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The Hamas invasion and Psalm 137
The reports from Israel have been horrific.
On Oct. 7, 2023, invaders from the Hamas organization had penetrated the state of the art defenses of Israel. They had attacked some military targets, but much of the damage they inflicted was aimed directly at civilians. Many had labeled Hamas a terrorist organization and they were earning that epithet.
And it wasn’t just civilians they went after.…
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#1948#Babylonian exile#Eretz Yisrael#Hamas#Holocaust#Israel#May 14#MLK#nonviolence#Palestine#Palestinian#Psalm 137
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Happy Angel Day
Get out the mixer and make yourself some angel food cake. It’s Angel Day today.
In the liturgical calendar, it’s referred to as Michaelmas — kinda like Christmas, but with a mass in honor of Michael the archangel instead of Christ. But it’s not just Michael who is honored today, it’s all angels. And that makes it one of the more awkward days in the Christian year.
Angels have become something of…
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Reason to pray #40: To stop moving in our constantly moving world
Stop.
Be still.
Let this sink in:
“I am God.
I will take my place
Over all nations.
I will be known
And honored
From pole to pole.”
(Everyday Psalms, Psalm 46, page 112)
Caffeine winds me up. It doesn’t just provide a little burst of energy, it puts me in warp speed. I feel manic. So I limit my consumption of it, otherwise my thoughts bounce around too quickly for me to keep up with them.
There…
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Reason to pray #39: To understand the confusion inside of us
My own heart
Is a mystery to me,
But you know me inside and out, Yahweh.
Nothing is hidden from your eyes.
…
I need you
To look inside of me.
You know everything about me
And I’m terribly blind to myself.
Am I like these people I hate?
Are there offensive ways inside of me, too?
I can’t just be pointing the finger at them
If the finger needs to be pointed at me as well.
And when you’re…
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Reason to pray #38: To deal with disappointment
My words are prayers,
Even as I complain, my God.
(Everyday Psalms, Psalm 64, page 145)
“I can’t get no satisfaction, I can’t get no satisfaction. ‘Cause I try and I try and I try and I try.
I can’t get no, I can’t get no.” It’s not high poetry, but Mick Jagger connects with a basic frustration of life. Things just don’t turn out the way we want them to. In fact, most things fall far…
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Reason to pray #37: To be silent in our noisy world
In the empty time between laying down and sleeping,
Let the silence go deep,
Sounding out and searching your heart.
(Everyday Psalms, Psalm 4, page 11)
In an old black and white episode of the TV show The Twilight Zone, two men make a wager. One man bets the other that the second man can’t go a year without talking. The second man, an incessant talker, takes the bet. Over the course of the…
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Reason to pray #36: To honor and care for civic leaders
Make the king wise,
Thoughtful,
Discerning.
Make our ruler righteous,
Deciding what’s best for the people,
Providing for your poor, God.
Let peace and freedom ring
From every mountainside
And justice
From every hill and molehill.
May he stand up for the poor,
For children born in poverty,
Crushing anyone who might abuse them.
Under such leadership,
The people will live toward God.
(Everyday…
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Reason to pray #35: To voice creation’s praise
The heavens shout God’s glory!
The skies never stop talking
About his creativity.
All day,
Every day,
They just keep on speaking.
All night,
Every night,
They share what they know.
They can’t actually talk, of course.
They’re wordless.
Silent.
(Everyday Psalms, Psalm 19, page 39)
The earth is magical. Every stream and mountain, every tree and star is imbued with the glory of God. Every zebra and…
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Reason to pray #34: To resist evil
To love Yahweh is to hate evil.
(Everyday Psalms, Psalm 97, page 223)
My kids were too little to read and take in the Harry Potter books when they were being written and released. But my wife and I waited for, bought, and read aloud to one another each of the volume as they were published. Because of this, we had an entirely adult engagement with the books, even as they inspired our childlike…
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#Celtic Prayer#Everyday Prayer#Everyday Psalms#Harry Potter#Lord&039;s Prayer#Northumbria Community#Psalm 97#satan
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Reason to pray #33: To answer God, which completes our Bible reading
He speaks.
The same Voice comes to Jacob,
Bringing wise laws and decrees to Israel.
No other nation has been so fortunate.
They don’t know these words of life.
So shout your Hallelujah!
(Everyday Psalms, Psalm 147, page 331)
It happens every now and then. I’ll see someone waving enthusiastically and will wave back only to discover they were waving at the person behind me. So awkward!
More often…
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Reason to pray #25: To say, "I love you," to the one who has loved us so well
I love you,Yahweh!
With you, I’m strong.
(Everyday Psalms, Psalm 18, page 33)
To be human is to be loved. This is our starting point.
Most of us started our lives with parents who had loved us long before we even developed the capacity to love them in return. But above and beyond that love, imperfect as it always is, lies a love that is perfect, undiluted by sin or ego or hurt or manipulation.…
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Reason to pray #24: Because God answers and acts in the world
Prayer changes everything.
Yahweh hears.
He answers.
He acts
Out of his great love.
(Everyday Psalms, Psalm 27, page 56)
The primary reason most people pray is to get God to do stuff. It’s also the primary reason people stop praying, since God doesn’t always do what we want him to do. In fact, when “answers to prayers” is our only benchmark for the value of our prayers, we can walk away pretty…
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Reason to pray #23: To fill the emptiness inside of us
Give me your full attention, Yahweh.
Answer me.
I am so weak and empty right now,
So insecure.
Secure my life,
I live it for you.
Lean toward me.
I’m leaning on you.
(Everyday Psalms, Psalm 86, page 198)
“Still can’t fill the hole you left behind,” sings Brendan Yates on the Turnstile song “Fly Again.” The refrain repeating numerous times drives home the pain of an empty heart.
There are lots of…
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#Acts 13:52#Eph. 5:18#Everyday Prayer#Everyday Psalms#John 4:13-14#Phil. 3:7-9#Phil. 4:11#Psalm 86#Turnstile
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Reason to pray #22: To vent the violence of betrayal inside of us
I could handle enemy insults.
I could run from a bully.
But it’s you,
My soul friend,
My lifelong companion.
My most cherished memories include you
And me together in prayer,
Hearts united in worship
As we offered ourselves in God’s house
Among the joyful throng.
Oh let death swoop down unexpectedly,
Hauling my haters into Hades.
So fitting for their slumber parties
With evil.
…
My fake…
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Reason to pray #21: To move from consumerism to contentment
Yes, this is how the me-first live:
Carefree consumerists,
Treating the world like it’s their oyster.
(Everyday Psalms, Psalm 73, page 168)
I have a mouth. I eat stuff. I consume.
Even so, I am not a consumerist. At least, I wasn’t created to be one. But I live in a consumeristic society where the economy rises and falls based on how many goods and services you and I and our neighbors buy and…
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Reason to pray #20: To pay attention to the people and things God wants us to pay attention to
And yet, he pays attention to the poor and needy,
Pulling them out of the dumpster
Society has tossed them into,
Dressing them up in the finest clothes
And seating them among princes and princesses,
Among the best of his people.
(Everyday Psalms, Psalm 113, page 262)
Growing up in big cities, I didn’t realize how many stars can be seen without a telescope. But then we went far away from the city…
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Reason to pray #19: To stop being dazzled by celebrities and politicians and those we're told to pay attention to
I know this to be true:
God takes care of his people,
Those who live simply,
Innocently,
Kindly.
But I got so distracted looking the other way,
I didn’t watch where I was going,
Wandering off course,
Almost ending up in a ditch.
I was way too focused on pop culture icons,
All the fame and fortune
Of people committed to living me-first lives.
(Everyday Psalms, Psalm 73, 166-167)
We live in a…
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