Christian Reflection and Prayer

Scripture:

"for whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my
brother and sister and mother"(Matthew 12:50)

Reflection:

if it is true about families that "blood is thicker than water,
" how much more binding is the blood of Jesus Christ that"
purifies us from all sin"(1 John 1:7)!

Jesus blood is a "family ties" that binds you close to your
heavenly Father and make you "heirs of God and co= heirs
with Christ"(Romans 8:17).

Think back over your heavenly heritage: "honor...name...
image...nature."

Then thank your Father that you can say with the saints
of old, "We Are Family!"

Prayer:

Thank you God for my earthly family. Thank you that I can
say WE ARE FAMILY in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
Amen

Verse

For my people have committed two evils: they have
forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out
cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can
hold no water.  Jeremiah 2:13

Voice

Imperialism leaves behind germs of rot which we
must clinically detect and remove from our land but
from our minds as well.   Franz Fanon

Prayer

God, we confess we have too often remained silent
as governments and leaders set up empires in their
own image. We pray that your spirit would embolden
us as we seek to rid our minds and lands of the germs
of imperialism. Amen.

Now I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was
standing there. And the one sitting on the horse was
named Faithful and True. For he judges fairly and then
goes to war. His eyes were bright like flames of fire,
and on his head were many crowns. A name was
written on him, and only he knew what it meant. He
was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his title
was the Word of God.
Revelation 19:11-13 NLT

Crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon His
throne; Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns all
music but is own. Awake, my soul, and sing of Him
who died for thee, and hail Him as they matchless
King through all eternity.
Crown Him with Many Crowns,
Matthew Bridges (1800-1894)

Crown Him with Many Crowns

Matthew Bridges became a convert to Roman
Catholicism at the age of 48 and published this hymn
three years later under the title "The Song of the
Seraphs." Godfrey Thring, an Anglican clergyman,
added several stanzas to the hymn about thirty years
later, with Bridges's approval. So a Roman Catholic
layman and an Anglican cleric, who probably never met,
were coauthors of a hymn about heaven, where
Christians of every tribe and tongue, as well as of every
denomination, will crown Him Lord of all.

One of the aspects that Godfrey Thring felt was missing
in the original was a stanza on the Resurrection, and so
it was added. "His glories now we sing who died and rose
on high, who died, eternal life to bring, and lives, that death
may die."

Adapted from The One Year® Book of Hymns by Mark
Norton and Robert Brown, Tyndale House Publishers (1995),