Tag Archives: Justice

Part of the Beloved Community

Living in the Spirit

July 15, 2022

Scripture Reading:

Colossians 1:15-28

I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. —Colossians 1:24-28

I wonder how many times I have written the words greed and lust for power over the past ten years as forces leading to our destruction as a nation. Greed is described in the story of the Garden of Eden. Esau and Jacob’s story described lust for power. While these attributes(?) have been with us from the beginning, they seem to raise their ugly heads in pandemic proportion from time to time. We are living in such a time as that and are already paying the consequences. Greed demands that the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. Lust for power requires someone else to decide how we live, breathe, and have our being. King Ahab and his wife Jezebel are good examples from the Bible. Vladimir Putin is a great example of that today. Paul’s challenge as an apostle of Jesus Christ was bringing people together to become one in Christ whose lives, like ours, had been shaped for generations by at least some of the ways of the world like greed and lust for power whether practicing them or being their victims.

Jesus’s vision of the Kingdom of God, what today might be referred to as the beloved community, can never be fueled by greed and lust for power. God created an organic world where all parts have purposes of importance that must work together to attain optimum outcomes for each and all its parts. Living into that vision demands that we, with the guidance and help of the Holy Spirit let go of what separates us from God and embrace the culture of the beloved community.

Prayer:
Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, let me stand
I’m tired, I’m weak, I’m lone
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home*. Amen.

*First verse of Precious Lord, Take My Hand, by Thomas A. Dorsey see at https://www.austincc.edu/dlauderb/2341/Lyrics/PreciousLord.htm

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Steadfastness

Living in the Spirit

July 13, 2022

Scripture Reading: Psalm 15

O Lord, who may abide in your tent?
   Who may dwell on your holy hill?

Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right,
   and speak the truth from their heart;
who do not slander with their tongue,
   and do no evil to their friends,
   nor take up a reproach against their neighbors;
in whose eyes the wicked are despised,
   but who honor those who fear the Lord;
who stand by their oath even to their hurt;
who do not lend money at interest,
   and do not take a bribe against the innocent.

Those who do these things shall never be moved.

They shall be like a tree planted by water,
   sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
   and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
   and it does not cease to bear fruit. –Jeremiah –17:8

They are like trees
   planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
   and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper. –Psalm 1:3

I cannot read these scriptures without remembering the chorus I learned as a child.

I shall not be, I shall not be moved
I shall not be, I shall not be moved
Just like the tree that’s planted by the waters
I shall not be moved*

The message of steadfastness is linked in the Psalm to walking blamelessly. We must spend much time in study and meditation and communion with God to find what is right. Sometimes that takes turning away from ideas drawn from the world we hold dear that are not aligned with God’s righteousness. We must spread our roots in God’s ways.

Prayer: Lord, strengthen our discernment to separate your ways from the ways of the world. Amen.

*Chorus to I Shall Not Be Moved by Vernie O. Fossett see at https://zionlyrics.com/lyrics/bird-youmans-i-shall-not-be-moved-like-a-tree-planted-by-the-waters-lyrics

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Trampling on the Needy

Living in the Spirit

Bottles of Gatorade are pictured, left, a 32 fluid ounce and 28 fluid ounce, in Glenside, Pa., Monday, June 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

July 11, 2022

Scripture Reading: Amos 8:1-12

Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
   and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
saying, ‘When will the new moon be over
   so that we may sell grain;
and the sabbath,
   so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
   and practice deceit with false balances,
buying the poor for silver
   and the needy for a pair of sandals,
   and selling the sweepings of the wheat.’ –Amos 8:4-6

I keep a supply of antacids at my house and buy them in large quantity bottles, thus I do not buy them often. I do not like to shop. I noticed the bottle was almost empty so I purchased a new one the next time I was in the pharmacy. When I picked up the bottle, I noticed that it was only about 75% full. I opened the lid to see if the seal had been broken and if the pills were missing. The seal was in place. I paid for the medicine and took it home. Since it is something, I routinely buy I did not read the labels. The old bottle indicated that it contained 160 tablets. The new label read 140 tablets. The price was the same for both. I guess the company had a backlog of bottles, so they used them and just changed the labels. The rules of supply and demand have been shattered by the COVID pandemic. We are struggling to find a new normal.

This, however, is a good time for us to consider how much our society is driven by greed. Price gouging because we can, is not acceptable. Reducing the number of pills in a bottle is not necessarily price gouging. It also was not a transparent increase in price. Pricing pharmaceuticals because they are desperately needed at higher and higher prices is greed. For example, insulin has been insulin for years. You may be able to obtain it in a fancier delivery system, but the medicine is still the same and should not cost more because lives depend on it. Oil companies control supply by whether they drill or not and whether they pump actual wells or not. Supply dictates the price they can charge for the oil they produce. They, indeed, may need to reinvest in drilling which will impact pricing, but they must not overdo it.

Prayer: Lord, help us to recognize greed for what it is and guide us to a better way of using our resources. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Reaching for Higher Ground

Living in the Spirit

Scripture Reading: Colossians 1:1-14

July 8, 2022

For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. –Colossians 1:9-14

We are surrounded by some meaningless and some mean distractions in our lives and in our elections. Candidates will say what they think you want to hear to get you to vote for them whether they agree with what they are saying or not and whether the job they are running for has any input into the situations about which they harp. It no doubt started with racism. For years now gun and abortion stances have been added. As some lose their power new ones are identified. The lgbtqia2s+ community is a major target now. I voted in the primary for a man whose only ad I saw once. He stood with his hand on the back of a chair shared his name, and said he was running for the US Senate. He would work to provide jobs that pay a living wage, good public schools, affordable college, access to health care for everyone, and a safe community. He added no bells and whistles and showed no ugly pictures and half-truths about his opponents. He lost but I thank him for doing the right thing, for taking the higher ground. I wish his example would be followed by others.

I have always loved the hymn, Higher Ground, and believe that is what Paul is calling the people of Colossae to reach for and that calling includes us, too.

I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining ev’ry day;
Still praying as I’m onward bound,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

Refrain:
Lord, lift me up, and let me stand
By faith, on heaven’s tableland;
A higher plane than I have found,
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay;
Though some may dwell where these abound,
My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.

I want to live above the world,
Though Satan’s darts at me are hurled;
For faith has caught a joyful sound,
The song of saints on higher ground*.

Prayer:
Lord, lift me up, and let [us] stand
By faith, on heaven’s tableland;
A higher plane than I have found,
Lord, plant [our] feet on higher ground. Amen.

Refrain and first three verses of the hymn I’m pressing on the upward way by Johnson Oatman, Jr. see at https://hymnary.org/text/im_pressing_on_the_upward_way

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Sharing God’s Love

Living in the Spirit

Living in the Spirit

July 2, 2022

Scripture Reading:

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

July 2, 2022

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, “Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.”

‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.’ –Luke 101-11, 16

How do we take the word of God to the ends of the earth? I worked as a waitress when I was in high school and remember vividly waiting on two young men whose tip was a piece of paper fashioned after the dollar bill but with wording that said something to the effect that seeking a relationship with God is the best tip you will ever get. Now I have never thought I was materialistic, but it might have left a better impression on me if they had tossed a quarter or something with it. I now think we should do away with tipping. The minimum wage for people who receive tips today is $2.13. They have to verify that they received enough tips to make up the $5.12 difference between the tip minimum wage and the regular minimum wage which for most people is below the poverty level. Tip workers never know what their income will be.

I do not think my mother would have allowed me to make a spectacle of myself shaking the dirt off my shoes in protest against someone not welcoming me. I do think we need to be judicial about how we approach people and choose wisely the timing of our sharing our faith with others. I do not know how many funerals I have sat through when, at some point, the preacher said your time is coming and it is time for you to get right with God. At such times, the preacher may be doing more harm than good. I also think we need to recognize that this reaction described in this scripture was probably cultural. Opening one’s home to travelers and giving them food and water was the courteous thing to do in the first century. They did not have a Motel 6 or McDonald’s just around the corner.

Jesus commanded us to welcome the stranger. Thus, I do think it was very important to him. He did chase the money changers out of the temple, so he had no problem seeking justice. And the people being reproached were most likely Jewish and understood their faith and cultural responsibilities.  How do we share the love of God in a society where people are leaving the church because they have lost faith in the institution?

Prayer: Lord, help us discern how to spread your love throughout the world and grant us the courage to love like Jesus. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Vote

Living in the Spirit

June 28, 2022

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 66:10-14

Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her,
   all you who love her;
rejoice with her in joy,
   all you who mourn over her—
that you may nurse and be satisfied
   from her consoling breast;
that you may drink deeply with delight
   from her glorious bosom.

For thus says the Lord:
I will extend prosperity to her like a river,
   and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream;
and you shall nurse and be carried on her arm,
   and dandled on her knees.
As a mother comforts her child,
   so I will comfort you;
   you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice;
   your bodies shall flourish like the grass;
and it shall be known that the hand of the Lord is with his servants,
   and his indignation is against his enemies.

I voted early last week so all the fierce campaign ads interrupting my TV watching are of little use to me until the primaries are over. I tend to ignore any ad that does not report who paid for it. They are usually the nastiest, but I must say some of the actual candidates are stretching my patients. So, I am sure that environment open my eyes to recognizing what the first phrase in the above scripture is addressing

Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her,
   all you who love her;

Do we all love our country or, in the case of this scripture, city? Isaiah wrote his book probably around 740 to 700 BCE in the Kingdom of Judah. In 733 BCE, Jerusalem becomes a vassal (feudal lord) of the Neo-Assyrian Empire*. While we can learn much from the wisdom of our faith ancestors, their way of living was far removed from ours. People, however, are people whether in 733 BCE or 2022 CE. We adapt and change, taking steps forward and backward, in whatever situation we might find ourselves. We have developed over these thousands of years to the extent that we as individuals in a democracy have the right to vote for our leaders. I cannot imagine how the residents of Jerusalem in 733 BCE might understand that, although the residents of Ukraine right now might have a better feel for how they felt. We must not take our rights for granted. We must take the time to review the candidates for the area in which we vote. Try to sort out the truth from half-truths and pure fiction. We must not be driven solely by hot button issues that have little or no impact on most people. We must look for candidates that have all their constituents’ interests at heart, not just their chosen few who support the candidate’s ideas that do not take into account all the people they represent.

Prayer: Lord, guide us in our choices as we vote for people who care about a compassionate world. Amen.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Jerusalem

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Discernment

Living in the Spirit

June 27, 2022

Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 5:1-14

Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favour with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, ‘If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.’ So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. And the king of Aram said, ‘Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.’

He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, ‘When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy.’ When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, ‘Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.’

But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, ‘Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.’ So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, ‘Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.’ But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, ‘I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?’ He turned and went away in a rage. But his servants approached and said to him, ‘Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, “Wash, and be clean”?’ So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

And a little child shall lead them*. I worry at times about how divisiveness in our society is impacting children. I now realize, having been exposed as a child to theology that did not match the Jesus that loved me. I became very skeptical as an adult. I eventually recognized that was a good thing. We all need to explore and understand the breadth and depth of God’s love and mercy for all people. And we need to funnel our life choices through that understanding.  To do that we must study, pray/meditate, and live our love.

Prayer: Lord, grant us to skills to find you through the muck and mire of our divide and conquer world. Amen.

*Derived from Isaiah 11:6

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Moving Forward

Living in the Spirit

June 26, 2022

Scripture Reading: Luke 9:51-62

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ To another he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’ –Luke 9:56-62

Jesus is saying our commitment to God must be all or nothing if we long for what he called the Kingdom of God, what is now being described as the Compassionate Community or the Beloved Community. The time for our commitment to working toward the full formation of the Kingdom of God is now. The principalities and powers of evil are enfolding us with hatred, bigotry, greed, and lust for power that will be our undoing as individuals and as a nation if we do not turn away from it. They are doing their best to divide and conquer, and it is working. No wonder they do not want us to study history, the failure of great empires would look way too much like our world today.  Government corruption, over-expansion of military spending, and economic troubles where the rich got richer, and the number of poor increased all describe empires before they fell.

Constantine’s takeover of Christianity and redefining its tenets to advance his cause may well have been the final blow to Rome’s decline. Christianity is now a credential for candidates for office, but the Christianity being fostered does not seem to be based on Jesus’s definition of the most important commandants when he answered the question, ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ (Matthew 22:36-40)

We do serve a living Savior who indeed is in the world today* ready and longing to help us in our work. He is asking us to put our hands to the plow and implement the beloved world community he envisions for us rather than allowing those principalities and powers to rule. We never work alone when we are doing God’s work.

Prayer: Lord, grant us the courage and the wisdom to foster a world ruled by love.  Amen.

*Derived from the hymn, He Lives by Alfred Henry Ackley  See at https://www.hymnal.net/fr/hymn/h/503/8

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Freedom to do Right

Living in the Spirit

June 23, 2022

Scripture Reading: Galatians 5:1, 13-25

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. –Galatians 5:1, 13-15

I saw a post on social media the other day that said something to the effect that freedom is not permission to do whatever you want. It frees you to do what is right. I wondered if that observation was based on the above scripture.

I am already sick of the political ads both those sponsored by the candidate and the horrible ones that are sponsored by craftily named organizations that do not reveal who is paying for them or what their ulterior motive is. The USA was, indeed, founded on the principle of governance of the people, by the people, and for the people. It was established with checks and balances to help guarantee that we do what is right. Those checks and balances do not always work, but we the people are the final source of protecting our freedom to do what is right not what is expedient for the wealthy and powerful. Here are some rules I follow during these seasons of political ads:

  • If a group does not identify its financial source, not just the patriotic name of the group but the names of those sending the checks, I ignore them.
  • Incumbents can run on their record; you may want to check it out to see if you share their stances.  Go to https://www.congress.gov/ to view federal incumbents’ voting records and see what they support and what they do not. For state incumbents see http://www.oklegislature.gov/AdvancedSearchForm.aspx.
  • Non-incumbents often have a webpage where they outline their legislative priorities.
  • Do your homework. Do not be fooled by candidates running on hot-button issues which often represent a very small part, if any, of elected officials’ responsibilities and may even be out of their jurisdiction.

Discerning what is right for all God’s people is a great challenge in our world. Marcus Borg wrote a book several years ago entitled Reading the Bible Again For the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously But Not Literally. The title itself is good advice. This might be a good time to read the Bible again for the first time. Learning from the challenges and the mistakes of our ancestors in faith could be helpful. While the culture may be different; people are not.  I was impressed by Greg Jacob’s testimony in the January 6th hearings. He was Mike Pence’s legal advisor and followed him to the basement of the capitol escaping the mob that was coming and threatening to hang Mike Pence. While Pence and Jabob waited in the basement, Jacob read his Bible and found similarities in Daniel 6, the story of Daniel in the lion’s den to Pence’s situation.

Prayer: Lord, we live in difficult times. Teach us your lessons so that we might express our freedom to do what is right. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Finding Your Talents

Living in the Spirit

June 18, 2022

Scripture Reading: Luke 8:26-39

Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me’— for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He said, ‘Legion’; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. –Luke 8:26-31

People for many reasons end up poor living on the street, some suffer from mental illness. Others escaped abusive home lives or suffer from addictions. The demon-possessed man was most likely suffering from some form of mental illness. Some are veterans dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder.

We all, to some extent, face challenges when we must change our understanding of the world around us with which we have become comfortable. When I worked with women with children trying to move out of poverty, we offered a workshop where the leader asked the participants the describe their life as it was. For most, it included not having enough money to buy food for a full month. They could not afford clothing for their children They were not able to get a job that paid enough to support their families often because they had dropped out of school because they got pregnant and were deserted by the child’s father. They felt left alone and stuck. The leader of this seminar asked the participants to imagine they were standing on a wall with one side representing the life had just described. The other side was an unknown dark chasm that encompassed their other choices. They were asked to imagine what might fill that void. What did they want to do or be not do or not be? Then they discussed what it would take to make their vision a reality–things like getting their GED or otherwise improving their employability and developing a plan to complete the reorganizing of their lives refocusing on making what they wanted to be a reality. It was a very successful program.  One of the participants wanted to be a hairdresser. I had watched a lot of young women go to beauty school and have it not work out, but I helped her enroll in the school and had her cut my hair after she had graduated and was renting a booth in a shop. Two years later she owned the shop. She enabled many young women to seek and fulfill their visions also.

One of Jesus’s traits was the ability to see the talent in each person he met and when necessary, help them to see and actualize it also. As Jesus’s disciples, we have been given that same challenge.

Prayer: Lord, help us at each stage of our lives fulfill being the person you created us to be and help us help others do the same. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.