Christian Reflection and Prayer

Scripture:

 

Psalm 146: 1-7a

Praise the Lord.
1. Praise the Lord, my soul.
2 I will praise the Lord all my life;
    I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
3 Do not put your trust in princes,
    in human beings, who cannot save.
4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
    on that very day their plans come to nothing.
5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
    whose hope is in the Lord their God.
6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth,
    the sea, and everything in them—
    he remains faithful forever.
7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed(N)
    and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,

 

Reflection

 

The chorus to one of my favorite gospel songs from
childhood starts, "God is the joy and the strength of
my life, removes all pain, misery, and strife.  He
promised to keep me, never to leave me.  He'll never,
never fall short of his word."  This song lifts my soul
and provides me with a reason to praise God at all
times.

 

     The psalmist encourages us to praise the Lord. 
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.  African
descended people are not always able to experience
the goodness, joy, and peace of God because of
racial oppression and continuing acts of injustice. 
But despite the long history of racism, we are still
able to praise God because God created us in God's
likeness and image as taught by our ancestors
through God's word.

 

     God did not create race, racism, and oppression. 
God created humanity equal and good;  God is the
maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything
in them----God remains faithful forever.  God upholds
the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the
hungry.

 

Prayer:

 

God, thank you for being my all and all.   AMEN

(from the Covenant Home Altar, Velda R. Love author)

Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
     that both calamities and good things come?
     — Lamentations 3:38

 

We need to know that everything we experience
is good.

 

I love these verses from Psalms: “Surely the
righteous will never be shaken . . . They will have
no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast,
trusting in the LORD” (112:6–7). The righteous
don’t fear “bad” news because they know in their
hearts that nothing is truly bad. They recognize
that everything comes from God.

But how can we keep our hearts steadfast when
going through crisis?

 

Rabbi Nachman (18th century) taught that we
must use our mouths to declare our faith. Even
just saying “I believe” will give us strength to keep
going with faith. I want to encourage us all to
speak words of faith to ourselves and to others.
Let’s declare that no matter how things seem, we
know that God is in control and has a good plan
for us and for the world.

 

With prayers for shalom, peace,
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

Jim Wallis

Donald Trump has continued to shrug off his
condoning and bragging about sexual assault
on the ubiquitous Access Hollywood video —
which now many of our children have seen as
well via social media — as merely “locker room
talk.”

 

It was my oldest son, home for his fall college
break, who told me last Friday, “You need to
watch this Dad; it’s really disgusting and it’s
all over Facebook.” So I did watch it, and my
son was right: It is utterly disgusting to hear
Trump reduce women to property that he can
handle however he wants to.

 

My son is an 18-year-old college baseball
player, and a lifelong athlete who has been
in “locker rooms,” or in his case, dugouts and
the gyms, for his entire life. He said, “I’ve never
heard that kind of talk from any of my teammates
or fellow athletes … never.” My younger son, who
at 13 and also a baseball and basketball player,
confirmed that he had never heard any of his
sports buddies talk that way. I felt deeply offended
and angry, that my two sons couldn’t avoid hearing
Donald Trump boast about groping women and
laughing that because he was a star he could get
away with it; those words are now everywhere in a
video nobody can avoid.

 

Donald Trump was a 59-year-old man when he spoke
about women as mere objects for his sexual
gratification — and he is now the presidential
candidate of a major party for president of the
United States.

 

MY QUESTION IS DO WANT THIS PERSON AS
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES