Sunday-Ps 105 recounts some experience of Israel..It is a hymn of praise for God looking after a small, seemingly insignificant nation to allow them to become a people. God cares for the powerful and powerless alike.
Monday-"When you are offended at another's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger." -- Epictetus
Tuesday- M18:21-35-Peter struggled with the concept of forgiveness too. When he asked Jesus about it, Jesus responded with these words: "Forgive not seven but 77 times." While Jesus' response sounds formulaic, his message is clear: "Forgive always or without limits." Forgiveness is rarely easy to do, and there isn't a simple formula for living it out. Sometimes it means starting by letting something go. Sometimes it means forgiving someone over and over again. Whatever the case may be, it is an act of the heart that opens us up to live more fully into the life that Jesus desires for us. -Lord, forgiveness is hard. Help me to open my heart to my brother and sister. Nudge me to forgive others as you have forgiven me. Amen.Lisa Kipp,Pastor, Zumbro Lutheran Church, Rochester, Minn.
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Wednesday-"Paul insists that 'neither death nor life...can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' If death, then, is no threat to our relationship to God it should be no threat to anything. If we don't know what is beyond the grave, we do know WHO is beyond the grave." (William Sloane Coffin)
Thursday- God shows us a man who gave his life away to the extent of dying a national disgrace without a penny in the bank or a friend to his name. In terms of human wisdom, he was a perfect fool. And if you think you can follow him without making something like the same kind of a fool of yourself, you are laboring under not a cross, but a delusion.There are two kinds of fools in the world: damned fools and what Saint Paul calls "fools for Christ's sake" (1 Corinthians 4:10).~originally published in Wishful Thinking and later in Beyond Words
Friday-What comforts do we have that make us glad but not grateful? Our tendency is to appreciate good things only after they're gone. I sure appreciated my bed and shower more after a recent camping trip. That trivial awareness will hopefully awaken a permanent, deeper gratitude for all the mercies God provides me.Dear Lord, thank you for your abounding love. Help us to take no joy in judging others. Open our eyes to your providence of not only earthly comforts, but divine grace. Amen.Laurie Neill Family Life Pastor, First Lutheran Church
Saturday-Just returned from vacation from Zion and Bryce Parks. Stunning grandeur, but I can only hold so much within. I get a loss for words and get inured to the beauty. What are majestic sight sin your experience?
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