Benediction: Welcoming Love That Includes Everyone (based on Isaiah 43:19)

May we seek God's Spirit within and around us, so that we become agents of restoration and renewal in God's world. May we seek to be God’s hands and feet and to practice welcoming love which includes everyone.

Reflection and Renewal: Oceans of Justice, Rivers of Mercy (based on Amos 5:21-24)

God speaking to his people:

"Religion that doesn’t seek justice and love mercy rings hollow to me. I am the God who stands with the poor, the marginalized, the refugee, the orphan, the foreigner in your land, the widow, the oppressed.

Do you know what I really want? I want justice - oceans of it. I want mercy - rivers of it. That’s what I want. That’s all I want."

Journeying As Spiritual Discipline: Changed On The Way - Marjory Bankson

Pilgrimage - journeying beyond our own comfort zone - will do that; shift focus, explode prejudice, reveal God in a new way.

Retreat is a time to step back, survey the field and listen for God’s whisper. Pilgrimage is a “call of the wild,” to be open to discomfort, challenge and the rough wild path of change. Spiritual seekers need both.

In Mark 7:24-37, Jesus wants retreat. He’s gone to the beach in Phoenicia, to get away from pressing crowds. Mark says he didn’t want anyone to know he was there. But then a local woman comes to beg a favor. She wants Jesus to heal her daughter.

He tries to protect his privacy. He’s snippy and cold, using language close to a racial slur: “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

She swats back: “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

With that rhetorical slap in the face, Jesus himself is changed. His world expands. He’s on the rough wild way of a pilgrimage now, suddenly seeing with new eyes, hearing with fresh ears. He drops an old view, accepts a new reality. Jesus has been changed on the way.

Pilgrimage - journeying beyond our own comfort zone - will do that; shift focus, explode prejudice, reveal God in a new way.

The full article is available here

Thoughts On John McArthur's "Social Justice & the Gospel" Statement - Daniel José Camacho

The statement on "Social Justice & the Gospel" by these conservative evangelicals needs to be seen for what it is; a misguided reaction - based on fear - which is intent on sacralizing the interpretations of privileged white men.

This statement attempts to bifurcate social justice concerns from the Gospel and paint these concerns as secular impositions on scripture.

This statement sees "intersectionality, radical feminism, & critical race" as ideological enemies of faith & as inconsistent with biblical teaching.

But what does this practically mean?

The result is smuggling in various prejudices and presenting them as purely "biblical.”

The statement on "Social Justice & the Gospel" needs to be seen for what it is; a misguided reaction - based on fear - which is intent on sacralizing the interpretations of privileged white men.

The full article is available here