GOOD NEWS FOR ALL!

The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

NAHUM 1:15 (MSG)
Look! Striding across the mountains—
a messenger bringing the latest good news: peace!

EPHESIANS 2:17 (ABP)
So when the Messiah arrived he delivered his good news message. "Peace has come — peace for distant-from-God non-Jews and peace for the Jews, who are already close to God."

SUMMARY SENTENCE
God's message of peace, as delivered by Christ Jesus, is good news for everyone who will receive it as such.

DAILY FODDER
How did the good news of Jesus arrive in your life?

PRAYER
God of good news, we live in a world that thrives on bad news and violence. I'm so grateful that you sent Jesus to disrupt sin, death, and the way the world functions. Forgive us for being so slow to embrace him and his ways. We give him a lot of good intentions and lip service; but we don't really allow the good news of peace and reconciliation to deeply permeate our being. Drive your good news deep into our souls so that we, too, can live and share the good news with all. Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER (ABP)
Our Father in Heaven,
     we hold your name in the highest regard.
Please come and establish your reign here on earth
     so that everything that happens here will align
     with what is happening in heaven.

Give us enough food for today.

Forgive us our wrongdoing,
     and we’ll forgive those who wronged us.
Shield us from the trials and temptations that come our way.
Lastly, we pray that you will protect us from all forms of evil. Amen.

AUTONOMOUS LIVING

JEREMIAH 2:19 (ABP)
Your own sins will come back and bite you. You've shamed yourselves by rejecting me, your GOD, thinking you can act with impunity.

LUKE 15:14-15 (NLT)
About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.

SUMMARY SENTENCE
Sometimes our sense of entitlment is the source of our own downfall. 

DAILY FODDER
How did the prodigal son in Luke 15 act with entitlment? 

PRAYER
Generous God, you have provided all that we need. But I'm hell bent on autonomous living with as little input from you as I can get away with. I can see, though, that autonomy is fundamentally flawed and doesn't work. Receive me back and help me to stick close to you. I celebrate your grace, in Jesus' name. Amen!

THE LORD’S PRAYER (ABP)
Our Father in Heaven,
     we hold your name in the highest regard.
Please come and establish your reign here on earth
     so that everything that happens here will align
     with what is happening in heaven.

Give us enough food for today.

Forgive us our wrongdoing,
     and we’ll forgive those who wronged us.
Shield us from the trials and temptations that come our way.
Lastly, we pray that you will protect us from all forms of evil. Amen.

NEW CREATION

ISAIAH 65:17 (MSG)
Pay close attention now:
I’m creating new heavens and a new earth.
All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain
are things of the past, to be forgotten.

REVELATION 21:1 (NLT)
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone.

SUMMARY SENTENCE
God is in the process of recreating everything, ushering in an existence defined by the peace of Christ.

DAILY FODDER
How attached are you to the old ways, the old world, the old pains? Even though the new heaven and the new earth aren't yet fully here, our calling as witnesses of Christ (and what he's up to) is to live now according to the economy of the coming world. So, we are driven by hope, peace, and God's love.

PRAYER
Creator God, I'm grateful that you haven't given up on us and our messed up world. You're ushering in a new creation. I confess that I'm having trouble letting go of the old ways. My ego is too big for the new world and it wants to be in control. Help me to let go and to embrace Christ more fully, so that I can ride with him into the new creation. If anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER (ABP)
Our Father in Heaven,
     we hold your name in the highest regard.
Please come and establish your reign here on earth
     so that everything that happens here will align
     with what is happening in heaven.

Give us enough food for today.

Forgive us our wrongdoing,
     and we’ll forgive those who wronged us.
Shield us from the trials and temptations that come our way.
Lastly, we pray that you will protect us from all forms of evil. Amen.

GLORY SHARED

The 13th Sunday after Pentecost

PSALM 8:5 (CEB)
You’ve made them only slightly less than divine,
crowning them with glory and grandeur.

2 PETER 1:3 (NTE)
God has bestowed upon us, through his divine power, everything that we need for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue.

SUMMARY SENTENCE
When God shares his glory and virtue with us we rise to become God-like.

DAILY FODDER
Athanasius of Alexandria (d 373) wrote, "He was incarnate that we might be made god..."

PRAYER
Eternal God, your promise of life and salvation is beyond what I can believe or imagine. Still, I admit that I remain fascinated by trinkets possessed by others. Cleanse my heart from unworthy desires and help me grow into the lover of others created in your image and likeness, through Christ my Lord, in whose name I pray. Amen. (Daily Texts, Ground Up Grace edition)

THE LORD’S PRAYER (ABP)
Our Father in Heaven,
     we hold your name in the highest regard.
Please come and establish your reign here on earth
     so that everything that happens here will align
     with what is happening in heaven.

Give us enough food for today.

Forgive us our wrongdoing,
     and we’ll forgive those who wronged us.
Shield us from the trials and temptations that come our way.
Lastly, we pray that you will protect us from all forms of evil. Amen.