Posts By This Author
Verse of the Day: The Kingdom of Heaven
"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
- Matthew 23:13-15
Verse of the Day: 'large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant'
Ah, you who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is room for no one but you,
and you are left to live alone
in the midst of the land!
The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
Surely many houses shall be desolate,
large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.
- Isaiah 5:8-9
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Voice of the Day: On Power
Abuse of power for the individual is motivated by fear and by the resulting desire to control the power of life. This fear and arrogance are then used to create societies in which structures of domination create special possibilities for the privileged at the expense of shared power for all persons. The power that is intended by God for everyone who lives is used to destroy relationships in exchange for control. Rather than live in insecurity, some persons choose to create structures that [...]
Verse of the Day: 'Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them'
Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
- Ecclestiastics 2:10-11
Voice of the Day: Foster on the Gospel
Our freedom in the gospel, however, does not mean license; it means opportunity.
- Richard Foster
Celebration of Discipline
Voice of the Day: God's Grace
In most turning points in life, God's grace is made known to us not through an intentional relationship with a spiritual guide but through the working of everyday relationships that are a means of grace we might not recognize if we did not ask: How was God at work in this relationship?
- Sondra Higgins Matthaei
Faith Matters
Verse of the Day: Do to Others
In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.
- Matthew 7:12
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Verse of the Day: Make the Tree Good
Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
- Matthew 12:33-33
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Audio: Jim Wallis on Minnesota Public Radio
Verse of the Day:
And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" But when he heard this, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners."
Matthew 9:10-13 [...]
Voice of the Day: Hawkins on Christian Leadership
In the absence of Jesus' physical leadership, a new power to lead emerges among the disciples. Like the disciples, we honor Jesus' absence when, as Christian communities, we do not look for a single leader to ride into town on a white horse and save us. We honor Jesus' absence when we do not "look up" to a single human leader on whom we can depend for everything. We honor Jesus' absence when we discover the Spirit of Jesus the Servant animating us as a Christian community of faith.
- [...]
Voice of the Day: 'Do not lose by saving'
Do not lose by saving, but gather in by scattering. Give to the poor, and you give to yourself. You will not be allowed to keep what you have refused to give others.
- Saint Peter Chrysologus
Sermon 43
Verse of the Day: The Unknown God
Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, "Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, [...]
Voice of the Day: Russell on Power
Power understood as the ability to accomplish desired ends is present in human relationships no matter how particular communities or societies are organized. Nevertheless, Christian communities recognize that the source of power in their life is the love of Christ which inspires and directs them. This is a style of power not of coercion but of empowerment of others.... It also connects to those at the margins of society who search for word of God's love and justice.
- Letty M. [...]
Verse of the Day: Chasing After Wind
... it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with. I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.
- Ecclesiastes 1:13-14
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Verse of the Day: Hypocrites!
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
- Matthew 23:27-28
Voice of the Day: Secularization and Modern Society
Because of the secularization of modern society, "fasting" (if it is done at all) is usually motivated either by vanity or by the desire for power. That is not to say that those forms of "fasting" are wrong necessarily, but their objective is different from the fasting described in Scripture. Biblical fasting always centers on spiritual purposes.
Richard Foster
Celebration of Discipline
Voice of the Day: Responsibility for War
The responsibility for war rests not only with those who directly
cause war, but also with those who do not do everything in their
power to prevent it.
- Pope John Paul II
Catholic Relief Services: the Beginning Years by Eileen Egan (NY: Catholic Relief Services, 1988), pp. 155-156
Verse of the Day: 'you have increased its joy'
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness--
on them light has shined.
You have multiplied the nation,
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as people exult when dividing plunder.
For the yoke of their burden,
and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
For all the boots of the tramping warriors
and all the garments rolled in [...]