Posts By This Author
Verse of the Day: 'For I am not ashamed of the gospel'
For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, "The one who is righteous will live by faith."
- Romans 1:16-17
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Verse of the Day: 'For I am not ashamed of the gospel'
For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, "The one who is righteous will live by faith."
- Romans 1:16-17
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Is Social Justice a Distraction from the Gospel? (Part 2 of 5 by Rich Nathan)
Social justice is not a distraction from our commitment; it is part and parcel of the gospel of the kingdom. We read in Mark 1:15:
"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!"
What is the message of the kingdom? Certainly the center of the message is the proclamation that through one's faith in Jesus Christ (the King), a person can be eternally saved. Thus my church regularly calls people to put [...]
Voice of the Day: Romero on the Poor
Those who have created the evil are those who have made possible the hideous social injustice our people live in. Thus, the poor have shown the church the true way to go. A church that does not join the poor in order to speak out from the side of the poor against the injustices committed against them is not the true church of Jesus Christ.
- Oscar A. Romero
The Violence of Love
Verse of the Day: Who Acts Justly
Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
look around and take note!
Search its squares and see
if you can find one person
who acts justly
and seeks truth--
so that I may pardon Jerusalem.
- Jeremiah 5:1-
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Verse of the Day: 'we are hungry and thirsty'
To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.
- 1 Corinthians 4:11-13
Voice of the Day: 'these are the symptoms of our illness'
We have much to be judged on when [Jesus] comes, slums and battlefields and insane asylums, but these are the symptoms of our illness, and the result of our failures in love. In the evening of life we shall be judged on love, and not one of us is going to come off very well, and were it not for my absolute faith in the loving forgiveness of my Lord I could not call on him to come.
- Madeleine L'Engle
Irrational Season
What Doing Justice Means for My Church (Part 1 of 5 by Rich Nathan)
I've always wanted to be part of a church that seeks to be and to do everything the New Testament calls the church to be and to do. I've described this kind of church in the past as a holistic church, or a church that works on all eight cylinders. In other words, it is not enough if my church is known as a great worship center, or a great preaching church. The New Testament demands more.
New Testament scholar N.T. Wright gets us right to the heart of the matter when he [...]
Verse of the Day: 'Let them curse, but you will bless'
Help me, O Lord my God!
Save me according to your steadfast love.
Let them know that this is your hand;
you, O Lord, have done it.
Let them curse, but you will bless.
Let my assailants be put to shame; may your servant be glad.
- Psalm 109:26-28
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Voice of the Day: John A. Stroman
What unspeakable comfort and strength is ours to know that in the midst of all our mischief, amid our scheming and bad speculations, regardless of our shaping, misshaping or reshaping of life, with all of our activities and failures, God is among us. God is not a graven image of our own longings and shortcomings. Rather God, through Christ, is among us as friend, advocate, savior, and above all as our living Lord, to correct, to forgive, to comfort, to love, and to heal.
John A. [...]
Voice of the Day: Thomas Berry
There is an awe and reverence du to the stars in the heavens, the sun, and all heavenly bodies; to the seas and the continents; to all living forms of trees and flowers; to the myriad expressions of life in the sea; to the animals of the forests and the birds of the air. To wantonly destroy a living species is to silence forever a divine voice.
- Thomas Berry
The Dream of the Earth
Verse of the Day: 'Where is the one who is wise?'
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.
- 1 Corinthians 1:20-21
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Video: Jim Wallis and Jimmy Carter
Part 1 - Jimmy Carter talks about The Great Awakening. Watch it:
Part 2 - Jim Wallis and Jimmy Carter [...]
Voice of the Day: Annie Dillard
A blur of romance clings to notions of "publicans," "sinners," "the poor," "the people in the marketplace," "our neighbors," as though of course God should reveal himself, if at all, to these simple people, these Sunday school watercolor figures who are so purely themselves in their tattered robes, who are single in themselves, while we now are various, complex, and full at heart.... Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? There is no one but us. There [...]
Verse of the Day: On Joy
Weeping may linger for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
- Psalm 30:5-5
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voice of the Day: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
No abyss of evil can hide from [Jesus] through whom the world is reconciled with God. But the abyss of God's love encompasses even the most abysmal godlessness of the world.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Meditations on the Cross
Verse of the Day: 'does the Lord not see?'
When all the prisoners of the land
are crushed under foot,
when human rights are perverted
in the presence of the Most High,
when one's case is subverted
--does the Lord not see it?
- Lamentations 3:34-36
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Video: Jim Wallis and Tony Perkins on CNN
On CNN's The Situation Room, Jim Wallis and the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins talk about evangelical attitudes in the election. Watch it:
Verse of the Day: Consult the Lord!
Alas for those who go down to Egypt for help
and who rely on horses,
who trust in chariots because they are many
and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
or consult the Lord!
Yet he too is wise and brings disaster;
he does not call back his words,
but will rise against the house of the evildoers,
and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.
- Isaiah 31:1-2
Voice of the Day: On Prayer
Prayer is a participation in willing God's will.
- Marjorie J. Thompson
Soul Feast