ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS September 2, 2019 Prayer for the Week: You love me, Merciful God, you love me. There are days when those words flow with ease, when I am able to believe them and embrace them. There are days, Merciful God, when the convictions of faith do not match how I see myself. There are days when I perceive your love as freely given to others, but not
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS September 1, 2019 Scripture: 1st John 2:9-11 The one who claims to be in the light while hating a brother or sister is in the darkness even now. The person loving a brother and sister stays in the light, and there is nothing in the light that causes a person to stumble. But the person who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS August 31, 2019 Scripture: 1st John 2:3 This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments. Thought for the Day: This is not what I hear people of faith communicating. I hear more talk about proper belief, yet a person can believe all kinds of things that have no real impact upon daily life. I believe the sky is blue, but
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS August 30, 2019 Scripture: 1st John 1:5-6 This is the message that we have heard from him and announce to you: “God is light and there is no darkness in him at all.” If we claim, “We have fellowship with him,” and live in the darkness, we are lying and do not act truthfully. Thought for the Day: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross provided many great insights around death
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS August 29, 2019 Scripture: Isaiah 43:19 Look! I’m doing a new thing; now it sprouts up; don’t you recognize it? I’m making a way in the desert, paths in the wilderness. A Thursday Prayer: We await your new thing, O Spirit of the Possible. We wait, but is our waiting a spiritualization of our procrastination? Do we relish a postponement when others provide cover with the
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS August 28, 2019 Scripture: 1st John 1:3-4 What we have seen and heard, we also announce it to you so that you can have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy can be complete. Thought for the Day: What is the goal of Christianity? How do you understand the
It appears to me that some folks choose a political ideology that serves their interests alone, and then they go in search of a religion that will defend their self-serving ideology. What would it be like to join a faith community that challenges your self-serving ideology and promises to walk with you through transformation? A religion that protects selfishness, greed and narcissistic behavior is a religion created in
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS August 27, 2019 Scripture: 1st John 1:1-2 We announce to you what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have seen and our hands handled, about the word of life. The life was revealed, and we have seen, and we testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS August 26, 2019 Prayer for the Week: You are present! You are forever available! You are forever and always with us! This is the declaration of scripture, and our faith is the ongoing trek toward greater appreciation of what this signifies for us, our way of thinking, our way of living. Eternal God, you have always found a way to come close, even when we wandered