The Kingdom Is Here

God Saves by Including

SCRIPTURE Galatians 6:15 (NIV) Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. REFRAIN God saves by loving and including. QUOTE Richard Rohr, from The Universal Christ "God is the ultimate nonviolent one, so we dare not accept any theory of salvation that is based on violence, exclusion, social pressure, or moral coercion. When we do, these are legitimated as a proper way of life. God saves by loving and including, not by excluding or punishing." ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Carrying What God Carries

SCRIPTURE Philippians 3:10 (NIV) I want to know Christ — yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. REFRAIN I love God as much as I love the person I love the least. QUOTE Dorothy Day "I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least." ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Cruciform Shape of Reality

SCRIPTURE Ephesians 3:8–10 (NIV) 8 Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ,9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of Godshould be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms REFRAIN I hold what cannot yet be resolved. QUOTE Richard Rohr, from The Universal Christ "Following Jesus is a vocation to share the fate of God for the life of the world. To allow what God for some reason allows — and uses. And to suffer ever so slightly what God suffers eternally." ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Lamb Who Takes Away

SCRIPTURE John 1:29 (NIV) The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" REFRAIN Love takes away what I cannot carry alone. QUOTE Flannery O'Connor, from The Habit of Being "All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful." ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

We Do Not Know What We Are Doing

SCRIPTURE Luke 23:34 (NIV) Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. REFRAIN Lord, show me what I cannot yet see in myself. QUOTE Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, from The Gulag Archipelago "Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains an unuprooted small corner of evil." ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.