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Re: Spring Cleaning!

By: joe-taylor in FFFT | Recommend this post (0)
Tue, 05 Mar 13 2:22 PM | 57 view(s)
Boardmark this board | Food For Further Thought 		Msg. 50599 of 65535
(This msg. is a reply to 50582 by joe-taylor)
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How Goes Your Soul?

"I know that it is well with your soul." 3 John: 1-2

How is it with your soul today?

That is the question John Wesley used two centuries ago when he developed a new way of being Christian, eventually called Methodism. His followers met in "class meetings," small gatherings led by lay people that focused on the spiritual disciplines of prayer, support, study, and accountability. It was the 18th century version of the small group, peer counceling experience.

It was also a profound way to help people grow in their relationship with God. At the beginning of each meeting, every person in the group would be sked, "HOw is it with your soul?"

We measure our lives in all kinds of ways--the hours we work, the salary we earn, the grades we (or our children) make, the time we spend in the gym. Businesses and ther organizations focus on "best practices" or "quality control."

But how do assess the most important relationship of our lives, our relationship with God? John Weseley's question, based on this passage from the Third Letter of John, is a good place to start.

So how is it with your soul today? Your mind may be filled with lists of things to do or problems to solve. Your heart may be brimming with new life or breaking with sorrow. But how is it wih your soul? Whatever the day may bring or has brought, how are you experiencing God in this time?

How can you deepen that experience?

How is it with your soul this day?

Strengthen my soul, O God, and make it well this day. Amen.

Talitha Arnold is Senior Minister of the United Church of Santa Fe (UCC), Santa Fe, New Mexico.


To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.


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The above is a reply to the following message:
Re: Spring Cleaning!
By: joe-taylor in FFFT
Mon, 04 Mar 13 5:43 PM 		Msg. 50582 of 65535

Our Pearl of Great Price

"Do you realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" Romans 2: 4

Lent is a forty day treasure hunt. There are clues, maps, signposts. And the object of this quest? Lent's Holy Grail? Jesus. He is our pearl of great price.

Why Jesus?

Jesus is the one by whose dying and rising, time is divided. Jesus is the one who gave to the early Church such uncommon courage that they would sooner die, sooner suffer martyrdom, than betray him by taking up weapons. Jesus is the one who inspired the early church to give up possessions and hold things in common so they could look after each other, and care for the least.

Jesus is the one in whose name his followers challenged slavery, the oppression of women, the demonization and isolation of leapers, the seperation of Jew and Gentile. Jesus is the one who defeated death. Jesus is the one who teaches us that God shows no partiality. Well!

Jesus is the Holy Grail, the treasure we are after. It's hard to believe, I know. But we have it on good authority. If you don't believe me, as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Ask Paul, Peter, the Marys and Lazarus. Ask Francis, Michelangelo and Bach. Ask Sojourner, Dietrich and Desmond. Ask Tolstoy, Theresa, and Martin.

Why forty days? Well there are lots of biblical stories about 40 years and 40 days and 40 nights.

But I think it has more to do with this: humans are prone to procrastination. Most of us work to deadlines. Consider Easter your deadline.

Let's go.

Dear God, help me to work to the deadline of Easter, but, in case I miss it, grant me, I pray, another year and another Easter for this holy treasure hunt. Amen.

Nancy S. Taylor is Senior Minister of Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts.

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