’t know if it would be another television set. Instead, it might be a new phone,
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 19, 2020Scripture: Genesis 1:27God created humanity in God’s own image, in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them. Thought for the Day: Earlier in chapter 1, the writer uses a different verb, to make. It is a different word all together in the original Hebrew language from the word we translate in this verse as created. Here, created, is Bara’. It
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 18, 2020Scripture: 1st Corinthians 8:3…but anyone who loves God is known by God. Thought for the Day: You might remember as I do a Sunday School teacher saying when we were young, “God knows you inside and out. God knows every thought in your head and heart.” That might have sounded, in theory, like a wonderful thing. It might have been thought of, by the teacher,
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 17, 2020Scripture: James 3:18And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace. Thought for the Day: It is important to remember that righteousness is not some sort of self-righteousness or pietistic religiosity, but the rightness of God. That is what we believe will emerge from the soil of peace, the well cultivated land of shalom. This is not to confused with