Category: community

And the greatest is love

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Today I am tired so I ask you to think deeply on these words about love.

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1 Corinthians 13 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

The Gift of Love

13 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,[a] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly,[b] but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Gather

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Where a people prays, there is the church, and where the church is, there is never loneliness.-————-Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Bonhoeffer, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

When we pray together God joins in. We call upon him and he hears. This joining of voices, prayers, intentions and cohesion is truly the church. When this happens we are definitely part of the whole…..complete. We are definitely not alone.

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Consuming God, you have promised that where two or more of us are gathered you are there. Help us to meet and join our prayers with those of others. AMEN

 

 

 

Be careful

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...in taking up another’s cross, one must sometimes be crushed by the weight. —-Paul Kalanithi

When Jesus walked the way of the cross he was helped to carry the burden by someone in the crowd. As Christians we are also called to help carry someone else’s burdens. It is important that we do so but we do have to call on God to help or we will be crushed by the weight. We can also call on other Christians to help. Only with the help of God and others can we bear the burden.

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Comforting God, remind us that we cannot carry burdens alone. We have to call on you and others. AMEN

No answers

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We need the company of other seekers–not answers-————-unknown

Too often we want the answers. Why do bad things happen? Why isn’t the world a better place? I could go on forever.

We have to learn that we don’t need the answers. We probably wouldn’t understand them anyway. Instead we need to be with others who are seeking God. We need to share our stories of “God moments” and hear theirs. That is what will feed our faith.

You-get-old-and-you-realize-there-are-no-answers-just-stories.-Garrison-Keillor

Infinite God, you are beyond our understanding. Help us to find you in communion with others. AMEN

Community

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At its best, Christian community nourishes the alternative life of centering in God, and instill at passion for compassion and justice for the whole creation.———-Marcus Borg

To be the Christian we are called to be we need to be in community. We need others to share our “God moments” and to hear theirs. We need the support of the community when we are in crisis and should be ready to help when others face problems. If you have not found your community keep looking!

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Compassionate God, help us to find that place where we can nurture others and be nurtured. AMEN

We need touch

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touching-quote-1Touch is important for our life. God created us to live together. He did not leave Adam alone. We need the Christian community. Sharing the peace, the touch of hands in healing are so important. God intended us to be touched.

Lord God,  you created us together, help us to find the touch of your healing community. AMEN

Community

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We hunger for a kind of group association in which, through being ourselves, we may get to something greater than ourselves. We long to touch the transcendent, and, furthermore, to do it in the company of others who, by sharing our experiences, verify and confirm them. —————-Milton J. Rosenberg

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I am one of the people who feel that it is hard to be Christian without a community of faith. We need others to confirm our beliefs. We need them to be with us during our trials and we with them during theirs. We need a family of faith. If you don’t have one search until you find one.

Loving God, help us to find a community that can become our extended family AMEN

see more on this subject on https://wordpress.com/post/worrylessjourney.com/2827

 

Live in community

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Religion is about fellowship and community….The task of religion is the maintenance and extension of human community.                        John Macmurray, The structure of Religious Experience, 1936

romans 11It is difficult, if not impossible to be a Christian in isolation. I have heard people say “I find God best outdoors alone.” That is finding God and listening for him in beauty and silence but it is not being a Christian. A Christian is called to do more than that. We are to live in compassion and love toward others. Jesus tells us to feed the sick, clothe the naked, and aid the homeless. We see His love best through the eyes of other Christians so meeting him outside and alone is good but not enough.

Loving God, you are a community with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Help us to see the importance of sharing with other Christians. AMEN

 

Opinions

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The only sin which we never forgive in each other is a difference of opinion. Ralph Waldo Emerson

opinion 2We all have our own opinions. In today’s world there are more opinions than people. Opinions are often given in very loud voices. We want to make ourselves heard. But we also need to hear. We have to respect that others may have different ideas and stop talking long enough to listen. We should be willing to listen to others and be silent enough to listen to God. Listen!

Understanding God, you created us as individuals and gave us minds to think. Help us to allow others to express their thoughts and help us to listen for yours. AMEN

So alone!

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One of the greatest of human needs is having someone wonder where you are when  you don’t come home at night. Margaret Mead

We do need each other. Many of us live alone. Many of us are alone though we live with others. Society has evolved technically but has it made our loves any better? We are more stressed, more distant within our own walls. We have less real contact with others. Many of our relationships are superficial when we long for someone to touch our soul.

we-need-each-other-960x510We are so alone! And yet…God is with us. God can reach that place that so craves communion. Turn to God.

“For I will be with you always, even to the ends of the earth.”

God, filler of our emptiness, come to us now and touch our souls. Thank you for being with us in our loneliness. Help us to find our true companionship in our Christian Community with you. AMEN