God of Love, I can feel a longing within me, a desire I believe you planted in my heart. It is a longing for the real abundant and eternal life you have given me in Jesus. It is a longing for a day when suffering is ended. It is a longing for reconciliation and peace with my sisters and brothers, for the healing of the nations. It is a longing for justice and righteousness for the things that are just wrong to be put right again. It is a longing for beauty – for the sights and sounds of the kingdom of God. I [...]

A PERSONAL PRAYER God of Love, This week, as I stood with a man overcome with grief, he asked me “how will we get through this?” So I prayed to you for him, and I pray for him again now, that your Holy Spirit will give his whole family the strength to walk through this dark valley. It is the only way I know that they can get through it. I know that there are so many others who are struggling in so many ways – those who are grieving, those who are hungry, those who are homeless, those who [...]

God, Please make me new again. Remove from me all vestiges of sin. Give me rebirth as a new creation. Let me experience the life that is eternal and abundant right here and right now, available in a relationship with your son. When my body will no longer support life, draw me close to you while I await my new body, one that I will enjoy in the fullness of time. God, Please make the world new again. Remove from it all vestiges of sin. Bring to fruition the seeds of peace, justice, healing and beauty that characterize [...]

A PERSONAL PRAYER Gracious God, It is an amazing country in which I am blessed to live. I thank you for the privilege of being a part of it. I pray you would continue to bless our nation and guide our leaders and all of us to fully actualize the positive values of freedom and equity that underpin our national pride. I know your love knows no boundaries, and that the patriotism and love for country in other nations is just as noble as is mine. So I pray for all the peoples of your world that all the world's nations [...]

A PERSONAL PRAYER Gracious God, Today, I am practicing gratitude. On days when life seems wonderful, it is easy to thank you for that wonder. On days when I am weary and annoyed, grumpy, and resentful, I pray for the discipline to practice gratitude with even more fervor. This morning, I am grateful. Grateful for both the sunshine and the rain, for the breath I took first thing this morning, and the sensation of my feet on the ground. Grateful for shelter in the storm, for a bed in which to sleep, food in the pantry, light and air conditioning [...]

A PERSONAL PRAYER Gracious God, Today, I choose you. I choose to love you with my heart, my mind, my soul, my strength. I choose to love the other people you love. I first chose you decades ago, a commitment I made to follow your son Jesus. But I know that there are days I haven’t chosen you, when I haven’t loved you with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength, and I haven’t loved my neighbor as myself. I am quite fickle in my faith – up and down based on events in my world and the circumstances in my life.  While I seek [...]

I was in a casual conversation a few days ago with one of our members. We found ourselves discussing all the challenges going on around us - the death of George Floyd, the peaceful protests as well as the violent ones, the Covid-19 virus, the unemployment, the divisions in our country, and all the rest of it. My friend then asked, "What is wrong with us? Is there any hope?" It is the right question for us to ask... This Sunday, we begin a sermon series, "The Story of God and Us." Over the next eight weeks, we [...]

God of grace and truth, Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," and you forgave the guilt [...]

Gracious God - Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Today, I pray for my Church. On that day of Pentecost, two millennia ago, you chose to come as Spirit and shape us into a community to be your presence in the world, a people to be shaped not by regulations but by the Spirit, a people who live and love like Jesus, a unified movement to actually be your body in the world. You breathed your Spirit into our lungs that we together might be your resurrected body. And you have never given up on us. We are "by schisms [...]

God of grace and truth, I am thinking today about all those who serve: waitstaff and police officers, physicians and nurses and sanitation workers, custodians and attorneys, teachers and firefighters, parents and politicians, soldiers and administrative assistants, civil servants and coaches, landscapers and financial planners, and so many many more. When I open my eyes and look around, there are scores of people who give of themselves, paid and volunteer, to make a difference in my life and in the lives of those I care about. God, I take them for granted too often. Grant me the humility [...]