Verse of the day
He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
– Ecclesiastes 3:11
Voice of the day
Time never stops, but does it end? And how many lives /
Before take-off, before we find ourselves /
Beyond ourselves, all glam-glow, all twinkle and gold?
– Tracy K. Smith, “Don’t You Wonder, Sometimes?”
Prayer of the day
May we be good stewards of the time we have and understand that life extends beyond our days.
Verse of the day
So then, putting away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with your neighbor, for we are members of one another.
– Ephesians 4:25
Voice of the day
Everybody is sitting around saying, ‘Well, jeez, we need somebody to solve this problem of bias.’ That somebody is us. We all have to try to figure out a better way to get along.
– Wilma Mankiller
Prayer of the day
May we work together to figure out a better way to get along, for we are all members of one another.
“Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate.”—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The word faith is often understood as accepting something you can’t understand. People often say: “Such and such can’t be explained, you simply have to believe it.” However, when Jesus talks about faith, he means first of all to trust unreservedly that you are loved, so that you can abandon every false way of obtaining love. That’s why Jesus tells Nicodemus that, through faith in the descending love of God, we will be set free from anxiety and violence and will find eternal life. It’s a question here of trusting in God’s love. The Greek word for faith is pistis, which means, literally, “trust.” Whenever Jesus says to people he has healed: “Your faith has saved you,” he is saying that they have found new life because they have surrendered in complete trust to the love of God revealed in him.
Our inclination is to show our Lord only what we feel comfortable with. But the more we dare to reveal our whole trembling self to him, the more we will be able to sense that his love, which is perfect love, casts out all our fears.
Therefore, Lord, I promise I will not run away, not give up, not stop praying, even when it all seems useless, pointless, and a waste of time and effort. I want to let you know that I love you even though I do not feel loved by you, and that I hope in you even though I often experience despair. Let this be a little dying I can do with you and for you as a way of experiencing some solidarity with the millions in this world who suffer far more than I do.
Verse of the day
Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
– Matthew 25:44-45
Voice of the day
Almost certainly, however, the first essential component of social justice is adequate food for all mankind. Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world.
– Norman Borlaug
Prayer of the day
May we not turn a blind eye to all those who hunger. Help us to be good stewards of our food and protect access to food for all.
“You can cage the singer but not the song.”—Harry Belafonte
Verse of the day
Do not envy the violent, and do not choose any of their ways, for the perverse are an abomination to the Lord, but the upright are in his confidence.
– Proverbs 3:31-32
Voice of the day
Why is a petition for peace called a “violent” act? Why is a human barricade thwarting the police called an act of “violent” aggression?
– Judith Butler, “The Force of Nonviolence” (2020)
Prayer of the day
Lord, lead us in ways of peace. May we be confident in our ability to act without violence
“To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness of all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.”
—Joy Harjo, “Eagle Poem”
Verse of the day
After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.
– Revelation 7:9
Voice of the day
No one can deny the persisting continuities of long traditions, sustained habitations, national languages, and cultural geographies, but there seems no reason except fear and prejudice to keep insisting on their separation and distinctiveness, as if that was all human life was about.
– Edward Said
Prayer of the day
God of all, you rejoice in our many traditions, languages, and cultures. May we see our differences as things that bring us together in love, rather than keep us apart out of fear.
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 