Verse of the day
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
– Matthew 5:9
Voice of the day
To become a real peacemaker, is to do justice unto the world, is to wield power with responsibility.
– Hanan Ashrawi
Prayer of the day
O God, help us listen to the cries of the wounded and seek true peace and justice. Give us the strength to be instruments of healing and compassion, remembering those who suffer and working toward a future where every life is valued.
“May you never be the reason why someone who loved to sing, doesn’t anymore. Or why someone who dresses uniquely now wears plain clothing. Or someone who always spoke so excitedly about their dreams is now silent about them. May you never be the reason someone gave up on a part of themselves because you were demotivating, non-appreciative, hypercritical, or even worse, sarcastic, about it.”—Sharouk Mostafa Ibrahim
Do not be too quick to condemn the man (or woman) who no longer believes in God: for it is perhaps your own coldness and avarice and mediocrity and materialism and selfishness that have chilled (their) faith. — Thomas Merton (New Seeds of Contemplation, p. 177)
I firmly believe that with the rise of Christian nationalism and division in this country the church as an institution and individuals who say that they are Christians need to pause and consider what their message is and whether or not it is who and what Christ has called us to be.
Your true identity is as a child of God. This is the identity you have to accept. Once you have claimed it and settled in it, you can live in a world that gives you much joy as well as pain. You can receive the praise as well as the blame that comes to you as an opportunity for strengthening your basic identity, because the identity that makes you free is anchored beyond all human praise and blame. You belong to God, and it is as a child of God that you are sent into the world.
While Jesus predicts that people will die of fear “as they await what menaces the world” (Luke 21:26), he says to his followers: “Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36). After I gazed for a long time at [Andrei] Rublev’s Trinity [icon] these words spoke to me with new power, “Praying at all times” has come to mean “dwelling in the house of God all the days of our lives.” “Surviving all that is going to happen” now tells me that I no longer need to be victim of the fear, hatred, and violence that rule the world. “Standing with confidence before the Son of Man” no longer just refers to the end of time, but opens for me the possibility of living confidently, that is, with trust (the literal meaning of confide) in the midst of hostility and violence.
How can we live in the midst of a world marked by fear, hatred, and violence, and not be destroyed by it? When Jesus prays to his Father for his disciples he responds to this question by saying, “I am not asking you to remove them from the world but to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world” (John 17:15–16).
To live in the world without belonging to the world summarizes the essence of the spiritual life. The spiritual life keeps us aware that our true house is not the house of fear, in which the powers of hatred and violence rule, but the house of love, where God resides.
Verse of the day
Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out; judge righteously; defend the rights of the poor and needy.
– Proverbs 31:8-9
Voice of the day
To be an activist is to speak. To be an advocate is to listen. Society can’t move forward without both.
– Eva Marie Lewis
Prayer of the day
Just as Christ is our advocate, Lord, help us to speak up and listen so that we may advocate for the vulnerable.
Verse of the day
And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insightto help you to determine what really matters, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless.
– Philippians 1:9-10
Voice of the day
Remember, anybody can say anything! Anybody can write anything! Practice discernment or intelligent evaluation.
– Choa Kok Sui
Prayer of the day
God of wisdom, grant us the insight to discern the truth in all that we do.
“We stand with you and breathe. We stand with you in our continued grief, shock, and devastation with all that is unfolding on our planet. We stand with you as we contemplate how not to fall into the pitfalls of anger, aggression, and revenge. We stand with you as we choose, as best we can, not to attack or blame others. We stand with you as we face depression that keeps us numb and anxiety that keeps us frozen and reactive, and we stand with you as we seek support during this wild and utterly unholy time. We stand with you because we need each other. We stand with you and breathe.”—The School for the Great Turning w/ Verana Faye Bailowitz
“Peace doesn’t occur from the top down, but only from the bottom up—from residents and city officials in towns and cities across the nation and world.”—Ruth Ann Angus, Yes We Can Peacebuilders
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 