Christian Reflection and Prayer

Verse

Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God. Matthew 5:8

 

Voice

 

The outstretched arms of Jesus
exclude no one, not the drunk in the
doorway, the panhandler on the street,
gays and lesbians in their isolation,
the most selfish and ungrateful in their
cocoons, the most unjust of employers
and the most overweening of snobs.
The love of Christ embraces all without
exception.    Brennan Manning

 

Prayer

 

Surround us with living saints who
remind us of the sort of people we
are trying to become.   Common Prayer

(Sojourners,   sojo.net)

 

(**A special note- Today is International
Holocaust Remembrance Day. Let us
remember the millions of innocents
murdered by the Nazis, the many
Christians who put their lives on the
line so that Jewish people might live,
and those who survived but still struggle
with bitter memories and crippling poverty.       
(International Fellowship of Christian and Jews).
WE REMEMBER THEIR DIGNITY AND
SACRIFICE

Donald Trump has just said that torture “absolutely”
works and that he would approve it in his
administration if his team agrees. That torture works
is a lie and a moral aggression that would directly
lead to the use of torture again by the United States.
As many diverse Christian leaders have said, torture
is anti-Christian. Will the Christians who supported
Donald Trump stand up against torture under his
regime? “Speaking the truth to power” is a necessary
and invaluable Christian practice and tradition which
may become central again in our witness to the
presidency of Donald Trump.

 

Perhaps John the apostle puts it best: “You will know
the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

 

(My Note- LET US REMEMBER EPHESIANS 4-
"We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and
blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s
trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But
speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every
way into him who is the head, into Christ…. So then,
putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to
our neighbors, for we are members of one another.”)

 

(Jim Wallis)

Verse

 

God defends the cause of the fatherless and the
widow, and loves the foreigner residing among
you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to
love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves
were foreigners in Egypt.   Deuteronomy 10:18-19

 

Voice

 

you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
Warsan Shire

 

Prayer

 

God, may our lives, and voices, say,
"welcome."
adapted from Common Prayer

 

(Sojourners,   sojo.net)